June 30, 1904] 



NA TURE 



with the White Lias. The remains include more than 

 twenty dorsal vertebrae, with spinous and transverse pro- 

 cesses, lying in natural sequence. A pseudomorph of the 

 spinal cord in calcite occurs also in position. Hitherto only 

 single vertebra; or fragmentary bones of Plesiosaurus have 

 been recorded from this horizon in Britain. .\t present, it 

 has not been found possible to assign the fossil to any e.xist- 

 ing species. — The evidence for a non-sequence between the 

 Keuper and Rh^tic series in N.W. Gloucestershire and 

 Worcestershire : L. Richardson, The section at Wainlode 

 t'liff shows a transition in the "bone-bed," from a thin 

 pyritic stratum, crowded with fish-remains, to a micaceous 

 sandstone-bed, usually devoid of such remains and about a 

 foot thick. This sandstone may be called the " bone-bed- 

 equivalent." -As the bone-bed can be traced in a single 

 section laterally into a sandstone-bed devoid of those re- 

 mains, the contemporaneity of the two developments is 

 considered established, .\bove the main bone-bed the de- 

 posits of the Rhajtic are persistent, but not below. Black 

 shales are generally present below the bone-bed in 

 Worcestershire, but in places there comes in a sandstone 

 liptween it and the " tea-green marls." It is found that 

 the greatest thicknesses of the Rhaetic rocks under the 

 bone-bed coincide with synclines, and the least thicknesses 

 with anticlines. Thus the earth-pressures recognised in 

 later times were probably at work at the close of the 

 Keuper period. .As the area once covered by the waters of 

 ihe Keuper sea gradually sank, the Rha,'tic ocean slowly 

 f^ncroached upon the land-surface, and successive overlaps 

 ul the several infra-bone-bed deposits resulted. 



Physical Society, June lo.— Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — Prof. H. L. Callendar gave a 

 demonstration of the projection of the indicator diagrams 

 of a petrol motor. The lantern-slides illustrated the work- 

 ing of the motor under various conditions, and were pre- 

 pared to elucidate the nature of some of the defects which 

 nccur in practice. The motor itself was e.xhibited in action, 

 with the indicator attached, and the actual diagrams were 

 projected on the screen showing the changes of form as 

 they occur when the conditions of running are changed. 

 The motor employed was a Clement-Garrard cycle-motor, 

 with 60 mm. bore and 70 mm. stroke. The engine, like 

 most other internal combustion engines, works on the four- 

 stroke cycle of operations — suction, compression, explosion, 

 and exhaust — and runs at speeds varying from 2000 to 2500 

 revolutions per minute. — .\ model illustrating the propaga- 

 tion of an alternating current along a telephone cable, and 

 a simple theory of the same: Prof. J. A. Fleming^. 

 .Although the mathematical theory of the propagation of 

 alternating currents along lineal conductors having capacity, 

 inductance, resistance, and leakage has been developed by 

 many writers in great fulness, the conclusions reached by 

 them have not always been readily assimilated by practical 

 engineers, and in some cases unsound theories have been put 

 forward regarding the conditions limiting telephonic speech 

 along wires. The present paper contains an account of a 

 inodel (exhibited at the meeting) which has been constructed 

 by the author for the purpose of explaining in a simple 

 manner the physical meaning of the mathematical ex- 

 pressions which are reached in discussing the propagation 

 iif alternating currents along a telephone or telegraph cable. 

 —.Mr. M. E. J. Gheury exhibited a gyroscopic collimator. 

 The instrument is used in connection with an ordinary 

 sextant, the observation being taken as with the sea horizon 

 by bringing the image of an observed body into a field of 

 vision, in which a horizontal grating of a special kind 

 allows the observer to ascertain the direction of the true 

 horizon. 



Mnnean Society, June 16. — Prof. W. A. Herdman, 

 K.R.S., president, in the chair. — Mr. R. Brooks Popham 

 sent for exhibition some calculi from the horse : two of 

 very large size were obtained post morlein from a cart-horse 

 employed in hauling coal ; a third specimen from the same 

 animal, on being broken, showed the nucleus to be a piece 

 of coal, probably swallowed with its food. .Another large 

 stone was associated with many smaller, from a second 

 horse — nearly one hundred in all. The specimens had been 

 obtained from the stomach or intestinal canal of the 

 animals. — Canon F. C. Smith sent for exhibition a hand- 

 some inflorescence of a scrambling shrub from Freetown, 



NO. 1809. VOL. 70I 



Sierra Leone, in habit resembling our native Clematis 

 ]'itatba. It proved to be Rhynchosia calycina, Guill. and 

 Perr., which is widely spread in tropical Africa, reaching 

 Rhodesia. — On variations in the arrangement of hair on the 

 neck of the domestic horse : Dr. Walter Kidd. The author 

 sought to test the validity of the theory that certain pheno- 

 mena in the arrangement of hair in mammals are produced 

 by mechanical causes, \umerous observations of the 

 changes from a primitive type were figured and described. 

 These changes, being shown to be congenital and of 

 mechanical origin, were held to be instances of the inherit- 

 ance of acquired characters. — An account of the Jamaica 

 species of Lepanthes : Dr. Rendle and W. Favwcett. — On 

 blaze currents of vegetable tissues : Dr. .A. D. Waller, 

 F.R.-S. The author showed that these currents were 

 symptomatic of the living tissue, and were not shown by 

 dead organisms. In experimenting upon peas (Pisiiin 

 sativum) the author mentioned the need of access to a 

 garden, in order that the material might be gathered in 

 proper condition, for certain experiences showed that garden 

 produce obtained in the ordinary course from a market had 

 suffered so much from bruising as to be worthless in these 

 experiments. — On British freshwater Rhizopoda : J. Cash. 

 — On the place of Linnaeus in the history of botany ; P. 

 Olsson Setter. 



Royal Statistical Society, June 21. — Major P. G. Craigie, 

 C.B., president, in the chair. — In a paper entitled " Observ- 

 ations on the Production and Consumption of Meat and 

 Dairy Products," Mr. Rew summarised the conclusions 

 of the committee of the society on both branches of their 

 inquiry. The results suggested that the average consump- 

 tion per head in this country was, of meat 121-8 lb., of 

 milk 15 gallons, of cheese lOj lb., and of butter 185 lb. 

 The meat included 56-8 lb. of beef and veal, 275 lb. of 

 mutton and lamb, and 368 lb. of bacon and pork, but these 

 quantities did not supply all the carnivorous demands of 

 the population, as poultry, game and rabbits, as well as 

 what butchers termed the "fifth quarter," were not in- 

 cluded. In the case of milk, allowance should be made for 

 the consumption of separated or skim milk, and also for 

 condensed milk, neither of which was included in the 

 average of 15 gallons. Reference was made to previous 

 estimates, and it was suggested that the home production, 

 both of meat and milk, had increased in recent years, though 

 by no means sufficiently to keep pace with the growth of 

 population. Some figures representing the estimated con- 

 sumption in certain European countries, in the United 

 States, and in .Australasia, were given, and as the result 

 of the comparison Mr. Rew observed that we appear to be 

 well ahead of other European nations in meat consumption, 

 but appreciably behind our American cousins, and remark- 

 ably less carnivorous than our Australasian brethren. 



Dublin. 

 Royal Irish Academy, June 13. — Prof. R. Atkinson, 

 president, in the chair. — .Mr. George Coftey and Mr. R. 

 Lloyd Praeerer read a paper on the Antrim raised beach, 

 in which they discussed .the question of post-Glacial 

 oscillations in northern Ireland, their e.xtent and age. 

 Their conclusions point to a submergence, of which the 

 later part- amounting to at least 20 feet, is early Neolithic 

 in age, followed by an emergence of some 30 feet, which 

 is later Neolithic, the only post-Neolithic movement being 

 a slight submergence. The area affected by these move- 

 ments embraces northern England, southern .Scotland, and 

 northern Ireland. Beyond this area, the Neolithic 

 emergence appears to be absent. 



P\KIS. 



Academy of Sciences, June 20. — M. Mascart in the chair. — 

 Emanations and radiations ; M. Bcrthelot.--On stability 

 of equilibrium : Paul Painleve. — On a new carbide of 

 molybdenum, MoC : H. Moissan and K. Hoffmann. 



Molvbdenum resembles tungsten and chromium in forming 

 more than one carbide. The compound MoC described in 

 the present communication is formed by heating molyb- 

 denum, aluminium, and lamp black together in the electric 

 furnace. It is crystalline, harder than quartz, is attacked 

 by acids with difficulty, except nitric acid, and is not de- 

 composable by water. — The influence of discontinuity of 

 muscular w'ork on the energy expenditure : .A. Chauveau. 



