136 



NATURE 



\pcc. 14, 1 87 1 



Glasgow 



Geological Society, November 30. — Dr. Robert Brown, 

 F.R.G.S., delivered a lecture on "Greenland: Its Physical 

 Geology and Fossil Flora." After alluding to the interest which 

 Greenland possessed, as presenting a picture of what the British 

 Isles were supposed to have been during the glacial period. Dr. 

 Brown gave a graphic sketch of the coast scenery of the 

 country, which he compared to a succession of islands with 

 water on the one side and ice on the other. He described the 

 interior of Greenland as one vast sheet of ice of great thickness, 

 pressing out on all sides to the sea, and occupying as separate 

 glaciers the fiords which indent the coast. These glaciers in 

 many instances push their way out to sea, where portions are 

 broken off and drift away as icebergs ; in other cases, the glacier 

 dissolves near the head of tlic fiord, and great stores of muddy 

 water escaping from it form a deposit of fine clay, which has 

 sometimes silted up part of the fiord so effectually as even to 

 turn the glacier aside into another channel. From what he had 

 observed in Greenland, he was inclined to hold that the lower 

 ////, or boulder-clay, as it exists in the Forth and Clyde valley, 

 was formed by such a sheet of massive land ice slowly moving 

 over the country, while what he had described as resulting from 

 the waste of the glaciers near the sea might account for some of 

 the well-known beds of laminated clay associated with that de- 

 posit. He questioned whether icebergs really did much in the 

 way of conveying rocks or debris to any distance. So far as he 

 had observed they bore wonderfully little of such material in or 

 upon tliem ; and he thought that to call in their agency, as had 

 sometimes been done, to account for the dispersion of plants, &c., 

 was highly visionary. Dr. Brown then alluded to the rock- 

 formalions of Greenland, and to the plant remains of the Car- 

 boniferous and middle Tertiary periods which had been found in 

 the country, showing that it once enjoyed a very different climate 

 from that to which it is now .subjected. The Carboniferous 

 plants had only been recently discovered by Dr. Pfaff, and he 

 trusted that gentleman, who was resident on the spot, would be 

 enabled to make further researches. 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, December 4. — M. Chasles presented 

 a number of theorems relating to the harmonic axes of geometrical 

 curves, and M. C. Jordan a paper on Gauss's sums with several 

 variables. — M. Tresca read a paper on the eft'ects produced 

 during the planing of metals ; and M. II. Resal communicated 

 some investigations on the calculation of the fly-wheels of steam- 

 engines. — Letters were read from Father Secchi on a new method 

 of measuring tlie heights of the solar protuberances, and on the 

 temperature of the sun. Upon thcj latter M. Faye made some 

 remarks. — M. Le Verrier presented a note on the shooting stars 

 of the month of November, from observations made in France 

 and Italy. Many meteors issued from the constellation Leo, but 

 the point of radiation was slightly displaced. Five or six currents 

 of meteors in different directions were observed. In August a 

 displacement of the point of radiation was observed between the 

 gth and nth. — An extract from a letter from M. J. F. J. Schmidt 

 to M. Delaunay on the November meteors observed at Athens 

 was also read. — M. C. Saint-Claire Deville communicated a note 

 on the early cold weather of 1 87 1 , which appears to have prevailed 

 over the whole of France. — M. F. de Biseau recorded the observa- 

 tion of aurora borealis in Belgium on the nights of the gth and 

 loth November. — A note from M. de Magnac on the determina- 

 tion by means of chronometers of the differences of longitude 

 of distant places was read. — M. Lecoq de Boisbaudran pre- 

 sented a note on the separation and quantitative determination 

 of some metals by means of a voltaic current. — M. A. Bechamp 

 communicated some observations on a recent note by M. Ritter 

 on the formation of u ea by albuminoid materials and permanga- 

 nate of potash. — M. Wurtz presented a note by M. L. C. de Coppet 

 on a new method of preparing supersaturated saline solutions, in 

 which the author stated that solutions identical with those called 

 supersaturated could be prepared by dissolving certain dehydrated 

 salts (sulphate and carbonate of soda) in cold water. — M. Peligot 

 presented a note by M. T. Schkcsing, containing a comparison 

 of the two conditions of a soil in part wooded and in part cleared 

 and treated with lime. — M. Peligot also presented a note by M. 

 A. Renard on the determination of ground-nut oil in olive oil. 

 The process, which is rather complicated, consists in the saponi- 

 fication of the oil, and the separation from the soap of the ara- 

 chidic acid which is characteristic of ground-nut oil.— M. Balard 

 communicated a note by MM. Scheurer-Kestner andC. Meunier 



on the composition and heat of combustion of lignites, containing 

 the analyses and results of combustion of six lignites from various 

 parts of France, and from Bohemia. The heat of combustion 

 was always found to be inferior to that of the cxrbon and hydro- 

 gen contained in the lignites. — M. Eliede Beaumont exhibited a 

 collection of minerals from Bolivia, Chili, and Peru sent by M. 

 Domeyko. — M. S. Meunier presented a note on a new method of 

 obtaining Widmannstiitten's figures by attaching a polished plate 

 of meteoric iron to the positive pole of a Bunsen's battery and a 

 plate of silver to the opposite pole, and plunging both into a so- 

 lution of bisulphate of potash. — M. Husson communicated an 

 analysis of the milk of cows attacked by contagious typhus. — A 

 note was read on the Garusnnian typa of the department of the 

 Aude, by M. A. Leymerie, in which the author maintains the 

 distinctness of this geological stage, and indicates some of the 

 fossils which characterise it. 



BOOKS RECEIVED 



English.— Marvels of Pond Life : H. J. Slack (Groombridge and Sons). 

 — The Amateur's Flower Garden : Shirley Hibberd (Groombridge and Sons) 

 —Flowers for Sundays : P. Spenser (Longmans). -The Laws of the Wind 

 prevailing in Western Europe : No. i, with Charts and Diagrams : W. C. 

 Ley (E. Stanford). 



Foreign.— (Through Williams and Norgate.)— Die Axendrehung der 

 Welt-korper : E. F. T. Moldenhaaer. 



DIARY 



THURSDAY, December 14. 



RovAL SociETV, at 8.30.— Contributions to the History of Orcin. No. II. 

 Chlorine and Bromine Substitution Compounds of the Orcins ; Note on 

 FuedSol: Dr. Stenhouse, F.R S.— On some recent Discoveries in Solar 

 Physics ; and on a Law regulating the Duration of the Sunspot Period : 

 W. De La Rue, F.R.S., B. Stewart. F.R.S , and B. Loewy. 



^L^THEMAT1CAL SociETV, at 8. — On the Celebrated Theorem that every 

 Arithmetical Progression, if it contains more than one must contain an 

 Infinite number of Prime Numbers : J. J. Sylvester, F.R.S. 

 FRIDAY, December 13. 



London Institution, at 4. Elementary Physiologv, by Prof. Hu.xley, 

 F.R.S. No. 7. (E.\tra Lecture.) 



SUNDAY, December 17. 



Sunday Lecture Society, at 4. — On the Physiology of Contagion and 

 Infection ; Dr. John S. Bristowe. 



MONDAY, December ij. 



Anthropological Institute, at 8. — The Anthropology of Auguste 

 Comte : Joseph Kaines. — On the Hereditary Transmission of Endow- 

 ments : George Harris. 



London Institution, at 4. No. 8. 



TUESDAY, December 19. 



Statistical Society, at 7 45. — On the Comparative Health of Seamen 

 and Soldiers ; Dr. Balfour. 



WEDNESDAY, December 20. 



Geological Society, at 8. — Further Remarks on the Relationship of the 

 Limulida; to tlie £urypteridie and to the Trilobita : Henry Woodward, 

 F.G S.— Further Notes on the Geology of the neighbourhood of Malaga : 

 M. D. M. d'Orueta. 



RovAL Society op Literature. — On a capital Joke recorded by Sueto- 

 nius : Dr. C. Mansfield Ingleby.— On a Collection of Roman Brick Stamps 

 in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford : Mr. Vaux. 



Society of Ats, at 8.— On the Study of Economic Botany, and its Claims 

 Educationally and Commercially Considered ; James Collins. 

 THURSDAY, December 21. 



Royal Society, at 8.30. 



LiNNEAN Society, at 8. — On the Anatomy of the American King-Crab 

 (Limuliis fofyfhcmiis, Latr): Prof. Owen, F.R S. 



Chemical Society, at 8. 



CONTENTS PACK 



The Copley Medallist of 1871. By Prof. John Tvndall, F.R.S. 117 



AiKY ON Magnetism. By James Stuart 120 



Our Book Shelf 121 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Alternation of Generations in Fungi. — Rev. M.J. Berkeley, F.L.S. 122 



Leibnitz and the Calculus.— Dr. C. M. Ingledy 122 



The Science »nd Art Department 122 



Lunar Calendars 123 



New Zealand Forest Trees.— Dr. W. Lauder Lindsay, F.R.S.E. . 123 



Sol.ar Halo.— W. W. Harris 123 



Proof of Napier's Rules 123 



The Cause of Specific Variation. — Rev. G. Henslow, F.L.S. . . T23 

 On Deep-Sea Thermometers.- By Capt, J. E. Davis, R.N. (fFjM 



Hiiisiration) 124 



Oysters in Ireland i2i 



Artificial Milk. By W. Mattieu Williams, F.C.S 129 



Notes '29 



Scientific Serials i_^3 



Societies and Academies 133 



Books Received 136 



Diary ' 138 



