314 
NATURE 
[May 21, 1914 
stances, such as carbohydrates, tartaric acid, sac- 
charin, allantoin, peptone, and various amido-acids, 
were used in dilute solutions. Of these, only very 
weak solutions of amido-acids favoured a really strong 
growth, the most favourable substances being tyrosin 
and phenyl-alanine, which are very slightly soluble in 
water. Experiments with soil flagellates, especially 
Prowazekia terricola (Martin), showed that they could 
be cultivated in many solutions in which bacteria 
flourished, the flagellates feeding on several different 
kinds of bacteria. Samples of various types of soil 
and water were tested for the presence of bacterial- 
feeding flagellates, and these were found in all the 
samples, being most abundant in highly manured soil. 
The wide distribution and abundance of these soil 
flagellates, and their very rapid growth in the pre- 
sence of bacteria, suggests that they are of importance 
in the economy of the soil. 
Zoological Society, May 5.—Dr. Henry Woodward, 
vice-president, in the chair.—Surgeon G. Murray 
Levick: Manners and customs of Adélie penguins 
(Pygoscelis adeliae). The penguins were observed at 
the Cape Adare rookery while the author was with 
Scott’s Antarctic Expedition. Their mating habits, 
the making of their ‘‘nests,’’ hatching of the e ss 
and rearing of the young were described.—R. C. 
Lewis: Two new species of tapeworms from the 
stomach and small intestine of a wallaby from Her- 
mite Island, Monte Bello Islands. The parasites 
belong to the genus Cittotzenia, having two full sets 
of genital glands in each proglottis.—Oldfield Thomas : 
A remarkable case of affinity between animals in- 
habiting Guiana, West Africa, and the Malay Archi- 
pelago. The case referred to was that of the pygmy 
squirrels (Nannosciurinz), known to the natives of 
West Africa and the Malay Archipelago, and of which 
Mr. Thomas was now abie to state that the Guianan 
Sciurus pusillus was also a member. It was suffi- 
ciently distinct to need generic separation (Sciurillus, 
gen. nov., was suggested as a nave tor it), but was 
unquestionably assignable to the Nannosciurina, and 
not to the Sciurinz, to which all ne other American, 
all the European, and all the Asiatic continental 
squirrels belonged.—H. B. Preston: Diagnoses of new 
general and species of Zonitidae from equatorial Africa. 
The material on which the paper is based was recently 
collected from many localities in British East Africa, 
Uganda, and the Belgian Congo, by Messrs. A. Blay- 
ney Percival, Robin Kemp, and C, W. W oodhouse, 
and descriptions are given of seventy-six new species, 
two new varieties, and eight new genera of Zonitide, 
to which latter a number of hitherto described forms 
are also referred. 
Mathematical Society, May 14.- 
president, in the chair.—Prof. W. H. Young and Mrs. 
Young: The reduction of sets of intervals.—Prof. 
H. M. Macdonald: Diffraction by a straight edge.—J. 
Proudman : Diffraction of tidal waves on flat rotating 
sheets of water.—H. F. Moulton : Quadratic forms and 
factorisation of numbers.—F. S. Macaulay : The alge- 
braic theory of modular systems. i 
=|2eovis Ne 1S Ile ILionre 
MANCHESTER. 
Literary and Philosophical, May 12.—Mr. F. Nichol- 
son, president, in the chair.—F. R. Lankshear: The 
chemical significance of absorption spectra and a new 
quantitative method of measuring them. The author 
reviewed. the history of the study of the relation be- 
tween chemical constitution and absorption spectra, 
and the various theories as to the cause of absorption 
bands. He pointed out that for further progress to be 
achieved quantitative methods were necessary.—Dr. 
J. R. Ashworth ; Note on the intrinsic field of a magnet. 
NO. 2325, VOL. 93] 
An experiment on the electromotive force between 
magnetised and unmagnetised iron in a solution, from 
which an argument was drawn in favour of the view 
that in the interior of a magnet there is an enormously 
strong field acting on the molecular magnets. 
DUBLIN. 
Royal Irish Academy, May 11.—Rev. J. P. Mahaffy, 
president, in the chair.—J. G. Leathem: Doublet 
distributions in potential theory. The paper discusses 
the eon of the problem of irrotational liquid 
motion as a double-sheet problem. In connection with 
the hydrodynamical application it examines some as- 
pects of doublets and doublet distributions, and the 
manner in which these and their fields fit into Kelvin’s 
theory of inversion. A surface concentration of tan- 
gential doublets is also considered, and an account 
is given of the convergence or semi-convergence of 
the potential and force integrals associated with it. 
J. R. D. Holtby: Some human bones from an ancient 
burial ground in Dublin. The paper dealt with a 
collection of human bones discovered about a year ago 
buried deeply under the basement of the City Hall 
These were considered to represent inhabitants of 
Dublin about the twelfth tc fourteenth centuries. 
Apart from the worn condition of the teeth, found in 
almost all ancient remains, the chief interest lay in 
the form of the bones of the lower limbs and in the 
impressions or them. These were such as to sug- 
gest full and frequent flexion at the hip, knee and 
ankle joints, such as would occur in squatting 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, May 11.—M. P. Appell in the 
chair.—Ch. Lallemand ; The question of the litre. For 
scientific purposes the author considers the definition 
of the litre as the volume of a kilogram of water at 
4° C., and 76 cm. pressure should remain. The cor- 
rection to a cubic decimetre is +27 millionths (0-027 
gram).—Mme. Ramart-Lucas and A.’ Haller : Syntheses 
by means of sodium amide. The action of the 
epihalohydrins on the diallkylacetophenones. Oxy- 
propylene-dimethylacetophenone and its derivatives. 
The dialkylacetophenones treated with sodium amide 
and epihalohydrins give substitution products in which 
the halogen is replaced in a normal manner, whilst 
with acetophenone itself only tarry reaction products 
Landrieu: Re- 
are obtained.__E. Jungfleisch and Ph. 
searches on the acid salts of the dibasic acids. 
Oxalates. From the experiments detailed the con- 
clusion is drawn that acid potassium oxalate should 
be represented as (K,C,O,.H.C.O,) .and not as 
KH.C.,O,. The results are analogous with those pre- 
viously obtained for the acid camphorates. —Charles 
Richet : General anaphylaxy. Phosphorus poisoning 
and chloroform. It has been shown in a preceding 
note that a dog chloroformed for the first time never 
subsequently shows leucocytosis, but that a month 
later the same dog, although in perfect health, if 
submitted a second time to chloroform, always subse- 
quently shows leucocytosis. It is now shown that an 
animal, after treatment with non-toxic doses of a 
phosphide, and then a month later submitted to 
chloroform, presents the same phenomenon. This 
entails a modification of the generally accepted view 
of the specific nature of anaphylaxy.—A, Calmette and 
V. Grysez: A new experimental demonstration of the 
existence of a generalised lymphatic stage preceding 
localisations in tuberculous infection It is shown 
that whether the tubercle bacilli enter by the eye, 
throat, alimentary canal, skin, or lungs, before local 
lesions appear, the bacilli can be proved to be present 
in the tracheo-bronchial, submaxillary, and mesenteric 
ganglia, in the spleen and blood.—H. Parenty: A 
