Dec. 31, 18 74 J 



NATURE 



179 



Rejiort of the volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that took place 

 during last year, is given by C. W. Fuchs. The latter author 

 furnishes a translation from the Swedish of Nauckhoff's paper 

 On the occuircnce of native iron in a basalt vein at Ovifak, in 

 Greenland, in connection with which we note also a paper by 

 the editor (Tschermak) On the meteorite-find iir Greenland. 



AslronomiSihe A^achrichten, No. 2015, contains a detailed state- 

 ment of observations made at Washington by Cleveland Abbe 

 on the position of Coggia's comet, together with the form of the 

 tad, its length, and other detaUs. — R Tictjen gives elements of 

 Dr. Paliser's planet (139), together with an ephemeris for 

 November and December. 



MIenioric ddUi Societa degli Spcttroscopisti Itabaiii. — Father 

 Secchi sends an account of his observations on the solar eclipse 

 of October last. He observed the contacts of the limbs of the 

 sun and moon by the spectroscopic method, and discusses its 

 advantages over the oidinary method with the simple telescope. 

 — The same author sends drawings of tlie chromosphere from 

 December 26, 1873, 'o August 2, 1874, and he remarks on the 

 continual diminution in the frequency and height of tlie pronii- 

 nences in accordance with the diminution in number of sun-spots. 

 'l"he sun appears to have been seen, on an average, rather oftener 

 than every other day. 



Aiitiali di Chemica applicahi alia Med'uina, vol. lix , No. 3, 

 September, opens with a paper in the Pliarmaceutical Section 

 by Prof. Borsarelli, of Turin, entitled " General and Compara- 

 tive Study of the Phavmacopceias of Europe and America." — In 

 the same section is a paper by Dr. C. Girard, On protoxalate of 

 iron, and one by Lcger, On a tartrate of magnesium lemonade. 

 — In Hygiene there is a paper by Cunningham, On the micro- 

 scopical examination of the air. — Drs. Lanzi and Terrigi commu- 

 nicate a paper to the Pathological Section, on paluslrine 

 miasma. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Linnean Society, Dec. 17. — Dr. AUman, president, in the 

 chair. — Tlie President read a paper on the Diagnosis of new 

 Genera and .Species of Hydroids. .Several very interesting col- 

 lections of Hydroida had recently been placed in the author's 

 hands for determination. One of the most important of these is 

 fiom the zoological museum of the Univer>ity of Copenhagm, 

 and consi^t3 entirely of gymnublastic forms obtained from various 

 p^rts of the world, but principally from the .Scandinavian shores. 

 The author is indebted for it to Prof. Liitken, of the University 

 of Copenhagen. Another collectiim, consisting; of calypto- 

 blastic forms, was made in the Japan seas liy Capt. St. John, 

 of H.M.S. Sylvia, and sent to the author for determination 

 by Mr. J. Gwyrm Jt.ffre)s, by whom it is destined for 

 llie British Museum. For another valuable collection, con- 

 taining many new species, the author is indebted to Mr. Busk ; 

 while a collection, belonging chiefly to the family of Plumula- 

 ridse, was made by Mr. Holdsworth in Ceylon, and contains 

 se\eral curious forms; and, lastly, for a small collection from 

 ilie shores of Spitzbergen, the auihor is indebted to the Rev. 

 Mr. Eaton, by whom it was obtained during a recent yacht 

 vojage to tliat rtgion. Among the new species from the Copen- 

 hagen Museum, one of the most interesting is a Hydractinia, 

 fiom Spitzbergen. It is distinguished hom H. ediiinua of our 

 own shores l)y its nearly smooth spines, but more espt-eially by 

 the peculiar ccndition cf its gonosome, the blastostyles being 

 deo.titute of the capitulum which forms so characteristic a feature 

 in //. echtnata, while each carries only a single spherical sporosac 

 of comparatively enormous size. He proposes for it the name of 

 H. iiwiiocarpa. The same collection contains a new Cladoco- 

 ryne, the second species as yet discovered of this remarkable 

 genus. It was found attached 'to Gulf-weed, and is especially 

 interesting in being provided with its reproductive zooids, struc- 

 tures hitherto unknown in the genus. These are developed among 

 the tentacles, and are almost without doubt medusiform, though 

 this point could not be determined with absolute ceilainty. For 

 the new species the name of C. pi:lai;ictt was proposed. Another 

 hydroid fiom tbe same collection was a beautiful AmalthoM, a 

 genus nearly allied to Corymorpha. It was obtained from Ice- 

 land. One of its most striking features consists in the great length 

 of its proximal tentacles ; these are nearly as long as the entire 



.Ml round which, in lihe living ai iral, i^ey must have hu"g 



down in the form of a graceful inverted tassel of flexile filaments 

 subject to the impulse of every passing current of the surround- 

 ing water. The name of A. islandica was proposed for it. The 

 Japm collection contained, among other interesting species, 

 a Campar.ularia, remarkable for the comparatively enormous 

 size of its cups, which exceeded by about five times the dimens-ions 

 of those of the largest British species. It was named C.grandis. 

 This collection contained also a beautiful Thuiaria, for whicli 

 the name of T. coroiiata was proposed, and in which the female 

 gonangium or receptacle for the ova was crowned by about nine 

 very long bifurcating hollow spines, which formed a cage-like 

 chamber into which the ova subsequently passed. An exten- 

 sion of the crenosarc is continued from the enlarged summit of 

 the blastostyle or fleshy columnar axis of the gonangium through 

 the whole length of the spines ; and as the blastostyle must be 

 hnmologically regarded as a hydranth arrested and adapted to 

 functions connected with reproduction instead of nutrition, the 

 author looked upon the spines as representing the tentacles of a 

 hydranth which had lost their prehensile functions, become 

 clothed with chitine, and adapted to the protection of the ova 

 during an early period of their development. Mr. Busk's coUectioir 

 contained many beautiful new species of calyptoblastic hydroids. 

 Among these was a Sertularella, whose tubular hydrotheca:, free 

 from the stem in nearly their entire length, were deeply cleft at 

 their distal ends, in the manner of a mitre. For this curious 

 species the name of S. cpheopus was proposed. A new genus, 

 under the name of GciiiiniiiJIa, was constituted for a sertularia- 

 like form, in which the hydrotheca;, instead of being situated on 

 Ihe opposite sides of the stem, were all brought to the front of 

 the stem, and there became adnate to one airother in pairs. A 

 beautiful Thuiaria, with a remarkable dicholomous ramification 

 of the main stem, and with the gonangla situated in the axils of 

 the branches, presented a striking resemblance to the inflores- 

 cence of certain common caryophyllaceous jilants, and was 

 naired T. Ceraslium. Mr. Holdsworth's collection, made on the 

 coast of Ceylon, contains some very remarkable species. Among 

 these is a magnificent Plumularian of the Aglaophenian type, 

 rendered striking by the great length of its mesial nematophores, 

 and by the presence of two very long divergent teetli which pro- 

 ject from the margin of the remarkably patulous hydrothecce. 

 The species grows in the form of crowded tufts of beautifully 

 graceful plumes. It would seem to belong to the group which 

 Kirchenpauer places in his sub-genus Makrorynchia, and the nami; 

 of Makrorynchia insigiiis is now proposed for it ; but as no gono- 

 some has as yet been found in any of the specimens, the generic 

 rrame is only provisionally assigned to it. For another beautiful 

 lonn from the same collection tlie author has constituted a new • 

 genus under the name of Taxdla. Its hydrotheco? and nemato- 

 phores are formed on the type of those of the genus Aglaophe- 

 nia, but its gonophores are not protected by corbuk^e, and its 

 ramification presents the peculiarity of being doubly pinnate, so 

 that it represents in the Aglaophenia .section of the Plumularida; 

 a form which in the Plumularian section is rei'resented by the 

 genus D.plopteron, a genus recently constituted by the author 

 fur one of the deep-sea hydroids of the Porcupine Exploring 

 F.xpeditiLin. The name of Taxdla cxiniia is assigned to the 

 present species, which grows in dense tufts to the height of about 

 a foot. In Mr. Eaton's collection, from Spitzbergen, the only 

 well-preserved hydroid is a litile Sertularia with regularly p n- 

 nate ramification, elongated hydrothccoe, and a long ovate gonan- 

 iMun; curiously constricted near its middle. The author gives it 

 the name of S. arclica. 



Geologists' Association, Dec. 4. — Henry Woolwanl, 

 F.K.S., president, in the chair. — Dr. W. B. Carpeirter, F.R. S., 

 On the conditions which determine the presence or absence of 

 animal life on the deep-sea bottom. 



Edinburgh 

 Royal Society, Dec. 21. — Prof. ICelland, vice-president, in 

 the chair. — The following communications were read : — Remarks 

 on the great logarithmic table computed at the Bureau du Cadasti e 

 under the direction of M. Prony, by Mr. Edward Sang. — On 

 the elimination of a, /3, 7, from the conditions of integrabiliiy 

 of S. UoSp, S. U/85p, S. U7V, by M. G. Plarr. Communi- 

 cated by Prof Tait. — The development of the ova and struL- 

 ture of the ovary in the Mammalia, by James Foulis, M.D. 

 Communicated by Prof. Turner. — .Mathematical Notes, by Prcf 

 Tait: — (i). On a singular theorem given by Abel ; (2), On tl e 

 equipotential surfaces for a straight wire ; (3), On a fuudamen'.d 

 principl-j in Statics. 



