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NATURE 
| JANUARY 31, 1907 
The plankton and fresh-water alge, of which an account 
was given by Mr. G. S. West, yielded remarkably rich 
results, due partly, no doubt, to the paucity of our previous 
Knowledge of the microscopic flora of these lakes, especially 
‘in the case of Tanganyika. Mr. West’s list contains about 
400 specics, a large proportion of which are new, including 
one new genus of Palmellacee. A few species from Tan- 
ganyika showed a striking affinity with marine forms, 
indicating that at some period the water of this lake had 
a considerable degree of salinity; but, as Dr. Cunnington 
explained, this did not involve a previous marine connec- 
tion, but might be explained by an increase in saline matter 
in the water due to the damming of the outlet from the 
lake. This damming was perhaps a periodical occurrence, 
since Stanley, thirty years ago, described the lake as with 
no outlet, while a few years later Mr. Hore, visiting the 
same spot as Stanley, found the water rushing through the 
present outlet towards the Congo.—A new and abnormal 
species of Rhipicephalus: W. F. Cooper and L. E. 
Robinson. 
January 17.—Prof. W. A. Herdman, F.R.S., president, 
in the chair.—Platanthera chlorantha, Custor, var. 
tricalcarata: W. Botting Hemsley. The specimen had 
been found at Pax, Sherborne, Dorset, by Miss D. R. 
Wilson, who sent it to Kew; the ten flowers on the spike 
were modified as described, the paired sepals were spurred, 
and the lip was uppermost, that is, the usual twist of the 
ovary was absent.—Acanthacee of insular Malaya: the 
late Mr. C. B. Clarke. This paper was complementary to 
a similar one, drawn up for, the ‘‘ Materials for a Flora 
of the Malay Peninsula,’’ now in course of issue by Sir 
George King and Mr. Gamble. The paper includes in its 
area Malaya exclusive of the peninsula itself—An isopod, 
Tachaea ‘spongillicola, n.sp., of the family Corallanide, 
distinguished from its near ally, the marine Tachaea 
crassipes, Schiédte and Meinert, by having the terminal 
joint of the maxillipeds, not smaller, but considerably 
larger than either of the two preceding joints: Rev. 
T. R. R. Stekbing.—A new British terrestrial isopod: A. 
Patience. The species in question, which Mr. Patience 
has named Trichoniscus Slebbingi, n.sp., was first obtained 
by him in a field near Alexandra Park, Glasgow, in com- 
pany with T. pygmaeus, Sars, and Trichoniscoides albidus 
(Budde-Lund), and subsequently in some numbers in one of 
the propagating houses of the Glasgow Botanic Gardens. 
Society of Chemical Industry, January 7.—Mr. R. J. 
Friswell in the chair.—The sixth International Congress of 
Applied Chemistry at Rome: W. F. Reid (see Nature, 
vol. Ixxiv., p. 65, May 17, 1906).—The determination of 
higher alcohols in spirits, part i., the ‘‘ ester-iodine”’ 
method: C. H. Bedford and R. L. Jenks. The authors 
point out the defects of the Allen-Marquardt process for 
the estimation of higher alcohols in potable spirits. 
Dunstan and Dymond (Pharm. Journ., 3, xix., 741) have 
shown how to determine organic nitrites by allowing them 
to act on an acid solution of potassium iodide in a flask 
void of oxygen, and then titrating the liberated iodine with 
thiosulphate. This serves as the basis of the authors’ 
method. Details are given for the extraction and esterifi- 
cation of the total higher alcohols, and the subsequent 
cecomposition of the esters by iodine. Beckmann’s method 
of esterification (one part of sodium nitrite and two parts 
of acid potassium sulphate powdered together) is employed. 
Results are given showing the accuracy of the method. 
An analysis can easily be carried out in a day.—The 
determination of indigotin in commercial indigo: C. 
Pergthei) and R. V. Briggs. The authors criticise 
Bloxam’s method for the determination of indigotin (Journ. 
Soc. Chem. Ind., 1906, xxv., 735), and point out that 
low results are obtained. The error is due to the factor 
on which the calculation is based, and the loss of indigotin 
which invariably occurs in salting out and filtering the 
sulphonic acid salt. A series of determinations was 
carried out by the authors’ method (Journ. Soc. Chem. 
Ind., 1906, xxv., 729) and by Bloxam’s method (loc. cit.), 
and they are of opinidn that the latter doés not appear 
to be trustworthy either in application to pure indigotin 
or to commercial indigo. The method is cumbersome, and 
inapplicable to work in the indigo districts of India owing 
NO. 1944, VOL. 75] 
to the low ‘temperature at which! it is necéssary to work, 
and the large’ amount'of ice required for this purpose. 
Geological Society, January 9,.—Sir Archibald Geikie, 
Sec.R.S., president, in the chair.—The Cretaceous form- 
ation of Bahia (Brazil) and the vertebrate fossils con- 
tained therein: J. Mawson and Dr. A. S. Woodward. 
This paper relates to a series of estuarine and fresh- 
water deposits originally described to the Geological Society 
by the late Samuel Allport in 1859. The results of thirty 
years’ collecting of fossils are summarised, and the distri- 
bution of the formation, so far as determined, is marked 
on a map. The strata are disturbed by numerous dis- 
locations and discordant dips, and no regular succession of 
zones or horizons can be discovered. All the more 
important vertebrate fossils collected are now in the British 
Museum (Natural History). From these a few remains of 
new species are selected for special description. A mandi- 
bular symphysis of a very large crocodile, with a long 
garial-like snout, belongs to one of the Goniopholidzx. 
Some dinosaurian vertebrae seem to belong to the iguano- 
dont group. A large fish-skull represents a new genus 
allied to Macropoma, and indicates a species five or six 
times as large as any ccelacanth previously discovered. 
The discussion of a complete list of the fossil Vertebrata 
proves that the formation is of Cretaceous age, and 
suggests that it may be Lower Cretaceous, as supposed by 
Hartt.—A new dinosaurian reptile from the Trias of Lossie- 
mouth, Elgin: Dr. A. S. Woodward. Mr. William 
Taylor, of Elgin, recently discovered two skeletons of 
a small new reptile in the Triassic sandstone of Lossie- 
mouth. Two imperfect skeletons of the same species are 
also shown on a slab of the same sandstone in the British 
Museum (Natural History). The head and trunk measure 
only 4 inches in length, but there is a very long and slender 
tail. The head is relatively large, and resembles that of 
Ornithosuchus in many respects, but the fossils do not 
exhibit any teeth. The author concludes that this must 
have been a running or leaping reptile, and that it repre- 
sents a new genus of Dinosauria related to the American 
Triassic Hallopus. 
Faraday Society, Janvary 15 —Sir Joseph Swan, F.R.S., 
past-president, in the chair.—The application of the electron 
theory to electrolysis: E. E. Fournier d’Albe. The 
electron theory, by postulating the existence of material 
carriers of all electric charges, is practically an extension 
of the ionic theory to solids and gases, and it thus brings 
into line the processes of metailic and electrolytic con- 
duction. The author directed attention to the importance 
of making further studies of mobility and quantitative 
determinations of the hydration of ions as a preliminary 
for determining the sizes of the ions and of their actual 
constitutions based on kinetic principles. 
Royal Meteorological Society, January 16.— Annual 
general meeting.—Presidential address, weather in war 
time: R. Bentley. The address showed how, on more 
than three hundred occasions, the course of history was 
greatly influenced by weather conditions. 
EDINBURGH. 
Royal Society, December 17, 1906.—Prof. Grav, vice- 
president, in the chair.—The hzemo-renal salt index as a 
test of the functional efficiency of the kidney: Dr. Dawson 
Turner. The hzmo-renal salt index is defined to be the 
ratio of the electrical resistance of the blood to the elec- 
trical resistance of the urine. In health this ratio should 
be 4 or 5. When the index increases it indicates that the 
blood contains fewer salts or is richer in corpuscles, or 
that the urine contains more salts, or that all these changes 
exist together. With low resistance of the urine the 
functional activity of the kidneys is increased. Several 
medical cases were referred to, and it was pointed out that 
the method would probably prove to be of great value in 
surgery: With the apparatus which had been devised the 
measurements could be rapidly made on very small quanti- 
ties of “both blood and urine. The method was another 
example of the application of precise scientific measure- 
ment to clinical medicine and surgery, and showed the 
importance of a ‘medical student being trained in medical 
experimental physics.—Relation between magnetisation and 
electric conductivity in nickel at high temperatures: Dr. 
