Dec. 25. [884] 



NATURE 



187 



appropriate a woman belonging to his own tribe exclusively to 

 till that, if he captured one belonging to another tribe, 

 he thereby acquired an individual and peculiar right to her, and 

 ■ 1 bee me his exclusively, no one else having any cl dm to, or 

 property in, her. He considered that this explained the preva- 

 lence of tl ture in marriage, first pointed out by the 

 nan in his excellent work on "Primitive Mar- 

 111 which Mr. McLennan attributed to the prevalence 



■ f ma n ing outside the ti ibe ; while, 



on the contrary, Sir John Lubbock maintained that individual 

 " 1 i: was founded on Ci ause this could alone give 



a man an exclusive right. This view has recenllj I conti 

 by Messrs. Fison and Howitt, but Sir John replied in detail In 

 their arguments, and supported his suggestion by >ti 



11 taken from their own work. — The Director 

 (Mr. Rudler) read a paper on the Jeraeil or initiation 



ni.ii tribe, by A. W. Howitt, F.G.S , in which the 



tailed aceount of a Jeraeil at which he himself 



. attention to the manner in which it 



; mblance to, the Kuringal of the Murring. 



Edinburgh 

 ciel tber 1. — Thos. Stevenson. C.E., Presi- 



dent, in the chair. — Mr. Stevenson made some remarks in connec- 

 tion with his election a- President. — SirW. Thorns n communi- 

 ulion of energy between colliding groups 

 lull !h. drew attention to Boltzmann's extension 

 of a theorem given by Clerk Maxwell for the first time twenty- 

 four years ago. He pointed out that, while Maxwell made his 



irem the basis of his kinetic theory of gas 

 matin's extension would, if true, be fatal to that theory. Prof. 

 iii) stated that the proofs of Boltzmann's theorem are 

 not satisfactory. The theorem itself seems i and 



cannot be accepted unless rigidly demonstrated. He wished to 

 on of mathematicians to the subject, so that the 

 he theorem might be tested. Prof. Crum Brown re- 

 marked that, even in the simplest cases to wh 



1, there seemed no accordance between 

 and actual fact. Prof. Tait staled that the truth of the theorem 

 hi to be so doubtful that he had called the attention 

 of the Society to it tv, o sessions ago, and had also referred to the 

 'published book on "Heat.'' — Sir \\ . 

 Thomson then communicated a paper on the dynamics of reflection 

 and refracti n in the wave-theory of light. He gave a complete 

 ti alhematical theory of reflection and refraction of light supposed 

 to consist of vibrations in homogeneous elastic media 

 densities and rigidities in the two substances through which the 

 1 red to pass. The theory confirmed the views 

 . Lorenz, and Rayleigh. that the density of the lumini- 

 different in different transparent 

 while its effective rigidity is equal. — Sir W. Thomson then gave 

 ' ry regarding the reflection of light from 

 a magnetic pole. Ken's discovery forms an extension of 

 hi tile action of magnetism on polarised 

 trent substances. The plane of 

 on of light reflected from a polarised magnetii polt 

 rotated through a definite angle in a direction opposite to the 

 ;>..' direction of the Amperian currents, Some time 

 ed before Ken tained by any other ob- 



ierver. Kundt finally succeeded in verifying them, and added 

 lis new i e rotation of the plane of poko 



transparent film of iron. In hi- paper 

 in gave a dynamical explanation of tin 

 mi D . Prof. Tait exhibited a new form of apparatus for deter- 

 mining tl. lility of water. Formerly he measured 

 Hi' compression produced by a given pressure. In hi- new 

 method heme: ares the pressure required to produce a given 

 n. His arrangement allows him to make any number 

 of measurements in rapid succession at anyone temperature. 

 Then the temperature can be raised, and corn 

 measurernei without once opening the coin 

 apparatus. 'I bus experiments which formerly would have taken 

 1 their completion could now be accomplished in a 

 single after 1.0 m. Rude results only have been obtained as yet 

 e compression-apparatus. These seem 

 io show thai the diminution of com, ressibility at higher pressures 

 becomes less at higher temper tures, and may possibly even 

 1 increase for the first few hundred atmospheres pres- 

 sure. But no very definite statements can be made till the new, 

 light but strong, apparatus now being made is available for 

 experiment. 



Paris 



'c-dtmy cf Sciences, December 15. — M. Holland, Pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — On the forms of the surface of the lumi- 

 nous wave in an isotropic environment situated in a uniform 

 magnetic field : probable existence of a peculiar double refraction 

 in a direction normal to the line of force, by M. A. Cornu. — 

 On the algebraic relations between the hyper-elliptic functions 

 of lis- //-order, by M. Brioschi. — On the detei ruination of a 

 special case of isomerism in the acetones, by M. G. Chancel. — 

 On a method of inoculating the large ruminants with the virus 

 of tuberculosis, by M. G. Colin. The experiments made on 

 these animals afford a means of exactly measuring the period of 

 incubation of the tuberculous elements, and determining the 

 time required for the tubercules to pass to the state of transparent 

 granulation. — On the variations of theozoi e present in the atmo- 

 sphere during the late outbreak of cholera in Paris and Mar- 

 seilles, and on the advantages obtained from ozoneine, by 

 M. Onimus. In both places there was a perceptible diminu- 

 tion of the atmospheric ozone during the prevalence of the 

 epidemic, while a marked difference was observed between 

 the ozononietric c ndition of the air this year compared with the 

 preceding. In Marseilles the mean for July of this year, when 

 the epidemic was at i's height, was 086 ; that for the corre- 

 sponding period in 1883 as high as 2' 17. In Paris the mean for 

 November was o '44 and I '82 respectively. The author infers, 

 not iba' the absence of ozone is the cause of the disorder, but 

 that it is a favourable condition for its development, while it is 

 certain that the pre- er.ee and persistence of ozone helps ma- 

 le arrest its progress. His experiments with Beck's 

 preparation of ozoneine on men and animals were attended with 

 excellent results, and produced no ill effects, even when adminis- 

 ters I in large doses. Its action affects chiefly the central 

 nervous system, on which it produces a sedative effect, tending 

 to show that this region is the main seal of the malady. — On the 



of the figure of the planets, by M. O. Callandreau. — On 

 a trigonometiic formula of interpolation applicable to any values 

 of the independent variable quantity, by M. G. hornet. — On 

 the sections of mathematical functions, by M. Laguerre. — On 

 1] nditions necessary to determine the photometric value 



of intense foci of light, whether electric or solar, by M. Ber- 

 tlielet.— On some pro. esses of practical spectroscopics, by M. 

 Eug, Demarcay — On the mutual attraction of bodies in solu- 

 tion and of solid bedies immersed, by M. J. Thoulet. The 

 author shows that, when a salt is dissolved and a solii! ; 

 immersed in the solution, an attraction is set up between the 

 tw . substances altogether independent of any chemical action, 

 and that this attraction is in direct proportion to the surface of 

 the solid body. — Note on the dissociation of the hydrate of 

 chlorine, by M. H. Le Chatelier. — Contributions to the study 

 of brucine, by M. Oeehsner de Coninck. It is shown that, like 

 cinchonine, brucine contains in its molecule a tetrahydruret 

 of quinoleine. Thus is again confirmed Wischnegrad 

 hypothesis that the pyridic and quinolic bases exist in the stale 

 ol hydrurets in the fixed alkaloids. — On the formation of the 

 shell of the egg of ScyHium canicula and Scyllium catulus,hy 

 M. K. Perravex. — On the biological development of the Chelifer 

 group of Arachnida, by M. Ch. Robin.— On the structure of the 

 digestive apparatus of Canthai \ Epicuu/a verticalis, 



, L. atra'.a, and some other members of the Can 

 tharides group of insects, by M. Alph. Milne-Edwards. — On 

 Hie anatomical structure oi the peduncles, compared with that 

 of the ordin ry axes and of the petioles in plants, by M. E. 

 Laborie. — Account of two specimens of abnormal growth in 

 the mushroom family, by M. Ed. Heel. el — Generic character- 

 teristics of Pleuraspidotherium, amammifer of the Lower Eocene 

 formations bom the neighbourhood of Rheims, by M. V. Le- 

 moine. — On the fo sils of the Carboniferous strata found in a 

 well recently sunk at Lubiere in the Brassac Basin, by M. 



I my.— Note on the periodical recurrence of the crepuscu- 

 lar glows, 'by M. J. J. Landerer. The recent reappearance of 

 this phenomenon precisely at the same period as last year is re- 

 regarded by the author as an argument in favour rather of a 

 1 than of a volcanic origin. — M. Mascart was elected a 

 member of the Section of Physics, to replace M. Jamin, recently 

 appointed Perpetual Secretary. 



Berlin 

 Physiological Society, November 14.— Dr. Konig spoke 

 on colour-blindness. A ray of light decomposed by calc- 



