454 
NATURE 
[MarcH Io, 1904 
favourable for kite flying, as not only was there heavy rain- 
fall, but gales were of frequent occurrence. The results of 
the observations show that in August last the mean 
temperature gradient for the first 5000 feet was 3°-2 per 
1000 feet. This is substantially the same as that obtained 
during the preceding summer, although the conditions of 
weather were very different. 
Linnean Society, February 18.—Prof. S. H. Vines, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—Mendel’s laws and their application 
to wheat hybrids: R. H. Biffen. An investigation of the 
various characters of the different races and varieties of 
wheat showed that the following characters were domin- 
ant :—beardless palez, keeled glumes, lax ears, velvet chaff, 
grey coloration, red coloration in the chaff and red color- 
ation in the grain, the corresponding recessive characters 
being bearded paleze, rounded glumes, dense ears, glabrous 
chaff, white coloration in the chaff and grain. Evidence 
was brought forward to show that certain anatomical 
characters, such as the presence of groups of bristles, the 
arrangement of sclerenchyma girders, the presence or 
absence of pith in the internodes, also followed Mendel’s 
laws. The same also appears to be true of certain ‘‘ consti- 
tutional ’’ characters, such as the time of ripening and the 
immunity to attacks of rust.—Mr. W. Bateson, F.R.S., 
exhibited a series of Primula sinensis, about 240 in number, 
lent by Messrs. Sutton and Sons, illustrating the pheno- 
mena of heredity and variation which he had been per- 
mitted to witness in their nurseries during five seasons. 
As was well known, the species, since its introduction about 
1820, had given off numerous mutational forms, e.g. fern- 
leaved, ivy-leaved, the ‘‘ stellata’’ type, and others. Many 
of these in their inheritance follow simple Mendelian rules. 
Anthropological Institute, February 23.—Mr. H. Balfour, 
president, in the chair.—The Hon. W. L. Allardyce, 
C.M.G., delivered a lecture on the Fijians in peace and 
war. The lecturer directed attention to the native legend 
of the colonisation of the islands, and pointed out the 
presence of two types, a Melanesian and a Polynesian. 
Passing to their domestic life, he described their methods of 
personal adornment, houses, food, industries, and canoes. 
He then gave an account of the punitive expedition of 1894, 
in which he had taken part, and described the native methods 
of warfare. Finally, he gave a very interesting description 
of the fire-walking ceremony on Mbengha. 
Physical Society, February 26.—Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—A new dilatometer, ex- 
hibited by Mr. B. Bonniksen, was described by Mr. B. F. E. 
Keeling. The instrument was originally designed for 
measuring the expansion of balance-wheels of watches, and 
has latterly been applied to the determination of the co- 
efficient of dilatation of specimens of materials, used in the 
form of wires about 1} inches in length. The increase in 
length with change in temperature is magnified about 1500 
times by means of a chain of accurately mounted gear- 
wheels, the last one of which moves a pointer over a 
circularly graduated scale. With an ordinary specimen of 
steel one degree rise in temperature causes a movement of 
the pointer over about one-third of a scale-division, and a 
mean coefficient of expansion of such a substance over a 
range of 100° C. can be obtained to about 1 per cent. in a 
single experiment ‘of five minutes’ duration——A quartz- 
thread vertical force magnetograph: Dr. W. Watson. 
The instrument resembles, in principle, the quartz-thread 
gravity balance of Prof. Threlfall. In addition to the 
advantages derived from the suppression of the knife-edge, 
the instrument can be simply and accurately compensated for 
the effects of changes of temperature. The principle of the 
instrument is to have a magnet suspended on a horizontal 
quartz fibre kept stretched by means of a spring. The 
centre of gravity of the magnet and the torsion of the fibre 
are so adjusted that the is of the magnet is horizontal. 
Any variation of the vertical force produces a rotation of 
the magnet about the fibre which can be suitably recorded 
by means of a mirror attached to the magnet. The 
temperature compensation is effected by weighting the 
magnet on the same side of the axis of the fibre as the 
south pole, so that the magnetic couple and the couple due 
to the torsion of the fibre act in the same direction. Hence, 
since an increase in temperature causes one of these couples 
to decrease and the other to increase, by suitably adjusting 
NO. 1793, VOL. 69] 
the weight, and therefore the magnitude of the torsion 
ccuple, complete compensation can be obtained. The 
suspended system in the instrument shown at the meeting 
consists of two magnets 8 cm. long and 1 mm. diameter 
attached by means of small platinum straps to two fused 
rods of silica, which form part of the plate of fused silica 
forming the mirror. The upper surface of the mirror is 
platinised. The fixed mirror is supported on the base of 
the instrument, and is capable of adjustment.—On stresses 
in a magnetostatic field: G. W. Walker. Quincke found 
that when a glass bulb containing a solution of ferric 
chloride was placed between the poles of a strong electro- 
magnet, the level of the liquid, in a capillary tube attached 
to the bulb, fell. This has been held to require for its 
explanation a system of stress which differs from the mag- 
netic stresses of electrical type. The object of this paper is 
to show that the experiment can be quite well explained 
by the stresses of electrical type.—Dr. W. Watson gave 
some hints on the preparation of diagrams.—Mr. R. J. 
Sowter exhibited a portable electroscope of high insulation 
and adapted to show: and measure the discharging effect 
of radio-active substances. 
Zoological Society, March 1.—Dr. A. Giinther, F.R.S., 
vice-president, in the chair.—Dr. A. Gunther, F.R.S., ex- 
hibited and made remarks upon some specimens of hybrids 
between Reeves’s pheasant (Phasianus reevest), G, and the 
silver pheasant (Euplocamus nycthemerus), Q.—Mr. Oldfield 
Thomas, F.R.S., exhibited and made remarks upon the 
skull of a buffalo which had been obtained by Colonel 
Delmé-Radcliffe in south-west Uganda. The horns differed 
in certain respects from those of Bubalus caffer, and Mr. 
Thomas considered the specimen to represent a distinct local 
race and entitled to subspecific rank. Mr. Thomas also 
exhibited a specimen of a fruit-bat from Fernando Po, which 
he described as a new species of the genus Scotonycteris.— 
Mr. J. G. Millais exhibited a series of skins illustrating 
the life-history of the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus), and 
made remarks upon its geographical distribution.—Mr. J. 
ffolliott Darling exhibited photographs of, and made re- 
marks upon, a very large specimen of the woolly monkey 
(Lagothrix humboldti) which he had observed in southern 
California.—Dr. Walter Kidd exhibited a drawing of, and 
read a note on, the arrangement of the hair on the nasal 
region of the parti-coloured bear (luropus melanoleucus). 
—Mr. R. E. Holding exhibited and made remarks 
upon a double head of ‘a lamb and the skull of a 
Spanish four-horned ram fractured in  fighting.—Mr. 
E. R. Sykes read a fourth instalment of Sir Charles 
Eliot’s paper entitled ‘‘ On some Nudibranchs from Zanzibar 
and East Africa.’’ It contained an account of twenty-two 
species of Doridida Cryptobranchiatz, of which eight were 
described as new.—A communication from Mr. Robert T. 
Leiper contained a detailed account of the turbellarian 
Avagina incola, which had recently been described by the 
author, and a note on the classification of the Proporidae.— 
Dr. Einar L6énnberg contributed a paper on two specimens 
of hybrid grouse between Lyrurus tetrix g¢ and Lagopus 
lagopus Q. 
CAMBRIDGE. 
-Philosophical Society, February 15.—Dr. Baker, presi- 
dent, in the chair.—On the occurrence of radio-active con- 
stituents in common substances: Prof. J. J. Thomson. 
The author described the results of the examination of a 
large number of specimens of water from different parts 
of England. In nearly every case the radio-active gas which 
occurs in Cambridge tap-water, and is probably identical 
with the emanation from radium, was present. In order 
to find the source of this gas a number of clays, gravels, 
and sands were examined, and it was found that in many 
of these radium was present. Radium was found in garden 
soil from the laboratory garden, in the Cambridge gault, in 
gravel from a pit at Chesterton, in still greater quantities 
in sand from the sea-shore at Whitby, in the blue lias at 
Whitby, in powdered glass, in one specimen of flour, and 
in a specimen of precipitated silica; other specimens of flour 
and silica did not contain any appreciable amount of radium. 
The question whether ordinary metals such as tin, bismuth, 
platinum and lead give off a radio-active emanation was 
investigated ; no trace of such an emanation could be found 
even when the metals were in the exceedingly finely divided 
