4-8 



A' A TURE 



[March i6, 1905 



Tursiops, drawings and particulars of which had been 

 supplied to him from the Trevandrum Museum. — A second 

 collection of mammals made by Mr. C. H. B. Grant for 

 Mr. C. D. Rudd's exploration' of South .Africa: Oldfield 

 Thomas and Harold Schwann. The collection, which 

 has been presented to the National Museum by Mr. Rudd. 

 was made in the Wakkerstroom district of the South-eastern 

 Transvaal, and includes examples of twenty-six species. 

 Several local subspecies were described, besides a new shrew 

 from Zululand. — The greater kudu of Somaliland ; R. I. 

 Pocock. The author pointed out that the northern form 

 of Strcpsiceros strepsiceros differed from the southern in 

 having onlv about five white stripes instead of nine or ten 

 on each side of the body. The northern form should thus 

 rank as a distinct subspecies, for which the name cliora 

 was available. The difference in coloration seemed to be 

 correlated with a difference of habitat, the northern form 

 frequenting more mountainous and I'ss thickly-wooded 

 country than the southern, which was frequently found in 

 the thick jungle along river-banks as well as in the hills. 



Anthropological Institute, February 28. — Prof. W. 

 Gowland, president, in the chair.— Group marriage, with 

 especial reference to Australia: N. \V. Thomas. In the 

 course of his remarks the author pointed out that the 

 theories of Lewis Morgan were without sufficient basis. In 

 the place of Lewis Morgan's fifteen stages, later theorists 

 had postulated first a period of promiscuity, and following 

 on that group marriage, so-called, which in Australia is 

 only now'being transformed into individual marriage. But 

 here too no sufficient account had been given of the causes 

 which led to the abolition of promiscuity. The grounds on 

 which it was assumed that promiscuity and group marriage 

 were stages in human development were first philological 

 and secondiv sociological. The philological grounds were 

 shown in the paper to be wholly insufficient, and the facts 

 of present-day .Australian life to be susceptible of other ex- 

 planations. 



Chemical Society. Morch 2 — Prnf. W. A Tilden.F.R S., 

 president, in the chair.— The following papers were read :— 

 The relation between natural and synthetical glycerylphos- 

 phoric acids : F. B. Power and F. Tutin. The authors 

 have shown that the discrepancies of statement respecting 

 the properties of the glycerylphosphates are due to con- 

 tamination with salts of the di-ester. They have prepared 

 and analysed a number of these salts in pure condition. 

 Proof is also adduced that the conclusions of Willstatter 

 and Liidecke that the differences between the salts of 

 natural (derived from lecithin) and artificial glycerylphos- 

 phoric acids are not those existing between mere optical 

 isomerides are not justified. — The transmutation of geo- 

 metrical isomerides : -A. \V. Stewart. The author assumes 

 as a phase of the reaction the formation and disruption of 

 a tetramethylene compound, which in the case of fumaric 

 and maleic acids would be tetramethylene-i : 2 : 3 : 4-tetra- 

 carboxylic acid, and this by disruption in two different 

 directions would give rise to either fumaric or maleic de- 

 rivatives. Illustrations of the applicability of this ex- 

 planation to other cases are also given. — Linin : J. S. Hills 

 and \V. P. Wynne. Linin, C,,H,,0,. a crystalline sub- 

 stance obtained by hydrolysis of a glucoside present in 

 Linum catbarticiim, melts at 203°, contains four methoxyl 

 groups, and is physiologically inactive. — The constitution of 

 phenylmethylacridol : J. J. Dobbie. Hantzsch's view that 

 the substance formed when phenylacridine methiodide is 

 treated with an alkali is a carbinol is confirmed by the 

 fact that the absorption spectra are different from those of 

 the parent methiodide, and similar to those of dihydro- 

 phenylacridine. — The ultra-violet absorption spectra of 

 certain diazo-compounds in relation to their constitution ; 

 J. J. Dobbie and C. K. Tinkler. — The latent heat (;f 

 evaporation of benzene and some other compounds : J. C. 

 Brown. — The reduction of isophthalic acid : W". H. 

 Perkin, jun., and S. S. Pickles. When wophthalic acid 

 is reduced with sodium amalgam at 45° it yields two 

 tetrahydro-acids, A' and fi5A\ and from these two others 

 may be obtained, so that the four possible tetrahydroiso- 

 phthalic acids have now been prepared. The properties and 

 reactions of these are described. — The influence of tem- 

 perature on the interaction between acetyllhiocyanate and 

 certain bases. Thiocarbamides. including carboxy-aromatic 

 NO. 1846, VOL. 71] 



groups ; the late R. E. Doran (compiled by A. E. Dixon). 

 — The influence of solvents on the rotation of optically 

 .-ictive compounds. Part viii. Ethyl tartrate in chloro- 

 form : T. .S. Patterson. — .\ further note on the addition 

 of sodium hydrogen sulphite to ketonic compounds : A. W. 

 Stewart. — .\ction of hydrogen peroxide on carbohydrates 

 in presence of ferrous sulphate : R. S. Morrell and A. E. 

 Cellars. In this work attempts have been made to trace 

 the disappearance of different sugars by optical measure- 

 ments during oxidation, and from the initial and final 

 reducing powers of the solutions. The simpler acids, formic 

 and oxalic, resulting from the o.xidation, were detected, but 

 the more important keto-acids could not be isolated, though 

 evidence of their presence was obtained. — Studies in chlorin- 

 ation. The chlorination of the isomeric chloronilrobenz- 

 enes : J. B. Cohen and H. G. Bennett. It is shown that 

 when the first two hydrogen atoms of benzene or toluene 

 have been substituted either by two chlorine atoms or by 

 one chlorine atom and one nitro-group the positions occu- 

 pied by subsequent chlorine atoms or nitro-groups are the 

 same. 



Linnean Socieiy, March 2. — Prof. VV. A. Ilerdman, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The .Vshe-Finlayson 

 " Comparascope " : D. Finlayson. The instrument displays 

 two objects in the same magnified field, this being attained 

 by a secondary stage and objective at right-angles to the 

 primary instrument, the rays being transmitted up the body 

 of the microscope through a right-angled prism, and clear- 

 ness of the two images preserved by means of a diaphragm 

 placed longitudinally in the microscope-tube. — Zoological 

 nomenclature : international rules and others ; Rev. T. R. R. 

 Stebbing. The author's paper, intrcductory to a discussion, 

 insisted on the paramount importance of obtaining agree- 

 ment among zoologists on this subject. Incidentally, Mr. 

 Stebbing ventured to ask whether there were not many rules 

 of nomenclature on which it would be satisfactory and ad- 

 visable for zoologists not only to agree among themselves, 

 but also to come to terms with their botanical colleagues. 

 In this regard he offered some remarks in favour of adopting 

 ihe year 1751 and the '" Philosophia Botanica " as starting- 

 point and basis for what might be called the Linnean era. 

 .\ section of the paper was devoted to the " N'omenclator 

 Entomologicus " of F. Weber, published in 1795, with the 

 object of showing that the generic names in that catalogue 

 are without value in questions of priority. While consign- 

 ing various smaller details to an appendix, the body of the 

 paper concluded with a proposal to get rid of tautonymy 

 (as in Trutta trutta, Apiis iApus) aptis, or other comical 

 arrangements) by a plan distinguishing what was legal in 

 the past from w'hat is to be legal in the future. — Biscayan 

 plankton collected by H.M.S. Research in 1901, part ii., 

 Thaliacea : Dr. G. Herbert Fowler. 



Mathematical Society. Mairh 9. — Pro'. Forsyih, 

 president, and temporarily Dr. Hobson, in the chair. — The 

 following papers were communicated : — On the projection 

 of two triangles on to the same triangle : Prof. M. J. M. 

 Hill, Dr. L. N. G. Filon, and Mr. H. W. Chapman. A 

 construction is given for projecting two given triangles on 

 to the same third triangle when the plane of the latter is 

 given, and this construction makes it possible to determine 

 the projective relation between two planes when four points 

 in the one and the four corresponding points in the other 

 are given. The lines joining corresponding vertices of the 

 two given triangles are generators of one system of a 

 regulus, and the possible points of projection when both are 

 projected on to the same triangle lie on a generator of the 

 other system. As this line describes the regulus. the locus 

 of the point in the plane of the second triangle which 

 corresponds to a given point in the plane of the first triangle 

 is a cubic curve with a double point. A construction for 

 the points of the cubic is obtained. — The Wrddle quarti ' 

 surface ; H. Bateman. The surface is the locus of pai"s 

 of points which are conjugate with regard to all quadrie s 

 passing through six given points. Any chord of the twisted 

 cubic which passes through the six given points is cut 

 harmonically by the surface. This result leads to a para- 

 metric representation of the points of the surface. The 

 reciprocal of the surface belongs to a family of surfaces, 

 described by Darboux, which possess conjugate systems of 

 plane curves. — On the complete reduction of any transitive 

 permutation group, and on the arithmetical nature of the 



