January 29, 1903J 



NA TURE 



;i 1 



Royal Meteorological Society, January 21. — Mr. W. II. 

 Dines, president, in the chair. — The President delivered an 

 address on the method of kite-flying from a steam vessel and 

 meteorological observations obtained thereby off the west coast 

 of Scotland. In the spring of 1901, the Royal Meteorological 

 Society appointed a committee for the purpose of making an 

 investigation as to the temperature and moisture of the upper 

 air, and the British Association, at the Glasgow meeting, also 

 appointed a committee to cooperate in the work. At the 

 request of the joint committee, Mr. Dines undertook to carry 

 on the inquiry during the summer of 1902, and in this address 

 he gave an interesting account of all that he had done. After 

 describing the apparatus, which included kites (of a modified 

 Blue Hill pattern),' eight miles of wire in one piece, winding-in 

 apparatus, steam engine and meteorograph, he proceeded to 

 give an account of his work and observations at a fixed station, 

 and also from a steam tug, in the neighbourhood of Crinan off 

 the west coast of Scotland. A considerable amount of inform- 

 ationconcerningmeteorological phenomena wasobtained, seventy- 

 one observations of temperature at an average height of 4140 feet 

 and thirty-eight charts from the self-recording instruments with 

 an average of more than 6000 feet having been secured. The 

 greatest height attained was 15,000 feet, by means of four 

 kites on the wire. The temperature gradient over the sea was 

 considerably less than its average value over the land, being 

 about i° for every 300 feet of height. The upper currents were 

 found to differ in direction from those below much less than 

 was expected. As a general rule, the humidity increased up to 

 a level of about a mile and then decreased. Mr. Dines illus- 

 trated his address with a number of interesting lantern slides. — 

 Captain D. Wilson- Barker was elected president for the ensuing 

 5 ear. 



Entomological Society, Annual Meeting, January 21. — The 

 Rev. Canon Fowler, president, in the chair. — Canon Fowler, the 

 retiring president, in the first part of his address dealt chiefly with 

 the many facts that have been recently brought forward with re- 

 gard to cryptic coloration and mimicry, more especially as affect- 

 ing the order Coleoptera ; the facts are indisputable, but the 

 hypotheses founded upon them are, perhaps, sometimes pressed 

 too far. In the second part, the question of the origin of the 

 Coleoptera was discussed ; there is no satisfactory evidence of 

 the appearance of the order in the Palaeozoic period, but the 

 leading families are found in the Lias, as completely differen- 

 tiated as at the present time ; in fact, many of the genera and 

 even the species are almost identical with those now living ; the 

 Coleoptera, that is to say, have altered but little from the time 

 at which they existed side by side with the gigantic extinct 

 saurians and the pterodactyles ; the whole question of the origin 

 and history of the insects generally is of the first importance in 

 the history of evolution. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, January 19. — M Alhert Gaudry in 

 ihe chair. — Notice on the work of the late M. Si'odot, by 

 M. Bornct. -Researches on the chinchona alkaloids, by MM. 

 Berthelot and Gaudechon. A ihermochemical paper, giving 

 the heats of combustion and formation of quinine and quimdine, 

 together with the heats of solution of several salts of these 

 alkaloids. Attention was paid 10 the influence of the physical 

 condition ol the quinine, the value obtained with quinine which 

 had been recently precipitated being slightly different from that 

 given by quinine which had been precipitated for some days. 

 The isomer quinidine proved to have the same function, the 

 same heats of formation and of neutralisation. — On some 

 formulae of kinematics useful in the general theory of elasticity, 

 by M. P. Duhem. — The coloured drawings on the walls of the 

 cave of La Mouthe, foiming true decorative panels, by M. 

 Kini Riviere. Ihe antiquity of the numerous drawings and 

 paintings on the walls of this cave has been verified by the 

 anthropologists of the Congress of the French Association for 

 the Advancement of Science. The drawings have been identi- 

 fied as certainly dating from the Quaternary epoch. They are 

 contemporary with the Tarandus tangifer, Ursus spelaeus and 

 Hyaena spelaea. The exi rente freshness of some of the drawings 

 threw some doubt on their authenticity, but it has been shown 

 that these are covered with the same clay as the others. A 

 detailed account of the drawings uncovered up to the present is 

 given, and the work is being continued. — On a colouring matter 

 Irom the figures in the cave of La Mouthe, by M. Henri 



no. 1735, VOL - 6 7] 



Moissan. The black colouring matter, freed from particles of 

 silica and chalk, proved to consist entirely of an oxide of 

 manganese. It is 'similar to that discovered by MM. Capitan 

 and Breuil in the cave of Font de Gaume. — On the 

 reducibility of differential equations, by M. R. Liouville. — 

 On the universal functions of the plane and surfaces of Riemann, 

 by M. A. Korn. — On the surfaces which correspond with- 

 parallelism of the tangent planes and conservation of areas, by 

 M. C. Guichard. — The proof of a rotating electromagnetic 

 field produced by a helicoidal modification of stratifications in a 

 tube of rarefied air, by M. Th. Tommasina. The facts, 

 described correspond with the view of the anodic origin of these 

 phenomena and the part played by reflection in the anode 

 modification. It is pointed out that if the charges are trans 

 mitted along the helicoidal bundle, this should behave as a 

 solenoid carrying a current. In this case, the bundle which 

 would be the deviable bundle should turn under the action of 

 the other part of the current which passes along the non- 

 deviable bundle, precisely like a movable solenoid turning 

 round a fixed linear current. — On the so-called electrolytic re- 

 duction of potassium chlorate, by M. Andre Crochet. A 

 criticism of a paper by Bancroft and Burrows. The author 

 is in general agreement with the experimental part of this 

 work, but arrives at quite different conclusions regarding the 

 true explanation of the phenomenon. The reduction he regards 

 as being produced by a secondary and purely chemical reaction, 

 and hence concludes that the reduction is not electrolytic 

 properly so called. — On a mode of formation of phenols, by 

 M. F. Bodroux. Phenyl magnesium bromide and the cor- 

 responding derivative s of other aromatic hydrocarbons are 

 slowly acted upon by dry air, and from the product of this re- 

 action, alter acidifying with hydrochloric acid, phenols can be 

 extracted. Working in this way, phenol has been obtained 

 from bromobenzene, and ortho- and para-bromotoluene have 

 been transformed into the corresponding cresols. From mono- 

 bromaniscl, the monomethylether and hydroquinone were 

 obtained, parabromophenetol behaving similarly. The yields 

 are small, varying from 5 to 10 per cent, of the theoretical. 

 — On ethyl dinitroacetate, by MM. L. Bouveault and A. 

 Wahl. This compound has been obtained by the action of 

 ordinary fuming nitric acid upon the acid ethyl ester of 

 malonic acid, carbon dioxide being given off. The physical 

 and chemical properties of the nitro-compound are given, 

 and the preparation of the ammonium salt described. — The 

 influence of the nature of the external medium on the state of 

 hydration of the plant, by MM. Eug. Charabot and A. Hebert. 

 The effect of the addition of a salt of a mineral acid to the soil 

 is to accelerate the diminution of the proportion of water in the 

 plant. The nitrates have the most powerful effect in causing 

 the loss of water, then follow sulphates, chlorides and finally 

 sodium phosphate. — Observations on the theory of cell division, 

 by M. P. A. Dangeard. The primitive laws of cell division 

 are found to be modified by the appearance of a membrane or 

 an inextensible envelope ; the laws of Hertwig and Pflueger 

 only give expression to this modification interposed in the cel- 

 lular structure in the course of development. — The existence of 

 the lower Cretacean in Argolide, Greece, by M L. Cayeux. — 

 On the presence of a kinase in some Basidiomycetes, by MM. C. 

 Delczcnnc and II. Mouton. The powdered fungus is extracted 

 with saline water (08 per cent.) in presence of toluol, and the 

 liquid filtered either through paper or a Berkefeld filter, the extract 

 from Amanita muscaria giving the best results. This extract, 

 which is inactive towards albumen, when mixed with a pancreatic 

 juice also inactive by itself, is capable of rapidly digesting albu- 

 men. The effects are produced by a so'uble ferment analogous to 

 enterokinase. — The influence of the stereochemical configuration 

 of gluco'ides on the activity of the hydrolytic diastases, by 

 M. Henri Pottevin. An examination of some apparent excep- 

 tions to the law of Fischer. — Acetaldehyde in the ageing and 

 alterations of wine, by M. A. Trillat. Acetaldehyde appears 

 to play an important part in the various modifications under- 

 gone by wine. The ageing corresponds to a normal oxidation 

 of the alcohol of the wine, resulting in the formation of aldehydes, 

 their transformation into acetals and esters. Under the influence 

 of certain diseases, the proportion of aldehydes increases; 

 according to the conditions, these aldehydes may either form 

 an insoluble compound with the colouring matter or may- 

 be resinified by the action of the mineral salts of the wine. 

 — The comparative bactericidal power of the electric arc 

 between poles of ordinary carbon or of carbon containing iron,. 



