yan. 1 8, 1872] 



NATURE 



235 



Photographic Society, January 9. — Mr. J. R. Sawyer, in a 

 paper entitled " Photography in the Printing Pres?," gave an 

 account of the histoiy of mechanical photographic printing. He 

 ascribed to Mungo Ponton the discovery of the action of light 

 upon the bichromates when mixed with certain organic bodies, 

 and to Becquerel the first suggestion of employing gelatine and 

 bichromate in conjunction (or photographic printing ; but to 

 Poitevin is due the honour of having invented photo-mechanical 

 printing. Mr. Sawyer proceeded to describe the improvements 

 which have since been made, referring to the processes of Tessie 

 de Motay, Lichtdruck, Helio;ype, &c. He concluded with a 

 description of photo- collographic printing as now practised. — Mr. 

 J. W. StiUman exhibited and described some new Photographic 

 apparatus. — Mr. Henry Whitfield and Mr. R. Phipps were 

 elected members. 



Glasgow 



Geological Society, Dec. 14, 1S71. — Mr. John Young, vice- 

 president, exhibited specimens of coal from a thin seam, inter- 

 calated amidst beds ol trappean ash at Glenarbuck, near Bowling, 

 He referred to the discovery, by the late Mr. Currie of Bowling, 

 of thin beds of coal amongst the traps of the Kilpatiick hills at 

 Auchintorlie Glen, which clearly established the carboniferous 

 age of these igneous rocks. He also alluded to his own sub- 

 sequent observation of thin beds of indurated shale, containing 

 fish remains of carboniferous genera, associated with and over- 

 lying one of the seams of coal in the same glen. Since then he 

 had found another tnin seam of coal cropping out at a high 

 level in beds of trappean ash on the hillside above Glenarbuck, 

 in the same neigKbourhood. In the specimens of the coal ex- 

 hibited, ttie woody fibre of the plants in a carbonised condition is 

 clearly distinguishable ; and although of a very foul quality, and 

 considerably altered by the heat of the traps amongst which it is 

 imbedded, yet it still gives off a little flame in the burning. From 

 the same ash-bed he had also extracted a portion of the stem of 

 a species of Sigillaria, and he believed the greater part of the 

 woody structure observed in this Glenarbuck coal was derived 

 from plants allied io Sigillarii^ and Lcpidodnidra. — Mr. D. Bell 

 submitted portions of the large pitchstone vein at Corriegills, 

 Arran, and of the sandstone in which it occurs, showing that 

 both rocks are much altered along the lines of contact. 



PIalifax, Nova Scotia 

 Institute of Natural Science, November ij, 1871. — 

 "On a Lophioid Fish caught off Halifax Harbour," by Mr. 

 J. M. Jones, F. L. S., president. The little Lophioid fish in the 

 Provincial Museum collection was at first sight regarded by the 

 writer as a Gurnard, but on closer examination it was found to 

 be a Lophioid. The description in the paper, with a figure, were 

 submitted to Dr. Theodore Gill, of Washington, who considered 

 that in the descripiion and figure he recognised the young of the 

 Lophhis amcyicatnis or Sea Devil. It was supposed, however, 

 that the description was slightly defective, and that some charac- 

 teristic features had lieen unobserved. The writer did not find 

 the desiderated features in the specimen, and was assured that it 

 never possessed them, as the specimen had been brought to the 

 museum while living and unhurt, and was in the finest state of 

 preservation when examined and described. It was very different 

 from any of the young Lophioids described in Gunther's Cata- 

 logue, and was, thcreiore, probably a new Lophioid. The writer 

 relerred to two fine i^eamensoi Lophiiis piscalorius lately caught 

 in the Halifax Harbour, one of which had a cod fish in its sto- 

 mach. Pie coulrl see no reason for the application of the term 

 nmcrkanus by American naturalists, as the European and Ame- 

 rican forms are identical. — On Sir W. Logan and Hartley's 

 Geology of the Precarboniferous Rocks underlying the Picton 

 Coal Field, by Rev. D. Honeyman. Sir W. Logan, in his 

 Report on the Picton Coal Field {vide Report of Progress from 

 1S66 to 1S69, page 7), says : "No evidence was observed by me 

 on McLellan's mountain to show to what epoch these old rocks 

 belong, but masses somewhat similar are noticed by Mr. Hartley 

 on tlie west side of Ea-.t River in a position where they have been 

 mentioned in his Acadian Geology by Dr. J. W. Dawson, who 

 considers them to be of Devonian age, and on his authority they 

 will be so distinguished." By the Devonian colouring of Logan 

 and Hartley's map, which accompanies the Report and illustrates 

 it, it wuuld appear that Sir W. Logan intends that the language 

 should apply to a part of pre-carboniferous rocks in the district of 

 Sutherland River as well as the northern part of McLellan's 

 mountain. Now the rocks of the part of McLellan's mountain 

 range indicated belong to the northern part of one of the great 



anticlinal Silurian series which extends to the south about nine 

 miles is generally metamorphic and non-fossiliferous. The author 

 was, however, fortunate enough to discover the fossiliferous loca- 

 lities in the series, viz., at Fraser's mountain, the southern extre- 

 mity of McLellan's mountain, and Blanchard, celebrated in 

 Danzer's Eulogy and el.-ewhere for its iron deposit. In the 

 former he found Middle Silurian fos-ils in the western side of the 

 anticlinal, and in the other Middle Silurian fossils on the eastern 

 side of the same anticlinal, of one or both of these Sir W. 

 Logan's Devonian Rocks must be the extension and northern 

 terminus. In this series the author found Lower Heldesberg or 

 Upper Ludlow fossiliferous strata overlying the Clinton and 

 Redina fossiliferous of Fraser's mountain, and this is the most 

 recent of the pre-carboniferous rocks of McLellan's mountain. 

 The other part of Sir W. Logan's Devonian area, the Sutherland 

 river containing the Middle Silurian bend which changes the direc- 

 tion of the Silurians, or connects the N. and S. anticlinals of 

 McLellan and Irish mountains with the Silurians to the east, 

 viz., French River, Barney's River, Antigonish, Arisaig, and 

 Lochaber. In this band there are two monoclinal Middle 

 .Silurian series : the one commencing in McLellan's mountain, 

 its greenstone forming Blackwood's mountain, the northern ex- 

 tremity of McLellan's mountain range ; overlying this to the 

 south is a metamorphic Medina band. Overlying the 

 greenstone of the second monoclinal on the south is a partially 

 metamorphosed band of Medina age, containing abundance of 

 fossils. The lower part overlying the greenstone at St. Mary's 

 Road contains abundance — beds of Orthids and Athyrus. At 

 Sutherland's River Bridge I found indifferently preseri-ed Lingulce 

 in the same strata. 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, January 2. — After the election of 

 officers and the reading of the report for 1871, M. Delaunay 

 communicated a note on the movements of the perigee and node 

 of the moon. — M. E. Vicaire read a note on the temperature of 

 the solar surface, in which he arrives at the conclusion that this 

 temperature is below 3000° C. (= 5432° F.). M. Faye, M. 

 H. Sainte-Claire Deville, M. E. Becquerel, and M. Fizeau, spoke 

 upon this subject, all of them agreeing in opinion with M. 

 Vicaire. Father Secchi, however, in a third note on the solar 

 temperature, maintained his previous estimate of 10,000,000° C. 

 — M. Chasles read a continuation of his theorems relating to the 

 harmonic axes of geometrical curves ; General Morin presented 

 a note by General Didion on the expression of the relation of the 

 circumference to the diameter, and on a new function ; and M. 

 Chasles communicated a further note by M, Halphen, on the 

 straight lines which fulfil given conditions. — A note on the elec- 

 trical currents obtained by the flexionof metals, by M. P. Volpicelli, 

 was read, in which the author enlarged and corrected the results ob- 

 tained by Peltier and De la Rive. — M. W'. Fonvielle read an ex- 

 planation of the appearance, during balloon ascents, of rings which 

 do not exhibit chromatic decomposition. — A letter was read 

 from M. de Bizeau, of Entre-Monts, near Binche, in Belgium, giving 

 the extreme cold at that place on the 8th December, 1871, at 

 - 2i"5° C. (= - 67''F.) at half-past 7 a.m. — M. Pasteurpresented 

 a note upon a previous communication of M. Trecul on the 

 origin of lactic and alcoholic ferments, in which he stated that he 

 saw nothing in M. Trecul's results to impugn the exactitude of 

 fonner experiments or the conclusions which he had drawn from 

 them, — M. A. Trecul read a paper, in which he described the 

 cells of beer-yeast becoming mobile like monads. — M. Berthelot 

 communicated a further paper on the state of bodies in solutions, 

 in which he treated of certain salts of peroxide of iron (sul- 

 phate, nitiate, and acetate). — M. Balard presented a third note 

 by M. C. Saint-Pietre on the spontaneous decomposition 

 of certain bisulphites (of lead and baryta). — M. Robin com- 

 municated a note by MM. Rabuteau and Massul, on tlie 

 physiological properties and metamorphoses of thecyanates in the 

 organism, in which the authors state as the result of their re- 

 searches that the cyanates of potassa and soda are not poisonous, 

 and that in the animal economy they give origin to carbonates.— 

 A note by M. S. Jourtlain, containing materials towards the 

 history of Gymnetrus gladins, was presented by M. Blanchard. 

 The author describes the anatomy of a specimen of this rare fish, 

 which was stranded near Palavas (in Herault. ) — A note on the 

 heat absorbed during incubation by M. A. Moitessier was com- 

 municated by M. Balard. The author finds that the specific 

 heat of fecundated is less than that of unfecundated eggs when 

 treated in the same manner, and infers that a portion of the heat 

 absorbed by the former during incubation is transfoniied, — M, 



