ii8 



NA TURE 



[December i, 1904 



captured on September 22, 1903, showing a wide range of 

 colour variation. — The President exhibited a photograph 

 taken by Mr. A. H. Hanim to illustrate the protective flower 

 selection of Fierh rapae. He also exhibited four specimens 

 of Conorrhimis megistus, Burm., the large South American 

 Reduviid which is well known to attack man ; these were 

 brought back by W. J. Burchell in the year 1828, and still 

 have the original labels affixed to them. 



Geological Society, November 9. — Dr. J. E. Marr, F R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — i\Ir. E. T. Neiwton, in exhibit- 

 ing, by permission of the director of H.M. Geological 

 Survey, a specimen of Fayolia near to FayoUa grandis, 

 found by Dr. L. Moysey, of Nottingham, ' in the Coal- 

 measures of Ilkeston (Derbyshire), pointed out that I-'ayolia 

 was first described by Profs. Renault and Zeiller in 1S84, in 

 their monograph on the " Houiller de Commentry." In 

 1894 Mr. Seward described the first British specimen, from 

 Northumberland, in the Leeds Naturalist, but thought that 

 it was not a plant. There was some resemblance to certain 

 spiral egg-cases of Elasmobranchs, but Dr. Giinther was 

 unwilling to accept the Northumberland fossil as the egg- 

 case of a fish. Mr. Kidston had not yet seen the specimen 

 now exhibited, but from a sketch he recognised its relation 

 to Fayolia. At present there was still uncertainty as to the 

 exact nature of this fossil. — Notes on Upper Jurassic 

 Ammonites, with special reference to specimens in the 

 University Museum, Oxford, ii. : Miss Maud Healey. This 

 paper gives a re-description of the types of Cardioceras 

 vertehrale, Sow., C. scarbrugensc, Y. and B., C. cordatum. 

 Sow., and C. excavatum, Sow., and their varieties. Four 

 varieties of the first, nine of the second, three of the third 

 and fourth are defined, and a description is given of a 

 new species of Cardioceras belonging to the same group. 

 Notes on species allied to the group and on others which 

 have been wrongly confused with it are added. These 

 species are so closely connected bv innumerable transitional 

 forms that their limits cannot be definitely fixed. The term 

 " species " is therefore used as equivalent to Prof. J. W. 

 Gregory's cir cuius : "It includes a number of 'forms,' 

 which vary along lines radiating outward from a central 

 type." — Sarsen-stones in a clay-pit: Rev. E. C. Spicer. 

 Near to Bradenham, midway between High Wycombe and 

 Prmce's Risborough, certain clay-pits yield a clay for brick- 

 making, in which are embedded large angular sarsen- 

 stones, white saccharoidal sandstones with a siliceous 

 cement.— On the occurrence of Elcphas meridionalis at 

 Dewlish (Dorset). Second communication : human agency 

 suggested : Rev. Osmond Fisher. This paper is in con- 

 tmuation of one published by the author in 1888. The site 

 m which the elephant-remains were found is a narrow 

 trench, examined to a depth of 12 feet in places, with nearly 

 vertical sides, a smooth, chalk bottom, and an abrupt end. 

 It was not a fault or a stream-course, and it was partly 

 filled with fine dust-like sand which may have been wind'- 

 borne. The trench cuts diagonally across the scarp; and, 

 even if it could be accounted for by natural agencies, it is 

 diflicult to explain how it happened that so many elephants 

 fell into it. The author points out that in Africa elephants 

 are caught by the natives in pitfalls of similar character 

 constructed on the tracks leading to watercourses. This 

 trench is in a corresponding position with regard to a 

 stream, and it is suggested as possible that the trench may 

 have been of human origin. There is, however, no con- 

 clusive evidence elsewhere that man was contemporary with 

 Elephas meridionalis, which is characteristic of the Pliocene 

 age. 



Royal Astronomical Society, November 11. — Prof. H. H. 

 Turner, president, in the chair.— The long-period terms iri 

 the lunar theory : P. H. Cornell — Determination of seleno- 

 graphical positions from measurement of lunar photo- 

 graphs : S. A. Saunder. This was the author's third 

 communication on the subject, and in it he discussed the 

 measures, made by Mr. J. A. Hardcastle, of four negatives 

 taken at the Paris Observatory. The methods employed 

 were explained, and a comparison was given with the results 

 of other determinations, showing that a considerable in- 

 crease in accuracy had been obtained. — The magnetic dis- 

 turbances, 1882 to 1903, as recorded at the Royal Observ- 

 atory, Greenwich, and their association with sun-spots : 



NO. 183 1, VOL. 71] 



E. W. Maunder. From the examination and tabulation 

 of the more considerable disturbances recorded, it had been 

 found that disturbances succeeded each other at intervals 

 corresponding to a synodical rotation of the sun. This 

 occurred with too great frequency and regularity to be the 

 result of chance coincidence, and it was concluded that the 

 magnetic influence radiates from very restricted areas on 

 the sun's surface, certain streams reaching the earth with 

 each solar rotation. The relation of the magnetic disturb- 

 ances with sun-spots was discussed, and it was pointed out 

 that the theory threw light on the cause of the long straight 

 rays, seen proceeding from the corona at some solar eclipses, 

 and which sometimes reach a distance of several degrees. — 

 Determination of the ape.x of the solar motion in space, 

 and of the constant of precession, from a comparison of 

 Groombridge's catalogue (18x0) with modern Greenwich 

 observations : F. W. Dyson and W. G. Thackeray. — The 

 discussion on a paper by Dr. Rambaut on a very sensitive 

 method of determining the errors of a pivot, with special 

 reference to the pivot errors of the Radcliffe transit circle, 

 was deferred, and other papers were taken as read. 



Mineralogical Society, November 15. — Prof. II. A. Miers, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Dr. J. W. Evans de- 

 scribed two new forms of quartz-wedge by means of which 

 approximate quantitative estimations can be readily made 

 of the double refraction of minerals in small grains or in 

 rock-sections. — Mr. J. Currie contributed a note on some 

 new localities in Scotland and the Fteroes of gyrolite and 

 tobermorite, and Mr. C. R. Lindsey one on the occurrence 

 of microscopic crystals of brookite with anatase in the 

 Cleveland ironstone. — Mr. R. H. Solly exhibited and de- 

 scribed various minerals from the Lengenbach quarry, 

 Binnenthal. Three of these were new, viz. marrite and 

 bowmanite, of which the chemical composition has not yet 

 been determined, and lengenbachite, which has been shown 

 by Dr. Hutchinson to be a sulpharsenite of lead containing 

 some copper and antimony, and having a specific gravity 

 of 5.8. Marrite occurs in small lead-grey crystals resembling 

 modified cubes, and lengenbachite in thin lead-grey blade- 

 shaped crystals, some as long as 40 mm., showing a highly 

 perfect cleavage. Marrite crystallises in the oblique system 

 with a : b : c = o-57634 : i : 047389 and = 88° 45', while 

 lengenbachite is probably anorthic. Bowmanite occurs in 

 small honey-yellow rhombohedral crystals with in : 100 = 

 53° 50'. It has a highly perfect cleavage parallel to 100, 

 and a specific gravity of about 32. The author also de- 

 scribed twinned crystals of seligmannite dispersed over large 

 crystals of dufrenoysite and baumhauerite, and curious 

 highly modified crystals of blende showing a thin metallic 

 lead-grey coating. — Mr. H. L. Bowman described crystals 

 of a mineral from Cornwall which had been sent to him 

 for determination by Mr. F. H. Butler. They were found 

 to be bertrandite, a mineral new to the British Isles. — Mr. 

 G. F. Herbert Smith exhibited a slightly modified form of 

 the hand refractometer which he had previously described. 

 — Mr. H. Hilton contributed notes on some applications 

 of the gnomonic projection to crystallography, and on the 

 construction of crystallographic projections. 



Zoological Society, November 15. — Dr. W. T. Blanford, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — The mammals 

 collected by Mr. E. Seimund in Fernando Po : Oldfield 

 Thomas, F.R.S. Twentv-four species, of which two were 

 new, were enumerated and remarked upon. Mr. Oldfield 

 Thomas also exhibited some skulls and a piece of skin, and 

 gave an account, of a new species of pig from the forests 

 of Central Africa. — The crowned cranes of the genus 

 Balearica, and a new species obtained on the White Nile 

 by Lady William Cecil : Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell. — The 

 mouse-hares of the genus Ochotona inhabiting the Palas- 

 arctic region : J. Lewis Bonhote. These numbered sixteen 

 species, one of which was described as new. — Twelve new 

 species of earthworms from the north island of New 

 Zealand : Prof. W. Blaxland Benham. 



Chemical Society, November 16.— Prof. W. A. Tilden, 

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

 contributed : — The isomerism of the amidines of the 

 naphthalene series (fifth communication on anhydro-bases) : 

 R. Meldola and J. H. Lane. When 2 : 4-dinitroaceto-a- 

 naphthalide is reduced (i) by tin and hydrochloric acid, and 



