2 20 



NA TURE 



YJan. 14, 1875 



Royal Microscopical Society, Jan. 6. — Clias. Brooke, 

 F.R. S. , president, in tlie chair. —Dr. Ord read a paper on tlie natu- 

 ral liistory of the common urates, in which he described the results 

 of a number of experiments with urates of soda and ammonia, 

 carried on with a view to ascertain what was the meaning of the 

 different forms in whicli they appeared in the animal system. 

 The v.arious forms assumed by these salts in colloid media, and 

 under the action of acids or chlorides, were described at some 

 length, and the subject was further illustrated by drawings and 

 preparations exhibited in the room. — A paper by Dr. I'igott, on 

 the invisibility of minute refractory bodies in conseiiuence of 

 excessive aperture, was read by the Secretary. — Some beautiful 

 sections of a foraminifer (Ahcolina), both transverse and longi- 

 tudinal, mounted by MoUer, were exhibited by the Assistant 

 Secretary.- 



Royal Geographical Society, Jan. 12. — Sir Rutherford 

 Alcock, vice-president, in the chair. — A letter was read from 

 Lieutenant-Colonel C. C. Long, a staff officer in the Egyptian 

 service, giving the Society an account of his recent journey to 

 King Mtesa, on the shores of Lake Victoria Nyanza. According 

 to Col. Long's account, he left Gondokoro on the 24th of April 

 last, charged by Col. Gordon with a friendly mission to the 

 powerful King of Uganda (King Mtesa), and accompanied by 

 two Egyptian soldiers and two servants. The journey occupied 

 fifty-eight days, at the end of which the party was rewaided by 

 the sight of the richly-cultivated central district of Uganda, 

 appearing like a great forest of bananas. King Mtesa received 

 the envoy with great friendliness, and ordered thirty of his sub- 

 jects to be decapitated in honour of the visit. Permission was 

 given Col. Long to descend " Murchison Cieek " and view Lake 

 Victoria. The journey from Mtesa's residence occupied three 

 hours, and the party embarked on canoes made of the bark of 

 trees, sewn together. Col. Long sounded the waters of the 

 lake, and found a depth of from 25 to 35 feet. In clear weather 

 the opposite shore was visible, appearing " to an unnautical eye " 

 from twelve to fifteen miles distant ; he did not think he could 

 possibly be greatly deceived in this estimate. After much nego- 

 tiation and opposition, he obtained permission to return to 

 Egyptian territory by water, and on the way, in lat 1'30, dis- 

 covered a second lake, or large basin, at least twenty to twenty- 

 five miles wide. He found the Upper Nile from Ripon Falls to 

 Karuma Falls a fine navigable stream large enough for the Great 

 Eastern. He finally reported from Gondokoro (October 20) 

 that Col. Gordon would soon have a steamer on Albert Nyanza, 

 and intended also to move one to the Upper Nile above Karuma. 

 — A paper was then read "On a Journey along the East Coast 

 of Africa, from Dar-es-Salam to Kilwa, in December 1873, by 

 Capt. F. Elton," the chief point of which was that the Rufigi 

 River was found above the head of the delta to have an average 

 depth of only four to five feet. — Major Erskine (late Colonial 

 Secretary of Natal) then read a paper on his son's (Mr. St. Vincent 

 Erskine) recent mission to the powerful Kaffir chief Umsila, 

 whose territory stretches along the richly-wooded and fertile 

 interior country between the Limpopo and the Zambezi. 

 Umsila's head-quarters are near the ruins of Zimbaye, where the 

 German traveller, Carl Mauch, discovered sculptured stones, 

 supposed by some to be of great antiquity. RIajor Erskine 

 stated that his son had just returned from a second visit to Umsila 

 and Sotala. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, Jan. 4. — M. Fremy in the chair. — 

 The following papers were read : — Note on magnetism d props 

 of a recent communication by M. Lallemand, by M. Th. du 

 Moncel. — Memoir on the resistance of protozoids to the differ- 

 ent dressing materials employed in surgery, by M. Demarquay. 

 — On the decomposition and preservation of wood, by M. Max. 

 Paulet. — On the germination of the " Chevallier" barley, by M. 

 A. Leclerc. — Communications relating to Phylloxera were received 

 from MM. L. Roesler, G. Beaume, V. Jolly, and others. — The 

 French Minister in China forwarded a despatch from M. Fleu- 

 riais, dating from Shanghai, Dec. 26, and announcing the success- 

 ful result of the Transit of Venus observations. — The following 

 letters from various observing stations were also read : — From 

 MM. Ch. Andre and A. Angot, at Noumea, dated Oct. 8 ; 

 from M. J. Janssen, at Nagasaki, dated Nov. 4 ; from M. 

 Heraud, at Saigon, dated Nov. 22 ; and from M. P. Tacchini, 

 at Muddapur (Bengal), dated Dec. 10. This last communi- 

 cation makes known that the spectroscopic observations of the 

 Transit were satisfactory, and tend to show that the diameter 



of the sun is smaller when seen in the spectroscope than when 

 observed by the other method. — On the calculus of geodesic 

 co-ordinates, by M. Ch. Trepied. — On the expression of work 

 relative to an elementary tiansformation, by M. J. Moutier.— 

 Analogies between the disengagement of gases from their super- 

 saturated solutions and the decomposition of certain explosive 

 bodies, by M. D.Gernez. — On the atomic structure of the molecules 

 ofbenzeneandterebene, byM. G. Hinrichs. — On the titanic ethers 

 by M. E. Demarcay. One molecule of tit.anic chloride is mixed 

 in small portions with four molecules of absolute alcohol, and the 

 mixture heated to So°-loo° in vacuo, when hydrochloric acid and 

 the excess of alcohol are removed and a crystalline mass obtained 

 which has the composition of the chlorhydrate of monochlor- 

 hydrine, Ti(0C;H5)^Cl,HCl. This body forms white crystals, 

 melting at 105"-! 10°, >nd decomposable by water. Sodium 

 ethylate dissolved in excess of alcohol is added to an alcoholic 

 solution of the chlorhydrate, when sodium chloride is precipitated, 

 and the alcoholic solution yields on evaporation white crystal- 

 line needles of the ether Ti(0C2H5)-'. — On the pyruvic ureides : 

 Condensed ureides ; by M. E. Grimaux. The author now con- 

 siders dipyruvic triureide, CiHi-jNgOs ; tetrapyruvic triureide, 

 CijHijNi^Os ; and dipyruvic tetraureide, CisHieNgO-.— On the 

 shooting stars of November 13 and December 10, 1S74, by M. 

 Gruey. — Aerial corpuscles and saline matters contained in snow, 

 by M. G. Tissandier. — Researches on the gastric juice, by M. 

 Rabuteau. The author's experiments confirm the results obtained 

 by Braconnot, Prout, Lassaii^ne, and Schmidt — that the acidity 

 of the juice is due to hydrochloric and not to lactic acid. — On 

 the nature of syphilitic affections, and on mercurial treatment, 

 by M. J. Hermann. 



BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS RECEIVED 



British.— The Microscope and its Revelations: Wm. B. Carpenter, M.B., 

 LL.D (J. and A. Churchill).— The Apparent Absence of Air and Water from 

 the Moon ; Francis Rapier (Philosophical Society of Glasgow). — Some 

 Reasons for doubting the Alleged Transit of Venus (Hodder and Stoughton). 

 — Report of the Kew Committee, for year ending Oct. 31, 1874.— Remarks on 

 the Great Logarithmetic and Trigonometrical Tables computed in the Buieau 

 du Cadastre under the direction ot M. Prony : Edward Sang. — A Short His- 

 tory of the English People : Rev. J. R. Green, M.A. (Macmillan and Co.)— 

 The Amazon and Madeira Rivers : Franz Keller (Chapman and Hall). — 

 Chemical and Geological Essays : T. Slerry Hunt, LL.U. (Trubner). — The 

 Tr.insit of Venus ; its Meaning and Use: T. H. Rudd, F.R.A.S. (Long- 

 mans).— Two Years in Peru, with Evploration of its Antiquities: Thos. J. 

 Hutchinson, F.R.GS., F.R.S.L., M.A.I., &c. (Sampson Low, Marston, 

 Low, and Searle). 



American. — Report of the Commis-sioner of Fish and Fisheries of the 

 United States, 1872-73 (Washington).— Memoirs of Boston Society of Natural 

 History : The bpecies ofj Lepidopterous Genus Pamphila : Samuel H. 

 Scudder (Published by the Society).— Report of the Medical Commission 

 upon the Sanitary Qualities of the Sudbury, Mystic, Shawstone, and Charles 

 River Waters (Boston, Rockwell and Churchill). — Results derived from an 

 Examination of the United States Weather Maps for 1872-73 : Elias Loomis 

 (From American Journal of Science and Arts). — Jeffries Wyman Memorial 

 Meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History. 



Colonial. — Appendix to New Vegetable Fossils of Victoria : Baron Ferd. 

 von Mueller, C.M.G., M.D., Ph D., F.R.S.— Journal of the Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal (G. H. Rouse, Calcutta).— Proceedings and Transactions of the 

 Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science (Wm. Gossip, Halifax, N.S.)— 

 Durability of New Zealand Timber (Report read by Mr. Thomas Kirk). 



CONTENTS Pag» 



The Approaching EcLipsK OF THE Sun 201 



Count Rumford's Complete Works, By W. Mattieu Williams, 



F.CS 203 



The Silkworm Cocoon ao6 



Our Book Shelf: — 



Thomson's " Straits of Malacca,^' &c 207 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Hoffmeyer's Weather Charts.— Robert H. Scott, F.R.S. . . . 2d8 

 A New Bird of Paradise from the Island of Waigeou, near New 



Guinea.— Dr. A. B. Meyer 208 



Chappell's " History of Music."-yWM. Chappell 208 



(Origin of Bright Colouring in Animals ; 208 



Ring Blackbird.— Hervey Cecil 209 



The New Western China Expedition 209 



The Acclimatisation of Salmon in Otago 209 



On the Existence of the Fallow Deer in England during 



Pleistocene Times. By Victor Brooke (U^tt/i /ttiistratwus) . 210 



Helmholtz ON the Use and Abuse of the Deductive Method 



IN Physical Science 211 



New Zealand Plants suitable for Paper-Making. By John K. 



A French Official Account of the Origin of th e Royal Society 213 



The Transit of Venus 214 



On the .Age of American Stone Implements, or " Indian 



Relics." By Chas. C. Abbott 215 



Notes 215 



Scientific Serials 218 



Societies and Academies 219 



Books and Pamphlets Received 220 



