Jan. 29, 1885] 



NA TURE 



j u / 



seven were elected in 1SS4. The President, Mr. R. H. Sou, 



then delivered his address, in which he stated his intention to 

 treat of the general state of the science of meteorology over the 

 globe as compare 1 with the programme sketched out by Prof. 

 tame-; Forbes in the Report of the British Association, 1840. 

 He said there were now six meteorological societies publishing 

 journals, and, in addition, six periodicals almost exclusively 

 devoted to the science. He went on to say : — " With all this 

 wealth of literature thee is one particular in which, in this 

 country at least, our science labours under a great disadvantage. 

 So far as I am aware, no instruction is given in it except at 

 the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. In Germany, in the 

 current half year, no less than eleven courses of lecture- are 

 announced at as many Universities or high schools." Mr. 

 Scott exhibited a large map showing all the observing stations 

 over the globe, and also the distribution of information as to 

 teorology as contained in the Meteorological Office. He 

 then alluded to the diffeten* classes of observations proposed by 

 Prof. Forbes for different classes of stations and the degree to 

 which his suggestion- had been carried out. — The next subject 

 was the attempts which have been made by balloon ascents, 

 mountain stations, &c. , to gain a knowledge of the condition of 

 the upper atmosphere ; and Mr. Scott stated that, on inquiry 

 from the various foreign institutions which possessed affiliated 

 mountain stations, he had found that, except in the case of 

 Mount Washington, none of the observations were practically 

 much used in forecasting. No telegrams are received from 

 Pike's Peak. In one particular all authorities are agreed, that 

 no one has yet suggested any mode in which the barometerical 

 readings could be used, owing mainly to the uncertainty about 

 their reductions to sea-level from great heights. Mr. Scott con- 

 clu led his address with a notice of the important work by Padre 

 - [..of the Havannah, on the West Indian hurricanes 

 of 1876 and 1877. — The following gentlemen weie elected the 

 Officers and Council for the ensuing year : — President : Robert 

 Henry Scott. F.R.S. ; Vice-Presidents: William Morris Beau- 

 fort, F.R.A.S. John Knox Laughton, F. K.A.S., Edward 

 Mawley, F.R.H.S., Charles Theodore Williams, M.D. ; Trea- 

 surer: Henry Perigal, F.R.AS. ; Trustees: Hon. Francis 

 Albert Rollo Russell, M.A., Stephen William Silver. F.R.I r.S. ; 

 Secretaries: George James Symons, F.R.S., John William 

 Tripe, M.D. ; Foreign Secretary: George Mathews Whipple, 

 F.R.A.S. ; Council : Edmund Douglas Archibald, M. A., George 

 Chatterton, M.Inst.C.E., Tohn Sanford Dyason, F.R.G.S., 

 Henry- Storks Eaton, M.A., William Ellis, F.R.A.S., Charles 

 Harding, Richard Inwards, F.R.A.S., Baldwin Latham, 

 M.Inst.C.E., Robert John Lecky, F.R.A.S., William Marcet, 

 F.R.S., Cuthbert Edgar Peek, F.R.G.S., Capt. Henry 

 Toynbee, F.R.A.S. 



Sydney 

 Linnean Society of New South Wales, November 26, 

 1884.— C. S. Wilkinson, F.L.S., F.G.S., President, in the 

 chair. — The following papers were read : — On a new and re- 

 markable instance of symbiosis, by William A. Haswell. M.A., 

 B. Sc. PhoronU australis, found by the author in Port Jackson, 

 and briefly described in a preliminary note in the Proceedings of 

 this Society vol. vii. p. 606), forms colonies, the individuals ol 

 which inhabit chambers or tubes in a common soft matrix 

 formed of fine felted filaments. The whole colony grows round 

 a large sea anemone in such a way as to form a complete tube 

 for it, the Pkoronis doubtless profiting by the action of the 

 thread-cells in the tentacles of the anemone, in killing or 

 stunning any minute organisms that come in contact with them. 

 — On the Pycnogonidas of the Australian coast, with descrip- 

 tions of new species, by William A. Haswell, M.A., B.Sc. In 

 this paper, which i- a review of all the Australian species, seven 

 new species are 'described : Nymphon validum and tequidigi- 

 latum; Nymphopsis armalus, a new genus and species; Am- 

 mothea lon°Uollis and assimilis ; Coloss ndeis tcnuissima and 

 Plioxichdidiuin tubi f erum. — Notes on the Port Jackson Crustacea, 

 by Charles Chilton, B.A. Some new species are here described, 

 an 1 observations are made on the sexual and other peculiarities 

 characterising certain genera. — Descriptions of Australian micro- 

 Lepidoptera, by E. Meyrick, B.A. ; No. xii. CEcophoridae (con- 

 tinue I i continues the Gicjphorid,r as far as the 



genus Ocys'ola : fifty additional species are described, of which 

 forty-six are new to science. — A monograph of the Australian 

 Sponges, Part iii., by R. von Lendenfeld, Ph.D. The author 

 gives a complete description of the known Australian species of 

 Calcareous Sponges, fifty-two in number. To the species de- 



scribed by Carter, Haeckel, Polejaeft", and Ridley, numerous 

 new ones are added. A new classificatory system is established 

 in this paper. The Calcispongiae as an order are divided into 

 Polejaeff's two sub-orders, the meaning of which has, how- 

 ever, been slightly changed. To Haeckel's three families 

 and Carter's Teichonidae three new families are added. — 

 Notes on the direction of the hair on the back of some kan- 

 garoos by N. de Miklouho-Maclay. The peculiarity of inverted 

 hair on the back of some of the kangaroo tribe is traced by the 

 Baron in the genera Dorc psis, Dmdrolagus, and in one species 

 of Osp/11 an'.tr (Osphrau'er riifus). The paper also contains some 

 remarks on the dentiti in of Dendrolagus Dorianus. — Note on 

 Tribrachycrinus Clarkei, M'Coy, by F. Ratte, M.E. The pre- 

 vious descriptions of this fossil were taken from imperfect inner 

 casts only. Mr. Ratte has now been enabled to describe 

 thoroughly and illustrate this beautiful crinoid from an outer 

 cast of the calyx in the Australian Museum. Tne most impor- 

 tant additions to previous descriptions are the ornaments of the 

 surface of the calyx, the attachment of the first brachial article, 

 and the plates of the roof of the calyx. — On the larvae and larva 

 cases of some Australian Aphro ohoridae, by F. Ratte, M.E. 

 This paper describes the larval state of some small species of 

 Rhynchota closely allied to the genus Aphrophora, and belonging 

 probably to the genus Ptyelus. They are as yet imperfectly 

 known ; but the description of their larva cases and of some of 

 the larvae discloses a feature probably quite new to the science 

 of entomology. These cases, unlike those of insects generally, 

 are true shells, containing at least three-fourths of carbonate of 

 lime, and resembling in shape some fossil and recent serpulse, 

 some being conical, others serpuliform, or helicoidal. The 

 conical shells are fixed on the branches of some species of Euca- 

 lyptus, the mouth turned upwards, the larva being placed in it 

 with the head downwards. It introduces its suctorial apparatus 

 into the bark of the stem, sucks the sa 1 of the tree, and emits 

 from time to time, by its anus, drops of clear water. This 

 property of emitting water is possessed by all the family. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, January 19. — M. Bouley, Presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — On the approximate degree of accuracy of 

 the differential formulas employed in Paris, Lyons, Kew, &c, 

 in the reduction of the meridian observations, by M. M. Lcewy. — 

 Remarks on the nervous system and embryonic forms of Ga-linia 

 Garnotii, by M. de Lacaze-Duthiers. — On the existence of gly- 

 cyrrhizine not only in Glycyrrhiza glabra and G. cdimata, where 

 it was first discovered by Robiquet, but also in Polypodiitm 

 vulgare, and several other families of plants, by M. E. Guignet. 

 From a protracted study of this substance the author infers that 

 it plays a great part in the vegetable kingdom, and is associated 

 with the principal series of organic chemistry. — On the oscilla- 

 tions occurring at lung intervals in machines set in motion by- 

 hydraulic agency, and on the best means of preventing these 

 oscillations, by M. H. Leaute: — Statistical studies on the cholera 

 epidemic in the Paris hospitals, and especially on the circum- 

 stances attending the outbreak in the Asylum for the Age 1 in 

 the Avenue de Breteuil, by M. Emile de Riviere. From No- 

 vember 4, 18S4, when it made its first appearance, till January 

 15, 1SS5, when the last patient was discharged, there were re- 

 corded altogether 1080 cases, of whom 636 were males and 444 

 females. Of these, as many as 587, or 54'IS per cent., suc- 

 cumbed, that is to say, 340 males, or 53 '46 per cent., and 247 

 females, or 55 "63 per cent But in the Asylum, out of 215 

 inmites 79 were attacked (55 men and 24 women), and of these 

 65 perished (47 men and iS women), or 82-278 per cent. This 

 excessive mortality is attri rated mainly to the great age of the 

 pensioners in the Asylum, ranging from 58 to 90 years. — On the 

 advantage of destroying the winter egg of Phylloxera in 

 vineyards infested by this parasite, by M. Balbiani. The 

 paper is supplemented by a note on the employment of 

 a wash of sulphate of iron, by M. Faudran, who finds 

 this remedy extremely efficacious in destroying not only th ■ 

 winter eggs, but also the insects adhering to the plant. — 

 On Encke's Comet ; observations made at the Observatory of 

 Algiers with the o - 5om. telescope, by M. Ch. Trepied. — Sup- 

 plement to two preceding notes on the theory of the figure of 

 the planets and the earth, by M. O. Callandreau. — On the last 

 results cf sol ir statistics, by M. R. Wolf. The paper is accom- 

 panied by a table and diagram showing the number of days in 

 each month of the years 1883 and 1884 when it was found 

 possible to take solar observations at the Observatory of Zurich. 



