DECEMBER II, 1913] 
forms are remarkable for their advanced form of 
scutum, in which the umbo is subcentral, and show 
that the transition of the scutal umbo from an apical 
to a subcentral position was acquired independently 
by unrelated forms in distinct lines of development.— 
Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell: The peroneal muscles in 
birds. The author had dissected these muscles in 
more than 300 birds, and believed that he was able 
to give a nearly exhaustive account of the varieties 
of form presented by these structures. The paper 
described the peroneal muscles in Chauna chavaria, 
and gave a systematic account of the conditions in 
the different avian groups which could all be repre- 
sented as derivatives of the Chauna condition by loss 
of certain portions and increased development of other 
portions. 
Royal Anthropological Institute, November 26.—Prof. 
A. Keith, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—M. Fr. de 
Zeltner : The Touareg. The Touareg inhabit a region 
from the 7th degree of W. longitude to the 6th degree 
of E. longitude, and the author had explored the whole 
of this territory from east to west, reaching as far north 
as Aoudéras, about 150 km. north of Agadez, the 
capital of Air. The main object of the author’s expe- 
ditions in 1910-11-12 was the anthropological study of 
the southern Touareg, of whom he measured 145 
individuals, three being women. He was able to dis- 
cover that, despite a certain amount of intermixture, 
the race presented a great homogeneity, and that it 
differed distinctly from the neighbouring groups— 
negroes, Hausa, Peulh, and Moors. Its cus- 
toms were exclusively feudal, and women played 
a very important rédle amongst the Touareg, 
while they were treated with but little con- 
sideration amongst their neighbours. Although the 
Touareg were warriors above everything, yet one 
could conclude that they were commencing to adapt 
themselves to a settled life. As their pillaging ex- 
peditions became from day to day more difficult, a 
number of them were beginning to devote themselves 
to agriculture, forcing their captives to work, and 
obtaining good results therefrom. Internally there 
was absolute tranquillity in the Touareg country. 
December 2.—Prof. A. Keith, F.R.S.,_presi- 
dent, in the chair.—Dr. W. Hildburgh: Japanese 
minor magic connected with the propagation 
and infancy of children. The lecturer prefaced 
-his paper by describing the kind of magic 
to be dealt with as principally non-professional, and 
performed by the ordinary man or woman as distin- 
guished from the professional magician. Starting 
with various magical cures for, or means for avoiding, 
barrenness, Dr. Hildburgh showed how some of these 
depended upon the transference of the soul of a living 
or dead person to the barren woman, while others 
depended upon the simulation of a birth, or other 
mimetic means. Passing then to pregnancy, he dis- 
cussed the magical means for assuring the safety of 
the unborn child by protecting it from the attacks of 
malignant demons and from the effects of inadvertent 
acts of the mother, and those for predicting its sex 
and for assuring that the sex should be as desired. 
Faraday Society, November 26.—Mr. W. R. Bous- 
field, vice-president, in the chair—E. Vanstone: The 
electrical conductivities of sodium amalgams.—A. C. 
Rivett and E. I. Rosenblum: The influence of a second 
solute on the solubility of ortho-phthalic acid. 
Society of Chemical Industry, December 1.—Dr. W. R. 
Hodgkinson in the chair.—Dr. E. J. Russel and W. 
Buddin; The use of antiseptics in increasing the 
growth of crops in soil. The action of antiseptics on 
the soil is shown to be complex, but the most impor- 
NO. 2302, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
44i 
tant for the present purpose is that the micro-organic 
population of the soil is very considerably simplified. 
The higher forms of life are killed when sufficient 
antiseptic is added, and the bacteria are greatly 
reduced in numbers. If the antiseptic is Volatile or 
easily removed from the soil a remarkable result is 
obtained shortly after it has gone. The bacterial 
numbers do not remain low, but they begin to rise, 
and finally attain a level much exceeding that of the 
original soils. Simultaneously there is an increase in 
the rate of ammonia production in the soil; the 
evidence shows that this is the direct result of the 
increased numbers of bacteria. The increased 
ammonia production, however, does not set in if a 
large amount of ammonia and nitrate is already pre- 
sent in the soil. This increased production of 
ammonia induces a larger growth than in the un- 
treated soils; antiseptics, therefore, tend to have the 
same action as nitrogenous fertilisers, and could be 
used to supplement them in practice. The antiseptics 
used should be destructive to disease organisms, pests, 
and organisms detrimental to the ammonia-producing 
bacteria, be capable of being removed from the soil 
either by volatilisation, oxidation, or decomposition, be 
convenient in application, and not be absorbed too 
readily by the soil, or proper distribution cannot take 
place. Of the various compounds tried during the 
last three years formaldehyde is the best; then comes 
pyridine, and then cresol, phenol, carbon disulphide, 
toluene, and others. None of these are so good as 
steam, but the subject is yet in its infancy, and there 
is no reason to doubt that suitable antiseptics will yet 
be found. 
CAMBRIDGE. 
Philosophical Society, November 17.—Dr. Shipley, 
president, in the chair.—Dr. Doncaster: A possible 
connection between abnormal sex-limited transmission 
and sterility. In a previous paper it was shown that 
the rare tortoiseshell male cat probably arises by a 
failure of the normal sex-limited transmission of the 
orange colour by the male. The present communica- 
tion gives evidence that the tortoiseshell male exhibited 
is sterile. Two females of the moth Abraxas grossu- 
lariata in which the normal sex-limited transmission 
of the grossulariata pattern had failed were also 
sterile; it is therefore suggested that the sterility may 
be correlated with transmission of a character to a 
sex which does not normally receive it—E. Hindle; 
The flight of the house-fly. The paper contains a 
description of experiments on the range of flight of 
the house-fly, conducted in Cambridge during the 
summer of 1912. The results obtained indicate that 
flies tend to travel either against or across the wind. 
The chief conditions favouring their dispersal are fine 
weather and a warm temperature. The maximum 
flight in thickly housed localities seems to be about a 
quarter of a mile, but in one case a single fly was 
recovered at a distance of 770 yards. It should be 
noted, however, that part of this distance was across 
open country.—H. H. Brindley: Sex proportions of 
Forficula auricularia in the Scilly Islands. In view 
of collections of the common earwig obtained from 
two of the islands in 1911 showing as considerable 
differences in the proportions of the sexes as had 
been previously observed in collections from various 
localities in England and Scotland (Proceedings, 
vol. xvi., part 8, 1912, p. 674), a visit was made to 
the Islands in August last year. Collections were 
made in all the five inhabited and seven of the un- 
inhabited islands. There are great differences in the 
proportions of the sexes in the various islands. The 
range for different localities on a single island is not 
great. The evidence that the characters of the soil 
and vegetation show any relation with the sex propor 
