April 27, 1882] 
NATURE 
619 
for their wide extent by supposing the material derived directly 
from the decomposition of the felspar in metamorphic rocks, and 
so in a very fine state of division. The deep-water fauna in the 
Cambrian appears to have migrated from the south-west; the 
shallow-water forms, as might be expected, were more variable 
n their direction of migration: examples were given in support 
of this view. In Silurian times the direction of migration 
appears to have changed, the dispersal taking place from britain, 
owing probably to greater local upheaval there. The coast-line 
also, instead of running in a west-north-west and east-south-east 
direction, seems to have run more west-south-west to east-north- 
east, as shallow-water forms are common in Britain, but deep- 
water forms in the central Swedish area, The result of the 
author’s investigations, as bearing on classification, is that there 
is a break in Scandinavia at the base of the equivalents of the 
May Hill series, but no other break in the Cambrian series of 
Sedgwick of equal importance : no break, physical or palzeonto- 
logical, existing at the base of the Ceratofyge-limestone (Trema- 
doc), where some authors have drawn a boundary. 
Zoological Society, April 18.—Prof. W. H. Flower, 
LL.D., F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Prof. Flower read a 
paper upon the mutual affinities of the animals composing the 
order Edentata, in which the usual binary division into Phydlo- 
phaga ( or Tardigrada) and Entomophaga (or Vermilingua) was 
sbown not to agree with the most important structural characters, 
These, according to the interpretation put upon them by the 
author, indicate that the Bradypodide and Megatheriide are 
allicd to the AZyrmecophagide, and also, though less closely, to 
the Pasypodide—all the American forms thus constituting one 
primary division of the order, from which both the A/anzde and 
Orycteropodide of the Old World are tozally distinct.—A com- 
munication was read from Mr. Charles Darwin, F.R.S., intro- 
ducing a paper by Dr. Van Dyck, of Beyrout, on the modifica- 
tion of a race of Syrian street dogs by means of natural 
selection.—Mr. Oldfield Thomas read an account of a small 
collection of mammals made by Mr. A. Forrer in the State of 
Durango, Central Mexico, in which examples of several northern 
forms, not hitherto recorded so far south, and several southern 
forms not hitherto known so far north, occurred.—A communi- 
cation was read from Mr, Edward Bartlett, containing notes on 
a collection of mammals and birds formed by Mr. J. Hauxwell, 
in the neighbourhood of Nauta, Elvira, and Loretoyacu, on the 
Peruvian Amazons. The collection contained examples of new 
species of Thamnophilus and of Crypfturus, which were proposed 
to be called 7. lovetoyacuensis and C. balstont.—A communica- 
tion was read from Mr. Edgar A. Smith, containing an account 
of the collections of terrestrial and fluviatile Mollusca lately 
made in Madagascar by Mr. W. Johnson and the Rev. W. 
Deans Cowan. Various new and interesting species of the 
genera Cyclostoma, Vitrina, Helix, Stenogyra, Melanatria, Cleo- 
patra, Ampulliaria, Linnea, Physa, Planorbis, Corbicula, and 
Prisidium were described. 
Meteorological Society, April 19.—Mr. J. K. Laughton, 
F.R.A.S., president, in the chair.—C. P. Bolton, J. Dale, Capt. 
G. Gaye, T. T. Marks, G. Neame, A. F, Osler, F.R.S., and 
Miss E, I. Pogson were balloted for, and duly elected Fellows 
of the Society.—The papers read were :—Larometric gradients— 
wind velocity and direction at the Kew Observatory, by G. M. 
Whipple, B.Sc., F.R.A.S., F.M.S., and T. W. Baker, F.M.S. 
For the purpose of investigating the subject of the relation of the 
force and direction of the wind to the distribution of baro netric 
pressure, the authors have discussed the Kew observations for 
the five years 1875-79. The results show that the rate at which 
the wind blows iucreases almost directly with the inclination of 
the gradient in an arithmetical proportion, the mean rate of 
increase being 1°85 mile per hour for each additional ‘0025 inch 
of difference in the barometer readings at each end of the slope. 
The authors find that the angle at which the wind crosses the 
line of gradient at Kew does not vary with either the steepness 
of the gradient or the velocity of the wind to any material extent, 
and also that the angle is found generally to lie between 40° and 
60°, the average of the whole series of observations giving a 
deviation of 52°—On difference of temperature with elevation, 
by George Dines, F.M.S. In this paper the author gives a 
summary of his observations made at Walton on-Thames during 
the last six years. Two stands, almost identical in size and con- 
struction, were used, one being placed on the ground, and the 
other on the top of the tower of the house, the bulbs of the ther- 
mometers in the former being four feet, and in the latter fifty 
-which are the Australians. 
feet above the ground. The results show that the average 
maximum temperature for every month is always greater, and 
the average minimum lower, on the ground than that on the 
tower. 
Chemical Society, April 20.—Dr. Gilbert, president, in the 
chair.—The following papers were read :—On the atomic volume 
of iodine by Dr. Ramsay. The mean value obtained was 36°69. 
—On molecular volumes, by Dr. Ramsay. The author contrasts 
the relative probabilities of the antagonistic theories of Kopp 
and Schroder, and concludes that Schréder’s hypothesis is un- 
tenable. The author has also determined the molecular volume 
of the gronp CH, at various pressures, and concludes that its 
value is less constant the higher the pressure; thus at 20 mm. 
pressure it varies from 17 to 21, at 30 atmospheres from 26° to 
54°3-—On the action of acetone on phenanthraquinone, both 
alone and in the preseece of ammonia, by Dr. F. R. Japp and 
F, W. Streatfield. A white crystalline substance is formed, 
C,;H,;NO., which melts with decomposition about 230°, and 
when dissolved in strong hydrochloric acid and diluted with 
much water, forms a crystalline substance, C,,H,,O3, melting at 
go’. By heating phenanthraquinone and acetone in sealed tubes 
to 200° this substance C,,H,,4O, is also formed, and by passing 
ammonia through its ethereal solution the substance first 
described C,-H,;NO, can be prepared.—A study of some of 
the earth metals contained in samarskite, by H. E. Roscoe. The 
author has obtained, by cry tallising a mixture of formiates of 
terbia and yttria, rhombic crystals exactly resembling the so- 
called formiate of philippium, This supposed new metal, 
philippium, has therefore no existence.—On the spectrum of 
terbium, by H. E. Roscoe and A. Schuster.—On the action of 
thiophosphoryl chloride upon silver nitrate, by T, E. Thorpe 
and S. Dyson. The authors hoped to obtain a mixed anhydride 
resembling nitric anhydride in which some of the oxygen was 
replaced by sulphur, but no such substance was formed.—On 
the action of potassium amalgam, sulphuretted hydrogen, and 
potassic hydrate respectively on tetra- and pentathionate of 
potassium, by V. Lewes. Potassium amalgam and tetrathionite 
form hypo ulphite, but if excess of alkali be present, some 
sulphide is produced ; pentathionates furnish similar products.— 
On the action of zinc, magnesium, and iron as reducing agents 
with acidulated solutions of ferric salts, by T. E. Thorpe. The 
conditions for maximum reduction in the case of zinc are: con- 
centration of the ferric salt, a small amount of free acid, and a 
rather high temperature. Magnesium acts much less efficiently 
than zinc. With iron a rise of temperature apparently decreases 
the reducing action, 
Anthropological Institute, April 4.—Major-General Pitt- 
Rivers, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—The election of 
Everard F. im Thurn was announced.—The president exhibited 
a series of carvings and painted masks from New Ireland.—A 
paper on the Papuans and Polynesians was read by Mr. C. 
Staniland Wake, who, from a consideration of the physical 
peculiarit’es of the Oceanic Races, arrived at the following con- 
clusions :—1. The Eastern Archipelago was at a very early 
period inhabited by a straight-haired race belonging to the so- 
called Caucasian stock, the present modern representatives of 
2. To this race belonged also 
ancestors of all the Oceanic races, including the Papuans, the 
Melanesians, the Micronesians, the Tasmanians, and the Poly- 
nesians, as shown by their common possession of certain physical 
characters. 3. The special peculiarities of the several dark races 
are due to the introduction of various foreign elements, the 
Negritos having influenced all of them in varying degrees. 4. The 
lighter Oceanic races show traces of the Negrito influence, but they 
have been affected at various periods by intermixture with peoples 
from the Asiatic area, giving rise on the one hand to the so-called 
‘savage Malays,” and on the other hand to the Polynesians, 
who have been specially affected by the Malays. 5. Traces of 
an Arab or Semitic element are apparent among both the dark 
and the light Oceanic races, but chiefly among the Papuans and 
Melanesian:, the former of whom ‘may also possibly possess a 
Hindoo admixture. Mr. C. Pfoundes read a paper on ‘Rites 
and Customs in Old Japan,” and exhibited a number of photo- 
graphs and Japanese books and pictures. 
Entomological Society, April 5.—-Mr. H. T. Stainton, 
F.R.S., presideut, in the chair.—Exhibitions: A box of 
Hymenoptera, mounted on glass, by Mr. J. R. Billups; a re- 
markable Coccinella, intermediate between C. oblongoguttata and 
