4 3° 



NA TV RE 



[March 5, 190J 



the paper, and the results practically obtained are compared 

 with those derived from theoretical considerations. In all 

 cases the total measured capacity of n wires is less than n 

 times the capacity of one wire. — Mr. A. Campbell exhibited 

 the commutator used for condenser tests at the National 

 Physical Laboratory. It is similar to that designed by Mr. 

 Searle and used by him and Prof. J. J. Thomson in their 

 determination of the value of " v." In this commutator 

 the ebonite insulation does not fill the spaces between the 

 nts, and is never touched by the brushes, thus giving 

 satisfactory insulation. By its aid many measurements have 

 been made of the B.A. air-condensers, the capacity of each 

 of these being about o'02 m.fd. — A paper on the thickness 

 of the liquid film formed by condensation at the surface of a 

 solid was read by Dr. G. J. Parks. It was known more 

 than half a century ago that when a solid is placed in a gas 

 or vapour there is a condensation of the latter on the surface 

 of the solid, and in particular that glass has the power of 

 condensing water-vapour at temperatures above the dew- 

 point. In order to determine the thickness of the liquid 

 film, the author has exposed masses of cotton-silicate of 

 known area to the action of water-vapour. The author 

 has compared his results with those obtained by other experi- 

 menters with different substances and under widely dill, rent 

 conditions, and concludes that in all cases where condensa- 

 tion of moisture takes place at a solid surface, and at 

 temperatures not below the dew-point, the thickness of the 

 surface-film varies from ioXio _e to Sox io -6 cms., accord- 

 ing to the substances used and the conditions of temperature 

 and pressure. 



Chemical Society, February iS — Prof. J. Emerson 

 Reynolds, F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The following 

 papers were read : — The molecular arrangement of N-sub- 

 stituted imino-ethers, by Dr. G. D. Lander. The re- 

 arrangement of the atomic grouping .C(OR) : N. into 

 .CO.NR. may be effected catalytically or by heating; the 

 author has applied these methods to the study of iV-substi- 

 tuted imino-ethers recently prepared by him. — The nature 

 and probable mechanism of the replacement of metallic by 

 organic radicles in tautomeric compounds, by Dr. G. D. 

 Lander. — The chlorine derivatives of pyridine. Part viii. 

 The interaction of 2:3:4: 5-tetrachloropyridine with ethyl 

 sodiomalonate, by Messrs. W. J. Sell and F. W. Dootson. 

 — The biological method for resolving inactive acids into 

 their optically active compounds, by Drs. A. McKemie and 

 A. Harden. The authors have investigated the action of 

 pure cultures of Penicillium glaucum, Link; Sterigmato- 

 cystis nigra, van Tieghem ; Aspergillus griseus, Link, on 

 various externally compensated acids. Their experiments 

 show that these moulds attack one isomeride more readily 

 than the other, and that the extent of the resolution depends 

 solely on the difference of this rate of attack. — Colour 

 changes observed in solutions of cobalt chloride, by Prof. 

 W. N. Hartley, F.R.S. Spectroscopic examination of 

 solutions of cobalt chloride shows that the compound formed 

 when the solution is heated at 93°-ioo° is the dihydrate 

 CoCl„,2H,0, whilst solution of the salt in hydrochloric 

 acid appears to result in the production of a compound of 

 the salt and acid ; when zinc chloride is added to a solution 

 of cobalt chloride the latter does not become blue on warm- 

 ing ; this, it is suggested, is due to the formation of a double 

 chloride of the two metals. The author also points out that 

 the hypothesis that hydrated salts can exist in concentrated 

 solutions and undergo dissociation with rise of temperature 

 is sufficient to account for all the phenomena observed, and 

 the supposition made by Donnan and Bassett of the existence 

 of a complex ion during the electrolysis of cobalt chloride 

 is unnecessary. — The action of ammonia and organic bases 

 on ethyl esters of olefinedicarboxylic and olefine-18 -ketocarb- 

 oxylic acids, by Dr. S. Ruhernann. — Derivatives of /)-amino- 

 acetophenone, by Dr. F. D. Chattaway. A description of 

 a number of acyl derivatives of this amino-ketone. 



Entomological Society, February 4.— Prof. E. B. Poulton, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Dr. T. A. Chapman ex- 

 hibited two male specimens of Orina tristis, var. smarag- 

 dina, taken at Pino, Lago Maggiore, on May 30, 1902, 

 still alive ; and living larvae of Crinopteryx familiella, second 

 generation, bred from the egg at Reigate, of parents taken 

 at Cannes in February, 1901. — The Rev. F. D. Morice 



NO. I74O, VOL. 67] 



exhibited, with drawings of the abnormal parts, a herm- 

 aphrodite of Encera longicornis, Linn. In a discussion on 

 hermaphroditism, Dr. Sharp stated that Father Wasman 

 had announced the discovery that in certain Dipterous para- 

 sites of Termites the individual commences as a male 

 and ends as a female — a phenomenon entirely new 

 to entomology, though paralleled in some other groups. 

 — Mr. R. McLachlan, F.R.S., exhibited a living ex- 

 ample of Chrysopa vulgaris, Schnd., to show the manner 

 in which this species, which is ordinarily bright green, 

 assumes a brownish colour, the abdomen being often marked 

 with reddish spots in hybernating individuals. — Mr. W. J. 

 Lucas submitted specimens of a bug — Miris calcaratus — 

 and the fruit of some grass, swept up near Byfleet. The 

 similarity of form and colouring constituted a probable case 

 of protective resemblance. — Major Neville Manders ex- 

 hibited two specimens of an undescribed species of Atella 

 from Ceylon, and remarked that it was a very local insect 

 and only found in the Nitre Cave district, one of the locali- 

 ties most remote from civilisation in the island. It was 

 probably a well-marked local race of A. alcippe, but easily 

 distinguished from any known species of the genus by the 

 apex of the fore-wing being entirely black. — Mr. F. B. 

 Jennings exhibited two females of Drymus pilipes, Fieb., 

 a rare species of the family Lygaeidse, which were found 

 among dead leaves on a hillside near Croydon in September, 

 1901, and a black aberration of the ordinarily grass-green 

 or Yellowish Miris lacvigatus, L. — Mr. H. J. Elwes, F.R.S., 

 exhibited a collection of butterflies formed by Mr. David 

 Hanbury on the Arctic coast of North America, in the 

 region where the Parry expedition was lost. Two of them, 

 including Colias boothii, had not been taken since they were 

 first described by Curtis sixty years ago. This species, in 

 comparison with Colias hecla, Lef., is undoubtedly distinct 

 in both sexes, but it is most remarkable that the male, in 

 coloration and markings, appears to approximate more 

 closely to the characters usual in the females of other mem- 

 bers of the genus. The collection contained nothing new, 

 but included the rare and curious Argynnis improba, Butler, 

 hitherto taken only in Novaya Zembla ; a remarkable 

 aberration of A. chariclea, Schn., in which the black netting 

 marks were resolved into smeared black lines; A. pales, 

 for the first time from this region, precisely similar to the 

 form taken on the east of the Lena River in Siberia ; and 

 Coenonympha tiphon, closely resembling the form from 

 Kamtschatka. He also showed a collection from north- 

 eastern Siberia at about the same latitude, 67 , as the pre- 

 ceding exhibit. It included many species which occur in the 

 western pala^arctic regions, most remarkable of all, Neptis 

 lucilla. Also Parnassius dcliiis, which Mr. Elwes said was 

 the first Parnassius he had seen from within the Arctic- 

 circle, and Colias viluiensis, M^n., an insect peculiar to 

 Siberia, showing remarkable female aberrant forms. — Mr. 

 C. O. Waterhouse gave an account of a nest of a bee, 

 Trigona collina, recently received from Malacca. Speci- 

 mens were exhibited, as were also males and a worker of 

 the much smaller species, Trigona ruficornis, Smith, re- 

 ceived at the same time from Singapore, and sent by Mr. 

 H. N. Ridley. — Mr. VV. J. Kayo exhibited two drawers con 

 taining Danaine, Ithomiine and Heliconine species from 

 British Guiana, all of similar coloration, and forming a 

 Miillerian association with a black hind-wing. — The follow- 

 ing papers were communicated : — On the Hypsid genus 

 Deilemera, Hiibner, by Colonel Charles Swinhoe. — An 

 account of a collection of Rhopalocera made in the Anam- 

 bara Creek in Nigeria, West Africa, by Mr. P. J. Lathy. — 

 Some notes on the habits of Nanophyes darieui, Lucas, as 

 observed in Central Spain by Mr. G. C. Champion and 

 Dr. T. A. Chapman, with a description of the larva and 

 pupa by Dr. T. A. Chapman. 



Zoological Society, February 17. — Dr. Henry Woodward, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — A communication was 

 read from Mr. F. Pickard-Cambridg;e containing de- 

 scriptions of one new genus and eight new species of spiders 

 of the families Pisauridse and Senoculidae, the material for 

 which was contained in the British Museum, and was, 

 to a great extent, obtained by the author in the Lower 

 Amazons. — A communication from Mr. Cyril Crossland 

 contained descriptions of two new species of marine poly- 

 chaete worms obtained on the shores of the Island of Zanzi- 



