eal 
th 
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June 16, 1870] 
NATURE 
133 
trated by models. An instrument for ascertaining the con- 
nection between velocity and pressure, exhibited by Dr. 
Smyth, of Maidstone, procured the encomiums of the chairman, 
who stated that it was calculated to supply information that was 
wanting in the instrument which he had been using. In the 
course of discussion, Mr. A. Stewart Harrison strongly advo- 
cated the necessity of an experimental fund, whereupon the 
chairman asked Mr. Fred. W. Brearey, the honorary secretary, to 
read the minutes of a late council meeting at Stafford House, at 
which were present Mr. Glaisher (in the chair), Sir William 
Fairbairn, Bart., Mr. Brook, Mr. Wright, Mr. Wenham, Mr. 
Oheen, and Mr. Brearey ; as follows :—-Sir William Fairbairn 
observed that we know but little of the re-action or lifting power 
of various forms of screw blades in the atmosphere relative to the 
force employed, though such experiments might be easily tried 
and the data obtained. Mr. Brook was of opinion that if a 
successful aerial machine was to be constructed, the most simple 
and obvious plan was that of inclined surfaces impelled forward 
horizontally. The most successful experiment that he had ever 
witnessed was upon this principle, the motive power being a 
wound-up clock spring, which, as long as the power lasted, sus- 
tained the machine, and further that most large birds were 
. capable during long periods of their flight of sustaining them- 
selves exactly in thisway. It was further remarked that we were 
practically ignorant of the correct laws of the sustaining power of 
inclined surfaces of different forms and areas, and this want of 
knowledge was a perpetual stumblingblock to those who were 
wishing to spend time and money on experiments. From the 
fact that, as the weight and size of birds increased, so did the 
relative wing area decrease, it would appear that the ratio of sus- 
taining surface to weight or resistance was by no means in equal 
proportion. The Chairman stated that with respect to plane 
surfaces of various figures exposed to the direct impact of the 
wind, he had already been trying some experiments with such 
instruments as were at his disposal, and that by employing two 
anemometers at the same time, so as to be sure of comparative 
results, he found that the indication of force increased with the 
size of the surface ; also in the two instruments, equal surfaces 
shaped into different contours gave different results. These 
interesting experiments, so directly bearing upon the question of 
aerial propulsionand resistance, were still occupying his atten- 
tion ; but at present he could tell us nothing from actual experi- 
ment of the resistance of inclined surfaces of various forms. It 
was then proposed that an experimental fund should be raised 
by subscription, and that a suitable and well finished anemome- 
ter should be constructed, having the means of instantly setting 
yarious plane surfaces at any desired angle, and capable of 
registering both horizontal and vertical force simultaneously for 
all degrees of inclination. The results to be published for the 
benefit of the Society.” Upen this proposition being put to the 
meeting, it was carried unanimously. 
Ethnological Society, June 1.—Spectal Sectional Meeting 
at the Royal United Service Institute. Prof. Huxley, F.R.S. 
president, in the chair.-—A letter was read from Lieut. Oliver, 
relative to the recent destruction of a cromlech in Jersey. —Col. 
Lane Fox read communications from Dr. Caulfield, ‘‘On the 
discovery] of copper celts near Buttevant, Co. Cork ;” and on 
a supposed Ogham inscription from Rus-glass, Co. Cork.—Mr. 
C. Spence Bate, F.R.S., then presented an elaborate ‘‘ Report 
on the prehistoric antiquities of Dartmoor,” forming one of the 
series of reports being now collected by the Society, with a view 
to obtaining accurate information on the present condition of the 
megalithic monuments of this country. After noticing the 
physical features of the district, the author described in detail 
the numerous stone circles, avenues, menhirs, cromlechs, cairns, 
and other prehistoric monuments of Dartmoor. He suggested 
the idea that the stones in some of the avenues may have been 
erected in commemoration of the death of persons of distinc- 
tion, one being added for each burial. The depressions on the 
summit of some of the cairns were regarded rather as indications 
_of unfinished work than of subsequent disturbance by treasure- 
seekers. Evidence was adduced of the wanton destruction of 
the granite blocks in some of the cromlechs ; and both in the 
paper and in the subsequent discussion attention was forcibly 
. directed to the importance of obtaining legislative protection to 
these prehistoric monuments. A large series of diagrams, plans, 
coloured sketches, photographs, and specimens illustrated this 
valuable communication. The discussion was sustained by Mr. 
W. Morrison, M.P., Mr. Moggridge, Mr. Hyde Clarke, Mr. 
Black, Rev. G. St.-Clair, Dr. Campbell, and Mr. Lewis. 
Chemical Society, June 2.—Prof. Williamson, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair. Mr. W. B. Tustin was elected a Fellow. 
—Prof. Odling, F.R.S., delivered a lecture ‘f On the Platinum 
Ammonia compounds.” Platinum combines with chlorine in 
two proportions, viz., with four atoms of chlorine to form 
platinic chloride, Pt Cl,, and with two atoms of chlorine to form 
platinous chloride, Pt Cl, All the platinum ammonia com- 
pounds are produced in first instance from the plantinous chloride, 
none of them directly from the platinic chloride. If this is borne 
in mind, a great simplicity will at once be introduced into the 
study of the platinum ammonias. Next, the lecturer proceeded 
toshow the manifestations of the atomicities of nitrogen, boron, 
silicon, and platinum as illustrated in the compounds NH, HCl, 
BF, KF, Sif, K, Fy, and Pt Cl, KyCl,, which four compounds 
are decidedly analogous, and deduced from this as well as from 
many other evidences the necessity of writing the formula of sal- 
ammoniac NH, HCl, and not NH, Cl. Having established 
this, the metallic derivatives of sal-ammoniac were ranged into 
two sets—those in which the metal can be detected by the usual 
tests, and those in which this cannot be done; the first may be 
typified by the formula NH, m Cl, the second by NH,m HCl. 
[The small letter indicates that quantity of a metal which occu- 
pies the place of one atom of hydrogen.] The lecturer then ex- 
tended his comparison of the manifestations of the pentad nature 
or the pendacity of nitrogen with those of the tetradicity of 
carbon, and concluded this kind of preface by reminding of the 
necessity of studying mineral chemistry in the light of organic 
chemistry. He then gave a short history of the platinum am- 
monia compounds, beginning with the so-called green salt of 
Magnus discovered in 1828, mentioning the salts prepared and 
described by Gros, Reiset, Peyronne, and others, and finally by 
stating Laurent and Gerhardt’s latest arrangements for classifying 
these compounds. ‘That classification is now by no means satis- 
factory, and Dr. Odling hopes to bring forward at some future 
meeting his own views on this subject. 
Anthropological Society, May 31.—Dr. R. S. Charnock, 
vice-president, in the chair. Mr. George Thorne Ricketts, Her 
Majesty’s consul, Manila, was elected a Fellow. 
A paper by Dr. John Shortt was read on ‘‘ The Armenians 
of Southern India.” arly in the sixteenth century a few 
Armenians found their way into Southern India with the coun- 
tenance and support of the Hon. East India Company, and 
under a contract with the company equal privileges with British 
subjects were conceded to the Armenians. The company further 
extended favours to them when they reached, in any town, the 
number of forty, by the provision of a place of worship, and 
by annual grants of money For a long time after their arrival 
in India they avoided mingling with other people, but latterly 
that rule has been broken through, and alliances in marriage 
with Europeans are not unfrequent. The Armenians have 
diminished in numbers, and, it is said, are daily decreasing in 
influence. The chief causes of their approaching extinction in 
India appear to be the vice of intemperance, the taint of disease, 
and the contact with Europeans, more especially the English. 
The physical and moral characteristics were described ; in the 
former it was stated that the Armenians are strongly allied to 
the Jewish race, from which they claim descent. 
A paper by Mr. John Stirling, M.A., was read on ‘‘ The 
Races of Morocco.” ‘The inhabitants of that part of Barbary 
known as Morocco may be arranged under the following heads, 
viz, Berbers, Al-Ryf, Arabs, Bohara troops, and other Negroes 
or half-breeds, and Jews. The word A@dyles often erroneously 
used to designate some North African race, is a term applied by 
the Moors to distinguish villagers or country people engaged in 
agriculture. The Berbers are probably of Phcenician blood 
mixed with an old race indigenous to Morocco ; at any rate, the 
remain’ of dolmens and other monuments would point to that 
origin. The Al-Ryf are wild descendants of the Ryf pirates, 
the inhabitants of the northern spurs of the Atlas range which 
separates Morocco from Algeria, The Al-Ryf are comparatively 
a fair people, and such of them as follow in-door occupations 
exhibit a delicate olive complexion. The Bohara troop form a 
remarkable race; their ancestors were a rebellious Negro tribe 
living south of the Atlas. They have married with Moorish 
women, but still retain to a great degree the Negro aspect. The 
Negroes of Morocco have intermarried with the fair Moors, and 
produced amixed race. The true Moors are fair, some indivi- 
duals having blue eyes and light or red hair. 
Sir Duncan Gibb, Bart., M.D., in a paper ‘‘ On the Paucity 
of Aboriginal Monuments in Canada,” attributed the absence in 
