July 3, 1884J 



NA TURE 



where T is the melting-point temperature reckoned from abso- 

 lute zero, j8 the coefficient of linear expansion, and a propor- 

 tional to the distance be cween the centres of adjacent molecules. 

 From the above relation, combined with those already men- 

 tioned, we deduce 



* = a constant ; 



and 



~ — a constant. 



The first of these two relations was found to hold good for ten 

 out of twelve metals examined, but for the metals bismuth and 

 antimony the ratio Tj3 : C»J is almost exactly one-half oi the 

 ratio obtained for the other metals. It was concluded that for 

 most metals the melting-point temperature may be approximately 

 calculated from the formula — 



T = 02253 X-f. 



Where C : and $ represent the mean thermal capacity per unit 

 volume, and coefficient of expansion respectively between o° C. 

 and 100° C. 



The second of the two relations was found also to approxi- 

 mately hold good. 



In the paper will be found a full discussion of the experiments 

 of Joule * and Edlund - on the thermal effects produced by 

 mechanical stress in metals. 



According to the researches of the latter the observed thermal 

 effects of longitudinal stress on a wire is to be found by dividing 

 the theoretical thermal effects by i'6l, since part of the work 

 expended on a wire which is stressed longitudinally finds its 

 equivalent in molecular effects which are not thermal. This 

 view seems to be partly supported by some experiments made by 

 the author on the viscosity of metals. 



Zoological Society, June 17. — Prof. W. H. Flower, Pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — Mr. H. Seebohm exhibited and made 

 remarks on some specimens of rare Asiatic and European birds, 

 and called special attention to examples of a newly-discovered 

 Russian species, Bonasa griseivenlris (Menzbier). — Mr. Sclater 

 exhibited the knob of the culmen of the beak of a Rough-billed 

 Pelican (Pelecanus), which had been shed by the bird in the 

 Society's Gardens last autumn ; and called attention to the fact 

 that on coming into breeding plumage again this summer the 

 bird had grown another knob. — Mr. Sclater also called the 

 attention of the meeting to a very singular habit of a Vasa 

 Parrot (Coracopsis vasa), as observed in the Society's Gardens. 

 — Mr. F. Holmwood gave an account of his observations on the 

 employment of the Remora by native fishermen of Zanzibar for 

 the purpose of catching turtle and large fishes. — Mr. R. Bowdler 

 Sharpe read some further notes on the new Corsican Nuthatch 

 (i>itta ivhiteheadi), in continuation of former communications on 

 the same subject. — A communication was read from Dr. G. 

 Hartlaub, in which he gave the description of a new species of 

 Creeper of the genus Salpornis, discovered in Eastern Equatorial 

 Africa by Dr. Emin Bey. The author proposed to name it 

 (after its discoverer) Salpornis imini. — Prof. Flower, F.R.S., 

 read a note on the names of two genera of Delphinida?, which 

 he found it necessary to change. — A communication was read 

 from Dr. Camerano, giving a summary of the distribution of the 

 native Batrachians in Italy. — Mr. G. A. Boulenger gave the de- 

 scription of a new variety of lizard of the genus Lacerta from 

 South Portugal, which he proposed to describe as Laierta viridis, 

 var. gadofii. — A communication was read from Mr. H. O. 

 Forbes, containing remarks on a paper by Dr. A. B. Meyer on 

 a collection of birds from the East-Indian Archipelago, with 

 special reference to those described by him from the Timor- Laul 

 group of islands. — Lieut.-Col. C. Swinhoe read a paper on some 

 new and little- known species of butterflies of the genus Teracolus. 

 The author referred to and described twenty-two species, sixteen 

 of which were new to science, and the others very rare. — A com- 

 munication was read from Mr. Francis Day, F.Z.S., on the 

 occurrence of Lwnpenus lumpetriformis off the east coast of 

 Scotland. — Mr. Oldfield Thomas read a paper upon the Muridse 

 collected by M. Constantin Jelski, near Junin, in Central Peru, 

 during the years 1S70-73. The collection consisted of ninety- 

 two specimens, representing twelve species, mostly belonging to 

 [he genus Hesperomys, the nine sub-genera of which were now 



1 Phil. Trans. 1859, vol. cxlix. p. 91. 



= Ann. iter Fliys. und Cketnie, Band exxvi, | 



arranged and re-defined. One species and two varieties were 

 described as new under the names of Rheithrodonpictus, Hesper- 

 omys laticeps var. nitidus, and //. bimaculatus var. lepidus. — 

 A communication was read from Mr. W. E. Distant describing 

 the Rynchota collected by the late Mr. W. A. Forbes on the 

 Lower Niger. The collection contained examples of twelve 

 species, eleven of which belonged to the Hemiptera and one to 

 the Homoptera. Two species appeared to be undescribed. — 

 Prof. Mivart, F.R.S., read a paper on the development of the 

 individual and of the species as forms of instinctive action. — 

 This meeting closes the present Session. The next Session 

 (1884-1S85) will commence in November next. 



Geological Society, June 11. — Prof. T. G. Bonney, 

 F. R. S.. President, in the chair. — Charles Edward Bainbridge, 

 John J. Evans, William Frederick Fremersdorff, and Henry de 

 Morgan Snell, were elected Fellows of the Society. — The fol- 

 lowing communications were read : — The range of the Palaeozoic 

 rocks beneath Northampton, by Henry John Eunson, F.G.S. — 

 On some Zaphrentoid corals from British Devonian beds, by A. 

 Champernowne, M.A., F.G.S. — On the internal structure of 

 Micrabacia eorouu/a, Goldf., sp., and its classificatory position, 

 by Prof. P. Martin Duncan, M.B. (Lond.), F.R.S., F.G.S. 



Anthropological Institute, June 10. — Prof. Flower, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — A paper was read on the deme and 

 the horde by A. W. Howitt, F.G.S., and the Rev. Lorimer 

 Fison, M.A., in which the authors traced a close resemblance 

 between the social structure of the Attic tribes and that of the 

 Australian aborigines. The word horde is used to indicate a 

 certain geographical section of an Australian community which 

 occupies certain definite hunting-grounds. Its members are of 

 different totems ; in fact all the totems of the community may be 

 represented in any given horde. Descent being through the 

 mother as the general rule, the child is of its mother's totem, 

 not of its father's, but it belongs to the horde in which it was 

 born. So, too, the children of aliens are admitted into the ex- 

 clusive organisation by virtue of a right derived from their 

 mothers. In Attica there were also two great organisations — 

 one based originally on locality, and another whose sole qualifi- 

 cation was that of birth — the demotic and phratriac. Both 

 included the free-born citizens, and therefore coincided in the 

 aggregate, but no deme coincided with any phratria, or with 

 any subdivision of a phratria. The naturalised alien was en- 

 rolled in one of the demes, but there could be no admission 

 for him into a phratria ; if, however, he married a free-born 

 woman his children by her were not excluded, they were en- 

 rolled in her father's phratria, the relationship between a child 

 and its maternal grandfather being looked upon as a very near 

 tie of blood. Thus, making all necessary allowance for differ- 

 ence of culture in the two peoples, it appears that the phratriac 

 is analogous to the social organisation in Australia, while the 

 demotic divisions correspond to the Australian hordes. — A 

 paper by the Rev. C. A. Gollmer, on African symbolic 

 language, was read, in which the author described the method 

 by which the natives of the Yoruba country send messages to 

 one another, and communicate their wishes by a variety of 

 tangible objects, such as shells, feathers, pepper, stones, coal, 

 sticks, &c. 



Edinburgh 



Royal Society, June 16. — Dr. Saug, Vice-President, in the 

 chair. — The Astronomer-Royal for Scotland communicated a 

 paper on micrometrical measures of gaseous spectra, which was 

 accompanied by several elaborate maps of the spectra examined. 

 The instrument used gave a dispersion of i20odegrees. Among 

 several curious results indicated was the fact that the spectrum 

 of nitrogen indicates it to be a compound, while oxygen and 

 hydrogen act as if simple substances. Prof. Smyth also gives 

 the spectra of carbon-oxygen and carbon-hydrogen compounds. 

 — Dr. Saug read a paper on the computation of recurring 

 functions, by the aid of chain-fractions. — Prof. Tait communi- 

 cated a note by A. H. Auglin on an extension of Euclid I. 47. 

 Mr. Auglin showed how, by regarding equiangular and equi- 

 lateral polygons described on the sides of a right-angled triangle 

 as being composed of equal isoceles triangles the methods of 

 Euclid's First Book might be used to prove the 47th Proposition 

 as extended to equiangular and equilateral polygons. — W. E. 

 Hoyle gave a paper on the Ophiuroidea of the Faroe Channel. 

 Paris 



Academy of Sciences, June 23. — M. Rolland, President, in 

 the chair. — Researches on the origin ami transformations of the 



