334 
NATURE 
{FEBRUARY 4, 1897 
proposed by Prof. Poulton, F.R.S., seconded by Mr. R. Trimen, 
F.R.S., and carried. Prof. Meldola, Mr. McLachlan, and 
Mr. Goss replied, and the proceedings terminated. 
Royal Meteorological Society, January 20.—Annual 
General Meeting.— Mr. E. Mawley, President, in the chair,— 
The Secretary read the Report of the Council, which showed 
that the Society had made steady progress during the past year, 
there being an increase of seventeen in the number of Fellows. — 
The President then delivered an address on shade temperatures, 
in which he stated that of all meteorological observations there 
were none approaching in importance those made of the 
temperature of the air, generally known as ‘‘ shade tempera- 
ture.” Indeed, the first question invariably asked in regard to 
almost any climate was as to its temperature. Mr. Mawley 
tiaced the history of the different methods of exposing thermo- 
meters since the time that regular observations of the weather 
had been made in this country. For many years open screens 
were, most favoured by meteorologists, that devised by Mr. J. 
Glaisher, F.R.S., and the late Astronomer Royal (Sir G. B. 
Airy) being the pattern principally used. In 1864 Mr. T. 
Stevenson invented an admirable form of closed screen with 
louvred sides, which was considered preferable to the open type 
of screen, and has now almost entirely superseded the Glaisher 
stand. In 1883 the Stevenson screen was considerably im- 
proved by a Committee of the Royal Meteorological Society. 
Mr. Mawley then described his own experiments at Croydon 
and Berkhamsted as regards this improved screen, known as the 
Royal Meteorological Society's pattern. He showed that the 
only two defects which had been attributed to this form of 
thermometer exposure were virtually non-existent, and there- 
fore advised its general adoption both in this country and on the 
continent. Mr. Mawley had recently made observations in 
the Stevenson screen, and also in the screens used in France and 
Germany, and the conclusion he had come to was that the 
results obtained in the Stevenson screen were not only the 
nearest to the true air temperatures, but also more likely to be 
strictly comparable with temperatures taken in a similar screen, 
but with different surroundings elsewhere. 
Linnean Society, January 21.—Mr. C. B. Clarke, Vice- 
President, in the chair.—Dr. John Lowe exhibited some fossil 
antlers of Cervus elaphus of unusually large size from Southern 
Fen, Cambridge. With these were also exhibited various 
fragments of implements and weapons which had been dis- 
covered in proximity, showing that the animal had lived con- 
temporaneously with man.—Dr. H. O. Forbes referred to 
similar antlers of great size which had been discovered in 
Lancashire during the cutting of the Manchester Ship Canal, 
and which were preserved in the Liverpool Museum.—Mr, J. 
E. Harting showed drawings of large antlers found at Bourne 
End in 1894, during the construction of the new viaduct over 
the Thames, and at Boston, Lincolnshire, in 1895, by a man 
ploughing. It was remarkable that while the antlers of Red 
Deer at the present day showed a marked deterioration in size 
and weight when compared with those obtained in a fossil state 
in England, this was not the case with the Roe Deer. He had 
seen no fossil horns of the Roe which were superior in size to 
those of the same species procurable at the present time in 
Scotland. The reason for this had not been explained. —Mr. 
Horace Monckton exhibited specimens of a common fresh- 
water mollusc, Zimnea feregra, collected by him at the 
Howietoun Ponds, Selkirkshire, showing a variation from the 
normal type in being more or less banded. Mr. B. B. Wood- 
ward exhibited a similar variation in shells of Zzmn@a stagnalis, 
wherein the banding was longitudinal—a peculiarity which had 
been recorded by Mr. T. D. Cockerell.—Sir James Maitland, 
Bart., gave the results of an analysis which had been made of 
the water at Howietoun and Craigend, with a view to determine 
_ the bearing it might have on the growth of fish and variation 
in the shells of the mollusca referred to.—The Secretary read 
a letter from Mr. J. Y. Johnson, of Funchal, Madeira, com- 
menting upon Dr. D. Morris’s exhibition (Nov. 5. 1896) of 
raphides composed of oxalate of lime in the bulbs of hyacinths, 
the handling of which had produced a form of eczema. Mr. 
Johnson mentioned a parallel case in Réchardéa ethiopica, a 
beautiful aroid known to gardeners as the Lily of the Nile. 
The laundresses at Funchal had tried to utilise the starch 
obtainable from the corms, but complained of the irritation in 
the hands produced by it, which, on examination, was found to 
NO. 1423, VOL. 55] 
result from the presence of numerous needle-shaped raphides, 
as in the case of the hyacinth-bulbs referred to.—Dr. G. Elliott 
Smith read a paper on the origin of the Corpus callosum: a 
comparative study of the hippocampal region of the cerebrum 
of marsupialia and certain cheiroptera.—On behalf of Dr. J. 
Gilchrist a paper was read on the minute structure of the 
nervous system of the mollusca. 
EDINBURGH. 
Royal Society, January 18.—Sir Arthur Mitchell in the 
chair.—Dr. John Murray read a paper on the Ocean Ranger 
Reef of the South-west Pacific. This was a reef which the 
ship Ocean Ranger had reported encountering in lat. 88° 44’S., 
long. 157° 2’ E., and desired to have marked as dangerous to 
navigation. The Penguz, under Commander Balfour, was sent 
there, but could find no reef that would be dangerous. The very 
careful soundings which were then taken had an interest of 
another kind. They revealed the presence of a huge pinnacle 
reaching to within 837 fathoms of the surface, and sinking to 
1800 or 1900 fathoms at the base. A coloured map and 
section, which showed that the pinnacle had a crag-and-tail shape, 
were submitted for inspection. At the highest point, the sound- 
ings showed $5 per cent. of calcium carbonate, and 65 per cent. at 
the lowest. From the nature of the fragments found in the sound- 
ings the rock was evidently of volcanic origin, and it was being 
disintegrated by the action of the sea.—Dr. Murray then read a 
paper on the physical conditions of the ocean to the east of the 
Australian continent. Of recent years great additions had been 
made to our knowledge of this part of the ocean, due to the 
careful surveys of Government ships. He had examined over 2000 
soundings sent him from time to time bythe hydrographer. After 
reviewing the physical and geographical features of this region, 
Dr. Murray said that the most interesting point was the reading 
of the deepest ocean sounding yet taken. Before this, 4600 
fathoms had been found off the coast of Japan, and an American 
boat had gone some 70 fathoms better ; but Captain Balfour had 
found a depth of 5155 fathoms east of the Kermadec Islands. 
The inference to be drawn from this and other data, taken 
together, was that we had here the remains of a continent that 
had sunk beneath the waves. Speaking next of the temperature 
of this part of the ocean, he said that the heated waters of the 
equator, and north of it, were driven by the prevailing wind 
to this part, where they formed a huge whirl like the Saragossa 
Sea. At 100 fathoms under the surface near the equator the 
highest temperature for the whole ocean was recorded ; and 
all over, throughout the year, the temperature never fell below 
jo; and hence Prof. Dana’s condition for the formation of coral 
was fulfilled. There was more coral here than anywhere else. 
Speaking of Falcon Island, which at one time was several miles 
in extent and from 250 to 290 feet high, he remarked that in 
1896 it was a black line upon the surface, surrounded by shoals. 
What had happened accorded with his own idea of coral-reef 
formation, which he had arrived at many years ago, and had 
since seen no occasion to change. The bottom temperature in 
the centre was 36° after 1500 fathoms. The water in the 
deep and wide gullies was colder than in the centre. Dr. 
Murray then briefly described the distrbution of products in this 
region. Calcium carbonate was the principal. At depths less 
than 100 fathoms it occurred in the percentage of 80 or go, while 
it ranged between 50 and 70 for depths down to 2400 fathoms. 
Then it disappears very rapidly till 3000 fathoms is reached, and 
there is no trace of it in the lowest soundings. Further south 
there was more detrital matter, and it was more chalk-like in 
appearance. Nearly every kind of deposit was represented, 
though there was very little Regillarian ooze. The carbonate of 
lime disappeared at a less depth in extra-tropical regions than in 
tropical.—Dr. C. G. Knott made a brief note, introducing a 
second series of investigations into magnetic strains. He had 
set himself to discover how much of the changes already 
described was due to change of length and how much to change 
of width, and he exhibited graphs of the relations of these.— 
Prof. Tait reada paper on the physical properties of the electro- 
magnetic medium. He developed the consequences of the 
hypothesis that the connection between the electric and 
magnetic vectors in Maxwell’s equations may be due to the 
fact that they are not directly disturbances in the ether, but con- 
comitants or results of the disturbance ; just as the condensations 
and rarefactions of the air, which affect the drum of the ear, are 
concomitants of the displacements of the air.—Papers by Lord 
