<b. 16, 1882 | 
NATURE 
379 
te 2to 4. (This large form of Neomenia from the Barents 
, measuring from 105 to 148 millim., has afforded the author 
opportunity of writing a very exhaustive treatise on its 
tomy, in which he acknowledges the generous assistance of 
. Spengel, Prof. vy. Graff, and Ray Lankester). 
Revue internationale des Sciences biologigues, December 15, 
81, contains—Elie Reclus, ethnographic studies.—M. Thulie, 
m the buttock-hump and apron of the Bochiman women.—M. 
agner, on the formation of species by segregation.—Dr. Gra- 
am, on the chemistry of panification. ; 
‘January 15, 1882,—Prof. P. Budin, ona very peculiar dispo- 
sition of the ova in twin pregnancies.—Moritz Wagner, on the 
formation of species by segregation (end).—A. Hovelacque, on 
Buffon as an anthropologist.—L. Dollo, on the toothed birds of 
the Far West ; on Archzopteryx ; and on the affinities of the 
birds. —M. Barral, on the application of electricity to agriculture. 
"i 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
_ Linnean Society, February 2.—Chas. B. Clarke, M.A., 
vice-president, in the chair.— The Rev. B. Scortechini and Mr. 
J. Marshall were elected Fellows of the Society.—Mr. Thos. 
Christy exhibited “various vegetable fibres and the manufac- 
tured pulp obtained therefrom by Mr. C, Ekman’s process, 
whereby excellent paper can be made quickly and economically 
from all sorts of coarse plant fibre. —An extract of a letter from 
Mr. Thos. Edward, A.L.S., of Banff, was read and a fragment 
shown of a supposed rare marine animal got by a fisherman in 
Jeep water. Dr. Murie identified itas belonging to the Nemertean 
worms, viz. Cerebratulus angulatus, a2 marine form found chiefly 
in the northern parts of the British coasts, but nevertheless 
seldom seen alive by naturalists. Mr. E. M. Holmes exhibited 
specimens of a new blistering insect from Madagascar, belonging 
to the genus Zficauta, and allied to Z. rufiicollis.—Mr. Holmes 
afterwards drew attention to specimens of Cinchona bark culti- 
vated in Bolivia, belonging to the ‘* Verde” and ‘‘ Morada” 
varieties of Calisaya, which hitherto have not been cultivated in 
the Colonies, but notwithstanding deserve notice on account of 
the large yield of bark and good percentage of quinine; they | 
therefore pay the Bolivian planters better than the well-known 
Ledgeriana calisaya.—Mr. J. R. Jackson exhibited a specimen 
of the Australian native ‘‘ Pituri” baz, their constant companiou 
and solace in travel. Formerly the leaf of the plant was only 
known, but Baron yon Mueller has lately shown from other 
evidence that it is derived from the Duboisia Hopwoodi.—A note 
by Mr. Otto Tepper on the medical use of Melaleuca uncinata, 
R. Br., was read. He says the dried leaves chewed and 
the saliva swallowed are a specific in cases of colds, sore 
throats, and bronchitis, the flavour being aromatic.—A com- 
munication from Major-General Benson was read; this re- 
ferred to Dr. Cobbold’s use of the name Fasciola Facksoni for 
certain flukes obtained from the elephant, the same having been 
described by Major-Gen, Benson in the Rangoon Times, 1867. 
Dr. Cobbold thereupon explained that the initials of the author 
haying alone been appended to the article in question, it conse- 
quently had received less attention than it would otherwise have 
had. To Major-Gen. Benson certainly belongs the credit of 
having first directed attention to the elephant mortality from the 
said species of fluke, though the worm was first discovered by 
Jackson twenty years before the Rangoon letter appeared, viz. in 
1847.—There followed a paper by Mr. Robert Fitzgerald, 
botanical sketch in connection with the geological features of 
New South Wales.”—Afterwards a paper was read, on animal 
intelligence, by Mr. Otto Tepper. He described instances under 
his own observation, of cats regularly unfastening the latch of a 
door to obtain entrance, and in the case of certain species of 
ants, their mode of communicating with each other, &c., there- 
from adducing a power of reasoning usually attributed to 
instinct. 
Mathematical Society, February 9.—S. Roberts, F.R.S. 
president, in the chair.—Mr. J. H. Tompson, Science Master in 
the Auckland College, New Zealand, was elected a member, 
and Mrs. Bryant was admitted into the Society.—Mr. Tucker 
read an abstract of a paper by H. M. Jeffery, F.R.S., on plane 
curves of the fourth order with quadruple asymptotes.—The 
chairman communicated some results connected with Euler’s 
formula connecting the sum of the divisors of a number with 
the pentagonal numbers, and remarked that the formula really 
expressed the equality of the sum of the divisors to the sum of 
the mth powers of the roots of a certain equation.—Mr. J. 
Hammond and Mr, Tucker also made short communications. 
Chemical Society, February 2.—Prof. A. W. Williamson 
in the chair —Dr, Odling delivered a lecture on the unit weight 
and mode of constitution of compounds. The lecturer had 
originally proposed to bring forward three questions for discus- 
sion and consideration—(1) Is there any satisfactory evidence 
deducible of the existence of two distinct forms of chemical 
combination, atomic and molecular ; (2) Is the determination 
of the vapour density of a body alone sufficient to determine the 
weight of the original molecule ; (3) In the case of an element 
forming two or more distinct series of compounds, e.g. ferrous 
and ferric salts is the transition from one series to another neces- 
sarily connected with the subtraction of an even number of 
hydrogenoid atoms. The lecturer limited himself to a great 
extent to the first question, touching incidentally on the 
third, and omitting the second altogether. A large por- 
tion of the lecture was occupied with a consideration of the 
valency or adicity of the elements and the effect thereon of 
other elements in the molecule. From various considerations 
the lecturer concluded that there is no evidence founded on facts 
to show that there is any difference between atomic and so- 
called molecular combination, but that the one passes imper- 
ceptibly into the other. ‘There is also no necessary connection 
between the valency of an element and its chemical condition in 
forming two series of compounds : thus tin in the stannous com- 
pounds is not necessarily a dyad. The lecturer also devoted 
some time to the consideration of chemical formule, and 
especially to the use of condensed or contracted formule. 
Geological Society, January 25.—Mr. R. Etheridge, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—John Blaikie, M. Ernest Jobling, and 
the Rev. Stanley A. Pelly, B.A., were balloted for as Fellows 
of the Society.—The following communications were read :— 
On the fossil fish-remains from the Armagh limestone in the 
collection of the Earl of Enniskillen, by James W. Davis, 
F.G.S. The author described in this paper a large collection 
of fossil fish-remains at present at Florence Court, Enniskillen, 
but which will soon be removed to the new Natural History 
Museum in the Cromwell Road. The collection comprises, 
besides specimens collected by the Earl of Enniskillen from the 
Carboniferous limestone of Armagh, a large series acquired 
from the famous collection of the late Capt. Jones, M.P., the 
remaining portion of which is in the Geological Museum of 
Cambridge. Several genera and species were described by Prof, 
Agassiz in his ‘‘ Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles ” (1833-43), 
and again referred to by J. E. Portlock, F.R.S., in his ‘* Report 
of the Geology of Londonderry and parts of Tyrone and Fer- 
managh ” (1843). In 1854 Prof. M‘Coy described many new 
genera and species in his work on the ‘‘ British Palzeozoic Rocks 
and Fossils,” principally derived from a study of the portion of 
Capt. Jones’s collection deposited in the Cambridge Museum. 
Prof. Agassiz paid a visit to Florence Court in 1858, and ap- 
pended names to some of the fossil teeth in Lord Enniskillen’s 
cabinets, intending to describe and figure the new forms, and to 
revise the whole of his former work. His death prevented this 
intention from being carried into effect. As far as possible the 
determinations of Prof. Agassiz have been adhered to in the 
present paper. The detached and isolated condition in which 
the remains are found renders any appreciation of the relation- 
ship of the teeth and spines, or even of the teeth only, to each 
other extremely uncertain and difficult. Some speculations as 
to the probable organisation and characteristics of the Carboni- 
ferous fishes which they represent, evolved during a long con- 
sideration of the specimens, have therefore been postponed to a 
future opportunity.—On an extinct Chelonian reptile (Vo/ochelys 
costata, Owen) from Australia, by Prof. Owen, C.B., F.R.S. 
The fossil reptilian remains hitherto transmitted to the author 
from Australia have been limited to parts of the skeleton of 
Megalania prisca, Ow. The present specimen, sent last year by 
Prof. Leversidge, is the first fossil Chelonian. The specimen 
was found in a formation at Blinder’s River, Queensland, of 
which the nature and age are not stated. It is, however, petri- 
fied. The fossil consists of the anterior porton of the carapace 
and of the plastron, brought into unnaturally close contact by 
posthumous pressure. A minute description of the several parts 
was given, from which the author concluded that though the 
characters of the carapace might be interpreted as identifying 
the Chelonian with a true turtle (C/e/one), those of the plastron 
