April 23, 1885] 



NA TURE 



595 



Anthropological Institute, April 14. — Prof. Flower, 

 F.R.S., Vice-President, in the chair. — The election of J. G. 

 Frazer, H. R. H. Gosselin, and J. Browne was announced. — Dr. 

 J. G. Garson read a paper on the inhabitants of Tierra del 

 Fuego. Three tribes inhabit the archipelago of Tierra del 

 Fuego : they are called the Onas, who inhabit the north and 

 east shores, and resemble the Patagonians in being a tall race, 

 chiefly living by hunting, but supplementing their food with 

 shell- fish and other marine animals; the Yahgans, who live on 

 the shores of the Beagle Channel and southern islands, and are a 

 short stunted race, subsisting almost entirely on the products of 

 the sea and birds ; the Alaculoofs, who dwell on the western 

 islands and are very similar to the Yaghans. These last two 

 tribes and their characters were chiefly discussed, being better 

 known to us. They lead a very degraded life, wandering about 

 from place to place, possess no houses, but construct shelters > >n t 

 of the branches of trees and build canoes of bark ; they wear 

 very little clothing of any kind. In stature they are short, the 

 men averaging about 5 feet 3 inches and the women about 

 5 feel. In the character of their skull and skeleton they 

 resemble the other wild native tribes of America, but by isolation 

 have assumed certain characters peculiar to themselves. The 

 population of the Fuegian Islands appears to be about 3000. 

 Much information is still required regarding the people and their 

 social customs. The osteological characters of the Yahgans 

 were pointed out and discussed. 



Edinburgh 



Mathematical Society, April 10.— Mr. A. J. G. Barclay, 



President, in the chair.— Mr. T. B. Sprague, F.R.S.E., con- 



1 paper, which was read by Prof. Chrystal, on the 



indeterminate form o° ; and Mr. John Alison discussed the 



s of the so-called Simson line. 



Royal Physical Society, April 15, Prof. John Duns, D.D., 

 F.R.S.E., President, in the chair. — The President read a paper 

 on Abnormalities of Development and the Reproduction of Lost 

 Parts in Living Organisms, with exhibition of Tiliqua fernandi, 

 and other specimens. — Mr. H. M. Cadell, B.Sc, H.M, Geo- 

 logical Survey, communicated notes on contorted shales below 

 the Till in Craigleith Quarry. These were very fine examples, 

 and he observed them below the boulder clay on the east .^ide of 

 the quarry in 1SS0. The non-bituminous shales overlying the 

 sandstone were at some places turned up, and curled over as if 

 by some heavy body, which might either have been the great 

 ice sheet which moved from west to east across the country 

 during the glacial period, or icebergs sailing along at a later part 

 of the same period, and striking the bottom with projecting 

 corners. The fact that the shales were twisted in different 

 directions seemed to favour the iceberg theory in this instance. 

 Mr. Cadell also referred to contortions of the edges of the same 

 series of shales in the Suburban Railway cutting at Meggetland 

 and near Craiglockhart Hill. Bending over of the edges of 

 slates, &c. , was sometimes seen in cases where the strata dipped 

 at high angles into the face of a slope, and this might lead an 

 inexperienced geologist into great perplexity. This kind of 

 bending was due simply to gravitation, and had nothing to do 

 with ice action. Mr. F. E. Beddard, M.A., F.R.S.E., F.Z.S., 

 communicated a note on the anatomy of a new species of earth- 

 worm, belonging to the genus Acanthodrilus. — Mr. Y\". Ivison 

 Macadam, F.C.S., referred to the presence of Fra^illaria in 

 [Uantiries in the wati r supply of Elie, in Fife. The 

 to b ' a hat rare one, and was found in 



the filter beds in such quantities as to form a complete coat, and 

 tip cause frequent renewal of the beds. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, April 13. — M. Boulay, President, in 



the chair. — Theorems relating to the actinometric functions of 



movable plaques, by M. Haton de la Goupillicre. — Remarks on 



■ m of a cave hyrena (Hyitna sffiaa) discovered by 



M. Felix Kegnault, and presented to the Academy by M. Albert 



Gaudry. These remains, recently found in the Gargas district, 



i Pyrenees, confirm the view already advanced by the 



author that the cave hyaena was merely a heavy variety of the 



cuta (spotted hyaena , still surviving in Central Africa. 



pathogenetic and prophylactic action of the comma 



bacillus, by M. J. Fcrran. From experiments made on several 



human subjects, whose names are given, the author concludes 



that by hypodermic inj 'ctions of this germ, man, as well as the 

 guinea-pig, may be infected with true cholera morbus, ami that 

 immunity from further attacks may be obtained by such injections 

 in more or less graduated doses. He proposes to repeat the 

 experiments here described in the presence of a Commission 

 appointed by the Academy. — On the so-called " herpol- 

 hodie," a transformation on the fixed cone of the "polhodie," 

 already described, by M. A. Mannheim. — Further results 

 in the theory of matrices : their distribution into species, 

 and formation of all the species, by M. Ed. Weyr. — A new 

 method of determining the constants o, 7, 8, of the large 

 mirror M of the sextant, by M. Gruey. — On the law of densities 

 in the interior of the earth, in connection with M. Tisserand's 

 theory of the figure of the earth, by M. R. Radau. — Resistance 

 experienced by an indefinite circular cylinder immersed, in a 

 fluid to move as a pendulum in a direction perpendicular to its 

 axis, by M. J. Boussinesq. — On the phenomena of diffraction 

 produced by an opaque screen of rectilinear outlines, by M. 

 Gouy. Two points are considered : the diffraction of light 

 within the shadow of the screen when the ambient medium is 

 more refringent than the atmosphere, and diffraction without 

 the shadow of the screen. — On the phenomena presented by 

 the permanent gases when evaporated in vacuum ; on the limits 

 within which the hydrogen thermometer may be employed, and 

 on the temperature obtained by the explosion of liquefied hydro- 

 gen, by M. S. Wroblewski. — Influence of dilution on the co- 

 efficient of lowering of the freezing-point for substances dissolved 

 in water, by M. F. M. Raoult. — On the vibratory forms oi 

 square plaques, by M. C. Decharme. — Description of some 

 important improvements recently effected in the gas-heated 

 thermo-electric pile invented in 1874 by MM. Clamond and J. 

 Charpentier. — On a new ebctric pile acting with two fluids, 

 by M. A. Dupre. — On the diurnal variation of the mag- 

 netic elements at the Pare Saint-Maur Observatory during 

 the years 1SS3 and 18S4, by M. Th. Morceaux. — On the depths 

 to which the solar rays penetrate in marine water, by MM. H. 

 Fol and Ed. Sarasin. From a series of experiments made in the 

 month of March, 1885, at Villefranche-sur-Mer (Mediterranean) 

 analogous to those previously carried out at the Lake of Geneva, 

 the authors conclude that in fine weather the last rays of light 

 are dissipated in the Mediterranean at a depth of about 400 m. 

 below the surface. — On a remarkable deviation of the trajectory 

 of a cyclone observed last February on the north-east coast of 

 Madagascar, by M. Pelagaud. Almost for the first time since the 

 Indian Ocean has been visited by Europeans — that is, the last 

 four hundred years— a cyclone has visited the Island of Mada- 

 gascar, causing great damage to the French fleet and other 

 .shipping along the north-east coast. — Note on the oxides of 

 copper, by M. Joannis. — On the mutual attraction of bodies in 

 solution and solid bodies immersed in the fluid, by M. J. 

 Thoulet. In this second note the author shows that such mutual 

 attraction exists that it is instantaneous, and that in the normal 

 conditions it is directly proportioned to the surface of the im- 

 mersed solid. — On a new process for preparing cyanogen, by 

 M. G. Jacquemin. — Quantitative analysis of cyanogen mixed 

 with carbonic acid, nitrogen, oxygen, and other gases, by the 

 same author. — On the primary haloid [.derivatives of ordinary 

 ether, by M. L. Henry. — On the existence of a nervous 

 system in the Peltogaster : a contribution to the history 

 of the Kentrogonides (Rhizocephals of Fritz Midler), by 

 M. J. Delage. —On the nervous system of the Bothryo- 

 cephalids, by M. J. Niemiec. — Notes on three new species 

 of Ascidians from the coast of Provence, by M. L. Roule 

 — A new contribution to the question of boric acid of non- 

 volcanic origin, by M. Dieulafa.it. It is shown that boric acid 

 is not always of volcanic origin, but that vast quantities exist in 

 the salt lakes and saline marshes, all the elements of which are 

 of a sedimentary character, and which amid more or less complex 

 physical and chemical changes have still their first origin in the 

 evaporation of normal marine basins. — On some specimens from 

 a remarkable fossil forest in the Reserve of the Navajos Indians, 

 Arizona, by M. E. Deste. —Note on the springs in the district 

 of Gabes, North Africa, by M. L. Dru. — On the work bein:; 

 accomplished at the station of Kondoa, established by the 

 French section of the African International Society, by M. 

 Bloyet. — On the influence of the nervous system on the tem- 

 perature of the body, by M. Ch. Richet. — Studies on the in- 

 halation of formene, and of monochloruretted formene (chloride 

 of methyl), by MM. J. Regnault and Villejean. — On the harm- 

 less character of the comma bacillus, and on the presence of its 



