502 



NA TURE 



[March 23, 1905 



hybrid between 5. pavoiiia, o. and S. spini, 9. viz. 

 the cross product to which Prof. Standfuss has given 

 the name S. boniemanni : Dr. F. .A. Dixey. — (i) Groups 

 of synaposematic Hvmenoptpra and Diptpra captured by 

 Mr. ' -X. H. Hamm^ of the Hope Department, O.xford 

 University Museum ; (2) three much worn specimens 

 of Papilio hesperus. taken at Entebbe in 1903, by 

 Mr. C. A. Wiggins, to show that the tails of a Papilio, if 

 untouched by enemies, can endure a great deal of wear; 

 (3) Nvmphaline butterflies from northern China, apparently 

 mimetic of the male Hypolimnas inisippus, which is not 

 known to occur in this region : Prof. E. B. Poulton, 

 K.R.S. — Examples of Pyrameis atalaiita and Agiais uriicac, 

 illu-Jtrating the effects of cold season breeding by Mr. Har- 

 wood, of Colchester, some of them lent by Mr. R. S. Mit- 

 furd : the President. — Papers : — Butterfly hunting in British 

 Columbia and Canada : Mrs. De la B. lilicholl.— On three 

 remarkable new genera of Microlepidoptera : Sir George 

 Hampson. — Descriptions of some new species of diurnal 

 l,ppidoptera. collected by Mr. Harold Cookson in northern 

 Rhodesia in 1903-4. The LycKnidje and Hesperiida; de- 

 scribed by Hamilton H. Druce : H. Druce. — Descriptions 

 of some new species of Satyridae from South America : 

 F. Du Cane Godman. — .Additions to a knowledge of the 

 homopterous family of Cicadidae : W. L. Distant. 



Faraday Society, March 6. — Recent developments in 

 electric smelting in connection with iron and steel : F. W. 

 Harbord. The paper embodies the principal results of the 

 investigations made by the commission sent to Europe last 

 year by the Canadian Government for the purpose of re- 

 porting upon the different thermoelectric processes for the 

 smelting of iron ores and the manufacture of steel at work 

 in Europe, together with some additional information 

 bringing the subject up-to-date. The author acted as 

 metallurgist to that commission. The following general 

 conclusions are stated in the paper : — (a) Steel, equal in 

 all respects to the best Sheffield crucible steel, can be pro- 

 duced even in this country, either by the Kjellin, Heroult, 

 or Keller proceses, at a cost considerably less than the cost 

 of producing a high-class crucible steel, assuming electric 

 energy to cost 10/. per E.H.P.-year. (b) .At present, 

 structural steel, to compete with Siemens or Bessemer steel, 

 cannot be economically produced in the electric furnaces, 

 and such furnaces can be used commercially for the produc- 

 tion of only very high-class steel for special purposes, 

 (f) Speaking generally, the reactions in the electric smelting 

 furnace are similar to those taking place in the blast 

 furnace. By altering the burden and regulating the tem- 

 perature by varying the electric current, any grade of iron, 

 grey or white, can be obtained, and the change from one 

 grade to another is effected more rapidly than in the blast 

 furnace, (d) Pig iron can be produced on a commercial 

 scale at a price to compete with the blast furnace, only 

 when electric energy is very cheap and fuel very dear. 

 Under ordinary conditions, where blast furnaces are an es- 

 tablished industry, electric smelting cannot compete; but 

 in special cases, where ample water-power is available, and 

 blast furnace coke is not readily obtainable, electric smelt- 

 ing may be commercially successful. 



Zoological Society, March 7.— Dr. W. T. Bhnford, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — Pictures of the zebra in 

 ■' -Aldrovandus " (1640) and the " Commentarius " of Ludol- 

 phus (1O91) : H. Scherren. In the course of his remarks 

 Mr. Scherren said that in the seventeenth century zebras {now 

 known as Eqtius grcvyi) had been sent by the ruler of 

 Abyssinia to the governor of the Dutch East India 

 Company at Batavia, and to the Sultan of Turkey, so that 

 the species was seen in Europe two centuries before tl' 

 type of Equus grevyi reached France in 1882. In proof, 

 passages were cited from Philostorgius Ludolphus, Jean de 

 Thi'venot, and other writers. — .A series of spirit-specimens 

 of fishes from Lake Chad and the Chari River, collected 

 and presented to the British Museum by Captain G. B. 

 Gosling ; G. .A. Boulengrer. — Exhibition of hybrid ducks 

 bred at Cambridge : J. L. Bonhote. The crosses exhibited 

 dealt chiefly with four species, of which the following were 

 shown: — Anas boschasxA. poccilorhyttcha, Anas boschasx 

 A. poecilorhynchaxDafila acuta, Anas boschasxA. poecilo- 

 rhyiiihaxA. siiperciliosa, Anas boschasx A. poecilorhyncha 



NO. 1847, Vf^L. 71] 



X.l. supcrciliosaxD. acuta. — tHcology and deposits of the 

 Cape Verde marine fauna : C. Crossland. The author 

 pointed out that so far as the Cape Verde group was con- 

 cerned there was no evidence of any common tropical 

 marine fauna, though certain species were found in both 

 the .Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Reef animals were re- 

 markably few in number, the fauna in their place having a 

 considerable subtropical constituent. Rock simulating coral- 

 rag was formed at the low-tide level by serpulid tubes fused 

 together by Lithothamnion, and by the latter and Foram- 

 inifera between 5 and 20 fathoms. The absence of reefs 

 might be due in some degree to the remarkably steep coasts 

 of the islands, but it was more especially owing to the 

 extraordinary dominance of boring sponges, worms, and 

 molluscs. Beach sandstone was formed by the deposition 

 of calcareous cement where the fresh water met the salt ; 

 it was only found in certain situations, and was everywhere 

 being slowly eroded away by the sea. — .A revision of the 

 South-.American cichlid genera, Crenacara, Batrachops, and 

 Crenicichla : C. Tate Regan. Twenty-three species were 

 described, four of them new to science. — .A new antelope 

 from British East .Africa : Captain R. Meinertzhagren. 



Royal Astronomical Society, March 10 — Mr. \V. H. Maw, 

 president, in the chair. — Description of the spectrohelio- 

 graph of the Solar Physics Observatory : Dr. W. J. S. 

 Lockyer. The complete instrument consists of a siderostat 

 to throw the solar beam in a horizontal and southerly 

 direction, a lens placed in this beam to form the solar 

 image, and the spectroheliograph itself to photograph in 

 monochromatic light the image thus formed. The apparatus 

 was fully explained and illustrated by photographs on the 

 screen. Specimens of results obtained were also exhibited, 

 the photographs of the sun showing the fine network cover- 

 ing its surface, becoming thicker and more agglomerated 

 in middle and low latitudes to form the calcium flocculi. 

 The sun-spots appear to be closely related to these flocculi, 

 but the prominences bear no relation to them, though 

 they give brilliant images in the " K " or calcium 

 light. — The large sun-spot of January 29 to February 11, 

 and the contemporaneous magnetic disturbances : Astro- 

 nomer Royal. A series of photographs, taken at the 

 Royal Observatory, Greenwich, was shown on the screen. 

 — Spectroscopic observations of the recent great sun-spot 

 and associated prominences : .A. Fowler. The paper dealt 

 with the reversed lines, the widened lines, &c., and the 

 spectra of the chromosphere and prominences overlying the 

 spot on the western limb. — Observations of the great sun- 

 spot made at Stonyhurst, and photographs of the spectra : 

 Father Cortie. — Reply to criticisms of a paper on sun- 

 spots and the associated magnetic disturbances : E. W. 

 Maunder. 



Physical Society, March 10 — Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, 

 past-president, in the chair. — On direct reading resistance- 

 thermometers, with a note on composite thermocouples : .A. 

 Campbell. The paper describes two methods by which 

 the reading o{ a resistance-box in connection with a 

 platinum resistance-thermometer gives directly the actual 

 temperature without the use of any formula or table.- — On 

 the stresses in the earth's crust before and after the sinking 

 of a bore-hole : Dr. Chree. In \.^ti;re, October 20, 1904, 

 there appeared letters by Mr. G. Martin and the Hon. 

 C. A. Parsons dealing with the size of the stresses in the 

 earth's crust and speculating as to what would happen if 

 a hole were bored to a depth of 12 miles. The present 

 paper discusses the subject, treating the earth as an 

 elastic solid, and points out the various uncertainties that 

 exist. Solutions are presented of a number of mathematical 

 problems having a bearing on one or other of the possi- 

 bilities discussed. The principal novel case considered is 

 that of a composite earth, consisting of a core of incom- 

 pressible material and of a crust which may be compressible 

 or incompressible. — On the lateral vibration of bars of 

 uniform and varying sectional-area : J. Morrow. Lord 

 Rayleigh has given a method by which the approximate 

 period of vibration of a rod can be calculated without the 

 use of transcendental equations. The question has recently 

 been further discussed by Mr. Garrett and Dr. Chree. The 

 object of the paper is to show that, by assuming a type 

 of vibration consistent with the conditions obtaining at the 

 ends of the bar, the period can be obtained approximately 



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