330 



NA TURE 



[February i, 1894 



1729-30. The instrumental period bejjan with Dr. J. Lining's 

 observations at Charleston, in 1738. The above, and articles 

 on the storms of the Atlantic, and the creation of meteoro- 

 logical observatories upon islands, are abstracts of papers 

 prepared for the Chicago Congress of Meteorology. — The 

 recurrence of hurricanes in the solar magnetic 26'68 day period, 

 by F. H. Bigelow. The author compares the curves of hurri- 

 cane recurrences with those of the solar magnetic period. An 

 inspection of the curves shows that they have closely synchro- 

 nous maxima and minima. Mr. Bigelow concludes that the 

 intensifications of the polar magnetic field have much to do 

 with the generation of West Indian tropical storms, but he 

 admits that many points of the subject are as yet only partially 

 under.-:tood. 



Bulletins dc la Societe d' AntJiropologie de Paris, Tome iv. 

 (4e Serie), December 15, 1893. — M. Ch. Letourneau describes 

 a stone cross, found at Carnac, with inscriptions. The two 

 arms of this cross Are pal, 'c, like those of a Maltese cross, and 

 the four faces of the quadrangular shaft are covered with in- 

 scriptions which resemble in their general character those 

 megalithic inscriptions which are so numerous in the neighbour- 

 hood of Locmariaker. As these inscriptions must have been 

 cut subsequently to the fashioning of the cross, we have a very 

 different case to that in which a cross is found carved on a 

 menhir. This cross, with two others of a similar character, are 

 figured by Miln as tail-pieces in his work ' ' Fouilles de Carnac " 

 (Paris, 1877), and he considers them to mark the transition 

 period between Paganism and Christianity. There can be no 

 doubt, however, that the men who chiseled the great menhir 

 of Locmariaker and carved the inscriptions of Gavr Inis were 

 capable of cutting a cross out of stone if they were disposed to 

 do so ; afterwards these crosses might have been preserved by 

 the Christians, and even, perhaps, restored by them. — Dr. Paul 

 Raymond contributes a paper on the prehistoric period in the 

 departments of Card and Ardeche ; and M. Desire Charnay 

 describes the remains of the cliff-dwellers exhibited at the 

 World's Fair at Chicago. — The colour of the eyes has long 

 been looked upon as one of the most important race signs, and 

 Dr. Harreaux proposes a systematic method of describing the 

 iris, which, so far as one can judge without the assistance of 

 plates, will enable qualified observers to record and recognise 

 very minute differences ; the system, however, appears to be 

 somewhat too complicated for general use and is surpassed in 

 precision by the iridographic method of Bertillon. — Dr. Le- 

 double contributes a valuable paper on the anomalies of the 

 great dorsal muscle. — M, A. Pokrovsky describes four crania 

 found by Prof. Obolonsky in the grotto of Sundurli-Koba, near 

 the village of Ouzoundja, in the Crimea. Three out of the 

 four are considerably plagiocephalic, the plagiocephaly being 

 left in two cases and right in the third ; two of the crania are 

 male, one is female, and the fourth is that of a child of about 

 twelve years of age. — M. Adrien de Mortillet gives an account 

 of the figures cut on the megalithic monuments near Paris ; 

 these are three in number, one in the valley of the Seine, at 

 Aubergenville ; the two others in the valley of the Epte, at 

 Dampsmesniland at Boury. The dolmen at Aubergenville is 

 known as the Trou-aux-Anglais, that at Dampsmesnil is called 

 by the country people the Trou-aux-Loups, while the third is 

 the Dolmen de la Bellehaye. 



Bulletin of the New York Mathematical Society, vol. iii. No. 3, 

 December, 1893 (New York). — A doubly-infinite system of 

 simple groups (pp. 73-78) is an abstract of a paper presented to 

 the Congress of Mathematics at Chicago, by Prof. E. H. 

 Moore. The paper is to be published in full in the Proceedings, 

 and also in the Alathematische Annalen. Two notes follow, on 

 monogenic functions of a single variable (pp. 78, 79), by Dr. 

 Craig, and Lambert's non-Euclidean geometry (pp. 79, 80), by 

 Prof. Halsted. This latter is very interesting, as it narrates the 

 discovery of an old paper of Lambert's (Zur Theorie der Parallel- 

 linien, 1766) on what was long after named the non-Euclidean 

 geometry. Pages 80-88 are taken up with remarks on the 

 teaching of mathematics at Gottingen. There are the usual 

 "notes" and "new publications" (pp. 88-94). 



The number of the Joiu-iial of Botany for December, 1893, 

 contains further Notes on the genus Fotamogeton, by Mr. A. 

 Fryer, with illustrations ; Descriptions of three new African 

 grasses, by Mr. A. B. Rendle ; the completion of Mr. E. G. 

 Baker's Synopsis of genera and species of Malvece ; and Mr. 



NO. 1266, VOL. 49] 



Carruthers' Report of the Department of Botany in the British 

 Museum for 1892. — The most important papers in the No. for 

 January, 1894, are one on the Primary subdivisions in the genus 

 Silene, by Mr. F. N. Williams ; and the late Prof. Asa Gray's 

 Last words on nomenclature. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Entomological Society, January 17.— Sixty-first Annual 

 Meeting. — Mr. Frederic Merrifield, Vice-President, in the 

 chair. — An abstract of the treasurer's accounts, showing a balance 

 in the Society's favour, having been read by Mr. J. Jenner Weir, 

 one of the auditors, the secretary, Mr. H. Goss, read the 

 report of the council. It was then announced that the follow- 

 ing gentlemen had been elected as ofificers and council for 1894 : 

 — President, Mr. Henry J. Elwes ; treasurer, Mr. Robert 

 McLachlan, F. R.S. ; secretaries, Mr. Herbert Goss and the 

 Rev. Canon Fowler ; librarian, Mr. George C. Champion ; and 

 as other members of the council, Mr. Walter F. H. Blandford, 

 Mr. Charles J. Gahan, Mr. Frederic Merrifield, Prof. Edward 

 B. Poulton, F. R. S., Colonel Charles Swiuhoe, Mr. George H. 

 Verrall, Mr. James J. Walker, R.N., and the Right Hon. Lord 

 Walsingham, F.R.S. Mr. Merrifield then read the President's 

 address, in which, after alluding to the principal events of the 

 past year, and the prosperous condition of the Society, he 

 referred to the additions which had been made in 1893 to the 

 literature of entomology, calling attention to the "Butterflies 

 of China and Japan," by Mr. J. H. Leech; the "Moths of 

 India," by Mr. G. F. Hampson ; "Butterflies of North 

 America," by Mr. W. H. Edwards; " Lepidoptera Indica," by 

 Dr. F. Moore ; and the continuation of the " Biologia Centrali- 

 Americana," by Messrs. F. D. Godman, F.R.S., and Osbert 

 Salvin, F.R.S. He also commented on the recent publications 

 of the Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovitch, M. Charles 

 Oberthiir, and Dr. Staudinger, on the continent. The Presi- 

 dent concluded by referring to the losses by death during the 

 year of several Fellows of the Society and other entomologists, 

 special mention being made of Prof. H. A. Hagen, the Rev. 

 Leonard Blomefield, Mr. A. C. Horner, Prof. J. Wood-Mason, 

 the Rev. Henry Burney, Mr. J. C. Bowring, the Rev. F. O- 

 Morris, Mr. J. Batty, Mr. Francis P. Pascoe, Herr Eduard 

 Honrath, and Dr. Adolph Speyer. A vote of thanks to the 

 President was proposed by Colonel Swinhoe, seconded by Mr. 

 Jenner Weir, and carried. Lord Walsingham proposed a vote 

 of thanks to the officers of the Society ; this was seconded by 

 Mr. Waterhouse, and carried. Mr. Merrifield, Mr. McLachlan, 

 and Mr. Goss replied, and the proceedings terminated. 



Royal Microscopical Society, January 17. — Annual 

 Meeting. — Mr. A. D. Michael, President, in the chair. — After 

 the report of the council for the past year and the Treasurer's 

 statement of accounts had been read and adopted, the President 

 announced that the following were elected as officers and 

 council for the ensuing year : — President : A. D. Michael ; 

 Vice-Presidents: Prof L. S. Beale, F.R.S., Dr. R. Braith- 

 waite, Frank Crisp, T. H. Powell ; Treasurer : W. T. Suffolk ; 

 Secretaries : Prof. F. Jeff"rey Bell, Rev. Dr. W. H. Dallinger, 

 F.R.S. ; Ordinary Members of Council : A. W. Bennett, Rev. 

 E. Carr, E. Dadswell, C. H. Gill, Dr. R. G. Hebb, G. C. 

 Karop, E. M. Nelson, Prof. Urban Pritchard, C. F. Rousselet, 

 Prof. Charles Stewart, J. J. Vezey, and T. C. White.— The 

 President then delivered the annual address. He took for his 

 subject the growth and present state of our knowledge of the 

 Acari. The name "Acarus" was probably first used by 

 Aristotle ; it means uncuttable. But Aristotle did not antici- 

 pate Cambridge rocking microtomes, and the President exhi- 

 bited a set of over 120 serial sections cut from a far smaller 

 Acarus than Aristotle could ever have seen. The President then 

 described what an Acarus really is and in what respects it differs 

 from other Arachnida, a distinction which is erroneously stated! 

 in almost all text-books of zoology. The classification of the. 

 group practically began with Linnseus ; it was shown how diffi- 

 cult it is to identify a Linnean species, and the progress of 

 classification was shortly traced from the single Linnean genuS| 

 to the two hundred and twelve genera admitted by Trouessart, 

 one of the latest writers on the subject. The President theni 

 referred to the fact that many of the predatory Acari had not 



in 

 I 



re 

 m 



