June 6, 1901] 



jVA TURE 



h: 



sented anthropometrical craniological notes on the Eastern 

 Papuans. — Dr. A. C. Haddon discussed the present state of our 

 knowledge of the ethnology of British New (niinea. 



Cambridge. 

 Philosophical Society, May 20. — Prof. Macalister, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — On the rate of growth of certain corals, by 

 Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner. The author put in a plea for more 

 precise observations on the subject, showing in discussing his 

 specimens the various conditions of life, which he considered 

 necessary to record. It was suggested that the volumes of 

 specimens should be calculated, and that if possible the thickness 

 of each skeleton, imagined as a flat plate covering the same 

 horizontal area as its living colony, should form the basis for 

 comparison. By the latter method the specimens showed, in a 

 growth of less than 1030 days from the larvje, various thicknesses 

 between 10 and 25 mm. — On the breeding habits of AVho/»j 

 lacvis Daiid, by Mr. E. J. Bles. — On the recovery of foliage 

 leaves from surgical injuries, by Mr. F. F. Blackman and Miss 

 G. L. C. Matthaei. It has been found that if definite areas of 

 these leaves be killed by heat or by physical means, the remain- 

 ing sound tissues divide actively and form an absciss-layer which 

 surrounds the dead cells and cuts out the area so that it drops 

 away from the leaf. Specimens were exhibited showing the 

 stages of this process, which takes place with such precision that 

 leaves may thus be shaped to any desired form. — On a new 

 species of Bothriocephaliis, by Mr. A. E. Shipley. — On a class 

 of matrices of infinite order and on the existence of matricial 

 functions on a Riemann surface, by Dr. A. C. Dixon. — On 

 liquid motion from a single source, by the Rev. H. J. Sharpe. 



Edinburgh. 

 Royal Society, May 20. — Prof, (leikie in the chair. — 

 Mr. Alfred Harker communicated a paper on ice-erosion in 

 the Cuillin Hills, Skye, in which evidence was accumulated to 

 show that this region had never been over- ridden by foreign ice, 

 but had supported during the maximum glacialion a local 

 ice-cap. The general radial outflow followed with few exceptions 

 the principal valleys, but on reaching the lower ground was 

 sharply diverted toward the west by the pressure of the great 

 Scottish ice-sheet. The chief part of the paper was devoted to 

 an analysis of the surface relief of the Cuillins, the more striking 

 elements of which were the result of glacial erosion, as dis- 

 tinguished from aqueous erosion. Among these were the 

 general absence of any relation between detailed topography 

 and geological structure ; the unbroken extent of the main ridge 

 with its steep flanks and cuspate cross-section, and the tricuspate 

 ground-plan of its principal peaks ; the curiously asymmetric 

 form in cross-section of the branch ridges, with the steeper face 

 always toward the north ; the straight steep-sided valleys with 

 U-shaped cross-section and abruptly stepped longitudinal profile ; 

 and other well-marked characteristics. The drift accumulations 

 were also discussed, stress being laid on the action of ice 

 not merely in grinding down a rock-surface but in tearing 

 away fragments, especially of well-jointed rocks. The maximum 

 glaciation in central Skye was succeeded by a period of valley 

 glaciers ; and at the same time the withdrawal of the Scottish 

 ice-sheet allowed an unimpeded out-flow of the ice-drainage 

 from the Skye mountains. At this stage the exposed summit 

 ridges of the Cuillins suffered greatly from frost-action, the 

 detached blocks being in part carried away on the glaciers, 

 in part accumulating in great taluses wherever the head of a 

 valley had become vacated by the dw-indling ice. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences. May 2S. — M. Fouuue in the 

 chair. — On the parallax of the sun, by M. Bouquet de 

 la Grye. — The addition of hydrogen to various hydrocarbons, 

 by MM. Paul Sabatier and J. B. Senderens. It has been 

 shown in a previous paper that benzene and toluene in contact 

 with hydrogen and reduced nickel readily form the hexahydro- 

 addition products. It is now shown that this reaction is a 

 general one, similar addition compounds being obtained from a 

 great number of aromatic hydrocarbons. In the case of sub- 

 stituted benzenes in which the side chain exceeds a certain 

 length, a secondary decomposition takes place. Thus ethyl- 

 benzene gives not only the ethyl-cyclohexane, but also methyl- 

 cyclohexane and a small quantity of methane. Propyl-benzene 

 in the same way gives a little methyl-cyclohexane and ethyl- 

 cyclohexane. The yields of the various hydrocarbons are very 



NO. 1649, VOL. 64] 



good, and the physical constants of several of them now prepared 

 for the first time are given. — Observations of the comet Afigoj) 

 madeat the Observatory of Algiers with the 31 '8 cm. equatorial, 

 by MM. Rambaud and Sy. The comet appears in the form of a 

 nebula with a nucleus of a lustre comparable with a star of the 

 Sth magnitude. — On the spectrum of the solar corona photo- 

 graphed at Elche (Spain) during the total eclipse of the sun of 

 May 28, 1900, by M. A. de la Baunie-Pluvinel. Five photo- 

 graphs of the corona and its spectrum accompany the paper. — 

 The wave-length of some iron rays, Iiy MM. Fabry and Perot. 

 By the application of the interference method described by the 

 authors in previous papers the wave-lengths of fifteen of the 

 chief iron lines have been determined with an accuracy of six 

 significant figures. — On the density of alloys, by M. E. van 

 Aubel. The aluminium-antimony alloy containing Sl per cent, 

 of aluminium is produced with a large increase of volume, 7 c.c. 

 of aluminium and 12 c.c. of antimonygiving23'7c.c. of the alloy 

 AlSb. — On a very sensitive balance which is capable of acting 

 either as a galvanometer, electrodynamometer or an absolute 

 electrometer, by M. \. Cremieu. Two small magnets are 

 carried on a small torsion balance composed of two silk fibres. 

 These wires are sucked into bobbins carrying a current, the 

 arrangement forming a sensitive astatic and dead beat galvano- 

 meter. — On the reduction of silver chloride by hydrogen, by M. 

 Jouniaux. The interaction of hydrogen and silver chloride at 

 various temperatures above 500° C. is reversible. The experi- 

 mental results are applied to calculate the diflference between 

 the heats of formation of hydrogen and silver chlorides. — Obser- 

 vations on the preceding note, by M. Berthelot. — The action 

 of mercuric oxide upon aqueous solutions of metallic salts, by 

 M. A. Mailhe. 



New SouTri Wales. 

 Linnean Society, March 27. — Mr. T. H. Maiden, president, 

 in the chair. — Description of a new species of Acacia, by J. H. 

 Maiden. The plant described is an erect shrub of several feet 

 from the highest part of the Blue Mountains. — Note on the 

 Subgenus salinator of Hedley, by Ed?ar A. Smith. — Studies on 

 Australian mollusca, part iv., by C. Hedley. Geological notes 

 on Kosciusko, by Prof. T. W. Edgworth David, F.R.S, Richard 

 Helms and E. F. Pittman. This paper deals with the subject 

 of recent discoveries by the authors in company with Mr. F. B. 

 Guthrie, of ancient moraines, erratics, and extensive rock sur- 

 faces grooved by glacier ice on the Kosciusko plateau. Some 

 of the best preserved evidences noticed were in the Lake Albina 

 Valley and in the valley of Lake .Merewether (Blue Lake). At 

 the latter locality there is a magnificent and well preserved 

 moraine 400 feet above the surface of the lake, and containing 

 ice-scratched blocks in enormous numbers. A very fine ice- 

 grooved pavement of granite was observed at a point about 300 

 yards west of the southern end of Lake Albina. There is 

 certain evidence that the glaciers came down, in comparatively 

 recent geological time, to 5800 feet above the sea and probably 

 to 5500 feet at least. Mount Kosciusko proper being about 7328 

 feet high. It is also clear that the ice in some of these glaciers 

 was at least 400 feet thick. It is quite possible that at a still 

 earlier period the whole plateau down to a level of about 5000 

 feet was buried under an ice-sheet. The exact downward limit 

 has not yet been ascertained. The comparatively recent nature 

 of the glaciation is shown by the fact that since the ice dis- 

 appeared a depth of only about 10 feet of loose moraine and a 

 further depth of 10 feet of soft slate have been eroded in the 

 beds of the creeks which form the sources of the Snowy River. 

 The authors consider that this evidence, taken in conjunction 

 with that recently adduced in South America, Keiguelen, New 

 Zealand and Tasmania, suggests a synchronism of glaciations of 

 the northern and southern hemispheres, due to some such cosmic 

 cause as that stiggested by Dr. Arrhenius, viz., a slight 

 temporary diminution of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmo- 

 sphere. 



April 24. — Mr. J. H. Maiden, president, in the chair. 

 — Notes from the Botanic Gardens, Part 7, by J. H. Maiden 

 and E. Betche. A number of new species and varieties 

 were described. — Notes on the caves of Fiji, with especial 

 reference to Lau, by B. Sawyer and E. C. Andrews. During 

 their travels in the Fijian Archipelago the authors observed two 

 types of caves — the excavated and the enclosed. Magnificent 

 examples of caves excavated by percolation and subterranean 

 streams occur in Viti Levu. In the Lau group appear the 

 enclosed caves — vacant spaces walled and roofed in by coral 

 growth. In their early stages these are seen in the living reef 



