upposition that they originated in peaty or non-peaty lagoons 
cen alluvial he of the deltas’ of athe Cleeccns for- 
‘mations, which wou'd present semi-terrestrial conditions, that 
is to say, a surface exposed to the air but subject to be covered 
‘by floods. 4. Note in vindication of Leptophlaum rhom- 
um and Lepidodendron gaspianum, by Principal Dawson. 
LL.D, F.R.S. This note sccompanied some photographs of 
the remains of plants referred to, and was in opposition to the 
identification of these remains with the ZLefidodendron nothum 
‘Unger, as proposed by Mr. Carruthers in his Appendix to Mr. 
-Daintree’s paper on the Geology of Queensland. 
Zoological Society, March 18, 1873.—The Viscount Walden, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—A communication was read 
from Mr. R. B. Watson on some marine mollusca from Madeira, 
including a new genus of the AZuricidie, proposed to be cailed 
Chascax and a new Rissoina, and embracing descriptions of the 
whole of the Aissow of the group of islands. —A communication 
was read from Dr. J. D. Macdonald, F.R.S., on a specimen of 
Acanthias vulgaris and a species of Ga/eus, probably new to 
‘science, taken off Flinder’s Island, Bass’ Straits. —Mr. W. T. 
Blandford read a paper on the Gazelles of India and Persia. 
This contained the description of a new species, Gazella fuscifrons, 
founded on a single specimen obtained by the author in 1872, 
near the edge of the desert of Scistan.—A communication was 
read fiom Dr. J. S. Bowerbank, F.R.S., contaming the fifth 
‘a of a series of memoirs entitled Contributions to a General 
_ History of the Spongiadze.— A communication was read from Mr. 
Gerard Krefit, C.M.Z.S., containing the description of a new 
species of crocodile from Queensland, proposed to be called 
| Crocodilus johnsoni.—Mr. Edward Bartlett exhibited and gave 
the description of a new moth belonging to the family Saturniide, 
which had been obtained in the interior of Madagascar by Mr. 
_ T. Waters, and which was proposed to be calied 7rofaa 
madagascariensts, 
Mathematical Society, March 13.—Dr. Hirst, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—Prof. Greenhill, of Cooper’s Hill Col- 
lege, was elected a member.—Mr. R. B. Hayward read a paper 
on an extension of the term avea to any closed circuit in space. 
In the sense in which the writer employed the term, area 1s no 
longer a mere magnitude or a magnitude affected only with the 
positive or negative sign, but a magnitude affected with direc- 
tion; in other words it is a vector, not simplya sca/ar. The 
paper concluded with a few illustrations of tve use of this ex- 
tension of the term area,—Other communications were, on the 
evaluation of a class of definite integrals involving circular func- 
tions in the numerator and powers of the variable only in the 
denominator, by Mr. J. W. L. Glaisher ; note on norma's and 
the surface of centres of an algebraical surface, by Mr. 5. Roberts, 
V.P. ; and a proof of the proposition that a number which di- 
vides the product of two numbers and is prime to one of them 
will divide the other, by Mr. M. Jenkins (Hon. Sec.).—Notice 
was taken in NATURE (August 1, 1872) of the formation of a 
mathematical society in Paris on the plan of the similar societies 
of London, Moscow and Berlin. This society having for- 
warded the first number of its ‘* Bulletin,” it was agreed to ex- 
change publications. 3 
Chemical Society, March 20, Dr. Frankland, F.R.S., pre- 
sident, in the chair.—Mr. C. W. Siemens, F.R.S., delivered a 
lecture “ On Iron and Steel.” 
his former discourse delivered beiore the Society in 18638, and 
describing the various experiments he had made to obtain malle- 
able iron direct from the ore, gave an account of the process by 
which he had suceeeded in completely atraining that onject. Lt 
consists essentially in fusing the ore hy means of the most in- 
tense heat in a revolving furnace, and then adding the requisite 
amount of carbonaceous matter to reduce the iron to the metallic 
state. The mallzable iron thus precipitated in the mojten mass 
becomes aggregated into balls by the revolution of the furnace, 
and can then be easily removed. It is free from sulphur, phos- 
phorus, and other impurities, and dissolves readily in a bath of 
molten cast iron, producing steel of a quality equal to that made 
from the best Swedish bar iron. 
Anthropological Institute, March 18. —Prof. Busk, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair, A paper was read hy Mr. George 
Harris, F.S.A., on theories regarding intellect and instinct, 
with an attempt to deduce a satisfactory conclusion therefrom. 
The author, after taking a general survey of the opinions on this 
subject, citing those of Aristotle, Plato, Descartes, Hob’ es, 
_Locke, and several other writers, including some modern authori- 
ties, proceeded to compare them one with another, and to con- 
— 
ee 
415 
sider how far certain apparently irreconcileable differences might 
be considered compatible. The great perfection of the sensitive 
system in animals he considered to be the main cause of the 
unerring dexterity with which they engage in various operaticns 
connected with their career. And although they differ essentially 
from man as regards his capacity for abstract studics, it appears 
difficult to deny to them the possession of an immaterial being 
of some kind. High authorities, both among philosophers and 
divines, have attributed to them a future state o! existence. Mr. 
Haris also read a paper on the concurrent contemporaneous pro- 
gress of renovation and waste in animated frames, and the eatent to 
which such operaions are controllable by artificial means. Tie 
wriier took a general view of the opinions of tios- woo have 
treated on this subject, more especially the older authorities, eting 
Galen, Willis, Buffon, Hunter, and Smellie, and refirnmg also 
to recent articles on the subject in Avaser’s Magazin’ aud the 
Edinburgh Review. We adverted to the ascertsined ‘act of the 
progress of renoystion and waste in ali animated frames, as also 
to the circums'ance that certain of these operations were known 
to be controllable. He anzlysed the princinie of waste and 
decay in different bodies, and ref-rred to ossification of the bones 
and deterioration of the blood as contributing to thos= conditions. 
As medical science advances these matters might be more per- 
fectly understood. He recommended experiments of vatious 
kinds as to the nature of substances, and their effect on bodies 
animate as well as inanimate, and with regard to animals and 
plants as well as man. 
Royal Horticultural Society, March 19.—Scientific Com- 
mittee, Dr. J. D. Hooker, C.B., in the chair. Prof. Thiselton 
Dyer called at'ention to the discovery by Fankhauser of the pro- 
thollial stage of Lycofodium. It appears to be aimost identical 
with that of the Ophioglossez, and consequently a.tocether dif- 
ferent from that of Se/aginel/a. It was remarkable that tie curs 
boniferous Lefidostrobus and Triplosforites differed as regaids 
their spores in precisely the same way as /ycofoutum ani Sela- 
ginella. Tf the nature of the germination ia the two later must 
be held to imply systematic diversiry, analogy woulki equally 
imply it in the case of the two former. But the pa allilism 
would, under these circumstances, be exiremey difficult to 
understand.—General Meeting, W. Wilson Saun lers, F.R.S., 
in the chair. The Rev. M. J. Berk Jey commented on the fine 
collection of Cycadeacee exhibited by Mr. Buil, a well-fruiced 
pot-plant of the Loquat (Zriobotrya japonica), and Epizendrum 
erubescens—a Guatemalan orchid rarely seen in flower, which 
was exhibited by Mr. C. Leach. 
Entomological Society, March 17.—Prof. »Westwood, 
presisent, in the chair.—M. mest Olivier was balloted for and 
elected a foreign member. —The president exhibited a very rare 
species of Paussus trom Abyssinia. —Mr. Smith exhibited a box 
of ants sent from Calcutta by Mr. G. A. J. Kothney, collected 
principally in the Botavic Gardens. There were masy new 
Species amongst them, a complete series of which was to be re- 
served for the national collection. —Mr. Cole exhibited two boxes 
of Bombycide from Natal.—Mir. Bates reid a paper on some 
species of geodephagous coleoptera trom China.—Mr. Mii’er 
made some remarks on a beetle (Aveocerus coffee) which had 
been imported into Basle with some coffce roin Java, and that 
5 , the inseet had since become naiurslised and might be ound in 
The lecturer, after adveriing to | 
any quantity there. Mr. Miiller also remarked on a cargo of 
ground nuts which arrived in London direct ‘rom Sierra Leone, 
; the kernels of which were destroyed by myriads of the Jarvee and 
perfect insects of the Zyibolium ferrugincum, accompanied by 
the Jarvee and perfect insects of a species of RAisaphagus preying 
on the former—Mr. Dunning read some turther noies ou Aérepos 
pulsatoria, with reference to Dr. Hagen and Mr. W. A. Lewis. 
-Mr. Bates put some questions to the meeiing, suggested to hm 
by Mr. Darwin, with a view to eliciting information as to sexu 1 
differences in certain insects, viz., whether any cases had been 
noticed of sexual differences in the oc Jlated spots with which ~ 
certain insects, as the Bomdbycide, were furnished, and also as 
to sexual differences amongst the Bufresiide. A conversation 
ensued during which Mr. Jenner Weir statet that Sadvrus hyfer- 
anthus bad more oceliated spots in the Jemale than in the male ; 
and Mr. Butler mentioned that Drusi/us had double ocelli in one 
sex. It was also stated that Mr. Saunders had detected sexual 
differences among the Auprestide. 
MANCHESTER 
Literary and Philosophical Society, March 4.—Dr.J. P. Joule 
in the chair.—Mr,. Baxendell read the following communication 
