Dec. 17, 1874] 



NATURE 



139 



lowing effects may be observed : — (o) at the moment of solidifi- 

 cation a very considerable contraction takes place ; (;8) the solid, 

 on further cooling, undergoes slight and regular contraction after 

 the manner of solid bodies in general, until (7) at or about 

 116° C. it undergoes sudden and violent expansion, passing from 

 the amorphous into the crystalline condition ; (S) after under- 

 going this expansion the mass on further cooling undergoes slight 

 expansion, and (e) the coefficient of contraction diminishes as 

 the temperature decreases (or, otherwise expressed, the coefficient 

 of contraction augments with the temperature). 



"On the Multiplication of Definite Integrals," by W. H. L. 

 Russell, F.R.S. 



Geological Society, Dec. 2. — Mr. John Evans, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — The following communications were 

 read : — On the femur of Cryplosaunis eumcrus, Seeley, a Dino- 

 saur from the Oxford clay of Great Gransden, by Mr. Harry Govier 

 Seeley, F.L.S., Professor of Physical Geography in the Bedford 

 College, London. The author described this femur as showing 

 a slight forward bend in the lower third of the shaft, and as 

 having the terminal portions wider in proportion to the length 

 of the bone than in any described Dinosaurian genus. He 

 pointed out its differences from the corresponding bone in Mega- 

 losaurus, Iguanodon, and other genera. The length of the femur 

 was stated to be about one foot. — On the succession of the ancient 

 rocks in the vicinity of St. David's, Pembrokeshire, with special 

 reference to those of the Arenig and Llandeilo groups and their 

 fossil contents, by Mr. Henry Hicks. In the first part of this 

 paper the author described the general succession of the rocks in 

 the neighbourhood of St. David's from the base of the Cambrian 

 to the top of the Tremadoc group, and showed that they there 

 form an unbroken series. The only break or unconfonnity re- 

 cognised is at the base of the Cambrian series, where rocks of 

 that age rest on the edges of beds belonging to a pre-Cambrian 

 ridge. In the second part the author gave a minute description 

 of the rocks, comparing the Arenig and Llandeilo groups, as 

 seen in Pembrokeshire, with each other and also with those 

 known in other Welsh areas. Each group he divided into three 

 subgroups, chiefly by the fossil zones found in them. i. The 

 Lcni'tr Airiiig was stated to consist of a series of black slates 

 about 1,000 feet thick, and to be characterised chiefly by a great 

 abundance of dendroid graptolites. 2. ]\Iiddh' Arenig. — A series 

 of flags and slates, about 1,500 feet thick, and with the following 

 fossils : — 0°ygia sctitatrix, O. fellata, Ampy.x Sal/eri, Sic. 3. 

 Upper Arenig. — A series of slates, about 1,500 feet in thickness, 

 only recently worked out, and found to contain a large number 

 of new and very interesting fossils, belonging to the following 

 genera, viz. : IlUcnus, IlUrnopsis, Placoparia, Barrandia, &c. 

 4. Lcii'er Llandeilo. — A series of slates and interbedded ash, 

 equivalent to the lowest beds in the Llandeilo and Builth dis- 

 tricts, and containing species of jEglina, Ogygia, Trinucleus, 

 and the well-known graptolites Didyinop'aptus Murchisoni and 

 Diploi^rnptns foliacciis, &c. 5. Middle Llandeilo. — Calcareous 

 slates and flags with the fossils Asaphus tyrannus, Trinucleus 

 Lloydii, Calymene cambrtnsis, &.C. 6. Upper Llandeilo. — Black 

 slates and flags, with tlie fossils Ogygia Buckii, Trinucleus firn- 

 brialus, &c. The Arenig series was first recognised in North 

 Wales by Prof Sedgwick about the year 1843, and was then 

 discussed by him in papers presented to the Society. The Llan- 

 deilo series was discovered by Sir R. Murchison previously in 

 the Llandeilo district, but its position in the succession was not 

 made out until about 1S44. The Geological Survey have invari- 

 ably included the Arenig in the Llandeilo group ; but it was 

 now shown that this occurred entirely from a mistaken idea as 

 to the relative position of the two series, which were shown to 

 be entirely distinct groups, the equivalents of both groups being 

 present in Carnarvonshire, Shropshire, and Pembrokeshire, but 

 the Llandeilo group only of the two being developed in Carmar- 

 thenshire. The lines of division in the series were said to be 

 strongest at the top of the Menevian group and at the top of the 

 Tremadoc group, these lines being palseontological breaks only, 

 and not the result of unconformities in the strata. 



Anthropological Institute, Dec. S. — Mr. J. E. Price, 

 F.S.A., in the chair. — Mr. M. J. Walhouse read a paper on the 

 existence of a leaf-wearing tribe on the western coast of India. 

 The author's residence at Mangalore for some years afforded him 

 the opportunity of studying the habits of the native tribes of 

 South Canara, and in the present communication he recorded a 

 few facts concerning the Karagars, a remnant, now numbering 

 only a few hundreds, of the aboriginal slave castes whose dis- 

 tinctive peculiarity! was the| habit of wearing aprons of woven 



tvngs and green 'eaves over the usual garment. The custom at 

 present is observed by the women only, who think that abandon- 

 ing it will bring them ill luck. The author maintained that the 

 leaf was a badge of degradation, and was a survival of a very 

 ancient custom. The unswerving truthfulness of the Karaears 

 is proverbial, and should be remarked as affording a complete 

 refutation of Mr. Mill's assertion, that savages are invariably 

 liars. The paper contained many interesting facts concerning 

 the physical characteristics, traditions, religious rites, and habits 

 of the tribe. — A paper by Mr. Rooke Pennington was read, on 

 some tumuli and stone circles near Castleton, Derbyshire. It 

 comprised a full account of the exploration of the baiTow of 

 Elden Hill, measuring 49 feet in diameter, which yielded bones 

 of man, horse, and rat in great abundance, and a red deer's 

 antler that had been worked. A few feet deeper was discovered 

 a grave, containing the skeleton of a young person that had been 

 buried in a contracted position ; no implements accompanied 

 it, but it appeared to h.ave been interred with much barbaric 

 pom|i. On the top of .Siggett Hill was another barrow of some- 

 what less dimensions, in which was found a fine skeleton with an 

 inverted urn, of the usual type, containing burnt bones. Evi- 

 dence was adduced to prove that the corpse was not burnt until 

 after the funeral feast was concluded, and the bones of the 

 animals eaten were cast at the same time and into the same fire 

 with the human body. This was one of those barrows which 

 had led the author to conclude that in Derbyshire, at any rate, 

 no connection can be established between the Neolithic age and 

 contracted burial, and the bronze age and incremation. — Major 

 Godwin-Austen contributed some further notes on the stone 

 monuments of the Khasi Hills. 



Mathematical Society, Dec. 10.— Prof H. J. S. Smith, 

 F.U.S., president, in the chair. — Prof Cayley gave an account 

 of his paper on the potentials of polygons and polvhedra. — Two 

 notes from M. Mannheim to J.J. Sylvester, F.R.S., were, in 

 the latter gentleman's absence, communicated by Mr. Tucker. 

 The first note contained an elegant geometrical demonstration of 

 the following propositions. ABCD is a quadrilateral whose 

 sides are of invariable magnitude, such that ah = ad and be = 

 cd. The points a and i are fixed ; if w be a point rigidly con- 

 nected with i, it will trace out, as the quadrilateral changes its 

 form, the pedal of a conic. The problem has been treated in an 

 analytical form by Prof. Cayley in a communication to the 

 Society on the determination of the position of the node of a 

 quaitic curve, mentioned also in a paper read before the same 

 Society by Mr. Samuel Roberts as a case of three-bar motion. 

 This Mr. Cayley observed to be the inverse of a conic. Mr. 

 Sylvester calls attention to M. Mannheim's proof as a very 

 be.iutiful and purely geometrical one. — The second note is con- 

 nected with a geometrical proof of a proposition thus stated by 

 M. Mannheim : — "Lorsque le quadriUtere a, g, m, d, dont les 

 cotes sont inegaux, mais dont les diagonales sont perpendiculaires 

 entre elles, se deforment de facon que le sommet a decrive une 

 circonference (0) et les sommets g, d, des circonferences ayant 

 meme centre s sur la diagonale tna, le sommet libre m decrira une 

 anallagmatique du 4"^ ordre." This note relates to seven-bar 

 motion, and is Peaucellier's motion, generalised by substituting for 

 his rhomb any quadrilateral in which the two diagonals are at 

 right angles, one case of which is the kite or spear-head form. 



Royal Geographical Society, Dec. 14.— Major-Genera' 

 Sir H. Rawlinson, K.C.B., presided. The principal business 

 was the reading of the report of the Livingstone Congo Expedi- 

 tion, by Lieut. W. T. Grandy, R.N. The President opened the 

 proceedings by announcing the receipt of an interesting letter at 

 the Foreign Office from Lieut. Cameron, the substance of which 

 we have already given. Lieut. Cameron expressed his confident 

 opinion, founded on Arab information, that the LuaUba river 

 was in reahty the Congo. Mr. Markham then read Lieut. 

 Gr.indy's report, which was an itinerary of the writer's journey 

 to the interior up to the date of his recall. Roads were being 

 made by means of which the troops would be able to intercept 

 the transit of slaves to the coast, and encouragement was being 

 given to cultivate the india-rubber tree, of the value of which in 

 Europe the natives had been hitherto ignorant. The chiefs had 

 been exceedingly kind and hospitable to Lieut. Grandy and his 

 party, and had promised facilities for future expeditions. He had 

 found several traces of the Portuguese occupation of Congo, and 

 he described the natives as being civilised, indolent, and exceed- 

 ingly fond of snuff and tobacco. The palm-tree grew abundantly, 

 but the principal use made of it by the natives was the distilla- 

 tion of the oil into a veiy intoxicating wine, in the use of which 



