166 
NATURE 
[| DECEMBER 17, 1896 
H. E. Armstrong and W,. A. Davis. 3’-Bromo-8-naph- 
thol | is prepared by digesting 1 3/-dibromo-8-naphthol 
with hydriodic acid.—Derivatives of nitro-8-naphthols, by W. 
A. Davis.—Morphotropic relations of 8 naphthol derivatives, 
by |W. A. Davis. The author shows that a marked crystallo- 
graphic relation exists between a number of I : 2 and 1 : 3’: 2 
naphthalene derivatives ; although the crystalline systems of the 
various substances examined are not the same, yet the axial 
ratio,¢ : 6 is nearly the same in all.—Researches on tertiary 
benzenoid. amines, by Miss C. de B. Evans. A number of 
sulphonic acids of benzenoid amines have been prepared ; it is 
shown that although orthosulphonic acids are readily obtained 
from aniline derivatives, there is usually extraordinary diffi- 
culty. in preparing metasulphonic acids.—On the circumstances 
which affect the rate of solution of zinc in dilute acids, with 
especial reference to the influence of dissolved metallic salts, by 
J. Ball. The effects on the rate of solution of zinc in dilute 
acids of (1) variations of concentration of the acid; (2) pre- 
vious special treatment of the acid ; (3) variations of temperature ; 
(4) variations of pressure ; (5) variations of the surface condi- 
tion of the zinc ; (6) admixture of other metals with the zinc ; 
(7) performance of the solution in vessels of different materials ; 
and (8) addition of various substances to the acid solution, have 
been studied. It is of interest to note that the addition of 
foreign salts to the solution always accelerates the dissolution of 
the zinc.—The oxidation of ferrous sulphate by sea-water, and 
on the detection of gold in sea-water, by E. Sonstadt. The 
author shows that by prolonged agitation of half-a-gallon of 
sea-water with twenty grains of mercury, an appreciable 
quantity of gold is taken up by the mercury, 
Mineralogical Society, November 17.—Annual Meeting ; 
Dr. Hugo Miiller, F.R.S., in the chair.—The balance-sheet for 
the year ending December 31, 1895, was presented, and showed 
that the state of the finances of the Society continues to be very 
satisfactory. The number of members is now 130. Two 
numbers of the journal have been issued during the past year, 
including an index of authors and subjects for the ten volumes 
of the journal which have now been published. The Council 
were able to congratulate the Society upon the continued steady 
sale of the journal. Mr. Thomas Henry Holland, superinten- 
dent of the Geological Survey of India, Calcutta, was elected a 
member of the Society. The following papers were then read : 
Notes on Zirkelite and Derbylite, by E. Hussak and G. T. 
Prior ; some crystals of iron pyrites from Cornwall, by A. 
Hutchinson ; crystallographic notes on Zinckenite, Wolfsbergite, 
Plagionite, Stephanite, Enargite, and Anglesite, by L. J. Spencer; 
the discovery of Prehnite in Wales, by T. J. Harrison.—It was 
subsequently announced that the following gentlemen had been 
duly elected as Officers and Council of the Society for the 
ensuing year: President, Prof. N. S. Maskelyne, F.R.S. ; 
Vice-Presidents, Rev. S. Houghton, F.R.S., and Dr. Hugo 
Miiller, F.RS.; Treasurer, Mr. F. W. Rudler; General 
Secretary, Mr. L. Fletcher, F.R.S. ; Foreign Secretary, Prof. 
J. W. Judd, F.R.S.; ordinary members of Council, Mr. W. 
Barlow, Prof. A. H. Church, F.R.S., Prof. H. A. Miers, F.R.S., 
and Mr. W. J. Pope ; in addition to the following members not 
requiring re-election : Prof. Geikie, Messrs. Harker, Hutchinson, 
Kitto, Prof. Lewis, Lieut.-General McMahon, Messrs. Tutton 
and Watts. 
Geological Society, November 18.—Dr. Henry Hicks, 
F.R.S., President, in the chair.—On Cycadeotdea gigantea, a 
new cycadean stem from the Isle of Portland, by A. C. 
Seward The specimen described by the author was dis- 
covered a short time since in one of the Purbeck dirt-beds, 
and is now in the Fossil Plant gallery of the British 
Museum. A comparison of this fossil with recent cycads 
and ferns brought out many points of close agreement with 
the former, and as regards the structure of the ramenta, 
evidence was afforded of an interesting survival of the closer 
resemblance which formerly existed between cycadean and 
fern-like plants. The stem has been named Cycadeoidea 
gigantea.—The fauna of the Keisley limestone (Part ii., 
conclusion), by F. R. C. Reed. The author described the 
ostracoda, brachiopoda, mollusca, echinodermata, and actinozoa 
of the Keisley limestone. He gave a list of fossils from the 
limestone, and indicated those species which occurred in the 
limestone of Kildare, the Zeffena-limestone of Sweden, and 
Stage F of the East Baltic provinces. As a result of his 
researches he concluded that the fauna had a thoroughly 
NO. 1416, VOL. 55 | 
ordovician facies; that it was closely comparable with that of 
the limestone of the Chair of Kildare, and of the Zeftena-lime- 
stone, and less closely with that of Stage F of the East 
Baltic provinces ; that its paleontological features pointed to 
its stratigraphical position being at the base of the Upper 
Bala, and that it must be regarded as the locally thickened 
development of a bed which was elsewhere in Great Britain 
very thin, or entirely absent, or represented by beds having 
different lithological characters and a different fauna; and 
that the fauna had certain unique characters which marked 
it off from all other known assemblages of fossils in Great 
Britain. 
Royal Microscopical Society, November 18.—Mr. A. D. 
Michael, President, in the chair.—The Secretary read a note, 
from Mr. E. M. Nelson, on the Hugh Powell Microscope in the 
Society’s collection. A discussion ensued, in which Mr. Ingpen, 
Mr. Vezez, Prof. Bell, Mr. Beck, and the President took part. 
—Lieut.-Colonel H. G. F. Siddons exhibited and described a 
portable cabinet for mounting apparatus. 
Linnean Society, November 19.—Mr. A. D. Michael, Vice- 
President, in the chair —Dr. D. Morris, C.M.G., exhibited from 
the Royal Gardens, Kew, the inflorescence of Prerzsanthes poltta, 
a singular species of the Vine Order (Ampelidez), received in 
1894 from Mr. H. N. Ridley, of Singapore, and now in flower | 
for the first time in Europe. P¢erzsanthes is closely allied to 
Vites, but shows in a more interesting manner the true nature ot © 
the tendrils, and a special modification of the receptacle suggested 
only in V2tes macrostachya. Dr. Morris also exhibited dried 
flower-stems of the Australasian twin-leaved Sundew (Dvyosera 
binata, Labill.), received at Kew from the Sheffield Botanic 
Garden. In this instance the stems were 3 feet 6 inches high, 
bearing about thirty to fifty large pure white flowers, nearly 1 
inch across. The plant grown in gardens in this country is 
seldom more than g inches to a foot high.—Mr. W. G. Ride- 
wood read a paper onthe structure and development of the 
hyobranchial skeleton and larynx in Xenopus and Pipa. The 
conclusions were drawn that Pépa and Xenopus are descended 
from tongue bearing ancestors, and that in spite of the anatom- 
ical differences between the two genera, the sub-order Aglossa 
is a natural one.—A paper was then read by the Rev. T. R. 
Stebbing, F.R.S., ‘‘On the collection of Amphipoda in the 
Copenhagen Museum.” Some of the more striking rarities were 
described, together with a few of a less uncommon type. The 
collection being cosmopolitan, the opportunity was taken of 
bringing into notice certain other new or insufficiently known 
forms received from Prof. Haswell, of Sydney, N.S.W., and 
from Mr. G. M. Thompson, of Dunedin, N.Z. The range of 
the various specimens described extends from Cuba to Ceylon ; 
from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific ; from the western 
coast of Scotland to the eastern coast of Australia and New 
Zealand. Nine genera and ten species were discussed, six ot 
each being new. 
Zoological Society, December 1.—Sir W. H. Flower, 
K.C.B., F.R.S., President, in the chair.—Mr. R. E. Holding 
exhibited and made remarks on a three-horned fallow deer’s 
head and a malformed head of a roebuck.—Mr. H. E. Dresser 
exhibited and made remarks on a specimen of Pallas’s willow- 
warbler (Phylloscopus proregulus), shot at Cley-next-the-Sea, 
Norfolk, on October 31, 1896, being the first instance of the 
occurrence of this bird in Great Britain.—Dr. Forsyth Major 
gave an account of the general results of his zoological expedition 
to Madagascar in 1894-96. Amongst the more important results 
attained by Dr. Major was the discovery of remains of a new 
fossil monkey (MVesopzthecus), forming the type of a new family of 
Quadrumana, and of about twenty new species of living mammals, 
several of these belonging to new genera. A very fine series ot 
bones of the extinct 4Zpyornithes obtained by Dr. Major would 
enable some nearly complete skeletons of this group to be put 
together for the first time.—A communication was read from 
Mr. Stanley S. Flower, containing an annotated list of all the 
reptiles and batrachians known to occur in the Malay Peninsula 
and on the adjacent islands. A new species of gecko (Gona- 
todes penangensis) was described, and original observations 
relating to the distribution, variation, and habits of known 
species were added, especially with regard to the tadpoles of 
various batrachians.—Mr. G. A. Boulenger, F_R.S., read de- 
scriptions of some new fishes from the Upper Shiré River, 
British Central Africa, based on specimens collected by Dr. 
Percy Rendall, and presented to the British Museum by Sir 
