6o 



NA TURE 



\Nov. 19, 1S74 



0° C, and may be called cryohydrates, are not discontinuous with 

 the hydrated crystalline salts previously known. A few cryo- 

 hydrates were described as being obtained from the saturated 

 aqueous solutions of the respective salts on the withdrawal of 

 heat. Thus chloride of sodium combines with 10-5 (? lo) mole- 

 cules of water, and solidifies therewith at — 23° C. Chloride of 

 ammonium combines with 12 molecules of water, and solidifies 

 al:-i5"C. The combinations with water were given of the 

 sulphates of zinc, copper sodium, and magnesium, also those of 

 the nitrates of potassium, chlorate of potassium, and bichromate 

 of potassium. As far as experimental results at present indicate, 

 it appears that those cryohydrates which have the lowest solidi- 

 fying point have the least water. Some suggestions were offered 

 concerning the application of these experimental results to the 

 explanation of the separation of tlie Plutonic rocks from one 

 another, and the importance \\as pointed out of the use which 

 ttiese cryohydrates will have in establishing con^t^ant temperatures 

 below 0° as fixed and as readily obtainable as 0° itself. 



Mathematical Society, Nov. 12.— Dr. Hirst, F.R.S., pre- 

 sident, in the chair.— The President informed the meeting of the 

 loss the Society had sustained by the recent death of one of its 

 honorary foreign members, Dr. Otto Ilesse, of the Polytechnicum, 

 Munich, and mentioned that it was the intention of tlie Council 

 soon to fill up the vacancies caused by the deaths of Drs. 

 Clebsch and Hesse. — On the motion of Prof. Cayley, 

 F.R.S., seconded by the Rev. R. Ilarley, F.R.S., it was 

 ordered that the cordial thanks of the Society be presented to 

 Lord Rayleigh for his munificent donation of 1,000/. to the 

 Society, and the chairman was requested to convey the same by 

 letter to his lordship. — The money has been vested, as the 

 I reasurer's report mentioned, in 870/. Gmranteed Indian Railway 

 Stock, and the interest will be applied, as was stated two or 

 three months since in Nature, to the purchase of mathematical 

 journals, and also to assist in defraying the expense of printing 

 the Society's Proceedings. Tlie meeting then proceeded to the 

 election of the new Council, and the gentlemen whose names 

 were given in a recent number of this journal were declared by 

 the scrutators to be duly elected. — Instead of giving the usual 

 valedictory address, Dr. Hirst stated what results he had arrived 

 at in the course of his investigations upon "Correlation in Space." 

 Tlie communication was an extension to space of results arrived 

 at in his paper (read before the Society in May last), entitled the 

 " Correlation of Two Planes. "—Mr. J. H. Rijhrs read an abstract 

 of a communication on " Tidal Retardation." The problem dis- 

 cussed is the superior limit to the tidal retardation in a globe, in 

 all respects similar to our own, except that it is covered entirely 

 by a sea, the depth of which is constant for all places in the same 

 latitude, and is therefore a function of latitude only — not longi- 

 tude — a function supposed to be known. — A paper by Prof. 

 Wolstenholme on a new view of the porism of the in- and circum- 

 scribed triangle was taken as read. 



Anthropological Institute, Nov. 10. — Prof. Busk, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — Reports were read by Mr. F. W. 

 Rudler on the Anthiopological Department of the British 

 Association at Belfast, and by Mr. Hyde Clarke on the Anthro- 

 pological Section of llie International Congress of Oiientalists 

 recently held in London, — A paper was then lead by Col. Lane 

 Fox on a series of flint and chert arrow-heads and flakes from 

 the Rio Negro, Patagonia, with some remarks on the stability of 

 form observable in stone implements. The series of specimens 

 exhibited was selected fiom a collection of 500 gathered by Mr. 

 W. H. Hudson on the margin of the river and over an extent of 

 about ninety miles, and on the numerous lagoons, now mostly 

 dry, with which the valley is everywhere inteisccte J. The valleys 

 in that region run through high terraced table-lands ; and on the 

 plateaus above there is no water and but very scanty vegetation, 

 which would seem to indicate the improbability of their having 

 been occupied by man. A great number ol the implements were 

 discovered by Mr. Hudson on the sites of villages in the valley 

 and in circular flattened mounds of clay measuring from 6 ft. to 

 8 ft. in circumference. The different styles of workmanship 

 observed in the different villages were not, in the opinion of Mr. 

 Hudson, to be attribuLed to the variety of material employed, 

 but to the degree of skill possessed by the inhabitants of each 

 village. The author drew attention to the interesting fact of the 

 arrow-heads having long fallen into disuse among the Tehuelches 

 and other Patagonian tribes, who now and for some centuries 

 past employed the spear. Col. Fox proceeded to describe in 

 detail the various weapons and their varieties of workmanship, 

 and showid Ihat tliry ail p.c»cnted the same geneial features as 



implements found in the United .States. He believed that, owing 

 to our inability to understand the uncultured mental condition of 

 savages and jjrehistoric races, we often lose sight of tlie inferences 

 deducible from the stability of form observable in their arts and 

 implements, and attach less importance than should be the case 

 to minute varieties of structure. — It was announced that the 

 Council had resolved to publish in the Journal of the Institute 

 bibliographical notices, abstracts and reviews of English and 

 foreign works and papers, and other miscellaneous matter of 

 anthropological interest and importance. 

 Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, Nov. 2. — M. Bertrand in the chair, 

 — The following papers were read : — General results of observa-. 

 tions on the germination and first developments of different 

 lilies, by M. P. Duchartre. — Researches on the dissociation of 

 crystalline salts, by M.M. P. A. Favre and C. A. Valson. — 

 Results of the voyage of exploration undertal;en for the pre- 

 liminary study of the general track of a railway connecting the 

 Anglo-Indian with the railways of Russian Asia, by M. F. de 

 Lesseps. — Rational treatment of pulmonary phthisis, by M. P. 

 de Pietra .Santa. — On new apparatus for studying the phenomena 

 of the combustion of powders, by MM. Marcel- Oeprez and H. 

 .Sebert. — Theory of electrodynamics freed from all hypotheses 

 relating to the mutual action of two current elements, by M. P. 

 Le Cordier. — Monograph of the anguilliform family of fi-<hes, by 

 M. C. Darcste. — On the existence of a sexual generation in 

 Phylloxera vaslalrix, by M. G. Balbiani. — On the solution of 

 numerical equations of which all the roots are real, by M. 

 Laguerre. — Un an apparatus for determining personal equations 

 in observations of the transit of stars, arranged for the geodesic 

 service of the United States, by MM. Hilgard and Suess. — On 

 the laws of the vibratory motion of tuning-forks, by M. E. Mer- 

 cadier. — Note on a modification of Fehling's and Barreswil's 

 .solutions for the determination of glucose, by M. P. Lagrange. — 

 On the fermentation of fruits, by MM. G. Lechartier and F. 

 Be'limy. The authors have now examined the produc's from 

 cherries, gooseberries, and figs. — Application of the graphical 

 method to the study of certain points in deglutition, by M. S. 

 Arloing. The author concludes from his experiments that a 

 decided difference exists between the swallowing of liquids and 

 of solids. — On the mechani-m 1 f deglutition, by M. G. Carlet. — 

 Results furnished by surgical op rations performed on patients 

 in which anaesthesia has been produced by the intravenous in- 

 jection of chloral, by M. Ore. — Note on a cyclone observed at 

 La Poue?e (Maine-et-Loire) Sept. 30, 1874, at 4.30 p.m., by 

 M. AI. Jeanjen. — The Report of the Commission appointed on 

 August 17 for preparing a reply to the letter addressed by the 

 Minister of Public Instruction concerning the organisation of a 

 Physical Astronomical Observatory in the neighbourhood of 

 Paris, was read at the conclusion of the meeting. 



BOOKS RECEIVED 



British. — IVTeteoroIogical Committee (her I\Iaiesty's Slationery Office). — 

 Beauty in Common Ttiings, by tfie auitiur of " Life Underground" (Soclely 

 for ttie Promotion of Cfiristian 1-vnowtedge.) 



American. — Montlify Report ot Department of .Agriculture, October 18-4 

 (Wasfnngton, U.S.) 



Colonial.— Red Corpuscles of the Bfood : R. H. Balieweff, M.D. (Miffs, 

 Dick, and Co., Otago. N.Z.) -Centrifugaf Force and Gravitation : Joi.n 

 Harris (John Lovelf, Montreai). — Prodromus ot the Pafaionlofogy 01 Vic- 

 toria (.\ustratia) : John Ferris (Mefbourne). 



CONTENTS Pagk 



Elie de Beaumont. By Prof. Ai.ch. Geikie, F.R.S 41 



Fliickighr and Hanburv's " Pharmacographia." ByHENRV'P. 



Brady, F.L.S. 42 



Sully's " Sensation and Intuition " By Douglas A. Spalding . 44 



LHTTER.S TO THE F.DIT'»R ; 



Sounding and Sensitive Flames, II.— Prof A S. Herschel (;(V//r 



Illustration) 45 



Insects and Cofour in Ffowers. — Thomas Comber 47 



Drosera:.— Rev. G. H. Hopkins 47 



Suicide of Scorpions 47 



Tiie Cry of the Common Frog 48 



Phvffoxera Vastatri.x.- A. Harwoou 48 



A Nest of Young Fish.-RoBERT W, S. Mitchell 48 



The Development of Mollusca 48 



On RfiRAGE. By Prof. J. D Everett, D.C L. (IVith Ulitslmlwas). 49 

 Some Remarks on Dalton's First Table of .Atomic Weights. By 



Prof. H. E. Roscoe, F. R.S 5= 



International IMetric Commission at Paris. By H. W. Chisholm, 



Warden of tiie Standards 54 



Notes 55 



Societies AND Academies 58 



Books Received 60 



