May 15, 1884] 



NA TURE 



/i 



the Bahr-el-Ghazal province and the Nyam-Nyam country in 

 Equatorial Africa. The collection had been made by Heir 

 Bohndorff, who had ral years in travelling over the 



region in question, and who brought a native Nyam-Nyam with 

 him to the Society's meeting. Mr. Sharpe gave descriptions of arid 

 remarks on new species and on little-known birds, some twenty- 

 seven in all, these bring of considerable significance in relation 

 to their faunal distribution. He pointed out that Herr Bohn- 

 dorff had apparently crossed the boundary line of two faunas, 

 for most of the Nyam-Nyam birds assimilated to those known 

 from the Gabion and Congo territory; whereas those obtained 

 in the Bahr-el-Ghazal and Nilotic region were allied to the 

 avifauna of North-East Africa and partly of the Senegam- 

 liian area. Among new species cited are Crateropus 

 bohndorffi, Sigmodits griseimentalis, Meso fiats strictolhorax, 

 Centhinochares interim- Hits. Pionias bohndorffi, and others 

 of equal interest.-- Mr. R. A. Rolfe thereafter gave a 

 communication on the flora of the Philippine Island- and its 

 probable derivation. According to recent computation the 

 phamogamic vegetation of the Philippines consists of 3564 

 species belonging to 1002 genera. Of 165 dicotyledonous orders 

 119 are represented, and of monocotyledons 25 out of 35; 

 while the three gymnospermere, though nominally there, are 



I r in number. The proportion of vascular cryptogams to, 



phanerogams is nearly one-eighth, chiefly ferns. Of these 

 52 species are not known elsewhere, a fact stamping indi- 

 viduality on the flora. The endemic phamogamic vegetation 

 consists -of 917 species, or a proportion of over one-fourth 

 endemic, the dicotyledons showing one-third, the monoco- 

 tyledons about one-tenth. The striking feature of the flora 

 is the large number of endemic species and the very small 

 number of endemic genera. The flora approximates to that of 

 the Malayan region, but very many typical Malayan genera — 

 I n occurring on the neighbouring island of Borneo — are 

 wanting in the Philippines. Taking into account the dominant 

 dian and Austro-Malayan features, along with numerous 

 other data and reasoning, Mr. Rolfe infers that Mr. Wallace's 

 if extinction of genera by submergence will not alone ex- 

 plain the present peculiarities of the vegetation. Mr. Rolfe looks 

 upon the Philippines as truly insular in the essentials of their 

 natural history, this not so much through their being an early 

 separation from the Asiatic continent which has had a dip under 

 the sea, as from their being largely of volcanic and geologically 

 of somewhat recent origin. — Mr. Geo. Brook read a preliminary 

 account of the development of the weaver fish ( Trachinus z-ipera). 

 In this he mentioned that the eggs had been laid in his aquarium 

 at Huddersheld, the fish themselves having been kept alive therein 

 over two years. He drew attention to the fact of there being 

 a vitelline membrane present in the eggs of this fish, as well as 

 in those of the herring ; in contradistinction therefore to what is 

 stated to be the case in osseous fishes generally. He also parti- 

 cularly referred to the persistent nature of the segmentation 

 cavity, which is pushed round the yolk-sac concurrent with the 

 development of the embryo from the blastoderm ; and that it 

 does not entirely disappear until the yolk is absorbed. The 

 circulatory system, according to Mr. Brook's researches, is very 

 late in developing, no blood-vessels appearing until several days 

 after hatching. In illustration of his paper he exhibited under 

 the microscope preparations showing the segmentation stage, the 

 embryonic shield, and commencement of keel, the early embryo 

 third day before closure of the blastopore, and fourth-day blasto- 

 pore and Kupffer's vesicle, also at the eighth day, and the newly- 

 hatched embryo. — Dr. J. Millar and Mr. J. Jenner Weir were 

 elected auditors for the Fellows, and Mr. T. Christy and Mr. 

 H. T. Stainton for the Council. 



Mathematical Society, May 8. — Prof. Ilenrici, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — Mr. J. Brill was elected a member, and 

 Prof. Luigi Cremona, of Rome, Foreign Member, was admitted 

 into the Society. — Prof. Cremona communicated, in French, a 

 paper entitled " Sopra una trasformazione birazionale, del sesto 

 grado, dello spazio a tre dimensioni, la cui inversa e del quinto 

 grade" Dr. Hirst, F.R. S., welcoming the author, spoke in 

 commendatory terms of the value of the communication. — The 

 following papers were also laid before the Society : — Motion of a 

 network of particles with some analogies to conjugate functions, 

 by E. J. Routh, F.R.S. — On a subsidiary elliptic function, by 

 J. Griffiths. — On the homogeneous equation '>f a plane section of 

 a geometrical surface, by J. J. Walker. F.R.S. — On the " sym- 

 median-point " axis of a system of triangles, and on another line 

 which is connected with a plane triangle, by R. Tucker. 



Chemical Society, May 1.— Dr. W. H. I'erkin, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — The following papers were read : — On 

 benzoylacetic acid and some of its derivatives (part i. ), by W. 

 H. Perkin, jun. For various reasons the author determined to 

 examine carefully benzoylacetic ether with special reference to 

 reactions in which the ketone group takes part. Full details of 

 the preparation of this body, which boils at 265° to 270°, and 

 gives a violet coloration with ferric chloride, are contained in 

 the paper. When boiled with dilute sulphuric acid, it splits up 



Hiphenone, alcohol, and carbonic anhydride. The barium, 

 silver, copper, and lead iared. The paper contains an 



nt of the preparation and properties of the following bodies : 

 .1 acetic acid, ethylbenzoylacetic acid, diethylbenzoyl- 

 acetic acid, allylbenzoylacetic acid, the corresponding ethers and 

 their decomposition products, anil an investigation of the action 

 of bromine on allylacetophenone. — The composition of coal and 

 cannel gas in relation to their illuminating power, by P. F. 

 Frankland. In this paper the author gives the results of a de- 

 1 .animation of the gas supplied to some of the more 

 important towns of the United Kingdom. The constituents 

 which have been determined are the hydrocarbons absorbed by 

 fuming sulphuric acid, carbonic anhydride, oxygen, nitrogen, 

 hydrogen, carbonic oxide, and marsh gas. The results are com- 

 pared witli previous analyses in 1S51 and 1876. — On selenium 

 sulphoxide : on the reaction between hydrogen chloride ami 

 selenium sulphoxide ; on selenium selenochloride, by E. Divers 

 and Masachika Shimose. — On a new form of pyrometer, by T. 

 Carnelly and T. Burton. This consists essentially of a coil of 

 copper tube, which is placed in the furnace, oven, &c. ; through 

 this coil flows a constant current of water ; the temperature of 

 the oven is estimated by the difference between the temperature 

 of the water as it flows into and issues from the coil. — On 

 fluorene, by W. R. Hodgkinson. During the fractional distilla- 



fluorene the formation of an orange-red substance was 

 I ; this seemed likely to be an oxidation product, and in 



sent paper the author gives an account of Iris attempt to 



this body, which is rendered extremely difficult, as the 

 substance decomposes when distilled in a vacuum, and is equally 

 soluble with the hydrocarbons which accompany it. 



Institution of Civil Engineers, April 22. — Sir J. W. 

 Bazalgette, president, in the chair. — The paper read was on 

 the comparative merits of vertical and horizontal engines, 

 and on rotative beam-engines for pumping, by Mr. Wm. E. 

 Rich. 



Edinburgh 



Royal Physical Society, April 23. — Dr. Ramsay H. 

 Traquair, F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Mr. Hugh Miller, 

 .f II. M. Geological Survey, read a paper on boulder glaciation 

 ami striated pavements, an abstract of which was given in these 

 columns on May 1 (p. 23). — The President gave an outline of a 

 paper by Mr. J. T. Richards, on Scottish fossil cycadaceous 

 leaves contained in the Hugh Miller collection.— -Mr. J. R. 

 Henderson exhibited various mollusks and zoophytes from the 

 Firth of Forth. — Mr. Henry Gunn, A.R.S.M., contributed a 

 paper on the silver districts of Colorado (Leadville and San 

 Juan). In the first portion of the paper, which dealt with the 

 Leadville deposits, the author pointed out that within a limited 

 thickness of from 700 to 1000 feet, typical representatives of 

 Laurentian, Cambrian. Silurian, and Carboniferous rocks were 

 to be found, and also indicated the influence which intrusive 

 rocks had in the economic geology of the district, inasmuch as 

 all the deposits occurred at the contact of the quartz porphyry 

 with the limestones. Specimens illustrative of the ores mined 

 in the district were exhibited, also some possessing unusual asso- 

 ciations of mineral, a specimen showing granules of free gold in 

 hard carbonate of lead attracting much attention from the fact 

 that it was the only specimen ever discovered in the district ex- 

 hibiting this association. Mr. Gunn exhibited specimens of 

 tellurium ores of remarkable beauty, and a sample of zinc blende 

 mined in large quantity in Pitkin County, which, contrary to the 

 opinion generally held by miners, contained large quantities of 

 silver. The second portion of the paper dealt with the San Juan 

 district, and after indicating the peculiar disadvantages under which 

 this district laboured for the first few years of its existence, pro- 

 ceeded to describe the geology of the district, which, he states, 

 to be Trachyte overlying rocks of Carboniferous and Devonian 

 age. The mineral is found in true fissure veins of great width, 

 chiefly composed of quartzose matter, but usually carrying one 

 or more gray streaks from two to six feet wide, composed of 



