Marcu 26, 1914] 
below this, at a depth of 63 ft., a bed (10 in. thick) 
was found, which yielded the incised drawings above- 
mentioned, as well as numerous mammalian remains 
and flint-implements; and this is regarded as of 
Aurignacian age. Immediately below the _ last- 
mentioned bed a deposit of sand and sinall rock-frag- 
ments was penetrated to a depth of to ft., and this 
deposit, also referred to the Aurignacian, was found 
to contain an enormous number of bones of small 
mammals and other animals. Some twenty species 
have already been recognised by the discoverers.—Dr. 
A. Smith Woodward : An apparently Palzolithic engrav- 
ing on a bone from Sherborne (Dorset). The author 
is indebted to Mr. R. Elliot Steel, of Sherborne School, 
for the opportunity of studying a fragment of bone 
bearing an incised drawing of the fore-part of a horse 
in the style of drawings already well known from 
several habitations of Paleolithic man. The specimen 
was found in an old mound of débris from a quarry 
in the Inferior Oolite near Sherborne. No associated 
specimens of any interest were recovered; but at the 
lower end of the same valley, about a quarter of a 
mile distant, teeth of mammoth and woolly rhinoceros 
have been found. Like the only other British speci- 
men hitherto discovered—that described by Prof. Boyd 
Dawkins from the Creswell caves—the drawing is 
made on a fragment of rib; and the neck of the horse 
is fringed by fine lines, which indicate the short hog- 
mane usual in sketches made by the Paleolithic race. 
Royal Astronomical Society, March 13.—Major E. H. 
Hills, president, in the chair—Dr. F. W. Dyson; 
Greenwich determinations of the photographic mag- 
nitudes of stars brighter than 9-0 m. between declina- 
tion +75° and the pole. The methods employed and 
the results obtained were described.—Dr. S. Chapman : 
The total light of the stars. His results showed that 
the total light of the stars was about equal to that 
which would be given by 630 stars of the first mag- 
nitude. The light given by stars of each magnitude 
somewhat increased down to the tenth magnitude, 
the greater number of stars compensating for the 
decrease of brightness of the individual stars. But 
below the tenth magnitude this was no longer the 
case, the light falling off more and more as we descend 
the scale.—Prof. J. W. Nicholson: The spectrum of 
hydrogen and helium.—H. H. Turner: Baxendell’s 
observations of variable stars, edited by H. H. Turner 
and Miss Blagg. Difficulties had arisen through Baxen- 
dell’s various ways of naming the stars, but a more 
serious matter was that there were so many unfortunate 
gaps in the series of observations. Comparison with the 
Rousdon observations showed discrepancies, which 
might be attributed to the attempt to estimate the 
maximum—always an extremely difficult matter. 
Physical Society, March 13.—Dr. A. Russell, vice- 
president, in the chair,;—Dr. C. Chree : Time measure- 
ments of magnetic disturbances and their interpreta- 
tion. The paper is a sequel to one read in November, 
Ig10, dealing with the times of commencement of 
fifteen magnetic disturbances discussed by Mr. R. L. 
Faris, and supposed by him to support Dr. L. A. 
Bauer’s theory that the commencing movements of 
magnetic storms travel round the globe at rates of 
the order of 100 km. a second. The author suggested 
then that, for an adequate test of Dr. Bauer’s theory, 
data could only be obtained from a number of stations 
encircling the earth. Shortly afterwards Dr. Bauer 
issued a circular requesting magnetic observatories to 
send him their measurements of the times of com- 
mencement of the fifteen magnetic storms. Upwards 
of thirty stations sent in data. A discussion of the 
data derived from the horizontal force curves has been 
published by Dr. Angenheister, whose conclusions are 
unfavourable to Dr. Bauer’s theory. The present 
NO.V2g17, VOL, 93\| 
NATURE 
IOI 
paper deals with the data from the declination and 
vertical force curves as well as those from the hori- 
zontal force curves. The bearing of the data on Dr. 
Bauer’s theory is discussed.—H. N. Mercer: The ratio 
of the specific heats of air, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, 
and nitrous oxide. The object of the experiments was 
to test the accuracy with which y could be measured, 
employing small quantities of the gas, with the view 
of experiments on the variation of y with temperature. 
The method employed was to observe with a platinum 
thermometer of very fine wire the instantaneous’ fall 
of temperature corresponding to a given rapid fall of 
pressure. The apparatus employed was similar to that 
.used by Makower, but it was found that with due 
precautions an equal degree of accuracy was obtain- 
able with a vessel of only 300 c.c. capacity. <A table is 
given showing the values of the specific heat at con- 
stant pressure for the various gases as calculated from 
the present experiments. The values show good 
agreement with direct calorimetric determinations.— 
A. J. Philpot: The asymmetric distribution of the 
secondary electronic radiation produced by X-radiation. 
Prof. S. P. Thompson: A lecture experiment on the 
irrationality of dispersion. Newton’s method of 
crossed prisms throws an oblique spectrum on the 
wall. If the prisms used are of identical kinds of 
glass the oblique spectrum is straight from red to 
violet; but if different kinds of glass are used, the 
spectrum is curved by reason of irrationality of dis- 
persion. If a diffraction grating is used instead of one 
of the prisms, then the curvature observed is that 
resulting from the irrationality of dispersion of the 
particular prism employed. To exhibit these effects 
in the lecture theatre a diffraction grating of 12,000 
lines to the inch is employed to cast a horizontal 
spectrum of the first order, the light from an arc lamp 
being sent through a small hole. On interposing a 
prism to disperse the light vertically upwards, the 
resultant oblique spectrum is finely curved, being 
concave upwards. 
Zoological Society, March 17.—Prof. E. A. Minchin, 
vice-president, in the chair.—L. N. G. Ramsay: (1) 
The annelids of the family Nereidz, collected by Mr. 
F. A. Potts in the N.E. Pacific in 1911, with a note 
on Micronereis as a representative of the ancestral 
type of the Nereidz. (2) The genera Ceratocephale, 
Malmgren, and Tylorrhynchus, Grube.—A. Kynvett 
Totton: The structure and development of the caudal 
skeleton of the Teleostean fish, Pleuragramma ant- 
arcticum.—G. C. Robson: Report on Mollusca from 
Dutch New Guinea collected by the British Ornitho- 
logists’ Union and Wollaston Expeditions. In general, 
the collection appears to endorse Hedley’s views as to 
the Oriental affinities of the Papuan molluscan fauna. 
Though numericaliy small in species and individuals, 
the collection has yielded two genera and three new 
species, the anatomy of all of which is described.— 
P. R. Awati: The mechanism of suction in Lygus 
pabulinus, Linn. This is a Capsid bug injurious to 
the foliage of the potato, on which it feeds. A detailed 
description of the morphology and anatomy of those 
organs of the head concerned in sucking the plant- 
juices is followed by an account of their mode of 
action, in part deduced from their structure and 
arrangement, in part derived from observation of the 
living insect.—K. G. Blair: Report on the Hetero- 
merous Coleoptera collected by the British Ornitho- 
logists’ Union and the Wollaston Expeditions in Dutch 
New Guinea. The most interesting feature of the 
collection, from the point of view of distribution, is 
the occurrence of Cissites maxillosa, Fab., in this 
region. This beetle has been hitherto regarded as 
peculiar to the Oriental region, its range extending 
from Assam to Java, Borneo, and the Philippine 
