452 
NATURE 
| March 8, 1883 
Collins was read on the minerals of Rio Tinto. The President, 
Prof. Morris, and Mr. Kitto joined in the discussion. 
Meteorological Society, February 21.—Mr. J. K. Laughton, 
F.R.A.S., president, in the chair.— Rev. W. R. C. Adamson, 
R, P. Coltman, W. F. Gwinnell, Capt. C. S. Hudson, T. Mann, 
F. G. Treharne, and W. Tyson, were elected Fellows. —The 
following papers were read :—Notice of a remarkable land fog 
bank, ‘‘the Larry,” that occurred at Teignmouth on October 9, 
1882, by G. W. Ormerod, M.A., F.M.S. The “Larry” is a 
dense miss of rolling white land fog, and is confined to the 
bottom of the Teign Valley, differing therein from the sea fog 
which rises above the tops of the hills; it appears about day- 
break, and has an undulating but well-defined upper edge, 
which leaves the higher part of the hillsides perfectly clear. 
The author gives an account, illustrated by photographs, of the 
remarkable fog bank that occurred at Teignmouth on the 
morning of October 9.—Barometric depressions between the 
Azores and the continent of Europe, by Capt. J. C. de Brito 
Capello, Hon. Mem. M.S. The author gives the tracks of 
several depressions from the Azores to Euro; e, and shows that if 
there had been a telegraphic cable, nearly every one of them 
could have been foretold in England.—Weather forecasts and 
storm wariings on the coast of South Africa, by Capt. C. M. 
Hepworth, F.M.S.—Note on the reduction of barometric read- 
ings to the gravity of latitude 45°, and its effect on secular 
gradients, and the calculated height of the neutral plaae of 
pressure in the tropics, by Prof. E. D. Archibald, M.A., 
F.M.S. 
Physical Society, February 24.—Prof. Clifton in the chair. 
—New members: Prof. A. W. Scott, M.A., Mr. F. E. M. 
Page, B.Sc.—Mr. Lewis Wright read a paper on the optical 
combinations of crystalline films, and illustrated it by experi- 
ments. He exhibited the beautiful effects of polarisation of light 
and the Newtonian retardation by means of plates built up of thin 
mica films and Canada balsam. The wedges thus formed gave 
effects superior to those of the more expensive selenite and 
calcite crystals. The original use of such plates is due to Mr. 
Fox, but Mr. Wright showed many interesting varieties of 
them, including what he termed his ‘‘ optical chromotrope,” 
formed by superposing a concave and } wave-plate on each 
other. Norenberg’s combined mica and selenite plates were also 
shown. Mr. Spottiswoode praised the results very highly, and 
pointed out their value to the teacher and student as showing 
how the effects can be produced step by step. The phenomena 
can be shown by an addition to the ordinary microscope, costing 
some two guineas, as made by Messrs. Swift and Sons.—Mr. 
Braham then gave an experimental demonstration of the 
vorticle theory of the solar system by rotating a drop of castor | 
oil and chloroform in water until it threw off other drops as 
planets. 
EDINBURGH 
Royal Society, February 19.—Mr. A. Forbes Irvine in the 
chair.—Mr. G, Auldjo Jamieson read a long and interesting 
paper on land tenure in Scotland in the olden time, in which 
the author, after describing in detail the various ancient systems 
and the survivals of them that exist even now in different parts 
of the country, strongly deprecated the position taken by some 
that a return to the old systems would be beneficial.—Prof,. 
Rutherford, in a paper on the microscopical appearances of 
striped muscular fibre during relaxation and contraction, main- 
tained that the views held generally by physiologists as to which 
is the contractile portion of the fibre were quite erroneous. 
A great deal of the inconsistency that seemed to exist was due to 
difference in the appearance of muscular fibre according as it 
was relaxed or contracted; and previous observers had been 
unable to explain this simply because they had not hit upon 
an cftective method of preserving the fibre in either condi- 
tion. The paper was illustrated by enlarged diagrams and by 
microscopical preparations of the fibres in various conditions. 
BERLIN 
Physiolagical Society, February 9.—Prof. du Bois Rey- 
mond in the chair.—Dr, Walten, who was present as a visitor, 
gave a detailed account of his experiments upon the power of 
hearing in hysterical, hemianzsthetic persons. He has deter- 
mined the presence of different degrees of deafness, in cases of 
partial and complete hemizsthesias, in addition to the manifold 
motor and sensory hyperzsthesias and anzsthesias. In all 
cases anesthesia of the external auditory meatus and of the 
membranum tympani existed on the affected side; the lesser 
degrees of deafness manifested themselves in the same way that 
senile deafness sets in, z.e. in interference with the propagation of 
sounds through the cranial bones, while direct hearing by the ear 
was still normal. When a higher degree of hysterical deafness was 
present, high tones could not be perceived by the ear. In extreme 
cases deafness is absolute on the affected side. All degrees of 
uni-lateral hysterical deafness could, like the remainder of the 
manifestations of hemizesthesia, be transferred to the healthy 
side through the operation of a powerful magnet. Dr. Walten 
was able to measure the gradual decrease of deafness on the 
affected side and its gradual increase on the healthy side.—Dr. 
Martius, reasoning by analogy from the fact that a frog’s heart 
cannot contract unless it is bathed in a nutritive fluid, from 
which it takes the energy required for its work, has tried to de- 
termine by experiment if other organs, e.g. the brain, require a 
continual supply of a nutritive fluid in order to keep up their 
activity. He therefore replaced the blood of frogs by a neutral salt- 
solution of the strength of 0°6 per cent., with which he washed 
out the blood-vessels until the fluid ran off free from blood, 
and as clear as water, and he observed the functions of the 
central nervous system in these frogs (salt-frogs). It was, how- 
ever, soon discovered that all the blood had not been removed 
from the body by driving salt-solution through once, because, 
when the process was repeated after a few hours’ time, the fluid 
flowed off deeply coloured with blood, and this process had to 
be renewed very frequently before the blood was reduced to a 
minimum. Hence, in the experiments with ‘‘salt-frogs,” the 
brain was supplied by blood that was more and more diluted, 
and it reacted as follows :—After washing out the vessels once 
with salt-solution, the frog behaved like a brainless frog behaves. 
It sat still and did not make any spontaneous movements ; it 
breathed normally, and exhibited the croak-reflex to perfection. 
After the vessels had been washed out twice, the croak-reflex 
had disappeared, and breathing was irregular and intermittent ; 
finally, when the blood was still further diluted, respiration 
entirely ceased and the general reflex-irritability was greatly 
increased, as in frogs whose spinal cord is separated from their 
medulla oblongata. The conclusion to be drawn is that the 
brain, as well as the heart, requires the presence of a nutritive 
fluid from which it abstracts the energy for its work. The frogs 
that were operated upon recovered perfectly from the first stage 
in a few days’ time, but did not recover from the later stages. 
It is evident that they bore the transfusion of such large 
quantities of salt-solution very well. On the other hand, they 
could not be used for experiments upon blood-transfusion, be- 
cause they died even after very moderate transfusions of blood 
from other animals. 
GOTTINGEN 
Royal Society of Sciences, December 27, 1882.—On an 
onyx cameo not hitherto known, with a replica of the represen- 
tations on the upper and middle layers of the large Paris cameo 
of La Sainte Chapelle, by F. Wie:eler. 
CONTENTS 
THe OrIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS ., . «© + « « © «+ = « « 
Our Book SHELF:— 3 
Rankine’s ‘‘ Useful Rules and Tables relating to Mensuration, 
Engineering, Structures, and Materials” . .... . 431 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:— 
Mr. Stevenson’s Observations on the Increase of the Velocity of 
the Wind with the Altitude. —THoMAs STEVENSON. . . . . 432 
The Supposed Coral-eating Habits of Holothurians.—W. SaviLie 
Kenn OSS Ril oo! Oe RG ee ee ate ne ea 
Influence of a Vacuum on Electricity—A. M. WorTHINGTON —- 
(With Illustration). «6 + i + me ee et = ane 
The Meteoroid of November 17, 1882 —H. Dennis TAYLOR 434 
A Meteor.—R. W. S GriFFITH . . «+ + s sees 434 
Aurora.—JostpH JOHN MuRPHY . . . . «| + 434 
Hovering of Birds.—Dr. J. Rat, F-R.S. . - «2 » ss + + 434 
AMATEURS AND ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATION. By W F. DENNING 434 
On THE NaTurE OF INHIBITION, AND TH# ACTION OF DruGS UPON 
it, Il. By Dr. T. Lauper Brunton, F.R.S. (With Illustrations) 436 
Tue SHapes or Leaves, I. By GRANT ALLEN (With Idlustrations) 439 
HERRING AND SALMON FISHERIES. «© « «© © «© + © © = «© «© « 442 
Nores . OY un sick “ay tay, oh de sie) tel vie rint Alo E ED nat, 
Our AsTRONOMICAL COLUMN :— 
The Comet 1883 @ Zee os 445 
The Great Comet of 1882. . . . ; 446 
The Variable Star U Cephei - a = 446 
New Nebuloeaiyie os) eo ees, es eae no SR Ab O 
GroGraPHicaL NorES ~- . - - + + = + 2 + © ss se 5 5 446 
Tue CoNSERVATION OF EprinG ForksT FROM THE NATURALIS'TS 
Sranproint. By RaPHAEL MELDOLA . + + = + . 447 
University aND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE - 449 
ScrENTIFIC SERIALS. . aay sl Sei 450 
SocizT1es AND ACADEMIES Sekt pt A 
