118 
Mathematics and Natural Philosophy (£100 for three years), 
John Weir ; James Ferguson Bursary in Mathematics (£70 for 
two years), William Weir ; Breadalbane Scholarship in Mathe- 
matics (£50 for three years), James Hamilton, M.A.; John 
Clark (Mileend) Scholarship in Natural Science (£50 for four 
years), William Huntly, M.A. ; John Clark (Mileend) Scholar- 
ship in Classics (£50 for four years), James McMillan. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
Royal Society, November 16.—On Megalania prisca, part 
4, by Prof. Owen, F.R.S.—The author, referring to a remark 
during a discussion following a previous communication (April, 
1850), on the great horned Saurian of Australia, viz. that the 
skull then described might have belonged to a Chelonian, not to 
the genus and species founded on fossil vertebrze from localities 
remote from the formation yielding the cranial evidence, pro- 
ceeded to describe his latest received fossils from the river-bed 
in Darling Downs, which included, besides evidences of the 
pelvis and limbs of A/ega/aniza, also dorsal vertebre identical 
in size and character with those on which the former existence 
of such Jarge Saurian had been predicted (1858). The contiguity 
of the last discovered vertebra, by Mr. G. F. Bennett, to the 
cranial and caudal fossils previously found and transmitted by 
him to the author, and the absence of any remains of a 
Chelonian reptile in the whole extent of the dried up bed of the 
river so perseveringly explored by that gentleman, would permit 
no doubr, the author believed, as to the conclusions which had 
been admitted in the previous volumes of the Phzlosophical 
Transactions. 
Linnean Society, November 16.—F. Crisp, LL.B., Trea- 
surer, in the chair.—Mr. O. T. Olsen and Surgeon J. N. Stone, 
R.N., were elected Fellows.—Dr. W. C. Ondaatje exhibited 
and made remarks on some Ceylon plants, among these, the 
fruit of Randia dumetorum, a remedy for dysentery ; the leaves 
of Sethia acuminata, anthelmintic, and the resin of Semecarpus 
gardnert, from which a black varnish is prepared.—Mr. W. T. 
Thiselton Dyer called attention to a specimen of Cycas beddomet, 
a new species from Southern India,—Mr. F. P. Balkwill ex- 
hibited a series of British Foraminifera under the microscope, 
and said a few words on the special mode of mounting the 
same,—Mr. F. J. Hanbury showed a large fungus grown in a 
City wharf cellar, and which Mr. G. Murray pronounced to be 
a species of Levtinus.—Mr. C, Stewart exhibited a specimen of 
Pilobolus, explaining his observations on the projection of its 
sporangia.—Mr. J. G, Baker read a paper on the flora of Mada- 
gascar. It contains descriptions of 140 new species of poly 
petalous dicotyledons, obtained by the Rey. R. Baron and Dr. 
G. W. Parker. Some are of widely-diffused tropical genera, 
such as Hugenia, Crotalaria, &c. ; others are of more familiar 
temperate types—A/chemilla, Clematis, and Polygala. Still 
others are characteristic of the Cape flora now noted for the 
first time from Madagascar, such as Sphedammnocarpus and Spar- 
mannia, There is an interesting new genus of Malphigiacez 
(Microsteira) allied to the American Hzv@a. Representatives 
of LHibbertia and Rulingia are interesting, from their being 
characteristically Australian genera. Mr. Baron has redis- 
covered Rhodolena alterola, a showy plant, originally found 
byg Du Petit Thouars a century ago. Dr. Parker has 
paid special attention to the drugs, esculents, and timber trees 
of the island, and catalogued 300 native names of the same.—A 
note by Mr. E, P. Ramsay, on the type specimen of Finsch’s 
Fruit Pigeon was read.—Dr. Maxwell Masters read a communi- 
cation on the Passiflorze collected in Ecuador and New Granada 
by M. Ed. André. Of Zacsonia g species are mentioned ; of 
Passiflora 29 species, four being new. Some are of special 
interest structurally, the excellence of the specimens enabling 
ample examination of the curious flower structure to be made.—A 
paper was read on cerebral homologies, by Prof. Owen. He com- 
pares the brain of the locust and the cuttle-fish with that of the 
fish, and uther higher forms, and summarises as follows :—That the 
homologies of the primary divisions of the brain in molluscs are 
the parts known in Articulates as the supra- and sub-cesophageal 
ganglions, with their commissural cords. That the topical rela- 
tions of these parts to the gullet are the same in both great divi- 
sions of invertebrates ; and that the homologies of the aforesaid 
parts with the primary divisions of the vertebrate brain are 
affected solely by the altered relation thereto of the gullet and 
NATURE 
[Vov. 30, 1882 
mouth.—A paper was read on Cassia lignea, by W. T. Thisel- 
ton Dyer.—Thereafter, the sixteenth contribution to the mol- 
lusca of the Challenger Expedition by the Kev. R. Boog 
Watson, was read, in which were described the families 
Fissurellidz and Cocculinide, 
Chemical Society, November 16.—Prof. Dewar, vice- 
president, in the chair.—It was announced that a ballot for the 
election of Fellows would take place at the next meeting (De- 
cember 7).—The following communications were made :—Con- 
tributions to the chemistry of tartaric and citric acids, by the Jate 
B, J. Grosjean. This paper has been compiled by Mr. Waring- 
ton from the laboratory note-books left by the author. It 
contains investigations as to the loss of water by different speci- 
mens of citric acid, the determinaticn: of citric acid in lemon, 
bergamot, lime, and orange juices, the influence of heat on 
solutions of a totartaric acid, influence of sulphuric acid on the 
crystallisation of tartaric acid, action of solutions of : potassium 
and sodium sulphates on calcium tartrate, determination of free 
sulphuric acid in tartaric acid liquors, determination of tartaric 
acid by precipitation as bitartrate, &c.—Contributions to the 
chemistry of bass fibres, by C. F. Cross and E. J. Bevan, The 
authors detail further experiments, showi g that lignified fibres 
are to be regarded as a chemical whole rather than the mixture 
which was necessitated, viz. the incrustation theory.—On the 
oxidation of cellulose, by C. F, Cro:s and E. J. Bevan. By the 
action of boiling 60 per cent. nitric acid, cellulose is converted 
into an amorphous substance C,,H.0,,, oxycellulose.—On 
the analysis of certain vegetable fibres, Axnanassa, Musa, 
Phormium, Linum, Urtica, &c., by C. S. Webster.—On the 
constitution of some bromine derivatives of naphthalene (third 
notice), by R. Meldola. The author concludes that Glaser’s a 
dibromnaphthalene and Meldola’s metadibromnaphthalen are 
isomeric, and not identical. The author has also obtained by 
the diazo reaction 8 dibromnaphthalene, m.p. 81°, a new tribrom- 
naphthalen, m.p. 113-114, a second melting at 63°, &c.—On 
the constitution of lopbin (second notice), by F. R. Japp. The 
author brings forward fresh proofs that this body has the consti- 
tution ofan anhydrobase, and not that ascribed to it by Radzis- 
zewski. 
Geological Society, November 15.—Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, 
F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair.—John Edmund Thomas 
and Joseph Williams were elected Fellows of the Society.—The 
following communications were read :—The drift-beds of the 
North-west of England and North Wales ; part 2, their nature, 
stratigraphy, and distribution, by T. Mellard Reade, C.E., 
F.G.S. The auther stated that the first part of this paper, read 
in 1873, treated of the low-level boulder clay and sands, 
special'y in relation to the contained shells. Since that time he 
has been diligently collecting information to enable him to treat 
of the nature, origin, and stratigraphy of the drift lying between 
Liverpool and St. Bees and Liverpool and Carnarvonshire. The 
author’s conclusions are that an ice-sheet, radiating from the 
mountain district of the English lakes and the south of Scot- 
land, produced the planing and grooving of the rock and the 
red sand and rubble déér7s ; then the ice melted back into local 
glaciers, and the submergence began. The low-level boulder- 
clay and sands were, during a slow submergence, laid down 
probably at depths of from 200 to 300 feet, and the author con- 
siders that all the phenomena can be satisfactorily accounted for 
by ordinary river-action and fraying of the coasts by the sea, 
combined with frost and ice due to a severer climate bringing 
down the materials of such river-basins to the sea, while icebergs 
and coast-ice sailed over, dropping on the sea-bottom their 
burdens of erratic stones and other materials from the mountain- 
districts of the north. He pointed out, also, that the great 
majority of the well-glaciated rocks were specially those that 
could be traced tothe high lands, This fact was forced upon his 
notice after making a lurge collection of glaciated boulders and 
pebbles Among the rocks he had been able to identify, with the 
help of Prof. Bonney and Mr. P. Dudgeon, of Dumfries, Scaw- 
fell granite (Eskdale, of Mackintosh) was the most abundant 
granite; then came grey granites from Dumfries, syenite from 
Buttermere, which occurred all over the area described, and up 
to 1200 feet on the Macclesfield Hills, and syenite from Can- 
nockfell, Other probable identifications were also named. The 
whole series of rocks from the Silurian to the New Red Marl 
were represented in the low-level boulder-clay ; a few flints also 
occurred, and one piece of what was believed to bechalk. The 
paper concluded with an appendix by Mr. David Robertson, 
