214 



NA TURE 



[December 28, 1899 



communicated, in part, by their authors, viz. : (i) A method 

 for extending the accuracy of mathematical formulae ; (2) Central 

 difference formulre, by Mr. W. F. Sheppard ; Circular cubics, 

 by Mr. Basset, F.R.S. ; the theorem of residuation, being a 

 general treatment of the intersections of plane curves at multiple 

 points, by Dr. Macaulay. — The remaining papers were com- 

 municated by their titles, viz. : The genesis of the double 

 Gamma functions, Mr. E. W. Barnes ; on the expression of 

 spherical harmonics as fractional differential co-efficients, Mr. 

 J. Rose-Innes ; and sums of greatest integers, by Mr. G. B. 

 Mathews, F.R.S. 



Royal Meteorological Society, December 20. — Mr. F. 

 C. Bayard, President, in the chair. — Mr. Baldwin Latham read 

 a paper on the climatic conditions necessary for the propagation 

 and spread of plague. The bubonic plague is primarily due to a 

 specific organism or microbe of infinitesimal size — so small that 

 probably 250 millions of them would be required to cover a 

 square inch of surface. Plague is infectious and contagious, and 

 is greatly influenced by pestilential emanations from polluted and 

 waterlogged soils. The author gives accounts of various out- 

 breaks of plague in this and other countries, including the great 

 plague of London in 1665, when 7165 deaths were recorded in 

 one week in September. Plague is undoubtedly a disease of the 

 poor, and attacks most readily those living on a low diet. The 

 conditions which are conducive to the spread of plague are 

 identical with those which give rise to the escape of malaria 

 from the ground. That the ground itself exercises an enormous 

 influence upon plague is shown by the fact that in all the epi- 

 demics persons living on the ground floors suffer to a much 

 greater extent than those who live in the higher storeys of the 

 houses. Mr. Latham says that there cannot be a doubt that the 

 conditions which ordinarily produce evaporation from water or 

 land surfaces are identical with those which produce exhalations 

 from the ground ; and these exhalations consist largely of vapour 

 of water carrying matters injurious to health with them. Mr. 

 Latham has discussed the meteorological observations (including 

 the temperature of the soil at the depth of 9, 20, 60 and 132 

 inches), made at the Colaba Observatory, Bombay, and has 

 compared them with the number of deaths from plague during 

 the recent epidemics in Bombay. He says that if the temper- 

 ature of the air increases beyond the temperature of the ground, 

 so that its dew-point is above the temperature of the ground, 

 condensation takes place instead of evaporation. To this in- 

 creased high temperature may be due the sudden stoppage of 

 plague after a certain high temperature has been reached, which, 

 by raising the temperature of the dew-point, stops all exhalation 

 from the ground and may cause condensation to take place in- 

 stead of evaporation. So also a sudden fall of temperature 

 causes plague to arise ; for a fall of temperature means that the 

 temperature of the dew-point must fall, and the tensional differ- 

 ence between a low dew-point and a high ground temperature 

 would at once lead to exhalations escaping in large quantities 

 from the ground, and so lead to the liberation of the plague 

 bacillus from the ground, accompanied with the exhalations 

 necessary for its development. — Dr. R. H. Scott, F.R.S., com- 

 municated a note on a remarkable dust haze which was experi- 

 enced at Teneriffe, Canary Islands, on February 16 to 19, 

 1898. The haze during this period was exceptionally dense, 

 so much so that a steamer was two days and three nights on 

 a voyage from Teneriffe to Las Palmas, a distance she usu- 

 ally covered in five hours ; while the Tintagel Castle, of the 

 Donald Currie line, was delayed for thirty hours, and the 

 Rosliti Castle, homeward bound, had the dust so thick that 

 for 900 miles the sun and stars were obscured, and the ship 

 was delayed two days. 



Zoological Society, December 19.— Dr. Henry Wood- 

 ward, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the chair. — The Secretary 

 read a report on the additions that had been made to the 

 Society's Menagerie during the month of November 1899, and 

 called special attention to two snake-fishes {Polypierus 

 senegalus) from the River Gambia, obtained by Mr. J. S. 

 Budgett, F.Z.S. , during his recent expedition to the Gambia, 

 and presented by him on November 22. These were believed 

 to be the first examples of this fish ever brought alive to Europe. 

 — On behalf of Mr. G. S. Mackenzie, a photograph was ex- 

 hibited of two remarkably large tusks of the African Elephant. 

 They each measured, on the outside curve, 10 feet 4 inches in 

 length, and weighed respectively 235 lbs. and 225 lbs. — Mr. 

 Sclater exhibited, on behalf of Mr. Alfred Sharpe, C.B., a 



NO. 1574, VOL. 61] 



portion of the skin of a giraffe which had been shot on the east 

 bank of the Great Loangwa River, British Central Africa, in 

 latitude 13° south, and which, according to Mr. de Winton, who 

 had examined it, was undoubtedly referable to the southern 

 form of this mammal. — Mr. Sclater also exhibited photographs 

 of two young male musk-oxen {Ovibos moschatus), now living 

 in the Duke of Bedford's park at Woburn. The animals were 

 stated to have been obtained in Eastern Greenland. They 

 were believed to be the first examples of this species that had 

 reachedEurope alive.— Mr. W. E. de Winton exhibited and made 

 remarks upon a specimen of a new mouse of the genus Den- 

 dromys, obtained by Lord Lovat at Managasha in Southern 

 Abyssinia, for which he proposed the name Dendromys lovati. — 

 Mr. R. E. Holding exhibited a series of the horns of the 

 Siberian roebuck {Capreolus pygargus) from the Obb River, and 

 made remarks upon the characteristic variation in the horns of 

 this species. Mr. Holding also exhibited a pair of the horns of 

 a stag, from the same district, probably Cerviis eustephanus, in 

 which the third tine was absent in both horns. — Dr. Forsyth 

 Major exhibited the foetal skulls of various Malagasy lemurs, 

 showing the development of the osseous tympanic bulla, in 

 which the tympanic ring did not participate. The tertiary 

 Adapts in this and other features closely approached the 

 Malagasy lemurs. — He also exhibited an almost complete skull 

 of a new species of Nesopithecus [Globilenmr). — Mr. W. L. 

 Sclater made some remarks on a forthcoming series of volumes 

 which he proposed to issue under the title of "The Fauna of 

 South Africa." The first volume, which was now nearly ready, 

 and would deal with the first half of the Passerine birds, had 

 been undertaken by the late Dr. A. C. Stark. The volume on 

 the mammals, by Mr. Sclater himself, was now in the printer's 

 hands, and would also shortly be issued. ^ — Mr. W. P. Pycraft 

 read the fourth part of his " Contributions to the osteology of 

 birds," which dealt with the grebes and divers [Pygopodes). The 

 author considered that the grebes and divers were closely re- 

 lated inter se, that they could not be associated with the auks, 

 as had been done by some ornithologists, but were more nearly 

 allied to the tubinares, impennes, and steganopodes. The 

 author also stated that he was of opinion that Uesperornis un- 

 doubtedly belonged to the suborder pygopodes. — Mr. F. G. 

 Parsons read a second portion of a paper " On the myology of 

 the edentata," prepared by Prof. B. C. A. Windle, F.R.S., and 

 himself. It dealt with the muscles of the hind limb, and also 

 contained a summary of the conclusions that the authors had 

 arrived at respecting the musculature of the order. 

 Cambridge. 

 Philosophical Society, November 27. — Mr. Larmor, 

 President, in the chair. — On the influence of temperature, 

 and of various solvents, on the absorption spectra of Didy- 

 mium and Erbium salts, by Prof. Liveing. Prof. Liveing 

 exhibited a number of photographs prepared to illustrate his 

 paper on the absorption spectra of solutions of salts of Didy- 

 mium and Erbium in various conditions of dilution and temper- 

 ature, and in various solvents, which was communicated to the 

 Society at the Stokes Jubilee meeting. These photographs 

 showed that dilution produced no increase of the intensity of 

 the absorptions when the thickness of the absorbent was pro- 

 portioned to the dilution. In strong solutions of the chlorides 

 a diffuse continuous absorption creeps down the spectrum from 

 the most refrangible end and extends further as the solution is 

 more concentrated. This is not seen with most chlorides, not 

 even with that of aluminium, but is shown by strong solutions of 

 hydrochloric acid in water and in alcohol. The nitrates show a 

 somewhat similar general absorption, and also a widening of 

 some of the bands as the solutions become more concentrated. 

 The effect of acidifying the solutions is to make the absorptions 

 generally more diffuse, but not sensibly to weaken them, and to 

 extend the general absorptions at the most refrangible end. A 

 rise of temperature from about 20° C. to 97° or 98°, also makes 

 the bands more diffuse, but does not increase their intensity. It 

 seems to the author improbable that the metallic atoms should 

 maintain such independence in combination as to have the same 

 absorptions in such different compounds as chloride, nitrate and 

 sulphate, and it is more probable that the common absorptions 

 are due to common products of decomposition. These might 

 be the metallic ions, but the facts that neither dilution nor rise 

 of temperature increase the intensity, and that acidifying does 

 not weaken the intensity of the common absorptions are against 

 that supposition. Ionization implies an electrification of the 

 ions, which again implies a communication of energy to the 



