APRIL 22, 1897 | 
WEA TURE 
599 
preparations of several under the microscope.—Mr. G. R. Murray 
exhibited -several lantern-slides of coccospheres and rhabdo- 
spheres, prepared from specimens collected by Captain Milner, of 
the ss. Parva, while on a voyage to Barbados, including all the 
forms figured in the Challenger Report (see p. 510).—Mr. H. 
Groves exhibited a large number of Characee, collected by Mr. 
T.,B. Blowin various parts of Australasia and Asia, views of the 
localities referred to being shown on the screen by the collector. 
—Mr. George Massee, on behalf of Miss Helen B. Potter, 
communicated the substance of a paper on the germination of 
spores of Agaricine@.—A paper by Dr. A. J. Ewart, on the 
evolution of oxygen from coloured bacteria, was deferred for 
reading until May 6 next. 
Entomological Society, April 7.—Mr. Roland Trimen, 
F.R.S., President, in the chair.—A memorandum of an asso- 
ciation for the protection of insects in danger of extermination, 
which had been drawn up by a Committee appointed for the 
purpose and approved by the Council, was laid before the 
Society and signed generally by those present (see p. 588).— 
The draft of alterations and additions to the Society’s bye-laws, 
recommended for adoption by the Council, was read for the first 
time.—Mr. McLachlan showed, on behalfof Mr. Gerald Strick- 
land, a magnified photograph of Srachycerus apterus, obtained 
by direct enlargement in the camera, and extremely clear in 
definition and detail.—Mr. Tutt exhibited some of the silk used 
by Zephrosta béstorta to cover its ova, and discovered by Dr. 
Riding. It was contained ina pouch at the extremity of the 
abdomen in the form of dense bundles about 2 mm. long, and 
resembling in miniature locks of wavy flaxen hair. Hitherto 
all such coverings were supposed to consist of scales from the 
anal segment.—Papers were communicated by Prof. Miall, 
¥-R.S., on the structure and life-history of Lzwznobta replicata, 
and by Messrs. Godman, F.R.S., and Salvin, F.R.S., on new 
species of Central and South American Rhopalocera. 
Mathematical Society, April 8.—Prof. Elliott, F.R.S., 
President, in the chair.—The President made some appreciative 
remarks upon the lute Prof. Sylvester, dwelling more especially 
upon the loss to the Society and to the mathematical world 
generally sustained by his death. He mentioned that he hed 
been authorised by the Council to write a message of sympathy 
to the deceased Professor’s nearest relative.—The Rev. F. H. 
Jackson read a paper on the extension of a certain theorem 
(connected with Gauss’s hypergeometric series). —Mr. Macaulay 
gave a sketch of a note on the deformation of a closed polygon, 
so that a certain function remains constant.—Mr. Love com- 
municated an abstract of a paper, by Prof. Sampson, entitled 
«<A Continuation of Gauss’s Dioptrische Untersuchungen. ”— 
The President communicated from the chair a paper, by Herr 
Sommerfeld, ‘* Ueber verzweigte Potentiale im Raum.” (The 
method of the paper is-a generalisation of Lord Kelvin’s theory 
of images, and there are in it some interesting applications to 
diffraction problems. The paper was presented at the instance 
of Prof. Klein, who would like to bring about a somewhat 
livelier connection between English and German mathema- 
ticians.)—Mr. S. Roberts, a past President of the Society, 
having taken the chair, Prof. Elliott communicated papers, by 
Mr. A. L. Dixon, on the potentials of rings, and by Mr. J. W. 
Russell, on certain concomitant determinants.—Mr. R. Har- 
greaves and Lieut.-Colonel Cunningham, R.E., made impromptu 
communications, the latter writing on the board the following 
high primes :-—305, 175, 781; 466, 344, 409; 550, 554, 229 ; 
632, 133, 361. 
EDINBURGH. 
Royal Society, April 5.—Prof. McKendrick, in the chair. 
—A paper by Lord Kelvin and Dr. Maclean, on the electric 
properties of fumes proceeding from flames and burning charcoal 
(p. 592).—The automorphic linear transformation of a quadric, 
by Dr. Muir.—On ethene prepared from ethyl-iodide, and on 
the properties of some mixtures of ethene and butene, by Prof. 
Kuenen.—Continuation of experiments on electric properties of 
uranium, by Lord Kelvin and others. —Prof. Tait, in a short 
communication on the relations among the quantities f, 7, ¢, in 
a substance, discussed certain of Amagat’s recent results in their 
bearing upon Van der Waal’s theory. What at first sight 
seemed to be a remarkable concordance between this theory 
and the facts of experiment, proved on closer inquiry to be 
quite the reverse. —Dr, D. Fraser Harris gave a demonstration 
of the reducing power of the living animal tissues (cat and 
rabbit), made by injecting into left external jugular the gelatine 
NO. 1434, VOL. 55] 
and Berlin-blue mixture used for blood-vascular injections. In- 
jection commenced as soon as the animal ceased to breathe, and it 
was found that the liver most vigorously, and kidney next, 
reduced the ferric ferrocyanide in the blood-vessels to the pale- 
green or almost colourless ferrous ferrocyanide, which, on the 
organs being cut up and exposed to air, was reoxidised to the 
deep blue ferric salt. This reduction is the expression of the 
inspiratory phase of the internal respiration, and is a measure 
of the metabolic power of the living tissues. —In a second paper 
on hematoporphyrinuria and its relations to the source of uro- 
bilin, Dr. Harris showed that urobilin—for which urochrome 
would be a better term, as connoting no particular source of the 
urinary pigment—cannot now be held to be derived from ab- 
sorption of altered bile pigment in the intestines. It has a 
hepatic, but not a biliary origin, and in health is formed in the 
liver probably thus: Hzematin is there decomposed with deposit 
of iron and a precursor of urobilin produced, probably the 
chromogen, which, on traversing the lungs, is oxidised to uro- 
bilin, and in the kidneys again partly reduced to chromogen, so 
that we find both urobilin and its chromogen in the urine. In 
heematoporphyrinuria the urine is orange-coloured, and contains 
a less deoxidised pigment than urobilin, probably from depraved 
metabolism in muscular, cutaneous, and  connective-tissue 
systems.—Dr. Albert A. Gray, Glasgow, in a paper on the 
perception of the direction and distance of sound, dealt, first, 
with some experiments on the degree of accuracy with which 
the direction of sound may be estimated. The question of how 
far the difference of phase with which a sound affects the two 
ears simultaneously may aid in judging its direction was con- 
sidered, and Prof. Sylvanus Thompson’s discoveries in this 
connection commented upon. The author described some ex- 
periments of his own upon’ the tympanic membrane, which 
showed that pressure of the chain of ossicles of one ear inwards 
caused the opposite ear to hear a sound more loudly. This 
| peculiar fact was shown to be due, in all probability, to a reflex 
starting from the labyrinth of the first ear, and passing to the 
tensor tympani or stapedius, or (more probably) both these 
muscles of the opposite ear near which the sound was produced. 
Thus the muscular system of one ear is in connection with the 
opposite ear, and vice versa. As the positive phase of a sound- 
wave will relax the /exsor tympand, and render the stapedius 
tense, and the negative phase will produce the reverse effect, it 
is evident that by means of the muscular sense we may be able 
to estimate the phase of a sound-wave in each ear, and by com- 
paring both, be able to localise roughly the direction of the 
source of a sound.—Mr. A. Rankin read a note on the number 
of gales observed at Ben Nevis Obseryatory. 
Paris, 
Academy of Sciences, April 12.—M. A. Chatin in the 
chair.—The election of M. Radau as a member in the Section 
of Astronomy, in the place of the late M. Tisserand, was approved 
by the President of the Republic.—On the observatory of Mount 
Etna, after observations of M. Riccd, by M. H. Faye. The 
observatory is situated about a kilometre from the central crater, 
at a height of 9650 feet. The chief difficulties have not been 
due to the eruptions of the volcano, but to the heavy snowlalls, 
which frequently attain a depth of from seven to sixteen feet at 
the observatory. The mean temperature for the year iso°'4. C.— 
On the law of the discharge in air of electrified uranium, by M. 
Henri Becquerel. The loss of electricity by uranium appears to- 
be solely effected by the gas in contact with the metal, since the 
losses sustained by a uranium ball in a vacuum are extremely 
small, and are of the order of the amounts which would leak 
through the supports. Reserving the effects of varying the gas 
for a future communication, the present paper contains the rela- 
tions experimentally found to exist between the loss of potential 
and the time.—Further remarks on the classification of the In- 
seminex, by M. Ph. van Tieghem.—Morphology of the sternum, 
and clavicles, by M. Armand Sabatier. By a study of the 
sternum of the crocodile, new light is thrown upon the vexed 
question of the morphological signification of the sternal 
apparatus of vertebrates. —Interpretation of the parts of the 
anther, with special reference to the ovule in the genus 
Lepidoceras, by M. D. Clos.—Some_ remarks on two recent 
papers of M. van Tieghem.—Committees were nominated to 
act as judges for the prizes bearing the names of Philipeaux 
(experimental physiology}, Montyon (unhealthy trades), 
Cuvier, Trémont, Gegner, Petit-d’Ormoy (mathematical 
sciences and natural sciences), Tchihatchef, Gaston Planté 
