December 28, 1&99J 



NATURE 



213 



SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 



RuUetin of the American Ma'hemalical Society, November. 

 - Dr. G. A. Miller gives a short account of the meeting of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science (held 

 August 21-26) as it bore upon the Society, with a short abstract 

 of some of the mathematical papers. A hope is expressed that 

 the Society and the Society for the Promotion of Engineering 

 Education may meet next year with sections A and D 

 respectively of the Association.— Prof. Oskar Bolza reviews 

 Harkness and Morley's introduction to the theory of analytical 

 function?, and Prof A. S. Hathaway discharges a like office 

 for MacAulay's Octonions. Prof Bolza considers the former 

 work to be not only of high scientific and pedagogical value, 

 but at the same time of a singular beauty and elegance. A 

 certain freshness and originality pervade the whole, even in 

 places where the authors follow along beaten tracks, and give at 

 every turn evidence of the complete mastery of the subject with 

 which the book is written. — Dr. Lovett gives a r/j-z^wt-'of five 

 recent theses in mathematics presented for the doctor's degree at 

 the University of Paris. They are : Sur quelques points de la 

 theorie des fonctions, by M. L. Desaint ; Sur une classe 

 particuliere de groupes hyperabeliens, by M. II. Bourget ; Sur 

 I'integration des equations de Ija chaleur,by M. E. LeRoy ; Les 

 equations differentielles lineaires de la theorie des groupes, by 

 M. F. Marotte ; and Essai sur une theorie generale de 

 I'integration et sur la classification des transcendantes, by M. J. 

 Drach. In the copious mathematical " Notes," an account is 

 given of the mathematical courses of lectures in the winter 

 semester of several Continental and other universities. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, November i6.— " The Medusae of Mille- 

 pora." By Sydney J. Hickson, F.R.S. 



The male medusa' were discovered in specimens of Millepora 

 from Torres Straits in 1891. Since then no medusre were seen 

 in any specimens examined except in some from Funafuti col- 

 lected by Mr. Gardiner, but these were also males and resembled 

 in all essential respects the medusoe previously described. Last 

 year Mr. Duerden sent to the author two consignments of pre- 

 served Millepora, one bearing immature and the other mature 

 female medusce. The immature female medusae were about 

 0-4 mm. in diameter ; the umbrella is a thin membrane slightly 

 swollen at the margin containing no canals nor cavities of any 

 kind. There is no velum and no tentacles. The umbrella 

 cavity is almost entirely filled with a swollen manubrium bear- 

 ing a centrally placed mouth and a broad band of ova. The 

 mature female medusa; are 0-6 mm in diameter ; three or four ova 

 attain to a size of 0-2 mm. in diameter, the others undergo 

 degeneration or become absorbed into the substance of the large 

 ova. The endoderm of the manubrium is still very thick and 

 vacuolated, but the mouth is usually closed. Afrtr the discharge 

 of the medusa: from the corallum the ova become more vacuolated 

 and increase in size to 0-25 mm. in diameter, the general appear- 

 ance of the eggs being similar to that of the floating eggs of 

 other Ccelenterates. 



The medusa; were observed in the living state by Mr. Duerden, 

 who describes them as being sluggish in their movements, feebly 

 pulsating only now and again. Soon after they are set free the 

 eggs are discharged one by one. The whole process, liberation of 

 ♦.he medusae and extrusion of the ova was completed in five or 

 six hours. 



Royal Society, December 14. — " The Piscian Stars." By 

 Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S. 



The classification of the Piscian stars (those in the spectra of 

 which there are dark flutings of carbon) was arrived at nearly 

 ten years ago from the observations of Duner. The investi- 

 gation indicated that these stars could be grouped into several 

 distinct species, in the same way as those of Group II. (Antarian 

 stars) which the author had already classified (Roy. Soc. Proc, 

 vol. .xliv. p. 65, 1888). 



Owing to the want of definite information regarding the line 

 spectrum, the publication of the classification was postponed. 

 Facts bearing on the line spectrum have now been furnished by 

 the recent photographic work of McClean and Hale, and as 

 these do not disturb the classification at which the author had 



NO. 1574. VOL. 61] 



previously arrived, it is unnecessary to further delay the pub- 

 lication of the memoir, which in the main stands as it was 

 written. The original paper is supplemented by reference to the 

 more recent work. The general conclusions arrived at are as 

 follows : — 



(1) The undoubted presence of carbon flutings in the .sun, in- 

 cluding that near b, and of solar lines in the Piscian stars, 

 indicates that the Piscian stars are next in order of development 

 to the Arcturian stars. 



(2) The stars observed by Duner may be divided into seven 

 species, beginning with the hottest and ending with the coolest 

 stars. 



(3) The reported presence of bright lines in the Piscian stars 

 must be received with caution, as similar evidence of bright lines 

 might be adduced in the case of other classes of stars in which 

 the spectrum is fully explained by dark lines alone. 



(4) The redness of the stars increases as we pass from the 

 earlier to the later species of the group. 



(5) The variability in this group is less marked than in the 

 Antarian stars, and may perhaps be accounted for by the revolu- 

 tion of secondary bodies of the nature of comets round the stars 

 themselves. 



(6) The place on the temperature curve assigned to these stars 

 on the meteoritic hypothesis is fully confirmed by the more de- 

 tailed inquiry, and the hypothesis is thereby strengthened. 



Linnean Society, December 7.— Dr. A. Giinther, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair.— -Dr. Otto Stapf, exhibited speci- 

 mens of Malayan and African species of Kickxia, Blume, 

 to show the differences which exist between the two forms. 

 These differences were noticeable in the shape and size of the 

 corolla, the insertion and general relation of the stamens to the 

 tube of the corolla, the placentation, the structure of the fruit, 

 and the general habit of the plant.s. As the name Kickxia 

 would have to be retained for the Malayan species, he proposed 

 the name Fiintttmia for the African species, from Funtuvi, a 

 vernacular name for F. elastica. He further pointed out, by 

 means of flowering and fruiting specimens of F. africaua, 

 Stapf (A>V/u-/a africana, Benth.), and oi F. elastica {Kickxia 

 elastica, Preuss), that the latter, and not the former (as was 

 originally assumed), was the source of the so-called Lagos 

 rubber, thus confirming the conclusion to which Dr. Preuss had 

 come with regard to the origin of this rubber. — Dr. Stapf also 

 showed, on behalf of the Director of Kew Gardens, a large 

 infrutescence of Musa Ensete, Gmel., lately received from the 

 Azores. — Mr. Gilbert Christy exhibited a preparation of india- 

 rubber by a new process from Castilloa elastica, and also 

 specimens of rubber obtained from Kickxia elastica. — Mr. A. D. 

 Ferguson exhibited a series of photographic views taken in 

 Demerara. — Mr. T- W. Fawcett read a paper on some 

 vegetable poisons used for the capture of fish by the Aborigines 

 of Australia. — Mr. B. Daydon Jackson pointed out how wide- 

 spread was the practice of obtaining fish in this way, and gave 

 a brief review of the literature bearing on the subject. — A paper 

 was read by Mr. G. M. Thomson on some Schizopod Crus- 

 tacea from New Zealand, in which a new genus ( lenagomysis) 

 and some new species were described. — Mr. O. A. Walker, in 

 criticising the paper, made some remarks on general distribution, 

 and, in view of the paucity of material which existed, deprecated 

 any attempt being made at present to draw general conclusions. 

 — Mr. H. M. Bernard read a paper on the structure of Porites, 

 the smallest of the stony corals. — In a former paper {Linn. Soc. 

 /ourn., Zool. vol. xxvii. p. 127) he had endeavoured to show 

 that the genus could be deduced from Madreporids as fixed 

 young forms, so young that the skeleton was immature. The 

 small size of the animals, and the fine reticular texture of the 

 skeletal mass, may both be adaptions to their surroundings, 

 for they are most frequently found at the outer edges of the reef 

 and have to bear the full force of the breakers. Since reading 

 his previous paper the author had been fortunate enough to 

 di.scover the directive plane and the bilateral symmetry of the 

 calicles in Porites — very difficult to see, but when once seen 

 recognisable in nearly every specimen. By means of diagrams 

 the variations of the septal system within the genus were 

 described, and the pali were shown to appear in a regular 

 system dependent upon the the fusions of the septa, which 

 fusions always occurred in a definite order. 



Mathematical Society, December 14. — Prof. Elliott, 

 F.R.S., Vice-President, in the chair, and subsequently Dr. 

 Macaulay and Dr. Larmor, F.R.S. — The following papers were 



