December 28, 1893J 



NA rURE 



215 



acic legs becoming shorter towards the pygridium, but without 

 any essential differences amongst each other. Each limb con- 

 sists of two nearly equal members, one of which was evidently 

 used for crawling, and the other for swimming. These two 

 members and their joints maybe correlated with certain typical 

 forms of Crustacean legs among the Schizopoda, Cttmacca, and 

 Decapoda, and may be described in the same terms. — On the 

 diamond in the Caiion Diablo meteoric iron and on the 

 hardness of carborundum, by George F. Kunz and Oliver W. 

 Huntingdon. The carborundum made by Mr. Acheson, of 

 Pittsburg, is capable of scratching most varieties of corundum, 

 but not the diamond. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Anthropological Institute, December 12. — Prof. A. Mac- 

 alister, F.R.S., Presidenr, in the chair. — Mr. Cuthhert E. 

 Peek exhibited some specimens of fishing-line made of 

 human hair, some needles constructed from ribs of 

 feather, and two message-sticks from the extreme north 

 of Queensland. — Mr. W. L. Duckworth read a paper on the 

 collection of skulls of Aboriginal Australians in the Cambridge 

 University Museum, and the following papers were also read :— 

 On an unusual form of rush basket from the northern territory 

 of South Australia, by Mr. R. Etheridge, jun. — On a modifi- 

 cation of the Australian Aboriginal weapon, termed the leonile, 

 langeel, bendi or buccan, by Mr. R. Etheridge, jun. — An Austra- 

 lian Aboriginal musical instrument, by Mr. R. Etheridge, jun. — 

 The Aborigines of North-West Australia, by Mr. P. W. 

 Bassett-Smith. — Rites and customs of Australian Aborigines, 

 by Mr. H. B. Purcell. — Japanese onoraatopes and the origin of 

 language, by Mr. W. G. Aston. 



Mathematical Society, December 14. — A. B. Kempe, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — On the stability of a deformed 

 elastic wire, by A. B. Basset, F. R. S. — This paper commences 

 with a discussion of the different. methods of determining the 

 stability of a deformed elastic wire which is in equilibrium, 

 and then proceeds to discuss two special problems. When a 

 naturally straight wire is deformed into a helix having m convo- 

 lutions, the helical form is unstable unless its pitch is greater 

 than sec"i 2 m. This result shows that it is impossible to de- 

 form the wire into a helix of small pitch and having a great 

 many convolutions, such as the spring of an ordinary spring- 

 balance, unless the wire is given a permanent set. The two 

 special cases in which the terminal stresses consist, (i) of a 

 thrust and a fiexural couple, (2) of a couple alone, are also 

 noticed ; and in the latter case the helix is unstable when the 

 length of the wire exceeds_half a convolution. When the natural 

 form of the wire is a circular coil, which is unrolled and the ends 

 joined together without twist, so that the wire forms a circular 

 ring, the ring will be unstable when the length of the wire 

 is greater than about one and a half convolutions. The ring is 

 stable from displacements in its plane, and consequently will 

 not collapse like a boiler flue ; but it is unstable for displace- 

 ments perpendicular to its plane, which involve torsion as 

 well as flexion. The stable figure will consequently consist of 

 a closed tortuous curve. — Papers were also read by R. J. 

 Dallas, on the linear autcmorphic transformations of certain 

 quantics ; and by Dr. Hobson, F. R. S., on Bessel's functions 

 and relations connecting them with spherical and hyperspherical 

 harmonics. — -Messrs. Love, Greenhill, Macmahon, and the 

 President spoke on the subject of the communications.- — The 

 following papers were taken as read : — A theorem of Liouville's, 

 by Prof. G. B. Mathews ; note on non Euclidian geometry, 

 by H. F. Baker ; note on an identity in elliptic functions, by 

 Prof. L. J. Rogers ; and note on a variable seven-points circle 

 analogous to the Brocard circle of a plane triangle, by T. 

 Griffiths. 



Royal Meteorological Society, December 20.— Dr. C. 

 Theodore Williams, President, in the chair. — Mr. C. Harding 

 gave an account of the great storm of November 16 to 20, 1893. 

 This storm was the most violent of recent years, and, so far as 

 anemometrical records are concerned, the wind attained a 

 greater velocity than has previously been recorded in the British 

 Islands. The velocity of the wind was 96 miles in the hour 

 from 8.30 to 9.30 p.m. on November 16 in the Orkneys, 



NO. I 26 I, VOL. 49] 



where the hurricane burst with such suddenness that it is de- 

 scribed as like the shot of a gun, and the wind afterwards attained 

 the very high rate of 90 miles and upwards, in the hour, for 

 5 consecutive hours. At Holyhead the storm was terrific ; the 

 anemometer recorded a wind velocity of 89 miles in the hour, 

 and it was 80 miles or above for 11 hours, while the force of 

 a whole gale, 65 miles an hour and upwards, was maintained 

 for 31 hours, and for 4i days the mean hourly velocity was 54 

 miles. Many of the gusts were at the rate of 115 miles an hour, 

 and at Fleetwood a squall occurred with the wind at the rate 

 of 120 miles in the hour. The storm was felt over the entire 

 area of the United Kingdom, and the wreck returns show that 

 disasters occurred with almost equal frequency on all coasts. 

 Four weeks after the storm the official records gave the total 

 loss of life on our coasts as 335, while there were 140 vessels 

 which had been abandoned, or had foundered, stranded, or 

 met with other severe casualty, involving either loss of life, or 

 saving of life by some extraneous assistance. There were 600 

 lives saved on our coasts by aid of the Lifeboat Institution and 

 other means. The author has tracked the storm from the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Bahamas on November 7, acress the Atlantic 

 and over the British Islands to Central Europe on November 

 20. — The other papers read were on rainfuU and evaporation 

 observations at the Bombay Waterworks, by Mr. S. Tomlin- 

 son ; and on changes in the character of certain months, by Mr. 

 A. E. Watson. 



Dublin. 



Royal Dublin Society, November 22. — Prof. W. N. 

 Hartley, F.R.S., in the chair. — Prof. T. Johnson communicated 

 a paper on the systematic position of the Bangiacese. The 

 author, with Berthold and others, regards the group as true 

 Floridea;, and discusses in his paper the views expressed by 

 Schmitz, in a recent number of La Nuova Notarisia, against 

 their Floridean nature — Mr. Thomas Preston gave an ele- 

 mentary explanation of the system of waves attending a 

 bullet moving at a high speed through the atmosphere. — Mr. 

 W. E. Adeney read a note on the present condition of the 

 water in the Vartry reservoir at Roundwood, co. Wicklow, and 

 Mr. Richard J. Moss gave the results of an examination of the 

 Vartry water as at present supplied to Dublin. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, Annual Public Meeting, December 

 18. — M. de Lacaze-Duthiers in the chair. — After some com- 

 memorative words on the deaths of Sir Richard Owen, 

 Kummer, and de Candolle, Foreign Associates, and those of 

 Chambrelent, Admiral Paris and Charcot, Members of the 

 Academy, by the President, M. Bertrand, one of the Secre- 

 taries, announced the names of those to whom prizes had been 

 awarded. In Geometry, the Prix Francceur was awarded to M. 

 G. Robin for mathematical physics, and the Prix Poncelet to 

 M. G. Kcenigs, for geometrical and mechanical work. — 

 Mechanics: The extraordinary prize of 6ooo francs offered by 

 the Departement de la Marine for contrivances increasing the 

 efficiency of the Navy, was distributed among M. Bourdelles 

 (for lighthouse illumination), M. Lephay (compass with 

 luminous index), and M. de Fraysseix (system of optical point- 

 ing) ; the Prix Montyon of 700 francs to M. Flamant (hydrau- 

 lics), the Prix Plumey of 2500 francs to M. Lebasteur (steam 

 engine appliances) ; the Prix Fourneyron of 500 francs, to M. 

 Brousset (fly-wheels). — Astronomy : The Prix Lalande of 540 

 francs, to M. Schulhof (Comets) ; the Prix Valz of 460 francs, to 

 N. Berberich (Minor Planets). The Prix Janssen of a gold 

 medal, to Mr. Samuel Langley (Astronomical Physics). — 

 Physics : The Prix La Caze ot 10,000 fr., to M. E. H. Amagat 

 (gases and liquids). — Statistics : The Prix Montyon of 500 fr., 

 to Dr. Marvand (diseases of soldiers). — Chemistry : The Prix 

 Jeckerof 10,000 fr., to M. D. Forcrand and M. Griner in equal 

 parts, with a special prize to M. Gautier. — The Prix La Caze 

 of 10,000 fr., to M. Lemoine (Phosphorus Compounds). — 

 Mineralogie and Geology : The Grand Prix, to M. Marcellin 

 Boule (Tlie Central Plateau of France). The Prix Bordin of 

 3000 fr. was distributed amongst MM. Bourgeois, Gorgen, 

 Michel, and Duboin for their researches in mineral synthesis. 

 The PrixDelesse of 1400 fr., to M. Fayol (Commentry Strata). 

 The Prix Fontannes of 2000 fr., to M. R. Zeiller (Palason- 

 tology). —Botatty : The Prix Desmazieres of 1600 fr., to M. C. 

 Sauvageau (Algae). The Prix Montagne, to MM. Cardot 

 (Mosses) and Gaillard (Fungi). — Agriculture: The Prix 



