336 



NATURE 



\Atigust 1 6, 1877 



Prof. Marsh, ^iii continuation of his investigation of the 

 fossil remains of the Rocky Mountains, atinounces a new genus 

 and species ol toothed bird, which he calls Baptornis advtiiiis, 

 basing it upon a tarso-metatarsal bone. He also describes a 

 new fossil lizard, by fir exceeding in magnitude any land animal 

 hitherto discovered, which must have been fully fifty to sixty 

 feet in length. It was probably a herbivorous reptile. It comes 

 from a bed on the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens include 

 two Rufous Tinamous (Khynclwlus nifisccns) from South 

 America, presentcl by Capt. Fairfax, R.N. ; a Spotted Cavy 

 (Coelogaiys paca) and a Coati (Niniia itxs/ca) from South 

 America, presented by Mr. J. Trotter ; a Gannet {Sula bas- 

 saiia), British, presented by Mr. S. N. Sharpe ; a Roseate 

 Cockatoo [CiJuiliia rincicapilla) froai Australia, presented by 

 Miss Potter. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 



INTELLIGENCE 



London. — The Rev. Philip Magnus, in his address at Uni- 

 versity College School on the occasion of the distribution of 

 prizes, spoke in high terms of the progress which that school 

 has made since he himself was a pupil in it. He referred espe- 

 cially to the extension of science-teacliing to the small boys of 

 the school, the addition of a physical lecture-room and chemical 

 laboratory, and to the fact that the school was one of the first 

 to break down the old grammar-school system of teaching, and 

 to see the importance of scientific instruction as well as instruc- 

 tion in English and other modern languages. 



University College, Bristol. — The Council have selected 

 as Principal of the College, Mr. Alfred Marshall, M.A., Fellow 

 of St. John's College, Cambridge, who will also hold the Pro- 

 fessorship of Political Economy. Several reappointments have 

 been made in the College staff ; the Lecturership in Mathematics 

 and Applied Mechanics is still vacant. The second session will 

 begin on October g, and it is understood that there will be an 

 inaugural meeting of some importance. The College Calendar 

 will shortly be issued. 



TiBiNOEN. — On the loth instant the University of TUbingen 

 celebrated, in true German style, the 400th anniversary of its 

 foundation. Among the other honours conferred was that of 

 Doctor in the Medical Faculty, upon Prof. Tyndall. 



Jena. — The University of Jena has conferred upon Sir C. 

 WyviUe Thomson the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, "■Ho- 

 noris causa." 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, August 6. — M. Peligot in the chaur. 

 — Conditions for the principal normals of a curi'e to be prin- 

 cipal normals of a second curve, by M. Seiret. — New con- 

 siderations on the localisation of cerebral centres regulating 

 the co-ordinated movements of articulate and written language, 

 by M. Bouilland. A case described in which a young man lost 

 the power of writing, though there was no indication of a 

 morbid state either in the hand or other patts of the right 

 arm, and which would commonly be called one of writer's cramp, 

 M. Bouilland attributes it to a like ciuse to that in aphasia, viz., 

 lesion of a cerebral centre regulative of tiie movements 

 involved. And if the co-ordinating centre for oral language is 

 (as is thought) in the third circumvolution of the left anterior 

 lobe of the brain, it is considered likely that either in this circum- 

 volution or in the nearest part of another, resides the regulative 

 power for the co-operating movements of written language. — 

 Experiment.al researches made with gases produced by ex- 

 plosion of dynamite on various characters of metcoiites 

 and bolides (continued), by M. Daubrce. The angularity 

 of the fragments in many cases indicates that they have 

 been subject to strongly-heated and compressed gases only 

 during a very short time, probably less than a second. 



having been separated near the end of the bolide's course. Small 

 quantities of gas may give great effects, and M. Daubree 

 shows that the |encounter of a bolide with air in the higher 

 regions of the atmosphere is a fact of the same order with some 

 of his experiments. — Teitiary strata of Vicentin (concluded), by 

 MM. Ilebert and Munier-Chalmas. - M. Thenard presented 

 (from M. Videau, of Blanzy) a remarkable specimen of crystal- 

 lised glass, obtained in a Siemens furnace, acting eight months 

 and a half. — Spherical refraction ; exposition of the laws and 

 formula: of Gauss, starting with the principle of the equivalence 

 of physical forces, by IM. Giraud Teulon. — On the formula 

 2-" -t- I, by M. Pepin. — Observations on a memoir of M. Ilaton 

 de la GonpiUiere, entitled "Direct and Inverse Developpoids 

 of Various Orders," by Abbe Aoust. — Observations of the 

 planets 170, 171, and 172, at the observatory of Marseilles; 

 discovery of the planet 173 by M. Borrelly, by M. Stephan. — • 

 Elements and ephemerides of the planet 148 Gallia, by M. 

 Bossert. — Reply to some of the objections formulated by M. 

 Cosson against the project of formation of a Saharan sea, by M. 

 Roudalre. — Comparative influence of leafy woods and resinous 

 woods on rain and the hygrometric state of the air, by M. 

 Fautrat. If vapours dissolved in the air were apparent like 

 fogs, we should find forests enveloped by a large moist screen, 

 and for pine forests the envelope would be greater than for 

 others. The forest, too, receives more rain than the neigh- 

 bouring land, and the fact is more pronounced in the case of 

 pine forests than in others. Pines retain in their branches more 

 than half of the water poured on them, while leafy trees let 5S per 

 cent, go to the ground. — On the catechines, by At. Gautier. — On 

 the ovary during pregnancy, by M. De Llnety. — On the quantity 

 of hosmoglobin in red blood corpuscles, by M. Malassez. With a 

 new colorimeter he estimated the quantity of hiemoglobin in a 

 cubic millimetre of blood ; then, dividing this by the number of 

 corpuscles in the same volume, he arrived at the average 

 quantity of h.xTioglobin per corpuscles. In Parisians in the 

 prime of life the number got was 27*7 to 3l'9 n\x gr. (or 

 millionths of a millionth of a gramme). In health the 

 " richness in hxmoglobin " varies little in an individual ; 

 but in disease it is otherwise. In anaemic persons, the 

 quantity varied between 10 and 25 ixji. gr. Birds which 

 have fewer corpuscles than mammalia, have more hemo- 

 globin in each. The same holds for fish, reptiles, and 

 batrachians, but in these, the increase of hajmoglobin docs not 

 as in birds, compensate the diminution in number of corpuscles. 

 Variations in volume (of corpuscles) may explain variations in 

 richness in hsemoglobin among animal species little apart ; but 

 for those far apart one must take account of the presence of a ' 

 nucleus, and suppose also modifications of the globular substance. 

 — Experiments demonstrating that chloroform has not any action 

 either on septlcity or on the vibrionians of putrefied blood, by 

 M. Feltz. Chloroform, then, cannot serve for separating in 

 septic putrefied blood the diastasic from the organic ferments. — 

 On a new larval form of Cestoides (second note), by M. Villot. 

 — M. Perez made some observations on M. Fol's opinions 

 regarding fecundation of the egg in the star-fish and sea-urchin. 



CONTENTS Page 



The British Association 301 



Inaugural Address of Prof. Alien Thomson, M.D., LL.D., 



F.R.S., F.R.S.E., President 302 



Section A. — Mathematical and Physical. — Opening Address by 



the President, Prof. G. Carey Foster, F.R S 311 



Section B. — Chemical Science. — Opening Address by the President, 



Prjf. Abel, F.R.S. 314 



Section C — Geology. — Opening .\ddress by the President, W. 



Pengelly, F R.S., FG S 318 



Section D. — Biology. — .\ddress by the President, J. Gwyn JelTreys, 



LL.D , F.R.S,, Treas G. and LSS 323 



TiiE UitiTisH Medical Association 327 



Our Book Shbi.f : — 



Thomas's " Jainism : or, the E.arly Faith of Asoka " 329 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Rainbow Reflected from W.iter.— William CROnjCBS, F.R.S. . . 319 



Science Lectures in London — L. Jeans 329 



Strange Dream Phenomenon. — J. Vincent Elsden 329 



Edelweiss. -Marshall Hall 329 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The Colours of a UrsK Majoris and Arctunis 330 



The System of 40 o- Eridant 330 



The Third Radcliffe CaUlogue of Stars 330 



On Biack Soap Films. By Prof. A. W. RL'cker (»'i/A Illmlra- 



tion) 331 



Rainfall IN South India. By John Allan Broun, F.R.S. . . 333 



Notes 334 



University and Educational Intelligence 336 



Societies and Academies 336 



