April 19, 1894J 



NA TURE 



595 



was read from Miss E. M. Sharpe containinii; a list of tlie butter- 

 flies collected by Captain J. VV. Pringle, R. E., while on the 

 march through British East Africa from Teita to Uganda. A new 

 Papilio was proposed to be called P. pj-inolei, and a new genus 

 and species of Satyridre was named Raphiceropsis pringlei. 

 Altogether examples of 134 species were obtained. 



Linnean Society, April 5. — Mr. F. Crisp, Vice-President, 

 in the chair. — Sir Joseph Hooker, K C.S.I., exhibited a 

 portrait, in oils, of Sir Samuel Bentham, Kt., a colonel in the ser- 

 vice of the Empres-; of Russia, painted at St. Petersburg in 1784. 

 He was father of George Bentham, the distinguished botanist, 

 and former president of this society, 1861-74 {P^'oc- Linn. Soc, 

 1886, pp. 90-104). — Dr. B. Shillitoe, exhibited some specimens 

 of a primrose having abnormal leaf-like bracts immediately 

 below the true calyx, and found growing with ordinary flowers 

 of the same species. — An exhibition of some Trap-door spiders 

 and nest.^, by Mr. F. Enoch, was deferred to a subsequent meet- 

 ing. — Mr. R. H. Burne read a paper on the aortic-arch system 

 oi Saccobraiichns, in which he elucidated the method by which 

 respiration is effected in certain fishes which in tropical countries, 

 but more especially in India, have acquired the power of living 

 for a longer or shorter time out of water. Referring par- 

 ticularly to a paper by the late Surgeon-Major Francis Day, on 

 amphibious and migratory fishe-; of Asia {Journ. Linn. Soc. 

 Zool. vol. xiii. p. 198), he detailed the results of some recent 

 investigations he had made, and were characterised by Prof. 

 Hum.es as original and valuable. — The Secretary read a 

 paper by Mr. H. N. Ridley, on the Orchideiv and Apostasiacecc 

 of the Malay Peninsula from the Kedah State (long. 99'30 to 

 I04'30 lat. 7 N.) to Singapore, including the islands adjacent 

 to the west coast, and those on the east coast of Johore, with 

 the addition of a few from Southern Siam on the borders of the 

 Malay Peninsula, the entire area comprising about 50,00o.'-quare 

 miles. Mr. C. B. Clarke, who criticised the paper, commented 

 upon the important additions made to the existing knowledge of 

 the Orchidea of this region, of which so large a portion was even 

 yet botanically unknown. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, April 9. — M. Loewy in the chair. — 

 On the unoccupied spaces ,in the zone of small planets, by M. 

 O. Callandreau. An investigation into the character of the 

 stability of motion of small planetary bodies as affected by the 

 commensurabilily of their periods of revolution with the period 

 of revolution of Jupiter. The regions of instability correspond 

 with the regions unoccupied by asteroids. — On the spectrum of 

 oxygen at high temperatures, by M. J. Jansen. A description 

 of the method employed for studying the spectrum of oxygen 

 under pressure, the source of heat being a platinum spiral elec- 

 trically heated. Results are to be published in a further paper. 

 — On differential equations containing an arbitrary parameter, 

 by M. Emile Picard.— On some copper objects belonging to 

 ancient Egypt, by M. Berthelot. — On the slow alteration of 

 copper objects when buried in earth and in museums, by M. 

 Berthelot. — On a new octopus of Lower California inhabiting 

 the shells of bivalve Mollusca, by MM. Ed. Perrier and A. 

 T. de Rochebrune. — On the signification of hermaphrodism in 

 relation to the differentiation of plants, by M. Ad. Chatin. — 

 Note by M. Edmond Perrier accompanying the presentation 

 of a work on the " Histoire des Etoiles de mer." — Report of 

 the section of geography and navigation on the disasters of the 

 Iceland fishery, by ^L Guyou. — New parabolic elements of the 

 comet Denning, by M. L. Schulhof. — Observations of the comet 

 Denning (March 26, 1894) made at Algiers Observatory, by MM. 

 Trepied and Renaux. — Observations on the comet Denning 

 (March 26, 1894) made at Toulouse Observatory, by 

 MM. E. Cosserat and F. Rossard. — Observations of the planet 

 AX and of the comet Denning (March 26, 1894) made at 

 Lyons Observatory, by M. G. Le Cadet. ^Occuliation of Spica 

 Virginis, observed at Lyons Observatory, by MM. G. Le 

 Cadet and J. Guillaume. — On the rapport coniijue et la relation 

 conique, by M. Mozat. — On reflection of electrical waves at the 

 end of a conducting thread terminating in a plate, by MM. Ed. 

 Sarasin and Kr. Birkeland. — ^Magnetic properties of iron at 

 various temperatures, by M. P. Curie. The deduction is drawn, 

 from data given, that at high temperatures iron co nmences to 

 be magnetised with an enormous initial coefficient, but this 

 almost immediately suddenly changes in the direcu^n of the 

 curveI=/(H), the field and the intensity of magnetisation 

 being yet very leeble ; the curve afterwards presents itself as a 



NO. 1277, VOL. 49] 



right line much less inclined and appearing to pass through the 

 origin. — On the fusibility of mixtures of salts, by M. II. Le 

 Chatelier. The mixtures (a) potassium and lithium carbonates 

 and [b) sodium borate and sodium pyrophosphate have been 

 studied in all proportions. The fusibility curves indicate, for 

 {a) a very definite combination in equivalent proportions ; for 

 (l>) a combination not so distinctly marked. — On the combina- 

 tions of molybdenum dioxide and disulphide with alkaline 

 cyanides, by M. E. Pechard. — On the use of polishing in the 

 study of the structure of metals, by M. Osmond. — Action of 

 halogens on homopyrocatechol, by M. H. Cousin. Chlorine 

 has given (i) trichloro homopyrocatechol, (2) the ortho quinone 

 of (l), (3) more highly chlorinated substances now being ex- 

 amined. Bromine has yielded similar derivatives. Iodine does 

 not seem to yield iodo-derivatives. — On a new earthworm of 

 the family of the Phreoryctiilns {Phreoryctes endeka, Gd.), by M. 

 Alfred Giard. — On the nerves of the antennte and the chordo- 

 tonal organs among the ants, by M. Charles Janet. — On the re- 

 viviscence of the Tardigrades, by M. Denis Lance. — The course 

 of resin canals in the cauline parts of the silver fir [Abie^ 

 pectinata, D. C), by M. J. Godlrin. — On a siderolithic bed of 

 mammals of the Middle Eocene, at Lissieu, near Lyons, by M. 

 Ch. Deperet. — Discovery of fossil remains of the striped hyaena 

 in the grotto of Montsaunes (Ilautc-Garonne), by M. Edouard 

 Ilarle. — On the glyptic race, by M. Edouard Piette. — On the 

 "ca55a^^" of wines, by M. A. Bouffard. — Squalls and storms, 

 by M. Durand-Greville. 



Berlin. 



Physical Society, Februarv 16. — Prof, von Helmholtz, 

 President, in the chair. — Prof. Planck delivered an address in 

 memory of Heinrich Hertz, in which he drew, in warmly 

 appreciative words, a clear picture of the development of the 

 career, character, and work of the distinguished savant so early 

 removed from science. 



March 2. — Prof, du Bois-Reymond, President, in the chair. — 

 Dr. Roepsel had previously described an apparatus for the rela- 

 tive measurement of the magnetic properties of different kinds of 

 iron suitable for technical purposes. This was composed of two 

 coils of wire in which the needles to be compared were so 

 placed that the north pole of the one lay immediately opposite 

 to the south pole of the other. In the magnetic field so pro- 

 duced was placed a flat wire coil connected with a torsion 

 needle, and Ly means of this the strength of the magnetic fields 

 was measured. Dr. Roepsel now described a new apparatus for 

 obtaining absolute measurements which dependeU upon the 

 yoke method. After a short discussion of the principle of this 

 method, he described the experiments which had finally led to 

 the introduction of that instrument for technical purposes. It 

 consists of a half-yoke which is pierced through in the middle by 

 two semicircular holes i mm. broad ; the iron bar goes throughthe 

 two limbs of the yoke, inside of which the magnetising coil lies. 

 The small coil which measures the magnetisation of the bar 

 passes through the small hole in the yoke, and carries a pointer 

 by means of which its deflection can be measured. Dr. du Bois 

 spoke concerning the need for very intense magnetic fields in 

 the experimental examination of certain still unsolved problems 

 of physics, and described mmutely ring electromagnets, already 

 mentioned and examined in detail by him, which were made in 

 the works of Siemens and Hulske, and which, under the appli- 

 cation of currents accessible in the laboratory, gave between 

 conical poles of 60° a strength of field of 38,000 cg.s. 



March 16. — Prof, du Bois Reymond, President, in the 

 chair. — Prof. Bornstein reported on electric measurements 

 which he had made in the previous year during two 

 balloon ascents on August iS and September 23. At the 

 first ascent he had, on the ground of previous statements, 

 expected that the fall of potential would increase with the 

 height. The measurements were made with two polished 

 aluminium points — these were soon of no use — and also with a 

 water-collector consisting of a funnel, which acted well. The 

 result was that the fall of potential decreased with the height, 

 and at 3000 m. no conduction to the electroscope occurred. 

 The supposition that the measuring apparatus was in disorder 

 was shown to be wrong, for in a lower air current, under 1900 

 m., electricity was again shown. At the second ascent observ- 

 ation was made with a collector in a metal funnel, and here 

 also a diminution of the fall of potential was found at greater 

 heights. Two subsequent balloon ascents, which were carried 

 out in Paris, and a third carried out in Berlin in the previous 



