154 



NATURE 



[Dec. 21,1871 



copulative act," from which free-swimming ciliated germs might 

 eventually issue. " On the Connection of Nerves and Chromo- 

 blasts," by M. Georges Pouchet. The inference drawn from an 

 examination of tlie pectoral fin of a young flat-fish is that 

 there is a reality of connection between the nervous and sarcodic 

 elements, but that the nature of this connection is unknown. 



T\iK Rc'vuc Scieiilijiijur, N03. 19 — 25, contains, among others, 

 the following articles, translations, and reprints : — General 

 Morin's eulogy on Piobert and his inventions in artillery ; Dr. 

 Carpenter's lectures at the Roy.il Institution ; the continuation 

 of Grehant's course of lectures on Experimental Physiology ; 

 M. Lorain on primary and secondary instruction in France ; 

 Bertheloton the union of alcohols with bases, and on the history 

 of carbon ; Moleschott on the regulators of human life ; Saus- 

 sure on tlie life and works of Claparede ; Valentin on the 

 electric properties of nerves during embryonic life, and during 

 putrid decomposition ; a summary of the most important papers 

 read at the Bologna International Congress of Anthropology and 

 Prehistoric Archeology ; Contejean on the origin of sedimentary 

 deposits ; Mr. Bentham's last anniversary address to the Linnean 

 Society ; Fonvielle on aerial navigation ; Prof. Huxley's article 

 in the Coiileinporary A'l-'inc on English Critics of Danvin. 



The twentieth volume (1870) of the lW/ia;id/ii!/«cii dei- k.k. 

 %oologisch-hotanischeii GiS^lhchaft in IVicit, although a stout 

 o:tavo, is hardly equal in bulk or in the variety of its contents to 

 some of its predecessors; nevertheless its readers will find in it 

 an abundant supply of valuable papers on zoological and 

 botanical subjects. As usual, entomological articles are in the 

 majority under the former head, and here Dr. Winnertz leads off 

 with two papers on Diptera, containing descriptions of species 

 belonging to the Lt's/yfiniinc, a sub- family of Cecidomyidx", and 

 of the species of Hctcropeza and Miastor — two genera of the Sime 

 family. Singularly enough these, and a short noticaby M. von 

 Bergenstamm on the metamorphoses of Platvp^'za kiLdosc'iitL-a, are 

 the only papers on Diptera in the volume. — The Lepidoptera also 

 receive but little notice, but on the Rhynchota we have some 

 important papers : — M. P. M. V. Gredler furnishes a list, with 

 note^, of the l-Ieteropterous Rhynchota of the Tyrol, and Dr. F. 

 X. Fieber the characters of twelve ntw genera and twelve new 

 speci»-s of the same group. The forms described by the htter 

 are from various pirts of Southern Europe. — M. C. Tschek 

 describes a number of Austrian Ichneumonida- belonging to the 

 group of the Cryptoides, Dr. G. Mayr a number of new species ] 

 of ants, and Dr. J. Kriechbaumer four new South European 

 species of humble bees. — A paper on the Orthoptera of the 

 Syrnian valley in Hungary by M. V. Graber, which includes an 

 intere^ling description of the district, is the only other entomo- 

 logical paper to which we shall refer. — The malacologist will 

 find a list of the land and freshwater mollusca of Galicii by 

 Dr J. Jachno, a monograph of the genera Eininaida and Fi^ssa- 

 ruins by M. Brusina, and an important paper on t le anatomy of 

 Tribonophonis and Philoinycus — two forms of naked Pulmonata ; 

 whilst for the ichthyologist we have the first part of a descriptive 

 synopsis of the fishes of the tied Sea from Dr. C. B. Klunzingcr, 

 who also notices the animals observed upon a coral reef in the 

 Red Sea. — M. D. Dybowski describes a new form of Salamander 

 from Siberia under the name of Sa/nmaiidni/a k'cyserlingii, and 

 Dr. Burmeister gives a description of ttie pelvis of Alegitthcrium. 

 The botanical papers are to a con-iderable extent of the nature 

 of local lists, but some of these contain a good deal of de-;crip- 

 tive matter. Thus in M. Schulzer von Miiggenburg's " Myco- 

 logical Observations in North Hungary " we find many descrip- 

 tions of fungi; Glowacki.ind Arnold's " Lichens troai Carniolia " 

 contains descriptions of species, as does also the latter's " Licheno- 

 logical Excursion mto the Tyrol," and the contribution to the moss- 

 fiora of East by .MM. Juratzka and Mdde. M. F. Hazslinsky 

 describes the Splueriic which are parasitic upon the rose ; M. Julius 

 Klein's mycolngical communications contain a descripfon of a new 

 genus of Mucorme fungi, and of some other forms which gre* 

 with its representative ; andM. Schulzer von Miiggenburg, above- 

 mentioned, has also his myculogical contributions, which consist 

 almost entirely of descriptive matter. The papers which treat of 

 the higher forms of plants, and those describing the natural 

 history journeys of their authors, are not numerous. We may 

 mention especially a long paper by M. F. Kr.isan on the 

 periodical phenomena of vegetable life, and an article by Dr. 

 A. Unterhuber on the position of the scales of the fruit in 

 Ceratozamia mcxkaiia. This list of papers will be sufficient to 

 show how much there is in the proceedings of the Vienna 

 Zoologico-Botanical Society to interest both the zoologist and 

 the botanist. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



Lo.\DON 



Geological Society, December 6. — Mr. J. Prestwich, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. Prof. Giovanni Capellini, of Bologna, was 

 elected a Foreign Correspondent of the Society, i. " On tlie 

 presence of a raised beach on Portsdown Hill, near Portsmouth, 

 and on the occurrence of a Flint Implement at Downton." By 

 Mr. Joseph Prestwich, F.R.S., President. The author noticed a 

 section observed by him in a pit ten miles westward of Bourne 

 Common and five miles inland in a hne on the north side of East 

 Cams Wood. It is situated at an elevation of 300 feet above the 

 sea level, and shows some laminated sands with seams of shingle, 

 overlying coarse flint-shingle with a few whole flints, which the 

 author regarded as a westward continuation of the old sea-beach 

 which lias been traced from Brighton, past Chichester, to Bourne 

 Common. A flint flake was found by the author at the bottom 

 of the superficial soil in this pit. The author also noticed the 

 occurrence of a flint implement of the type of those of St. Acheul 

 in a gravel near Downton in Hampshire. This gravel capped a 

 small chalk-pit, and its elevation above the River Avon was about 

 150 feet. Two gravel terraces occur between this pit and the 

 river, one 40 by 60 the other So by 1 10 feet above the level of the 

 latter. Mr. Codrington stated that, according to the Ordnance 

 Survey, the level of the pit at Cams Wood was not more than 

 100 feet above the sea, so that it was at about the same level as 

 the gravels of Titchfield and elsewhere. i\Ir. Evans remarked 

 that tiie flint flake from Cams Wood presented no characters 

 such as would prove it to be of Palxolithic age. He was, on 

 the contrary, inclined to regard it as having been derived from 

 the surface. He commented on the height at which the Downton 

 impleinent had been discovered, which was, however, not so 

 great but that the containing gravels might be of fluviatile origin. 

 Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys thought that if the beds at Cams Wood 

 were marine, some testaceous remains might be found in them. 

 If these were absent, he should rather be inclined to regard them 

 as fiuviatile. Mr. J. W. Flower contended that the gravel at 

 Downton could not be of fluviatile origin. He thought, indeed, 

 that the gravel was actually at a higher level than the present 

 source of the river. If this were so, he maintained that he trans- 

 port of ihe gravel by fluviatile aciion was impossible. He further 

 observed that gravels precisely similar, also containing imple- 

 ments, had now been found, as well in the Hampshire area as 

 elsewhere, the transport of which, in his view, could not possibly 

 be attributed to any existing rivers. At Southampton they occur 

 150 feet above tlie River lichen and the sea. and considerably 

 inland ; at Bournemouth, on a sea cliff I20 feet in height ; and at 

 the Foreland (at the eastern extremity of the Isle ot Wight), on 

 a cliff S2 feet above the sea, and far remote from anv river. If, 

 therefore, these deposits were elT.^cted by fluviatile agency, it was 

 evident tliat all traces of the rivers were afterwards effaced by 

 some great geo'ogical changes, or, in the alternative, some great 

 geological change, not fluviatile, must have ciused the deposit. 

 Upon the whole he was disposed to c include with the French 

 geologists as well as with many eminent English authors that the 

 accumulation of all these superficial drifts was, as the late Sir 

 Roderick Murchison had said, sudden and tumultuous, not of long 

 continuance ; and thus it was such as wo aid result from some 

 kind of diluvial action, rather tiian from the ordinary long-conti- 

 nued action of water. Mr. Judd pointed out, in contravention to 

 Mr. Jeft'reys' views, that in the Fen district, over large tracts of 

 deposits of undoubtedly marine origin, not a trace of marine shells 

 could be found. Mr. Prestwich, while willing to concede that 

 the implement-bearing gravel-beds had beenJe^jo-ied un ler more 

 tumuhunus action than that due to rivers of the present day, was 

 still forced to attrii)Ute the excavation of the existing valleys and 

 the formation of terraces along their slopes to river-action. He 

 showed that Mr. Flower's argument as to the present level of the 

 source of the river was of no weight, as the country in which it 

 had its source was formerly, as now, at a much higher level than 

 the gravel at Do. vn ton. As to the absence of mirine shells at 

 Cams Wood, he cited a raised beach in Cornwall which, in com- 

 pany with Mr. Jeffreys, he had examined for a mile without 

 finding a trace of a shell, though for the next lulf-mile they 

 abounded. There was the same d fference between the raised 

 beach at Brighton and at Chichester. He was obliged to Mr. 

 Codrington for his correction as to the level at Cams Wood, 

 though the pit was at a higher elevation than the one to which 

 Mr. Codrington had alluded. — 2. " On some undescribed Fossils 

 from the ' Menevian Group of Wales.' " By Mr. H. Hicks. In 



