Fune 22, 1871] 

of great interest froma theoretical point of view, since it com- 
prises the results of the author’s experiments on bitumen, wood 
charcoal, and coal. The former of these substances, under the 
influence of hydriodic acid, yields hexylene hydride, the saturated 
hydrocarbon corresponding to benzene, from which it may be 
inferred that bitumen is a derivative of benzene, produced by 
condensation and loss of hydrogen. Charcoal and coal, when 
treated according to M. Berthelot’s method, are transformed into 
a mixture of various saturated hydrocarbons, identical with those 
found in petroleum oil. In fact the coal is changed into petroleum 
oul, 
THE most important paper in the first three numbers of vol. 
xiii. of the Att della Societa Italiana di Scienze Natwrali (April 
and November 1870, and January 1871), is a continuation of 
Prof. Delpino’s article on ‘‘Dichogamy in the Vegetable 
Kingdom.” In this paper the author passes in review the various 
modes in which the impregnation of plants is effected, with 
especial reference to the provisions for the impregnation of one 
plant by the fecundating organs of another.—M. A. Curd 
publishes a note on parthenogenesis among the Lepidoptera.— 
M. F. Sordelli contributes a note on the anatomy of the genus 
Acme, and on some of the hard parts of Cecilianella acicula, 
illustrated with a plate ; and further an anatomy of Limax Dorie, 
Bourg., also illustrated, and including a tabular arrangement of 
the species of the genus Zzzax, for the elucidation of the 
characters of two new species, which the author describes under 
the numes of Z. punctulatus and L. Bettonii,—The Secretary of 
the Society, Dr. C. Marinoni, notices some remains of Uyszus 
sfeleus from the Cave of Adelsberg.—M. G, Bellucci gives an 
account of some evidences of prehistoric man in the territory of 
Terni.—M. L. Ricca communicates some observations on 
dichogamy in plants made by him upon the Alps of Val 
Camonica in 1870 ; and also a systematic catalogue of the vas- 
cular plants growing spontaneously in the olive-zone of the 
valleys of Diana, Marina, and Cervo, with indications of the 
special conditions of growth, times of flowering of each species, 
and occasional remarks upon their characters.—At p. 130 is the 
description of asupposed hybrid Orchis, O. cortophoro-laxiflora. 
—From M. C. Bellotti we have some observations on the disease 
of flaccidity, which destroys so many silkworms (morts-flats) in 
France and Italy ; and from Dr. Taramelli a memoir, illustrated 
with an elaborate coloured plate, on the ancient glaciers of the 
Drave, Save, and Isonzo. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LonpboNn 
Geological Society, June 7.—Mr. Joseph Prestwich, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair. Messrs. Henry Collinson and 
Thomas Milnes Favell were elected Fellows, and Dr. J. J. 
Kaup, of Darmstadt, was elected a foreign member of the 
society. The following communications were read :—1. 
**On the persistence of Caryophyllia cylindracea Reuss, a 
Cretaceous Coral, in the Coral-fauna of the Deep Sea.” By 
Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S. The author first referred to 
the synonyms and geological distribution of Caryophyllia 
cylindracea, Reuss, which has hitherto been regarded as peculiar 
to the White Chalk, and as necessarily an extinct form, inasmuch 
as it belonged to a group possessing only four cycles of septa in 
six systems, one of the systems being generally incomplete. The 
distribution of the Caryephllie of this group in the Gault and 
the Upper Chalk, the Miocene, and the Pliocene, was noticed, 
and also that of the species with the incomplete cycle. The fal- 
sity of this generalisation was shown to be proved by the results 
of deep-sea dredging off the Havannah, under Count Pourtales, 
and off the Iberian peninsula under Dr. Carpenter and Mr. Gwyn 
Jeffreys. The former dredged up Caryophyllia formosa with four 
complete cycles, and the latter obtained, from depths between 
690 and 1090 fathoms, a group of iorms with four complete and 
ey omplete cycles. This group had a Cretaceons facies ; one of 
the forms could not be differentiated from Caryophyliia cylindracea, 
Reuss ; and as a species of the genus Sathycyathus was found at 
the same time, this facies was rendered more striking. The re- 
presentation of the extinct genera Zyochosmilia, Larasmilia, 
Synhetia, and Diblasus, by the recent Amphihelie, Paracyathi, 
and Caryophyllie was noticed, and it was considered that as the 
Cretaceous forms throve under the same external conditions, 
some of them only being persistent, there must be some law 
NATURE 


153 
which determines the life-duration of species like that 
which restricts the years of the individual. It was shown 
that deep-sea conditions must have prevailed within the 
limits of the diffusion of the ova of coral polyps somewhere on 
the Atlantic area ever since the Cretaceous period. Mr. Gwyn 
Jeffreys remembered that at the spot where the coral in question 
was dredged up the sea-bottom was extremely uneven, varying 
as much as fifty fathoms within a quarter of a mile. It was also 
not more than forty miles from land. The species of mollusca 
dredged up were extremely remarkable, and many were totally 
different from what he had previously seen, They were, how- 
ever, living or recent; none of them were Eocene or Miocene, 
much less Cretaceous, like Zerebratula caput-serpentis. He 
quoted from Mr. Davidson other instances of the persistence of 
forms, especially of the genus Zzmgu/a from the Silurian forma- 
tion. The persistence of this species of coral, as well as that of 
Foraminifera, from the Cretaceous to the present time, was 
therefore not unique, and other cases of survival from even earlier 
times might eventually be recognised. Dr. Carpenter, after 
commenting en the reductions that extended knowledge enabled 
naturalists to make in the number of presumed species, could 
not accept the mere identification of species as of the highest 
importance in connecting the Cretaceous fauna with that of our 
own day. The identity of genera was, in his opinion, of far more 
importance. He instanced Zchinothuria and Rhizocrinus as 
preserving types identically the same as those of a remote 
period, and as illustrating the continuity of the deep-sea fauna 
from Cretaceous times. The chemical and organic constitution 
of the deep-sea bottom of the present day was also singularly 
analogous to that of the Chalk sea. The low temperature at the 
bottom of the deep sea, even in equatorial regions, was now be- 
coming universally recognised, and this temperature must have had 
an important bearing on the animal life at the sea-bottom. Prof. 
Ramsay thought that there was some misapprehension abroad as 
to the views held by geologists as to continuity of conditions. 
They had, however, always insisted on there having been an 
average amount of sea and land during all time; and the fact of 
sea having occupied what is now the middle of the Atlantic since 
Cretaceous time would create no surprise among them. If, how- 
ever, the bed of the Atlantic were raised, though probably many 
Cretaceous genera, and even species, might be found, there 
would on the whole be a very marked difference between these 
Atlantic beds and those of the Chalk. Mr. Seeley had already, 
in 1862, put forward views which had now been fully borne out 
by recent investigation, His conviction was that, from the genera 
having persisted forso long a time, the genera found in any for- 
mation afforded no safe guide as to its age, unless there were evi- 
dence of their having since those formations become extinct. Mr. 
Etheridge maintained that the species in different formations 
were sufficiently distinct, though the genera might be the same. 
Recent dredgings had not brought to light any of the charac- 
teristic molluscan forms of the Cretaceous time ; and it would 
be of great importance to compare the results of future opera- 
tions with the old Cretaceous deep-sea fauna. Prof. Rupert 
Jones, with reference to the supposed sudden extinction of 
chambered Cephalopods, remarked that Cretaceous forms had 
already been discovered in Tertiary beds in North America, 
and also that cold currents could not have destroyed them, 
seeing that icebergs came down to the latitude of Croydon in 
the Chalk sea.—2. ‘‘ Note on an /chthyosaurus (2. enthekiodon) 
from Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset.” By J. W. Hulke, F.R.S. 
In this paper the author described the skeleton of an Jchthyo- 
saurus from Kimmeridge Bay, agreeing in the characters of 
the teeth with the form for which he formerly proposed the 
establishment of the genus Lxthekiodon. The specimen in- 
cludes the skull, a large portion of the vertebral column, 
numerous ribs, the bones of tbe breast-girdle, and some limb- 
bones. The first forty-five vertebral centra have a double 
costal tubercle. The coracoids have an unusual form, being 
more elongated in the axial than in the transverse direction, 
and this elongation is chiefly in advance of the glenoid 
cavity. The articular end of the scapula is very broad. 
The paddles are excessively reduced in size, the anterior being 
larger than the posterior, as evidenced by the comparative size of 
the proximal bones. The species, which the author proposed to 
name /. ethekiodon, most nearly resembles the Liassic /. ¢e- 
nurrostris. The length of the preserved portion of the skeleton 
is about roft., the femur measures only 2in., and the humerus 
2°7in.—3. “Note on a Fragment of a Teleosaurian Snout from 
Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset.” By J. W. Hulke, F.R,S. In this 

