472 
and 2, belong to a new species closely allied to sar- 
torite and smithite. Many new forms for sartorite 
were found.—Dr. G. T. Prior: Re-determination of 
nickel in the Baroti and Wittekrantz meteorites. Pre- 
cipitation with ammonia was found not to separate 
iron from nickel completely, however often the opera- 
tion was repeated. Re-determination showed that the 
proportion of. iron to nickel in the case of both the 
meteorites in question was nearer 6:1 than 10:1, as 
previously stated.—Dr. L. L. Fermor: Ice crystals 
from Switzerland. Last winter the surface of the 
snow in shady situations near Zweisimmen and Lenk 
was often characterised by a dense growth of hollow 
prisms formed of a thin shell of ice coiled spirally 
parallei to the face of a hexagonal prism.—Dr. L. L. 
Fermor: Hematite from the Kallidongri manganese 
mine, India. The crystals, which had the habit of 
corundum, and were marked with three sets of stria- 
tions due to twin lamellation parallel to 100, showed the 
forms 111 and 614 well developed, together with 100, 
221, 28.28.13 (a new rhombohedron), 513, 715, and 
101, less prominent.—H. B. Cronshaw: A variety of 
epidote from the Sudan. A mineral discovered by 
Mr. G. W. Grabham in a pegmatite vein closely re- 
sembles allanite in appearance, but is free from rare 
earths and agrees in composition with epidote; in its 
pleochroism and negative sign it also resembles the 
latter, but has an abnormally low optic-axial angle of 
about 54°. In thin section it presents a well-marked 
zonal structure. 
Royal Meteorological Society, June 17.—Mr. C. J. P. 
Cave, president, in the chair.—B. C. Wallis: The 
rainfall of the southern Penninés. This inquiry had 
been undertaken with the view of attempting to find 
a scientific justification of the claim made for the 
wetness and humidity of Lancashire suitable to the 
manufacture of cotton. In summarising the distribu- 
tion of the rainfall of the Pennine district, the author 
said it may be asserted that the west is wetter than 
the east on the whole and as a rule, although the 
difference between the two areas is least marked 
during the dry season from March to May. In June 
and July, however, the lowland of the Trent and 
Ouse valleys receives a relative excess of rainfall 
which is compensated by the relative dryness in 
December and January. The uplands are absolutely 
wetter than the neighbouring lowlands, and_ the 
western slopes are wetter than the eastern slopes, but 
the difference in rainfall between upland and lowland 
is least marked during the warm weather and most 
marked during the cold weather. Throughout the 
whole district, on the average, the rainfall decreases 
in intensity from January until April, increases from 
April to August, shows a drop in relative quantity 
for September, rises to a maximum in October, and 
then declines until December. The local relief of the 
Pennine uplift gives to the cotton towns their char- 
acteristic climate, and is the dominant factor which 
has made Lancashire supreme in the cotton industry. 
—H. J. Bartlett: The relation between wind direction 
and rainfall. This was a discussion of wind and rain 
records at the four observatories Valencia, Aberdeen, 
Falmouth, and Kew for the ten-year period 1go1-r1o. 
It was shown that a large proportion of the total 
rainfall falls with winds in the south-east and south- 
west quadrants, except in the case of Aberdeen, where 
the amount in the north-west quadrant is relatively 
high. The greatest amounts at Kew and Falmouth 
are, with a south-west wind, respectively 22 and 28 
per cent. At Aberdeen the south-east wind brings 
the highest amount, 20 per cent., while Valencia 
receives 30 per cent. with south, 20 per cent. with 
south-east, and 15 per cent. with the south-west wind 
during the year. At each observatory there are two 
NOL 2331, OL. wos] 
NATURE 
[JULY 2paerg 
months curing the year when the proportion of rain 
occurring normally in one or more quadrants diminishes 
considerably. For Valencia, Falmouth, and Kew this 
feature is strongly marked in June and September, 
while for Aberdeen, where it is less obvious, the 
months are May and November.—E. H. Chapman: 
Barometer changes and rainfall: a statistical study. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, June 22.—M. P. Appell in the 
chair.—G. Humbert: Some remarkable numerical 
functions.—J. Boussinesq: The mean velocity, or the 
flow and the maximum or axial velocity, in a prismatic 
tube, of regular section with any number (m) of sides. 
—H. Deslandres and V. Burson: The exact study of 
band spectra, the so-called Swan spectrum, in the 
magnetic field. The division and polarisation of the 
lines of the spectrum. The study of the Swan band 
spectrum kas given results in general agreement with 
the work previously published on other band spectra. 
Comparing with line spectra the deviation of the 
Zeeman components is much smaller and the circular 
vibrations do not show the negative effect exclusively, 
but, nearly as often, the positive effect. These facts 
can be explained by assuming the presence of both 
positive as well as negative particles, of a mass much 
larger than the electron. A very powerful magnetic 
field is necessary in these researches.—Charles 
Depéret : The reconstitution of a skeleton of Felsino- 
therium serresi, from the Montpellier sands. A photo- 
graph is shown of the skeleton which has been recon- 
structed from the remains of several individuals. It 
is slightly longer than the present dugong.—P. 
Chofardet : Observations and remarks on the Kritzinger 
comet, 1914a, made at the Observatory of Besancon. 
Positions given for May 22, June 17 and 20. The 
peculiarities in the variations in magnitude of this 
comet are discussed.—Ch. H. Miintz: A property of 
Bernoulli’s polynomials.—C. Popovici: A functional 
equation.—]. E. Littlewood: The distribution of the 
prime numbers.—Ludwig Schlesinger: Integro-differ- 
ential equations.—K. Bartel: A geometrical method 
of formation of some ruled surfaces of higher order.— 
G. Koenigs : A new formula expressing the power indi- 
cated by a four-cycle motor as a function of the 
experimental elements. A recalculation of some re- 
sults by M. Lumet.—Jacques Duclaux ;: The mechanism 
of light radiation and the entropy quantum.—F. 
Bourcier : The propagation of Hertzian waves along a 
wire wound eas a helix.—A. Defretin; The Foucault 
currents in a soft iron core and the influence of 
hysteresis. The effective value of the mean induction 
for a given ring and magnetising current varies in- 
versely as the square root of the frequency, if this is 
moderately large.—Otto Scheuer: A reduction of 
carbon monoxide by hydrogen caused by the radium 
emanation (see page 463).—Z. Klemensiewicz: The 
electrochemical properties of radium-B and thorium-B. 
The method is based on the determination of the dis- 
tribution ratio of a radio-active body between an 
amalgam of the metal supposed to be isotopic with it 
and an aqueous solution of one of these salts.. It was 
found that the normal electrolytic potentials 
Ex=0-029 log P of radium-B and of thorium-B are 
equal to that of lead within 2-10-° volt. This con- 
firms the view that the radio-active metal and _ its 
isotope are chemically inseparable.—Victor Henri: 
Study of the dispersion of the ultra-violet rays by 
organic bodies. For the numerous organic substances 
studied it was found that for a wave-length up to 
about A=2600, the radio-active power of CH, is as 
additive as in the visible spectrum; for shorter waves 
the additivity subsists only as a first approximation.— 
Paul Pascal: The diamagnetic properties of the 
