February 19. 1903] 



NA TURE 





Geological Society, January 21. — Prof. Charles Lapworth, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The figure of the earth, by 

 Prof. W. J. Sollas, F.R.S. The almost precise correspon- 

 dence of great terrestrial features with a circular form seems 

 to be frequently overlooked. The Aleutian curve has its 

 centre in latitude 6° N., longitude 177 W., that of the 

 East Indies about 15° N. and 118 E., and round the latter 

 centre are several concentric curves. The northern part of 

 South America, the Alpine-Himalayan chain, the western 

 shore of North America and a portion of Australia may be 

 similarly reduced to geometric form. A great circle swept 

 through the centres of the East Indian and Aleutian arcs 

 runs symmetrically through the bordering seas of Asia as far 

 as Alaska, borders the inland lakes of America, passes the 

 Californian centre, extends through the middle of the Carib- 

 bean Sea, runs parallel with the coast of the Antarctic Con- 

 tinent, and returns to the East Indian centre without touch- 

 ing Australia. This course is in remarkable correspondence 

 with the general trend of the great zone of Pacific weakness. 

 If the pole of this circle in the Libyan Desert is placed to- 

 wards an observer in a globe, the African Continent appears 

 as a great dome surrounded by seas and separated from the 

 Pacific by an irregular belt of land. A second great circle 

 defined by Lake Baikal, and with its centre at " the morpho- 

 logical centre of Asia " of Suess, and passing through the 

 East Indian centre, may be regarded as the direction-circle 

 for the Eurasian folding. These two centres intersect at an 

 angle of 39 , and, on bisecting this angle, a mean directive 

 circle is found, with its pole near the sources of the White 

 Nile, 6° north of the Equator. The axis of terrestrial 

 symmetry through this pole passes through the middle of 

 Africa and of the Pacific Ocean. The smallest circle which 

 will circumscribe Africa has its centre near this pole, and 

 within it the symmetry of the fractured African dome is 

 observable. Outside this comes a belt of seas, and outside 

 that again the Pacific belt of continents, the Antarctic, South 

 America, North America, Asia and Australia. Mr. Jeans has 

 concluded on mathematical grounds that the " pear-like 

 shape of the earth " might have been possessed by it at the 

 time of its consolidation ; and he has suggested that Aus- 

 tralia may represent the "stalked end" of the "pear." 

 The author's observations would lead him to place it in 

 Africa, and to regard the Pacific as covering the " broad 

 end." — The sedimentary deposits of Southern Rhodesia, by 

 A. J. C. Molyrteux. The greater portion of the area of 

 Southern Rhodesia lies on granite and gneiss, and on the 

 schists and slates that contain the auriferous veins worked 

 in ancient times, and now being again opened up on an 

 extensive scale. The remaining area is on sandstone and 

 other sedimentary beds, with coal-deposits and regions of 

 volcanic rocks. To explain the deposition and order of these 

 sediments several sections are given, one being along a line 

 extending from the Zambesi River on the north, through 

 Bulawayo and the central plateau, to the Limpopo River on 

 the south, a distance of more than 400 miles. Another sec- 

 tion, with remarks thereon, is copied, by permission, from a 

 report by Mr. C. J. Alford on the coal-bearing rocks of the 

 Mafungibusi District. Three appendices are added ; one, on 

 a new species of Acrolepis from the Sengwe Coalfield ; a 

 second, on some Lamellibranch Mollusca ; and a third, on 

 some fossil plants from Rhodesia. 



Zoological Society, February 3 —Mr. Howard Saunders, 

 vice-president, in the chair. — Dr. Walter Kitid read a paper 

 describing the arrangement of hair on four mammals, the 

 otter, domestic dog, ox and horse, considered as typical from 

 the point of view of hair-slope. The rising complexity of 

 these phenomena in the four forms was shown to be closely 

 related to their differing habits and environments, and a 

 division was made of adaptive and non-adaptive modifica- 

 tions of hair. It was maintained that the facts dealt with 

 were closely connected with the problems of heredity. — A 

 communication from Captain F. Wall, of the Indian Medical 

 Service, contained an account of all the snakes hitherto re- 

 corded from China, Japan and the Loo Choo Islands, 

 together with notes on those obtained by himself during 

 the time he was attached to trie China Expeditionary Forces 

 in 1900-1902. — Mr. H. J. Elwes, F.R.S., read a paper on 

 the variation of the elk, in which it was pointed out that from 

 the author's personal experiences in Norway during six 

 years' hunting he could entirely confirm the observations 



NO, I73S, VOL. 67] 



of Dr. Lonnberg. Specimens showing variation in the 

 antlers of the elk from Norway were exhibited. — Mr. R. 

 Lydekker gave a description of the wild sheep of the Kopet 

 Dagh, the range of mountains forming the northern bound- 

 ary of Persia ; this race had been named Ovis arkal, in 

 1857, by Blasius. Mr. Lydekker considered that this animal 

 formed a recognisable subspecies of the Urial, and proposed 

 to call it Ovis vignei arkal. — Staff-Surgeon P. W. Bassett- 

 Smith, R.N., communicated a paper on three new parasitic 

 Copepoda obtained by Mr. Cyril Crossland in East Africa. — 

 A short paper was r»ad by Colonel C. E. Stewart, C.S.I., 

 in which he contended that the tiger was a recent intruder 

 into the Peninsula of India. His reason for believing this 

 was the absence of any Sanscrit word for tiger, and also the 

 absence of any allusion to tigers among many of the older 

 writers. — A communication was read from Prof. Sydney J. 

 Hickson, F.R.S., containing a description of a new Hvdro- 

 zoan obtained by Mr. Cyril Crossland in Zanzibar, for which 

 the name Ceralella minima was proposed. — Dr. G. Herbert 

 Fowler presented an eighth contribution to our knowledge 

 of the Plankton of the Faeroe Channel, which dealt mainly 

 with the Ostracoda, Copepoda, Amphipoda and Schizopoda 

 captured during a cruise of H.M.S. Research, and their 

 horizontal and vertical distribution. Short diagnoses by 

 Dr. Wolfenden of three new species of Copepoda were given. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, February 9. — M. Albert Gaudry 

 in the chair. — On the gradual extinction of the motion at 

 the back of an isolated wave, in an elastic medium having a 

 resistance proportional either to the velocity or the displace- 

 ment, by M. J. Boussinesq. — On the equations of motion 

 and the supplementary relation in the midst of a vitreous 

 medium, by M. P. Duhem. — Remarks by M. Alfred 

 Picard on the first volume of his report on the Exhibition 

 of 1900. — The President announced to the Academy the 

 death of M. Lechartier, correspondant for the section of 

 rural economy. — On entire functions of infinite order and 

 differential equations, by M. Edm. Maillet. — On functional 

 operations, by M. Hadamard. — On a theorem analogous 

 to that of Bobillier, in the case of the rolling of a surface 

 on an applicable surface, by M. G. Kcenigs. — Temporary 

 and permanent changes in nickel steels, by M. Ch. E. 

 Guillaume. The permanent changes undergone by a bar 

 of nickel steel have been observed over a period of six 

 years, and amounted to about 12 ft. The amount of this 

 change is too great for the alloy to be safely used 

 for the construction of length standards of the first order, 

 but serviceable secondary standards may be made, provided 

 that comparisons with a primary standard are made at in- 

 tervals. — On the variation of the mean velocity of the wind 

 in the vertical, by M. Axel Egnell. The quantity of air dis- 

 placed in the wind is constant at all heights from 300 metres 

 to 12,000 metres. From this follows the very simple law that 

 the mean velocity of the wind is in inverse proportion to the 

 density of the air. — On a magnetic apparatus serving as a 

 detector for electric waves, by M. G. Tissot. — On the dis- 

 appearance of the radio-activity induced by radium on solid 

 bodies, by MM. P. Curie and J. Dartne. After a certain 

 period the intensity of the radiation follows an exponential 



_t_ 



law with the time, of the form I = I e *i. In general 

 this law is independent of the nature of the radiating body, 

 but for a few substances, of which celluloid is the best type, 

 the activity decreases much more slowly, taking several days 

 to fall to "one-half. — On the displacement of the sulphuric 

 acid of alkaline bisulphates by water, by M. Albert Colson. 

 From a thermochemical study of the behaviour of solutions 

 of sodium bisulphate the conclusion is drawn that this salt 

 can react with water to give sulphuric acid and the neutral 

 sulphate. An attempt will be made to utilise this reaction 

 on the large scale. — On a new synthesis of orthodiazine, by 

 M. R. Marquis. The diazine is obtained by the action of 

 hydrazine hydrate upon maleic aldehyde. On the reduction 

 of the diazine with sodium and alcohol, a small quantity of 

 tetramethylene-diamine is produced, together with ammonia. 

 — On the formation of azo-bodies. The reduction of ortho- 

 nitrobenzyl alcohol, by M. P. Freundler. — The oxidation 

 of the acetates of manganese and cobalt by chlorine, by 

 M. H. Copaux. The acetates of cobalt and manganese 



