July 21, 1881J 



NATURE 



279 



tion of a peat-b-'d interstratified with the boulder-drift at 

 Oldham, by G. H. HoUingworth, F.G.S. The avthor described 

 a deposit of peat interstratified with boulder-drift, exposed in a 

 railH-aycutting at Rhodes Bank, Oldham. The depth of the 

 section was only 14 feet, and it showed : — 



1. Soil 8 to 10 inches. 



2. Eoulder-clay, with beds and strings 



of peat 2 to 6 feet. 



3. Main bed of peat, containing mosses, 



exogenous stems, and beetles 2 in. to i ft. 9 in. 



(average 15 in.). 



4. Fine blue clay (floor) 2 inches to l foot. 



5. Current-bedded coarse sand and fine 



gravel 4 inches to 2 feet. 



6. Boulder-clay. 



The mosses in the peat are of northern type. 

 Silurian uniserial Stomatopora: and As:odktya, by G. R. Vine, 

 communicated by Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S. For the 

 genus Stomatopora the name Alccto has priority ; but as that had 

 previously been applied to a member of the class Echinoder- 

 mata, the author preferred the later name. Species of the 

 genus have also been described under the generic name Aulopora. 

 The author has received from Mr. Maw more than two hundred 

 weight of washed dc'bris of Wenlock shale, ab 5ut thirty pounds 

 of which, from tAelve localities, he has examined. It contains 

 a moderate amount of Polyzoan remains, generally water-worn. 

 The author described the following species : — Stomatopora 

 inflata and (iissimilis, Ascodictyon stellatum and radians (with a 

 variety sUttrietisc), and discussed the characters of the genera. — 

 Note on the diamond-fields of South Africa, by E. ]. Dunn, 

 communicated by Prof. Ramsay, F.R.S. The passes or necks 

 of decomposed gabbro, &c., at the Kimberley, Bultfontein, 

 and other diamond-mines have now been excavated to a con- 

 siderable depth, and have allowed excellent sections of the 

 sedimentary beds through which they have broken to be exa- 

 miaed. These are generally but little disturbed, and may be 

 traced over an area of many square miles. Immediately beneath 

 the surface are, generally, yellowish shales, with remains of 

 small Saurians : and beneath these a mass, certainly more than 

 a hundred feet thick, of black carbonaceous shales, with occa- 

 sional thin bands of coal. It is found that the diamonds are more 

 abundant and of better quality when the level of the black shales is 

 reached. It seems, therefore, not improbable that the carbon requi- 

 site for the formation of diamonds was obtained from these shales. 

 Some other points of min it interest were also noted in this paper. — 

 On a new Comatula from the Kelloway Rock, by P. H. Car- 

 penter, M.A., Assistant Master at Eton College, communicated 

 by the President. The specimen, to which the author's attention 

 was called by R. Etheridge, jun., is in the national collection ; 

 he proposes for it the name Acthtovutra eallo'^nensis. The 

 specimeii is from the Kello Afay rock, of Sutton Benger ; the 

 whole diameter is 15 mm.; diameter of centrodor.sal •6mm. 

 Three species of this genus are already know n from the British 

 Jurassic rocks ; two are only known from their centrodorsals, 

 which are each different from that of A. calloz'iensis. The 

 third is A. chdtonensis, from the Inferior Oolite, known only by 

 its radials and basals, which are different from those of the 

 present specimen. To this Antedon Picteti, from the Valangian 

 of the Continent, has some resemblance. It is, however, a true 

 Actinometra, differing chiefly from existing forms in retaining its 

 primary basals without their having undergone transformation 

 into a rosette. — Descriptive catalogue of Ammonites from the 

 Sherborne district, by Sydney S. Buckman. Communicated by 

 Prof. J. Bucl<man, F.G.S. , F.L.S., &c. In this paper the 

 author gave a list of the Ammonites from the Inferior Oolite of 

 the neighbourhood of Sherborne, in « hich he enumerated about 

 forty-seven species, and stated that he had about fifty more 

 which appear to be undescribed ; fully one half have the mouth- 

 termination perfectly preserved. The' author indicated the zones 

 into which the rocks furnishing these Am.monites could be 

 divided, as shown at Oborne, near Sherborne, at Wyke Quarry, 

 and at Bradford Abbas, and indicated the characteristic fossils 

 of each ; he also gave the principal synonyms of the species 

 referred to, and discussed some of their characteristic pecu- 

 liarities.— The next meeting of the Society will be held on 

 November 2, 188 1. 



Entomological Society, July 6.— Mr. H. T. Stainton, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair.— One new Member and one 

 Subscriber were elected.— Mr. \V. L. Distant exhibited the 



sexes of Morpho Adonis. — Miss E. A. Ormerod exhibited some 

 elm-leaves bleached by the attacks of a Coleopterous larva ; and 

 larvae of a species of Dolerus and of Charaas graminis, feed- 

 ing on grass. — Rev. E. A. Eaton exhibited drawings by Mr. A. 

 T. Ilalleck of the nymphs of various Ephemcrida. — The Secre- 

 tary read the report of the Committee appointed at the last 

 meeting to inquire into the history of an insect found feeding on 

 the eggs of locusts in the Troad. It proved to be a dipterous 

 insect apparently belonging to the Bomhyliidn ; and specimens 

 were exhibited by Sir S. S. Saunders. — The following papers 

 were then read : — Mr. F. Moore, descriptions of new Asiatic 

 diurnal Lepidoptera. — Mr. D. Sharp, on the species of the genus 

 Euchroma. — Mr. J. W. Douglas, observations on the species of 

 the homopterous genus Orihezia. — Mr. A. G. Butler, on the 

 Lepidoptera of the Amazons collected by Dr. Trail during the 

 years 1S73- 1875. Part iv. Geometrites. — Baron Osten-Sacken, 

 nite on the larva of Nycteribia. — Mr. W. F. Kirby, notes on 

 new or interesting species of Fapi!ionid,t and PieiiJiz collected 

 by Mr. Buckley in Ecuador. 



Edinburgh 



Royal Society, June 6.— Sir Wyville Thomson, vice- 

 president, in the chair. — Prof. 11. Alleyne Nicnlson, in a paper 

 on the structure of the skeleton in Tiibipora, and on the relations 

 of the genus to Syringofora, argued that the similarity between 

 the skeletons of these genera was only apparent, and that careful 

 and minute microscopic study proved them to be built up in very 

 different ways. In the former genus the skeleton is porous and 

 made up of fused spicules. There are no tabula-, and the axial 

 tube, when present, seems to be simply the calcified wall of the 

 body cavity, coming into contact with the external walls only at 

 the nodes which mark the stages of growth. In the Syringopora 

 again the skeleton is not porous, while there are true septa and 

 funnel-shaped tabula: which give rise to an axial tube. — Prof. 

 Tait communicated a note by Mr. A. P. Laurie on an iodine 

 battery, whose great merit is that it combines the simplicity of a 

 single fluid cell wih an electromotive force pr.actically constant. 

 Carbon and zinc pla'es dip into a solution of iodine in iodide ot 

 ainc, the iodine preventing polarisation. The zinc should not be 

 amalgamated, and should be removed from the solution when the 

 cell is not working. As tested by a quadrant electrometer, the 

 electromotive force was very approximately one volt, and was 

 hardly diminished, even after half an hour's short-circuiting. — In 

 a note on chemical aftinity and atomicity Mr. W. Durham 

 brought forward certain objections to the generally-accepted 

 theory of atomicity, arguing that there was no surticient ground 

 for assuming that one atomicity of a given element was saturated 

 by one atomicity of another element in the compound, that this 

 assumption led to the neces-ity of giving to certain elements 

 different atomicities, and that it was more rational to suppose a 

 given atomicity distributed amon? several of the like constituents 

 of the compound. — Sir Wyville Thomson comnjuriicaied a paper 

 on the physical and biological conditions of the chanrel between 

 .Scotland and the Faro I-lands. A series of soundings taken 

 last summer had proved the existence of a narrow ridge running 

 across this channel and flanked on both sides by deep water. 

 Down to a depth of 260 fathoms (the depth of the ridge) the 

 ocean water on both sides of this ridge was at much the same 

 temperature, while at lower depths the water to the north-east 

 was markedly colder than that to the souih-west ; thus at 450 

 fathoms the temper.atures of the^e regions were respectively 30°'5 

 F. and 47°'2 F. The characteristic fauna of these regions 

 showed a corresponding diversity, that of the north-east basin 

 being similar to the Scandinavian fauna, and Arctic in cha- 

 racter, that of the south-we.st being similar to the fauna found in 

 the warmer waters all over the ocean bed. Many new forms were 

 discovered in both of these regions. 



June 20. — Prof. Maclagan, vice-president, in the chair. — 

 Prof. Chrystal, in a note on .Sturmian functions, i/ave a simple 

 demonstration of a theorem of Joachim^thnl, expresing a class 

 of these functions as the succe~.sive minors 'if a symmetrical 

 determinant. — Dr. Herdman communicated Part iv. of the Pre- 

 liminary Report on the Tiinicala :>f the C//a//^«^.r Expedition. 

 — Mr. D. B. Dott gave a .short ace 'unt of a -eries of exiieri- 

 ments which he had m de on comenic acid and its .salts, 

 which he regarded as establishinf its dib.asic char- cter. — Dr. 

 Macfarlane read a paper on Morgan'- sv^tems of consanguinity 

 and affinity, which he had examineri with the help of hisanaKsis 

 of relationships. The paper c-msisted of two parts, the first 

 being a criticism of the tables of data, the second of an explana- 



