474 
NATURE 
[April 17, 1873 
ornithologists have not yet investigated the question “in the 
systematic way, and after the excellent example of painstaking 
and diligence set us by Dr. Baldamus and Dr. Rey.” The 
editor, referring to a note on the Liberian Hippopotamus which 
appeared in this periodical a month ago, states that the author 
has made a mistake in calling it a true hippopotamus. The 
context clearly shows how the term is meant, and it is an un- 
doubted fact that the English name has a wider meaning than 
its Latin equivalent. Chceropsis is as true a hippopotamus as 
Rhinaster or Ceratorhinus are true rhinoceroses, and they are so 
undoubtedly in the English acceptation of the words, so we 
think Mr. Newman too ready in discovering errors. 
THE Canadian Naturalist and Quarterly Fournal of Sciences 
vol. vii, No, 1.—The first paper in this number is one which we 
have already received in a separate form, viz. Principal Dawson’s 
Address as President of the Natural History Society of Montreal. 
He discusses, (1) The present aspect of inquiries as to the intro- 
duction of genera and species in geological time. (2) The 
growth of our knowledge of the Primordial and Laurentian 
rocks and their fossils. (3) The questions relating to the so- 
called glacial period. This is followed by a paper on Some 
Results of the last Solar Eclipse, in which the author, Mr. G. 
F. Armstrong, sums up briefly the results which have been ob- 
tained from the eclipses of 1865 and succeeding years. Ina 
paper on Cuba Mr. G. F. Matthew makes some contributions to 
our knowledge of the natural history of that island. There is a 
geological paper on Huron County, Ontario, and another on the 
Mineral Region of Lake Ontario. The last paper in the journal 
is the obituary notice of the late Prof. Sedgwick, which appeared 
in NATURE. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LonDON 
Geologists’ Association, April 4.— Professor Morris, 
F.G.S., vice-president, in the chair.—‘*On the Diamond Fields 
of South Africa,” by Mr. G. C. Cooper.—The theory of an 
igneous action upon the spot at which the diamonds are now 
found being the explanation required to solve the problem of 
their origin was opposed by the author, who adduced facts from 
his observation in support of the opposite conclusion. He did 
not consider that the numerous trap dykes which characterise 
the South African Diamond Fields broke through the present 
surface, which, on the contrary, had been produced by the accu- 
mulation of materials brought by aqueous agency subsequent to 
the volcanic action which gave rise to the dykes. These mate- 
rials consisted of a surface layer of red sand overlying a bed, 
from five to seven feet thick, of fragments of ‘‘lime and clay 
stone ;” and beneath this the diamantiferous marl or ‘* stuff” is 
reached. Steatitic or magnesian matter forms a considerable 
proportion of the ‘‘stuff’’ which it was contended may have 
been brought from magnesian rocks at a considerable distance 
by water and possibly by ice action, and deposited in the hollows 
formed by the trap dykes, and that these magnesium rocks may 
have been the original matrix of the diamonds,—‘‘ On some 
Fossils from the Chalk of Margate,” by J. W. Wetherell. The 
author had devoted some time and attention to the exploration 
of the chalk in the immediate neighbourhood of Margate, and 
had obtained, as a result, a large number of species of fossils, a 
list of which was given, with remarks as to relative abundance. 
In addition to many genera usually abundant in the Upper 
Chalk, Belemintella appears to be well represented in the 
Margate chalk, and ammonites are also found ; but perhaps the 
most abundant fossil is the Coscinopora globularis, which varies 
in size from that of a walnut to a pin’s head. Crystals of selenite 
were found as well as concretions of iron pyrites, but minerals 
are by no means common in the chalk of Margate. 
Mathematical Society, April 10.—Dr. Hirst, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—Prof. Clifford made a few remarks 
in correction of a statement he had made at the March 
meeting during the discussion on Mr, Hayward’s paper 
on an extension of the term area.—Mr. 
then proceeded to read a paper on the calculation of the 
value of the theoretical unit angle to a great number of 
d-cimal places.—The following papers (in the absence of the 
authors) were discussed by Messrs. Clifford, Cotterill, Merri- 
field, and the president :—On systems of porismatic équations, 
algebraical and trigonometrical ; Note on epicycloids and hypocy. 
J. W. L. Glaisher 
cloids ; Locus of point of concourse of perpendicular tangents to 
a cardioid ; Elliptic motion under acceleration constant in direc- 
tion; Prof. Wolstenholme, on the theory of a system of electri- 
fied conductors ; On the focal lines of a refracted pencil, Prof. 
J. Clerk-Maxwell, 
Royal Horticultural Society, March 26.—Special general 
meeting, Lord Alfred Churchill in the chair.—The business 
practically consisted in the consideration of two bye-laws pro- 
posed by the Council. The first, giving to all the fellows the 
right of vote by proxy (hitherto restricted to ladies), was rejected, 
The second, impowering the fellows to elect to vacancies on the _ 
Council at a general meeting other than the annual general meet- 
ing, if more than half their number resign at any one time, was 
carried, Great excitement and disorder was manifested through- 
out the prolonged discussions, 
April 2.—General Meeting, Mr. W. Saunders, F.R.S., in 
the chair.—A communication was read from Mr. Cocks, on 
budding vines. It was shown (1) that the extirpation of all the 
buds of the budded plant gave the inserted buds a better chance 
of success by removing competition, and (2) that there was no 
advantage in inserting new buds in the seats of those removed. 
Scientific Committee, Dr. J. D. Hooker, C.B., F.R.S., in 
the chair.—Mr. Smee exhibited lemons infested with Coccus 
‘imonii, which caused the green colour of the unripe fruit to 
persist round the points of attachment, and injured the lemons 
for preserving purposes.—The Rev. M. J. Berkeley stated that 
the new potato disease described by Hallier in his “ Parasiten- 
kunde,” was no doubt identical with the ‘‘ copper-web” of the 
asparagus-growers of the Isle of Ely. 
Rhizoctonia.—Dr. Hooker read a portion of a letter from Mr. 
Woodrow, stating that a succulent composite, Vo/onia grandi= 
Jiora, had a great reputation as a cure for hydrophobia in the 
neighbourhood of Bombay.—Prof. Thiselton Dyer pointed out 
that the seeds of the Sooly Qua were not identical with those of 
Luffz acutangula ; they much more resembled those of Zufa 
e@gyptiaca. 
April 6.—Special general meeting, Lord Alfred Churchill in 
the chair.—The following new members of Council were elected 
on the proposition of Lord Strathmore.—Viscount Bury, M.P., 
Hon. R. Chetwynd, Mr. Hardcastle, M.P., Sir C. Lindsay, Mr. 
W. A. Lindsay (Secretary), Sir A. Slade, Mr. Hellock, Mr, A. 
Smee, Mr. H. Little, Mr. R. Warner. 
Institution of Civil Engineers, April 8.—Mr. T. Hawksley, 
president, in the chair. The paper read was ‘‘On the Rise 
and Progress of Steam Locomotion on Common Roads,” 
by Mr. John Head, Assoc. Inst, C.E., and was divided into four 
parts :—1. Road locomotives for conveyance of passengers, also 
locomotives for use on tramways. 2. Road locomotives for con- 
veyance of goods, heavy weights, &c., also steam road rollers, 
3- Locomotives for use in agricultural operations, steam plough- 
ing, &c. 4. Locomotives for military purposes. - 
Cambridge Philosophical Society, March 3 —Notes on 
the Hippopotamus, by Mr. J. W. Clark. The author exhibited 
the mounted skeleton, and some portions of the visceral ana- 
tomy, of the female hippopotamus which died in the London 
Zoological Gardens in January 1872, and made some remarks 
on the specimens.—‘‘ On the Foraminifera and Sponges of the 
Cambridge Upper Greensand,” by Mr. W. J. Sollas. The 
author described the green grains abundant in the formation, and 
showed that, like those in many other rocks, they were to a 
large extent the casts of foraminifera. He then discussed the 
formation of the so-called coprolites, and showed that in a great 
number of instances these nodules were phosphatised sponges, 
just as the flints of the chalk were silicified sponges, He thought 
that the phosphate of lime might have been derived from the 
erosion of volcanic rocks in the south of Scotland which had 
been brought by a current from the north.—‘**On a Boulder in 
a coal seam, South Staffordshire,” by Mr. Bonney. This boulder, 
found in the black coal of the Cannock and Rugeley Colliery, a 
seam nearly 3 yards thick, weighed 13 lbs. 133 oz., was about 
Igin. in girth either way, and about 4} in. thick, it was of a 
compact grey quartzite, apparently identical with one of the 
rarities in the Bunter conglomerates of the district. He con: 
sidered that the boulder, which was quite solitary, had been 
brought to its present position (probably during a flood) entangled 
in the roots of a tree—and discussed the bearings of its occur- 
rence upon the physical geography of England in the carboni- 
ferous and triassic times. 
It had been described as. 
a 
MOG el 
