6o8 



NATURE 



[October i6, 1890 



actually is built — if this is what you mean, then I hope that the 

 few experiments which I have been able to sho^r this evening 

 are sufficient to prove that quartz fibres are of some practical 

 use ; and they have served this additional purpose — with what 

 success I am unable to say — they have provided a subject for 

 an evening lecture of the British Association. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Entomological Society, October i. — The Right Hon. 

 Lord Walsingham, F.R.S., President, in the chair. — The Rev. 

 Dr. Walker exhibited, and read notes on, a long and varied 

 series of Cryntodes exulis, collected in June and July last in 

 Iceland. In reply to a question by Lord Walsingham as to 

 whether all the forms referred by Dr. Walker to Cryjttodes exulis 

 had been identified as belonging to that species, Mr. Kirby said 

 the species was a very variable one, and that several forms had 

 been described from Labrador and Greenland. Mr. South stated 

 he believed that most of the forms had been described by Dr. 

 Staudinger. — Dr. D. Sharp, F. R. S., exhibited a specimen of 

 Ornithoniyia avkularia, L., taken near Dartford, to which there 

 were firmly adhering — apparently by their mandibles — several 

 specimens of a mallophagous insect. He also exhibited specimens 

 of fragile Diptera, Neuroptera, and Lepidoptera, to show that 

 the terminal segments in both sexes might be dissected off and 

 mounted separately without the structures suffering from 

 shrivelling or distortion. — Mr. G. F. Hampson exhibited a 

 series of Erebia tnelas, taken in July last, in the Austrian Alps 

 (Dolomites), by Mrs. Nicholls. Captain Elwes observed that 

 this species was abundant in the Pyrenees, but he had never been 

 able to obtain specimens from any other part of Europe ; and 

 that it had been left to an English lady to first take a species of 

 Erebia new to these Alps. He added that the species only 

 frequented very steep and stony slopes on the mountains, so that 

 its capture was attended with difficulty. — Mr. McLachlan, F. R. S. , 

 exhibited specimens of an extraordinary Neuropterous larva 

 ■found by Mr. B. G. Nevinson in tombs at Cairo. He said that 

 this larva had been assigned to the genus Nemoptera by Schaum, 

 and Roux had previously described and figured it as an abnormal 

 apterous hexapod under the name of Necrophilus arenarius. 

 Mr. Nevinson supplemented these remarks with an account of 

 his capture of the specimens in the Egyptian tombs. — Mr. G. 

 T. Baker exhibited species of the genus Boarmia from Madeira ; 

 and also melanic varieties of Gracilaria syringella from the 

 neighbourhood of Birmingham. — Mr. W. F. H. Blandford 

 exhibited and remarked on specimens of Dermestes .vulpimis, a 

 wood-boring beetle, which had been doing much damage to the 

 roofs of certain soap-works in the neighbourhood of London. — 

 Mr. R. W. Lloyd exhibited a specimen of Carahus catenulatus, 

 in which the femur of the right foreleg was curiously dilated 

 and toothed. — The Rev. C. F. Thornewill exhibited a black 

 variety of the male of Argynnis aglaia, taken by himself in July 

 last on Cannock Chase ; also a number of living larvte of a 

 species of Eupithecia feeding on the flower-heads of Tanacetum 

 vulgare. He expressed some doubt as to the identity of the 

 species, but the general opinion was that the larvae were those 

 oi Eupithecia absyntJiiata. — Mr. H. Goss exhibited, for Mr. G. 

 Bryant, a variety of the larva of Trichiura cratcEgi. — Mr. C. G. 

 Barrett exhibited a specimen of Flusia motieta, Fabr., a 

 species new to Britain, taken at Reading in July last. Mr. 

 Goss stated that the first specimen of this species had been 

 taken at Dover last June, and was now in the collection of Mr. 

 Sydney Webb, of that town. Mr. Kirby said that Mynheer 

 Snellen had reported this species as being unusually common in 

 Holland a few years ago. — Mr. W. Dannatt exhibited a variety 

 of Papilio hectorides from Paraguay. Mr. O. Salvin, F.R.S., 

 said he had seen this form before. — Mr. C. J. Gahan exhibited 

 a curious little larva-like creature, found in a mountain stream in 

 Ceylon, and observed that there was some doubt as to its true 

 position in the animal kingdom. It was made up of six distinct 

 segonents, each of which bore a single pair of laterally directed 

 processes or unjointed appendages. Mr. Hampson remarked 

 that the appendages were very suggestive of the parapodia of 

 certain chgetopod worms. Lord Walsingham and Mr. McLachlan 

 expressed an opinion that the animal was of myriopodous 

 affinities, and was not the larva of an insect. — Mr. Baker read a 

 paper entitled " Notes on the genitalia of a gynandromorphous 

 Eronia hippia. " 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, October 6. — M. Duchartre in tlie 

 chair. — On the determination of integrals of certain equation^ 

 from partial derivatives of the second order, by M. Emilc 

 Picard. — On the balls of fire or electric globes of the St. Claudi. 

 tornado, according to the report of M. Cadenat, by M. H. Fayc. 

 Prof. Cadenat, of the St. Claude College, has brought forward 

 a number of testimonies as to the appearance of many balls of 

 fire during the storm of August 19. It is a remarkable fact that 

 the United States tornadoes are rarely accompanied by globular 

 lightning discharges like those observed during the recent storms 

 of Dreux or St. Claude. The cause may be that American 

 tornadoes have been most frequently observed in broad daylight, 

 whilst in France those of August 18 and 19 appeared towards 

 the evening. — On the movement of Foucault's pendulum, by 

 M. de Sparre. The author establishes the complete formula? for 

 the movement of Foucault's pendulum in air, and shows that 

 the resistance of the air has an indirect influence on the velocity 

 of rotation of the plane of oscillation, both diminishing the 

 amplitude of the vibrations, and causing deformations in the 

 curve described. — Some theorems on similar plane figures, by 

 M. P. H. Schoute. — On a new method for testing urea, by M. 

 M. P. Miquel. — Destruction of the tubercular virus by the 

 products of the evaporation of certain substances, such a> a 

 mixture of alcohol and different essences, on spongy platinum, 

 by M. Onimus. — On the fecunrlation of Hydatina senta, Ehr., 

 by M. Maupas. — Experiment^ on the cultivation of wheat in a 

 sterile siliceous soil, by M. I'agnoul. The experiments show 

 that phosphates, especially in the soluble form, play an important 

 r6le in the production of wheat ; in fact, the suppression of 

 phosphoric acid retarded the maturity of plants about ten days. 

 The richness of the grain in nitrogenous matters increases with 

 the proportion of nitrogen at the disposal of the plant. It 

 it is found to decrease to 8 or 9 per cent in plants grown in 

 soil containing no nitrogen, and reaches as much as 20 per 

 cent — that is, much above the average — in those grown in soils 

 in which the assimilated nitrogen was greater than that of the 

 most fertile soils. — Observations of the part played by fluor in 

 mineralogical syntheses, by M. Stanislas Meunier. The author 

 finds that the introduction of fluorides renders the synthesis of 

 labrador, nephelite, and leucite remarkably easy and rapid, and 

 does away with the necessity for very high temperatures. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Analytical Mechanics. By Prof. A. G. Greenhill, 



F.R.S 585 



Annals of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta. By 



W. Botting Hemsley, F.R.S 587 



Synonymy of the Polyzoa 589 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Weber: "Zoologische Ergebnisse einer Reise in 



Niederlandsch Ost-Indien."— Dr. S. J. Hickson . 590 

 Jago : " Inorganic Chemistry, Theoretical and 



Practical " 59° 



Woodward: " Arithmetical Chemistry " 591 



Wanklyn and Cooper: " Air- Analysis : with an 



Appendix on Illuminating Gas " 591 



Bateman : "Fresh-water Aquaria: their Construc- 

 tion, Arrangement, and Management " 591 



Sinclair: "Scenes and Stories of the North of 



Scotland" 59i 



Letters to the Editor : — 



The Discharge of Electricity through Gases.— Prof. 



Arthur Schuster, F.R.S 591 



A Suggestion respecting the Syllabus of the Science 



and Art Department.— Volo Leges Mutari ... 592 



On Last-place Errors in Vlacq.— Dr. Edward Sang 593 



On the Soaring of Birds.— Prof. Magnus Blix . . 593 



Earthquake Tremors.— Alfred P. Wire 593 



The Properties of Liquid Chlorine. By A. E. Tutton 593 



Electrical Storms on Pike's Peak. By R. A. Gregory 595 



Notes 596 



Our Astronomical Column:— 



Objects for the Spectroscope.— A. Fowler 600 



Theory of Solar Radiation 600 



The Satellites of Saturn 600 



A New Comet [d 1890) 601 



Antarctic Exploration. By G. S. Griffiths 601 



Quartz Fibres. By Prof. C. Vernon Boys, F.R.S. . 604 



Societies and Academies 608 



NO. 



1094, VOL. 42] 



