~ some influence on the result. 
Fuly 28, 1870] 
NATURE 
265 
and the elasticity of the solid material may be expected to have 
This influence, however, will be 
minute, as the part of the disturbing force which is variable and 
produces nutation is very much smaller, even at its maximum, 
than the precessional force. The consideration of this matter, 
however, has no bearing upon the validity or not of Mr. Hop- 
kins’s method, but simply upon the numerical value of his final 
result, not upon the question of the fluidity or solidity of the 
earth’s mass.” 
The Archdeacon is of opinion ‘‘that the strictures of M. 
Delaunay upon this method, which the genius of Mr. Hopkins 
devised, betray an oversight of the real point upon which the 
success of his method depends, and that this method stands 
unimpaired.” 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
TuE Geological Magazine for July (No. 73) contains rather 
ewer original articles than usual, but what there are will be 
found interesting. The series of notices of eminent living geolo- 
gists is continued in a notice of one of the most accomplished of 
the number, Professor John Phillips, of whom we have a good 
biography, but a very unsatisfactory portrait. Mr, Carruthers 
gives a notice of the so-called fossil forest near Cairo; he dis- 
tinguishes a new species of Micolia (V. owentt), and illustrates 
its microscopic structure as compared with that of the old species 
NV. egyptiaca Unger.— Mr. Kinahan communicates a paper 
containing a comparison of the geological features of Devon, 
Cornwall, and Galway, with a discussion of the means by which 
they have been produced ; and Miss E. Hodgson a long disqui- 
sition on the origin and distribution of the granite-drift of the 
Furness district. The longest article in the journal is a report of 
Mr. David Forbes’ lecture on Volcanoes, which will be read with 
much interest. 
The Fournal of the Asiatic Society for April, contains the fol- 
lowing Natural History papers— Observations on some Indian 
and Malayan Amphibia and Reptilia, by Dr. F. Stoliczka. The 
species described in this paper have been partially collected by the 
author along the Burmese and Malayan coast, in Penang and 
Singapore, partially at the Nicobar and Andaman islands, only a 
few species are noticed from Java, and a few also fromthe N. W. 
Himalayas. Short notes on the’geographical distribution, and on 
the general character of the ainphibian and reptilian fauna of the 
Andamans and Nicobars, forma brief preface to the detailed 
descriptions. Complete lists of all the known species occurring 
on the two last-named groups of islands are appended. Dr. 
Stoliczka gave a short sketch of the relations existing between the 
Andaman and Nicobar reptilian fauna and that of Burma on the 
one, and that of Java, Sumatra, and the Philippine islands on the 
other hand, All these islands, he said, have many species in 
common. He also specially notices the very great number of 
viperine snakes (Z7imeresurus) which are to be met with at the 
Nicobars, but fortunately these species appear to be less 
dangerous than continental forms usually are. The Nicobarese 
say that not a single fatal case has resulted from the bite of these 
Trimeresurus, and certainly all the specimens examined had a 
comparatively small poison-gland. The result of the bite is said 
to be only a swelling of the wounded part. Dr. Stoliczka also 
exhibited a specimen of the rare Callophis intestinalis obtained 
from Upper Burma. The species has the poison glands extending 
from the head to about one-third of the total length of the body, 
lying free in the cavity of the anterior part, and causing the heart 
to be much further removed backward than is generally the case 
in other species of snakes, The President thought there were 
one or two remarkable features in Dr. Stoliczka’s interesting 
paper. One to which he particularly referred was the relative 
inefficiency of the poison in certain snakes of Penang and the 
Nicobars in comparison with the poison of the cognate species 
found in this country. He did not know whether the circum- 
stances which rendered the possession of an invariably fatal 
weapon necessary to particular classes of snakes in the struggle 
for life, while others could maintain themselves without it, had 
yet received much attention. 4 friori, he thought, one would be 
disposed to expect that a poison which would disable without 
causing immediate death, would be more deterrent in its effects, 
and, therefore, more widely useful to its possessor, than one which 
killed instantly. At any rate it was curious to find some of the 
insular species of snakes, though provided with a pérfect poison 
apparatus, much less fatal in the effect of their bite than other 
closely allied species in Bengal were. The investigation of the 
causes which had led to this difference ought to be attractive. A 
short discussion on the effects of snake poisoning ensued. Mr. 
Waldie desired to know what the symptoms resulted from 
the bite of the Nicobar vipers, and whether they are the same as 
are usually known to originate from the bite of other poisonous 
snakes. Dr. Stoliczka said that the Nicobarese only speak of a 
swelling of the bitten part, and that they exhibit very little fear 
of these snakes. Dr. Stoliczka also observed that the poison 
gland in the species of 7yimeresurus which he had examined, has 
a simple glandular form without any appendages, but the skin 
forming it is very tough, and internally partitioned by numerous 
irregular lamella. The poison of the fresh snake was always pre- 
sent in a comparatively small quantity, and appeared less viscose 
than the Cobra poison. The differences between the effects of 
poisoning of the cobra and daboia had been pointed out by Dr. 
Fayrer. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
Geological Society, June 22.—11. ‘On the Physics of 
Arctic Ice as explanatory of the Glacial Remains in Scot- 
land.” By Dr. Robert Brown, F.R.G.S., &c, In this paper 
the author entered into an extended inquiry how far the 
formation of the boulder-clays and other glacial remains in 
Scotland and the North of England can be accounted for, 
on the theory of a great ice-covering having at one time 
overlain the country in much the same manner as it does now 
Greenland and other extreme Arctic countries. Taking 
the hypothesis of Agassiz as his groundwork, Dr. Brown 
entered into a minute description of the present glacier-system of 
Greenland, and the nature of Arctic ice-action ; and into an 
inquiry how far glacial remains in Britain correspond with those 
at present in course of formation in Greenland and at the bottom 
of Baffns Bay, Davis Straits, and the fjords and bays adjoining 
these seas. These inquiries were commenced in the year 1861, 
and have been continued at intervals ever since up to the present 
summer in yarious portions of the Arctic regions, the Continent 
of Europe, in Great Britain, and in North America across to the 
Pacific. The results of these extended researches have led him to 
conclude—1. That the subazoic boulder-clay corresponds with 
the moraine prefonde which underlies glaciers, and in all likeli- 
hood is the immediate base on which the ice-cap of Greenland 
rests. 2. That the fossiliferous, laminated, or brick-clays find 
their counterpart in the thick impalpable mud which the sub- 
glacial streams are pouring into the sea, filling up the fjords, 
even shoaling the sea far out, and absolutely in some cases turn- 
ing the glaciers from their course into other valleys. Allowing 
the very moderate computation that this impalpable mud ac- 
cumulates at the rate of only six inches per annum, a deposit of 
fifty feet in a century must form. If Scotland was at one time 
covered with an ice-cap, or had glaciers of any extent (as cannot 
be doubted), then this deposit must have been equally forming, 
and as a geological formation must be accounted for. Mo diffe- 
rence could be detected between this giacial mud and the present 
brick-clays, and every fact went to show that it was to this that 
we must look for the formation of these laminated fossiliferous 
clays. The amount of earth deposited on the bottom by ice- 
bergs was very insignificant indeed, and could in no degree 
account for the dou/der-clay, though it was shown that much of 
the doulder-drift in some places could be so accounted for. It 
was, however, demonstrated that there was a great distinction 
between the boulders which belonged to the moraine profonde 
and those which were carried off on icebergs as part of the 
ordinary lateral moraines. The fjords, as already partially 
advocated in a paper in the Journal of the Royal Geographical 
Society (vol. xxxix.), he considered due to glacial action, the 
glaciers having taken possession of these fjords when they were 
mere valleys, when the coast was higherthan now. He further 
showed that the American explorers are in error when they 
describe the coast of Greenland as rising to the north of 73°, 
and subsiding to the south of that parallel. There had been a 
former rise of the coast, and a fall was now in course of progress 
through the whole extent. Whether these had previously alter- 
nated with other rises and falls is not clearly evidenced by 
remains, but no doubt exists that a rise preceded the present 
subsidence. Numerous facts were adduced in support of this 
assertion, ‘The remainder of Dr, Brown’s paper was occupied in 
