April 5, 1900] 



NA TURE 



555 



radiation of negative electricity. Oxygen is at the top of the 

 series, and carbonic acid at the bottom.— Reflective power of 

 metals and glazed mirrors, by E. Hagen and H. Rubens. The 

 authors study the reflecting powers of silver, platinum, nickel, 

 steel, gold and copper for the various parts of the visible spec- 

 trum. They also test various speculum metals. That of Brandes 

 and Schiinemann has a reflecting power of only 50 per cent., but 

 is eminently durable. It consists of 41 parts copper, 26 nickel, 

 24 tin, 8 iron and i antimony. Mach's aluminium-magnesium 

 alloys have the highest reflective power.— Electrostatic effects in 

 connection with vacuum discharges, by J. Stark. When a con- 

 tinuous current is sent through a vacuum tube, and matters are 

 so regulated that the discharge is only just able to pass, the 

 current becomes a periodic one. The kathode is set into a state 

 of vibration, and gives a musical note. The vibrations are due 

 to the periodical attractions of the charges on the wall of the 

 tube. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, December y.—" Polyiremacis and the 

 Ancestry of Helioporidre." By Prof. J. W. Gregory, D.Sc. 

 Communicated by Prof. Ray Lankester, F. R. S. 



The Blue Coral, Heliopora caertiha (Pall.) is one of the most 

 isolated of living animals. It is the only known species of its 

 genus, and it has recently been described as the only member 

 of its family. Some Pakisozoic corals have a very similar 

 structure ; but the view that these extinct Heliolitids are allied 

 to the Helioporids is strongly opposed by some eminent palaeon- 

 tologists. If these authorities be right, then Heliopora is an 

 animal with no close living relations and with no known 

 ancestors. The only fossil that has been regarded with any 

 probability as a possible link between Heliopora and the extinct 

 Heliolitidae is the Cretaceous coral Polytremacis. This genus 

 was founded by d'Orbigny in 1849, but unfortunately its 

 affinities and structures are still in doubt. 



In preparing a description of a new species of Heliopora from 

 Somahland, the author was led to examine the material in the 

 British Museum collection. The results seem to confirm the 

 old view of the affinity between the HeliolitidEe and the Helio- 

 poridK, by showing that Polytremacis is truly intermediate 

 between the two families. In that case Polytremacis is of 

 considerable phylogenetic interest as an ancestor of Heliopora. 



Linnean Society, March 15.— Mr. G. M. Murray, F.R.S., 

 m the chair.— Prof. Farmer exhibited (as lantern-slides) several 

 photographs of dissections of flowers, and made remarks on the 

 utility of such illustrations for teaching purposes. — Mr. R. A. 

 Rolfe exhibited specimens and drawings of Paphiopedihim, 

 both of species and hybrids, with their capsules, to illustrate 

 remarks on the hybridisation of orchids — Mr. I. H. Burkill 

 gave an abstract of a report on the botanical results of an ex- 

 pedition to Mount Roraima, in British Guiana, undertaken in 

 1898 by Messrs. F. V. McConnell and J. J. Quelch. Acknow- 

 ledged authorities on plant-geography had considered it prob- 

 able that the vegetation of the summit of Mount Roraima, when 

 better known, would compare well with that on the Paramos 

 of Venezuela ; but this was not the case. The characteristics 

 of the treeless Paramos were absent from Roraima ; and Bon- 



netia Roraimae—iht. commonest of species on the summit 



attained, where sheltered, a height of forty feet. Lower than 

 the Parainos on the slopes of the Andes was the Befaria zone, 

 and to this the upper flora of the mountain was to be ascribed, 

 the rest of the vegetation being of a Brazilian type. Many of 

 the plants- collected were of anatomical interest ; the huge 

 mucilage-cells of the leaf of Bonnetia Koraitnae and the quaint 

 pitchers of some of the Utriculariae were especially noteworthy. 

 The complex chain of mountains to which Roraima belongs in- 

 cludes other peaks of similar height, such as Duida over the 

 Upper Orinoco ; but in this direction the chain terminates with 

 the low-lymg forests of the Casiquiare, which has barred immi- 

 gration from the higher Andes. The additions to botanical 

 knowledge now made by Messrs. McConnell and Quelch might 

 be said to emphasise the remarkable similarity which had been 

 found to exist in the floras of Roraima and the Kaieteur 

 Savannah. 



Zoological Society, March 20.— Dr. W. Blanford, F.R.S , 

 Vice-President, in the chair.— Prof. F. Jefi'rey Bell exhibited a 

 collection ,of Land-Planarians made by Dr. Goeldi in Brazil. 

 NO. 1588, VOL. 61 J 



This, like many other collections of Land-Planarians, had been 

 confided to Prof. Graff" for description, and some of the 

 specimens \yere the types of new species described by that 

 author in his magnificent monograph on these animals. The 

 collection before the Society had been sent to Mr. Sclater with 

 the request that he would deposit it in the British xMuseuni, 

 where it would be a valuable and welcome addition to the 

 already good collection in that institution.— Mr. G. A. Bnu- 

 lenger, F.R S., exhibited a specimen of Polypterus lapradii, 

 Steindachner, with large external gills,'recently brought home' 

 from the Senegal by M. P. Delhez. The fish measured 390 

 millimetres, and was therefore the largest on record in which 

 this larval character had been retained. In connection with 

 this interesting example, Mr. Boulenger also exhibited a full- 

 grown female of the Common Newt {Molge vulgaris), from the 

 environs of Vienna, bearing well-developed external gills.— Mr. 

 S. L. Hinde read a series of field-notes on the mammals which 

 he had met with during five years' residence in East Africa, and 

 illustrated with lantern-slides from photographs of the animals 

 taken in their native surroundings. Some of the points 

 specially dwelt upon were the preservation of game-animals in 

 East Africa, and the possibility of the acclimatisation of East 

 African animals in the British Isles.— Mr. W. Bateson, F.R.S , 

 exhibited a specimen of an Isopodous crustacean, As'ellus 

 aquatictis, in which one of the antennules was replaced by a 

 well-formed mandible. The case was to be regarded as an 

 instance of Ilomoeosis, or the transformation of one organ into 

 the likeness of another with which it is in serial homology.— A 

 communication was read from Mr F. P. Bedford on the 

 Echinoderms collected by himself and Mr. W. F. Lanchester in 

 Singapore and. Malacca.— Mr. F. E. Blaauw gave an account of 

 the Zoological Garden of Berlin and of the progress which it 

 had made under the management of the last three Directors— 

 Dr. Bodinus, Dr. Max Schmidt and Dr. L. Heck. 



Royal Meteorological Society, March 21.— Dr. C. Theo- 

 dore Williams, President, in the chair.— Reference was made to 

 the loss which the Society had sustained by the death of Mr. G. 

 T. Symons, F.R.S., and a note of condolence with his relatives 

 was passed by the meeting.— Twenty-seven new fellows were 

 elected, as well as two honorary members, viz. M. Albert Lan- 

 caster, Director of the Belgian Meteorological Service, Brussels, 

 and General M. A. Rykatcheff", Diiectorof the Central Physical 

 Observatory, St. Petersburg.— The following papers were 

 read:— The ether sunshine recorder, by Mr. W. H. Dines.— 

 Remarks on the weather conditions of the steamship track 

 between Fiji and Hawaii, by Captain W. W. C. Hepworth.— 

 Comparison by means of dots, by Mr. A. B. MacDowall. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, March 26.— M. Maurice L^vy in 

 the chair.— Deviation of the radiations of radium in an electric 

 field, by M. Henri Becquerel. Previous experiments on the 

 behaviour of that portion of the radium rays deviable in the 

 magnetic field showed that this part of the radiation had the 

 greatest analogy with the kathode rays. To demonstrate the 

 complete identity of these two kinds of rays, it was necessary to 

 establish the existence for the rays from radium either of a 

 transport of a negative charge or a deviation in an electric field 

 M. and Mme. Cujie have recently proved the existence of the 

 former property, and in the present paper experimental proof is 

 given of the latter.— On apparatus in fused quartz, by M. 

 Armand Gautier. Remarking on the paper of M. Dufour in the 

 last issue of the Comptes rendus, M. Gautier recalls that he used 

 tubes and spirals of quartz in 1869. In conjunction with M. 

 Moissan, the author attempted, unsuccessfully, to prepare quartz 

 connecting tubes for the fluorine apparatus.— On the trans- 

 formation of fat into glycogen in the organism, by MM. 

 Ch. Bouchard and A. Desgrez. In previous papers, it 

 has been shown that a person receiving no food may gain as 

 much as 40 grams in an hour, a gain for which it is only pos- 

 sible to account by assuming an absorption of oxygen above that 

 required for the formation of respiratory carbon dioxide. The 

 hypothesis was put forward that this increase of weight is due to 

 an incomplete oxidation of fat, probably to glycogen. The ex- 

 periments now given show that it is the muscular, and not the 

 hepatic glycogen which arises from the incomplete oxidation of 

 fats.— M. Hittorf was elected a correspondant for the section of 

 physics in the place of the late M. Wiedemann.— Remarks on 

 an earthquake at Batavia on September 30, 1899, by the French 

 Consul at Batavia. — On surfaces for which the lines of curvature 



