March iq ; 1885] 



NATURE 



475 



living, especially his relatives. Hence the importance attached 

 the burial of the dead ; and various precautions were taken 

 that the ghost should not return. When the body of a dead 

 man could not be found, he was buried in effigy, and this fictitious 

 burial was lieU to be sufficient to lay the wandering ghost, for it 

 is a principle of primitive thought that what is done to the effigy 

 >>f a man is done to the man himself. — The director read a paper 

 by Admirel F. S. Tremlett, on the sculptured dolmens of the 

 Morbihan. About eighty sculptures had been found, invariably 

 on the interior surfaces of the cap-stones and their supports. It 

 is remarkable that they are confined within a distance of about 

 twelve miles, and are all situated near the sea-coas:, beyond 

 which, although the megaliths are numerous, '.here is a complete 

 absence of sculptures. The sculptures vary in intricacy from 

 simple wave-lines and cup-markings to some that' have been 

 compared to the tattooing of the New Zealanders, 



Geological Society, February 25. — Prof. T. G. Bonney, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — Bennett Hooper Brough, 

 Parvati Nath Datta, Robert Stansfield Herries, William Her- 

 bert Hemes, Rev. Edward Jordon, Lees Knowles, and William 

 Hobbs Shrubsole were elected Fellows of the Society. — The 

 following communications were read : — On a dredged skull of 

 Ovibos moschatus, by Prof. W. Boyd-Dawlftns, F.R. S. — On 

 fulgurite from Mont Blanc, by Frank Rutley, F.G.S. — On 

 brecciated porfido-rosso-antico, by Frank Rutley, F.G.S. — 

 Fossil Chilostomatous Bryozoa from Aldinga and the River 

 Murray Cliffs, South Australia, by Arthur Wm. Waters, 

 F.G.S. The seventy three fi issils described in the present 

 paper were cJlected by Prof. Ralph Tate, and, with a few ex- 

 ceptions, are from Aiding! and the River Murray Cliffs, 

 Australia. This collection again furnishes interesting cases of 

 species growing in both the Eschara and the Lepralia form ; but 

 the chief interest is in a number of specimens which grow in a 

 "cupulata" manner, thus in the mode of growth resembling 

 Lunttlites. Attention was again called to the fact that, though 

 the shape and nature of the zocecial avicularia (onychocella'ia) 

 are characters of the greatest value, yet their presence or absence 

 canno' be made a specific distincti in, as there are a large 

 number of cases where specimens are found with none or only a 

 few such avicularia, whereas on other specimens of the same 

 species, collected under similar circumstances, they may occur 

 abundantly over the whole colony, or in parts of the colony, in 

 large numbers. In the Challenger Report, Mr. Busk refers to a 

 1 process rising from the middle of the base of the avicu- 

 larian mandible, and names it "columella." This he considers 

 only occurs in one division of the Cellepora, and in this division 

 only in those belonging to the southern hemisphere. This was 

 shown to be by no means the case, as it is found in the 

 mandibles of Cellepora sardonica from the Mediterranean, in two 

 other common Mediterranean Cellepora, &c. In many species 

 there is a denticle in this po-ition rising from the calcareous 

 bar which divides the avicularium. This denticle occurs in 

 various genera and species, and may often be found a useful 

 specific character when examining fossils. Out of the 220 

 species now described in this series of papers, just about one- 

 half are now known living. The species noticed in this paper 

 are seventy-three in number, referred by the author to the 

 genera Cellaria, Mem Tonoporella, Ste- 



,//-', Cribrilina Mueronelta, Microporella, Lunulites, 

 Porina, Lepralia, Smittia Schizoporella, Mastig iphora, Rete- 

 Rhynthopora, Cellepora, Lekythopora, and Selenaria. 

 Five species are described as new, namely, Microporella poeilii- 

 formi , tfinita, t lizoporella pro- 



tensa, and Membranipora temporaria. 



Victoria Institute, March 16. — Mr. W. P. James read a 

 paper on the relation of fossil botany to theories of evolution, 

 in which he gave a resume" of the whole epiestion with which his 

 paper dealt. 



Edinburgh 



Mathematical Society, March 13. — Mr. George Thorn, Vice" 

 lent, in the chair. — Mr. George A. Gibson read a paper 

 on Gilbert's method of treating tangents to confocal conicoids. 

 — Mr. J. S. Mackay gave an account of Schooten's geometry of 

 the rule — Mr. A. Y. Fraser read a note by Mr. P. Alexander 

 on two definite integrals. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, March 9. — M. Bouley, President, 

 in the chair. — Obituary notices of the late M. J. A. Serret, 

 Member of the Section for Geometry, by MM. Jordan, Bonnet, 



Faye, and Renan. — Methods of observing the polar stars at a 

 great distance from the meridian, with a table containing the 

 corrective term intended to facilitate the reductions, by M. M. 

 Lcewy. — Bromuretted substitutions of the polyatomic phenols, 

 by MM. Berthelot and Werner. Here the authors deal with 

 resorcine (C la H e 4 ) and orcine (C 14 H 8 4 ) diatomic phenols, 

 each of which furnishes a tribromuretted substance capable of 

 being employed in their quantitative analysis. — On the decom- 

 posing action exercised by the chloride of aluminium on certain 

 hydrocarburets, by MM. C. Friedel and J. M. Crafts. — Report 

 on the new gallery of palaeontology in the Paris Natural History 

 Museum, by M. A. Gaudry. This gallery, which has been fitted 

 up in the Whale Court, contains specimens of Megatherium 

 Cuveri, Elepkas meridionalis, Mastodon auqustideus, Cervus 

 viegaeeros, Testudo elephanlina, Pelagosaurus typus, Paheo- 

 therium magnum, and some other gigantic extinct animals. — 

 Observations of the planet 245, discovered by M. Borrelly at the 

 (observatory of Marseilles, by M. Stephan. — On some anomalies 

 in the phenomenon of tides in connection with M.. Hatt's work, 

 by M. de Jonquieres. — -Report on the International Congress of 

 Washington, and on the resolutions there adopted respecting 

 the first meridian, the universal hour, and the extension of the 

 decimal system to the measurement of angles and of time, by 

 M. J. Janssen, representative of France at the Congress. The 

 report, which is partly occupied with M. Janssen's address 

 objecting to Greenwich, and advocating a neutral first meridian 

 at the Azores or Behring's Straits, concludes with the words: 

 " However this be, and apart from the question of the meridian, 

 which is not yet decided, let us not forget that the accession of 

 England to the convention for the metrical system and the 

 wish expressed for its general extension are important re- 

 sults, showing that our presence in Washington has not 

 been useless either for science or progress." — Report on M. 

 Leaute's memoir on oscillations at long intervals in ma- 

 chines propelled by hydraulic action, and on the means of 

 preventing those oscillations, by M. Phillips. — Observations of 

 Encke's comet made at the Observatory of Paris (equatorial 

 coude), by M. Perigaud. — Spectroscopic studies, by M. Ch. V. 

 Zc-uger. The author submits a method for clearing from the 

 field of vision all rays except those lying nearest to the C band, 

 and for thus observing, by means of the parallelopiped of dis- 

 persion, the protuberances proper to hydrogen under the mono- 

 chromatic red light. — A method of avoiding the dangers incident 

 to mechanical generators of electricity : reply to M. Daussin's 

 claim to priority of invention, by M. A. d'Arsonval. — Study of 

 the means employed to take the potential of the atmosphere : 

 electromotor force of combustion, by M. H. Pellat. — On the 

 decomposition of salts by water, by M. H. Le Chatelier. The 

 author, against the generally-accepted views, formulates and 

 demonstrates the two following propositions : — (1) The quantity 

 of free acid required to resist the decomposition of a salt in 

 solution increases indefinitely with the proportion of the salt 

 contained in the fluid ; (2) the decomposition of a salt in solu- 

 tion increases or diminishes with the chauges of temperature, 

 according as this decomposition absorbs or liberates heat. — On 

 the separation of titanium from niobium and zirconium, by M. 

 Eug. Demarcay. — On the normal pyrotartaric and succinic 

 nitriles (CN - (CH,) -CN ; and CN - (CH.). - CN), by M. 

 Louis Henry. — On the preparation, properties, and reactions of 

 iodacetone, by MM. P. de Clermont and P. Cha.itard. — Heat 

 of formation of the glyonal bisulphide of ammoniac, by M. de 

 Forcrand. — Researches on the colouring matters of leaves ; 

 identity of the orange-red matter with carotine, C^H^O, by M. 

 Arnaud. — On the analogies with and differences between the 

 genus Simcedosaurus of the Cernay fauna, Rheims district, and 

 the genus Champsosaurus of Erguelinnes, by M. V. Lemoine. — 

 Underground rumblings heard on August 26, 18S3 (date of the 

 Karakatoa eruption), at the island of Caiman-Brae, Caribbean 

 Sea, 20° N. lat., 8o° E. long., by M. F. A. Forel.— Remarks 

 on the three first numbers of Rossi's decennial Bulletin of the 

 Observatory and central geodynamic Archives of Rome, by M. 

 Daubree. 



Berlin 

 Physical Society, February 6. — Dr. Konig communicated 

 an experiment he had carried out in conjunction with Dr. 

 Richarz, with a view to testing the ground of a misgiving ex- 

 pressed at a recent meeting of the Society in connection with a 

 plan he had set forth for the purpose of determining the con- 

 stants of gravitation (vide Nature, vol. xxxi. p. 260). It was 

 maintained that the lead block of 2000 centners would, on 



