April 6, 1882] 
C,H,,0,H,0 ; it is formed from a hydrocarbon heptin C,Hj,, 
boiling at 103° — 104°, contained in resin spirit. The author has 
also studied the action of nitric acid, permanganate, &c., on 
heptin.—On pentathionic acid, by Watson Smith and T. Taka- 
matsu. The authors reply to criticisms advanced by Lewes, 
Spring, Curtius, &c., on their previous work, and give further 
experiments on the subject.—On the preparation of diethyl 
naphthylamine, and the action thereon of sulphuric acid at high 
temperatures, and of phosgene gas, by B. E. Smith. 
Chemical Society, March 30.—Anniversary Meeting.—The 
president, Prof. Roscoe, F.R.S., gave his annual address, and 
congratulated the Fellows on the satisfactory condition of the 
Society, both numerically and financially: 1175 Fellows are 
now enrolled on the register. —A ballot was then held for the 
election of Officers and Council, and the following were duly 
elected :—President, Dr. J. H. Gilbert. Vice-presidents: F. 
A. Abel, Warren De La Rue, E. Frankland, J. H. Gladstone, 
A. W. Hofmann, W. Odling, Lyon Playfair, H. E. Roscoe, 
A. W. Williamson, A. Crum Brown, J. Dewar, P. Griess, A. 
V. Harcourt, J. E. Reynolds, E. Schunck. Secretaries: W. 
H. Perkin, H. E. Armstrong. Foreign Secretary, Hugo Miiller. 
Treasurer, W. J. Russell. Ordinary Members of Council: E. 
Atkinson, W. de W. Abney, F. D. Brown, F. R. Japp, H. 
McLeod, G. H. Makins, E. J. Mills, L. O. Sullivan, C. Schor- 
lemmer, J. M. Thomson, W, Thorp, T. E, Thorpe. 
Meteorological Society, March 15.—Mr. J. K. Laughton, 
F.R.A.S., president, in the chair.—The following gentlemen 
were elected Fellows of the Society:—T. H. Baker, J. T. 
Barber, W. H. Jackson, Capt. J. Simpson, R. F. Sturge, and 
Sir B. J. Sulivan, K.C.B.—The president (Mr. J. K. Laughton) 
gave a historical sketch of the different classes of anenometers. 
He remarked that anemometers are instruments for measuring 
the strength of the wind ; they are of different classes, according 
as the strength is estimated by the pressure on a surface, or by 
the velocity, by its power of suction, or by its cooling effects. 
Those that measure pressure may do so either by causing the 
plate which receives the wind to swing backwards along a gra- 
dua ed quadrant, or by bridling, that is, restraining that motion, 
and observing the resistance called into play; or by receiving 
the wind on a plate which can only move backwards, against 
either a spring, a lever attached to a weight, or a column of 
liquid. Others, again, receive the wind on the surface of the 
liquid, and show the pressure by the disturbance of the equili- 
brium in a siphon tube, At the present time, and in this 
country, instruments that measure velocity are more generally 
preferred, the type now commonly adopted being that known as 
Robinson’s cups, in which four he nispherical bowls placed at 
the arms of a horizontal cross cause it to rotate freely as the wind 
blows against them. But many very different instruments have 
been used for measuring velocity, the most primitive of which 
was-a disc of cork, fringed with light feathers—a species of 
shuttlecock—travelling freely along a considerable length of fine 
wire stretched in the direction of the wind. Rotation has, how- 
ever, been the favourite way of bringing the motion of the wind 
within reach of the observer, and to get that rotation almost 
every conceivable form of wheel or fan would seem to have 
been tried. What are known as suction anemome‘ers depend on 
the hydraulic principle of the lateral communication of motion bya 
stream. A current of air blowing across the open end of a 
pipe draws the air out of that pipe, causing within it a partial 
yacuum, which, by various arrangements, can be measured, the 
relative vacuum depending on the strength or velocity of the 
wind which gives rise to it, Several different methods have been 
adopted for measuring this vacuum ; but, though anemometers 
constructed on this principle take hold of the imagination by 
their neatness and simplicity, the unknown amount of disturb- 
ance due to friction, or-—when long pipes are used—to vibration, 
prevent their being received at present as satisfactory gauges of 
the wind’s velocity. Other anemometers have been made on 
the principle that the evaporation of water, or the cooling of a 
heated surface—other things being equal—goes on at a rate pro- 
portional to the velocity of the wind ; but, in practice, it has been 
found difficult to insure the equality or uniformity of conditions, 
or to make correct allowance for their difference, and at least one 
very ingenious instrument, by receiving the air into different pipes, 
opening different valves according to its varying strength, causes 
them to give out two simultaneous but distinct musical notes, 
the one of which answers to a definite direction, the other 
to a definite velocity. 
considered as pretty and ingenious toys: they can, undoubt- 
NATORE 
Such things can, at present, only be © 
547 
edly, mark a difference between one wind and another, but 
are quite unequal to giving any exact measure of relative 
and still more absolute force. Even the more generally recog- 
nised types of anemometer, the very commonly used pressure 
plates of Mr. Osler, or the revolving cups of the late Dr. 
Robinson, are by no means entirely satisfactory. The action of 
stream lines in front, or of the partial vacuum behind the 
exposed surface, leads to curious vagaries, difficult to understand, 
and as yet impossible to correct. But till they are understood 
and corrected, anemometry, as a science, stands ona very un- 
certain basis. The President, in conclusion, said that what we 
want is not so much new and improved apparatus for registering 
or recording ; for though those we have are not perfect, they are 
far superior to the anemometers they are applied to. What we 
want is rather some radical improvement in the instrument itself 
or in the theory which translates its action. It is to this that we 
would wish more especially to call the attention of all meteoro- 
logists.—In connection with this meeting there-was an exhibition 
of instruments, consisting of anemometers and new meteoro- 
logical apparatus, &c. The anemometers exhibited were forty- 
five in number, and included, among others, those of Beckley, 
Biram, Cator, Hagemann, Howlett, Lind, Lowne, Osler, Oxley, 
Robinson, Ronalds, Somerville, Whewell, and Wild. There 
were also photographs and drawings of old forms of anemo- 
meters, damage caused by whirlwinds, &c. 
Zoological Society, March21.—Prof, W. H. Flower, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—Mr, J. E. Harting, F.Z.S., exhibited 
and made remarks on a mummified bird of the genus Sa/a, and 
some eggs from the guano-deposit of an island off the Pacific 
coast of South America.—Mr. Sclater made some remarks on 
‘‘lipotypes””-—a new term which he considered convenient, in 
order to designate types of life, the absence of which are cha- 
racterislic of a particular district or region. Thus, Cervus and 
Ursus were ‘‘lipotypes” of the A®thiopian region.—Dr. A. 
Giinther exhibited and made remarks on the skin of a pale 
variety of the Leopard from the Transvaal, Dr, Giinther also 
exhibited and remarked upon a specimen of a new Turtle 
(Geoemyda) from Siam.—Mr, R. Bowdler Sharpe exhibited a 
specimen of a Goldfinch from Hungary, sent to him by Dr. J. 
von Madarasz, of the Museum of Buda-Pest, which that gentle- 
man had described as Carduelis elegans albigularis. Mr. Sharpe 
observed that a white-throated variety of the Goldfinch was by 
no means unknown in England.— Dr. Hans Gadow, C.M.S., 
read a paper on Some points in the anatomy of Prerocles, with 
remarks on its systematic position. Detailed descriptions of the 
alimentary organs and of the muscles were given. The author 
took the opportunity of discussing the classificatory or systematic 
value of the cca in birds. Then, after pointing out the difficul- 
ties of placing the Sand-Grouse in the Avian system, he came to 
the conclusion that the Pleroclefes (Sclater) should be considered 
as a group co-ordinate to the Rasores, Columbz, and Limicole, 
between which they formed a connecting link.x—Mr, W. A, 
Forbes read a note on a peculiarity of the trachea in the Twelve- 
wired Bird of Paradise (Se/euctdes nigra) as observed in a male 
specimen that had recently died in the Society’s Gardens.—Mr, 
Bowdler Sharpe read a note on the Strix oustaleti of Hartlaub, 
and pointed out that this bird was none other than the Grass- 
Owl (Stix candida).—Capt. G. E. Shelley gave the descriptions 
of some new species of birds which had been obtained in the 
neighbourhood of Newcastle, Natal. These the author proposed 
toname Anthus butleri (a very interesting Yellow-breasted Pipit), 
Sphenaacus natalensis (the Natal representative of S. africanus), 
and S, intermedius (an intermediate form from Kaffraria),— 
Messrs. Godmin and Salvin read a paper, in which was given 
the descriptions of some new species of Butterflies of the genus 
Agrias, from the valley of the Amazons.—Mr. E. J. Miers read 
an account of a collection of Crustaceans which had been made 
by M. V. de Robillard, at the Mauritius. The author called 
special attention to a fine Spider-crab dredged up from a depth 
of eighty fathoms, which he proposed to name Waia robillardt. 
Geological Society, March 22,—J. W. Hulke, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—William Brown, George Thomas 
Parnell, and Edwin Alfred Walford, were elected Fellows of 
the Society. —The following communications were read :—On a 
fossil species of Camptoceras, a freshwater mollusc, from the 
Eocene of Sheerness, by Lieut.-Col. H. H. Godwin-Austen, 
F.R.S.—Note on the os pubis and ischium of Ornithopsis 
eucamerotus (synonyms—Lucamerotus, Hulke ; Bothriospondy- 
Jus (in part), R. Owen; Chondrosteatosaurus, R. Owen),” by 
