BP 24D) 
-o- 
NATURE 
| APRIL 30, 1914 
found to have a radius equal to the vertical portion. 
If the vertical length is taken as unity, and its lower 
end as origin, it is shown that e is the sum of the 
y-ordinate at x=1, and the length of the curved chain 
between the point where that y-ordinate cuts the curve 
and the top of the vertical portion. The application 
of this result to the relationship and meaning of 
hyperbolic functions was also shown. 
Zoological Society, April 7.—Prof. E. W. MacBride, 
vice-president, in the chair.—Dr. F. E. Beddard:; The 
anatomy and systematic arrangement of the Cestoidea, 
Two new species of tapeworms belonging to the 
genera Linstowia and Oochoristica were described.— 
E. W. Shann: The lateral muscle of Teleostei. The 
author has undertaken the present work in view of 
the conflicting statements extant as to the nature of 
the lateral muscle in Teleostean fishes; the primary 
object of the paper is to uphold the single-layer theory 
of its composition.—Dr. W. T, Calman: Report on 
the river-crabs (Potamonidz) collected by the British 
Ornithologists’ Union and Wollaston Expeditions in 
Dutch New Guinea. Two new species were described. 
—Oldfield Thomas: Report on the mammals collected 
by the British Ornithologists’ Union and Wollaston 
Expeditions in Dutch New Guinea. The species ob- 
tained numbered thirty-one, of which the types of 
twelve had been brought home by the expeditions. 
The two expeditions had obtained a very valuable 
series of ground-animals, notably of the genus Uromys, 
but there seemed to be, in the part of New Guinea 
explored, a remarkable absence of arboreal species, 
these forming in other parts of New Guinea a large 
proportion of the mammal fauna.—Guy Dollman: 
Mammals obtained by Mr. Willoughby P. Lowe during 
the recent East African Expedition organised by Mr. 
G. P. Cosens. The entire collection, some two 
hundred specimens in all, was presented by Mr. Cosens 
to the national collection. Besides examples of many 
rare and important species, specimens of several new 
forms were included. 
Geological Society, April 8.—Dr. A. Smith Wood- 
ward, president, in the chair.—Prof. J. W. Gregory : 
The evolution of the Essex river-system, and its rela- 
tion to that of the Midlands. The post-Eocene 
geology of Essex must be learnt from its gravels and 
their non-local constituents. In the absence of any 
rock which affords a certain proof of its route, the 
effort was made to determine the direction of trans- 
port by tracing the variations in the proportions and 
size of the non-local constituents; this test shows that 
the quartzites and felsites came from the north-west, 
and the Lower Greensand cherts from the south and 
south-east. The gravels are classified as follows :— 
(1) The oldest series. The Brentwood group, which 
consists of redeposited Bagshot Beds and of local 
materials only. (2) The Danbury Gravel, which was 
deposited before the arrival of the felsites, and at the 
beginning of the arrivai of the Lower Greensand 
cherts. (3) The Braintree Gravel, which is largely 
composed of quartzitic drift, with abundant Lower 
Greensand cherts and some felsites that were probably 
derived from the Lower Greensand conglomerates 
north-west of Essex. (4) and (5) Glacial and post- 
Glacial gravels. Judged from the distribution and 
dates of appearance of the non-local constituents in 
these gravels, the evolution of the Essex river-systems 
is traced. The Lower Thames and Essex river- 
systems appear to be due to the Eocene earth-move- 
ments which formed the London Basin; and_ the 
coeval uplift of the English Midlands started thence 
a radial drainage. The streams to the south-east 
cut the wind-gaps on the Chiltern Hills, and the 
drainage to the south-west flowed along a subsidence 
NO. 23225a700. 03) 
on the north-western side of the Jurassic escarpment 
as the Warwickshire Avon and the Lower Severn.— 
J. B. Scrivenor: The topaz-bearing rocks of Gunong 
Bakau (Federated Malay States), Gunong Bakau is 
a peak, 4426 ft. high, in the main range of the Malay 
Peninsula. It is composed of porphyritic granite, into 
which have been intruded veins of quartz-topaz rock, 
and, at a later date, masses and veins of topaz-aplite. 
Roya! Meteorological Society, April 22.—J. E. Clark 
and R. H. Hooker: Report on the phenological ob- 
servations from December, 1912, to November, 1913. 
This dealt with the dates of the flowering of plants, 
the song and migration of birds, the appearance of 
insects, and also the character of farm crops. Con- 
sidering England as a whole, the main feature of the 
weather, so far as it affected crops, was the cold wet 
summer of 1912, the abundant precipitation during 
the spring, which resulted in a bountiful hay crop, and 
the dry summer.—A. J. Bamford ; A small anemometer 
for tropical use. : 
Mathematical Society, April 23.—Prof. A. E. H. Love, 
president, in the chair.—Major P. A. MacMahon: (1) 
A modified form of pure reciprocants possessing the 
property that the algebraical sum of the coefficients is 
zero. (2) Lattice and prime-lattice permutations. 
DUBLIN. 
Royal Dublin Society, April 21.—Dr. J. H. Pollok in 
the chair.—Prof. W. Brown: Note on the change of 
length in nickel wire due to small longitudinal loads 
and low alternating magnetic fields. It is shown in 
this note that the contraction of the nickel wire is 
from 63 to 44 per cent. greater than for equivalent 
direct continuous magnetic fields. The loads employed 
were from o-1184 x Io to 10° grams per sq. cm., and 
magnetic fields up to 2c9 c.g.s. units. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, April 20.—M. P. Appell in the 
chair.—Mauric2 Hamy and M. Millochau: The effects 
of variations of voltage on the intensity of the radia- 
tions of the arc obtained with an arrangement utilis- 
ing an alternating current. The time of exposure of 
a photographic plate for a constant impression was 
found to be proportional to V-°*, where V is the 
voltage.—A. Haller and Edouard Bauer: The action of 
sodium amide on_ the  allyldialkylacetophenones. 
General method of synthesis of the trialkylpyrrol- 
idones. This ketone does not follow the normal 
reaction, production of benzene and trialkylacetic acid, 
but forms a condensation product, C,H,,ON. The 
reactions of this substance were in agreement with 
those of a 3:3: 5-trimethylpyrrolidone, and this con- 
stitution was confirmed synthetically.—Charles Moureu 
and Jacques Ch. Bongrand: Carbon subnitride. The 
action of ammonia and amines. The nitride, 
CN—C=C-—CN, enters violently into combination 
with ammonia and amines. Ammonia gives amino- 
butenedinitrile, CN.C(NH,)=CH.CN, and homologues 
of this are produced when amines are substituted for 
ammonia.—M., Considére ; The contraction of armoured 
concrete: its influence on the forces developed in 
armoured concrete constructions. A comparison of 
experimental results obtained by Otto Graf at Stutt- 
-gart with some made at the laboratory of the Ecole 
des Ponts et Chaussées at Paris, and a discussion of a 
recent note by M. Rabut on the same subject.—O. 
Lehmann: The suction effects observed in liquid 
crystals in the course of growth (myelinic forms).— 
jf. A. F. Balland: The lowering of the proportion of 
gluten in flour. The bread-making properties of 
Parisian flour have deteriorated during recent years, 
and this is in part due to the decline in the proportion 
