478 
ISAT URI, 
[ Marcu 14, 1907 
ments on the synthesis of the terpenes, part x., synthesis 
of carvestrene and its derivatives: W. H. Perkin, jun., 
and G. Tattersall. Continuing their work on the syn- 
thesis of carvestrene, the authors have prepared m-cineol 
by the action of magnesium methyl iodide on ethyl cyclo- 
hexanone-3-carboxylic acid, and the cis- and trans- modifi- 
cations of m-menthane-1 : 8-diol have also been obtained. 
Zoological Society, February 19.—Sir Edmund G. Loder, 
Bart., vice-president, in the chair.—Remains of a bear 
from the superficial deposits of a cavern in the mountains 
of Corsica, where bears, though now extinct, were formerly 
numerous, at least up to the sixteenth century: Dr. C. 1. 
Forsyth Major. Despite the fact that no truly fossil bears 
were as yet known from Corsica, Dr. Forsyth Major con- 
sidered the Corsican bear to have been autochthonous, 
whilst in his opinion the recent mammals of Corsica (and 
Sardinia) had been, almost without exception, introduced 
by human agency. In any case, they could not be adduced 
as proofs of a recent connection of those islands with 
either of the neighbouring continents.—English domestic 
cats: R. I. Pocock. The author urged that the surest 
basis for their classification and the most satisfactory clue 
to their descent was furnished by the two distinct patterns 
found in so-called tabby cats. In one type the pattern 
consisted of narrow vertical stripes; in the other of longi- 
tudinal or obliquely longitudinal stripes which, on the 
sides of the body, tended to assume a spiral or subcircular 
arrangement characteristic of the ‘* blotched’ tabby. This 
distinction was long ago pointed out by Blyth. One or 
the other of these types was to be found in cats of almost 
all breeds, whether ‘‘ Persian,’’ ‘‘ short-haired,’’ or 
““Manx.’’ There appeared to be no intermediate stages 
between the two. The cats of the “‘ striped’’ type were 
no doubt descended from the European wild cat and the 
North African wild cat; but the origin of cats exhibiting 
the ‘‘ blotched’’ pattern appeared to be unknown. It 
was to the cat of the latter kind that Linnzus gave the 
name catus, which was therefore no longer available for 
the European wild cat; this cat, therefore, must take the 
name _ sylvestyis——Report on the deaths that occurred 
among the mammals and birds in the society’s menagerie 
during 1906: Dr. C. G. Seligmann. 356 Mammals and 
283 birds were submitted to post-mortem examination, and 
the results showed that (1) tuberculosis occurring in 
birds in the gardens was usually due to infection by the 
gut; (2) the hearts of rheas, cassowaries, ostriches, and 
some of the larger storks kept in the gardens were often 
extremely flabby, and death in these birds was in a large 
number of cases due to cardiac failure; (3) new growths 
were rare both in mammals and in birds, but one case 
of carcinoma arising in the kidney, and occurring in a 
Chilian pintail (Dafila spinicauda), had been observed, as 
well as two instances of benign new growths occurring in 
birds not inmates of the gardens.—A peculiarly abnormal 
specimen of the turbot: J. T. Cunningham. The speci- 
men was captured near Padstow, on the north coast of 
Cornwall. It was a young fish, measuring only 4-4 cm. 
in length, and a normal specimen of slightly smaller size, 
taken at the same time, was completely metamorphosed 
to the asymmetrical condition of the adult. In the 
abnormal specimen the right side was almost entirely 
destitute of colour, as in the normal condition, but both 
eyes were on this white side, instead of being on the left 
side, as in normal turbot. On the left side pigment was 
present over the whole surface except the head and the 
anterior part of the base of the dorsal fin, which were 
white. The fish was kept alive in captivity for two 
months, and was observed to lie always with its eyes 
uppermost, so that the upper side was white and the lower 
side coloured.—Ideas on the origin of flight: Dr. Baron F. 
Nopcsa. The author stated that from the mechanical 
point of view a patagium and a set of flight-feathers were 
different organs. He pointed out the osteological analogies 
between bats and pterosaurs, on the one hand, and between 
birds and dinosaurs on the other. He suggested that bats 
and pterosaurs had arisen from leaping, arboreal forms, 
whilst birds had come from a terrestrial, cursorial stock. 
—The azygos veins in the Mammalia: F. E. Beddard. 
Royal Microscopical Society, February 20. —Lord 
Avebury, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—An_ early 
criticism of the Abbe theory: J. W. Gordon. This was 
NO. 1950, VOL. 75 | 
a reply to a paper by Mr. Conrady with the same tit: 
read before the society on October 17, 1906. At the cor 
clusion of his paper Mr. Gordon exhibited on the screen 
some photographs of the spectrum produced by the fine 
ruling of an Abbe diffraction plate-—Some ‘Tardigrada 
from the Sikkim Himalaya: James Murray.—Some 
Rhizopods from the Sikkim Himalaya: Dr. Eugéne 
Penard.—An incident in ant life: Major Sampson. A 
thick living arch of travelling ants was seen by Major 
Sampson, now in Southern Nigeria, across a sunny road, 
and in the centre hundreds of pupa being carried along 
in the shade thus caused. This is remarkable, because 
the African ant, as a rule, dislikes the sun. 
Physical Society, February 22.—Pro!. J. Perry, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—Transformer indicator diagrams : 
Prof. T. R. Lyle. The term ‘‘ transformer indicator 
diagram ’’ has been applied by Prof. Fleming to any series 
of periodic curves which give the forms, relative phase 
positions, and magnitudes of the waves of current and 
E.M.F. on both the primary and secondary sides of a 
transformer when working. Such diagrams have been 
obtained by many investigators in different ways, but by 
none of the methods hitherto used has it been possible 
to determine directly and independently either the wave 
of magnetic flux F in the core, or the wave of magne- 
tising-current turns usually represented by the vector suny 
n,C,+n,C,. It is shown in the paper that the integral 
| (nC, +n,C,)aF for one cycle is equal to the total iron 
loss per cycle, and the advantage of being able to deter- 
mine both n,C,+n,C, and F directly and accurately is 
apparent. By means of the wave-tracer designed by the 
author, not only can the E.M.F. and current waves be 
accurately determined, but also the wave of magnetic flux 
pulsating in the core of the transformer, and in addition 
the magnetising current wave, n,C,+n,C,, can be obtained 
with the same accuracy as any of the other quantities.— 
Ionisation of gases by a particles of radium: Prof. Bragg. 
The present paper contains an account of further progress 
in the work of determining the relative amounts of ionisa- 
tion produced by the a particle of RaC in different gases 
and vapours. The view is discussed that the ionisation 
(7) is connected with the expenditure of energy (e) of the 
a particle by the expression 6i/5«=kf(v), where k is @ 
constant for each gas which may be termed the specific 
ionisation in terms of air as unity, the determination of 
which for various gases has been attempted in the present 
paper, and f(v) is a function of the velocity of the « 
particle only. It is established that the total number of 
ions produced by the a@ particles of RaC varies with the 
nature of the gas, and is for most compound gases and 
vapours examined about one-third greater than for air. 
The conclusion is drawn that the primary action of the 
a particle is a subatomic one. The production of ions 
may be considered a secondary consequence which varies 
with the energy expended, the speed of the particle, and 
the nature of the molecule ionised. The stopping-power 
of a gas is more nearly an additive property of the atoms 
in the molecule than any other property except mass, and 
this is an effect quite apart from the proportionality of 
stopping-power to the square root of the atomic weight. 
For atomic weights below 30 the stopping-power, divided 
by the atomic square roots, is abnormally low, an effect 
curiously similar to the case of atomic heats. There does. 
not appear any evidence that the chance of an atom being 
ionised is dependent upon whether it is already ionised, 
that is, occasionally the molecule may lose several ions. 
Anthropological Institute, February 26 —Dr. A.C. Haddon, 
F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair.—Note on a dolmen 
called ‘‘ La Pierre Turguaise,’’ at Presles, France: A. L. 
Lewis. The monument consists of a chamber, with an 
entrance, formed by two small stones, which originally 
supported a third. The roof is formed of nine stones. 
The axis is between twenty and twenty-five degrees south 
of west and north of east. The total length is about 
45 feet. The monument appears to have been sepulchral, 
but rites of some kind were also probably performed at it. 
—The ethnology of modern Egypt: Dr. C. S. Myers. 
The measurements, notes, and photographs taken in this: 
investigation led to the conclusions (1) that, compared 
with the ‘‘ prehistoric’? people of 5000 B.c., the modern 
