SEPTEMBER 28, 1916] 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, September 11.—M. Camille 
Jordan in the chair.—A. Lacroix; The constitution of 
the volcanic rocks of the extreme north of Madagascar 
and of Nosy bé; the ankaratrites of Madagascar in 
general. Five complete analyses are given of rocks 
from the north of Madagascar, four of rocks from 
? the island of Nosy bé, and six of ankaratrites.— 
E. Lebon: A new table of divisors of numbers.—L. 
 Godeaux ; The involutions belonging to algebraic sur- 
faces.—J. Guillaume : Observations of the sun, made at 
the Lyons Observatory during the first quarter of 
1916. The results of observations made on sixty-one 
days are summarised in three tables, showing the num- 
ber of spots, their distribution in latitude, and the 
distribution of the faculze in latitude.—D. Eydoux ; The 
modifications of the phenomena of hammering in pipes 
of variable thickness and diameter.—P. Zeeman: The 
drift of light waves and solar phenomena.—A., Perot: 
The influence of the wind on the conditions of audibility 
of sound. Gunfire has been heard at a great distance 
from the battlefield, with an intermediate zone of 
silence. It is shown that this phenomenon can _ be 
explained by assuming that at a certain altitude either 
there is no wind, or that it is contrary in direction to 
the wind near the ground-level.__H. Pellet: The total 
destruction of pentoses in the course of alcoholic fer- 
mentation. In an attempt to estimate pentoses in the 
presence of saccharose, by fermenting the latter with 
yeast, it was found that some pentoses were fermented. 
_ Alternative conditions are given under which this fer- 
mentation of pentoses can be rendered either total or 
reduced to negligible proportions. 
Wasuincton, D.C. 
National Academy of Sciences (Proceedings No. 8, vol. 
ii., August 15).—C. D. Miller; The absorption ‘o- 
etticients of sott X-rays. The numerical constants in the 
relation between the absorption coefficients, the density, 
and the wave-lengths have been accurately determined. 
The results also indicate that the relationship holds 
for very much softer X-rays than those of ordinary 
penetrating power.—E. F. Smith: Further evidence as 
to the relation between crown gall and cancer. There 
are discussed: fundamental concepts, human and 
animal tumours for which no cause has been dis- 
covered, earlier discoveries in plants, further dis- 
coveries, other resemblances of crown gall to cancer 
in man and animals, possibility of the existence of 
carcinomas and of mixed tumours in plants, produc- 
tion of embryonal teratomata, and bearing of these 
discoveries on the cancer problem.—G. H. Parker: 
Locomotion of sea-anemones. The pedal portion of a 
sea-anemone, like its tentacles, must contain a neuro- 
muscular mechanism sufficient for the activity of that 
part of its body.—G. H. Parker : The behaviour of sea- 
anemones. Sea-anemones are animals the momentary 
conditions of which are dependent upon the combined 
stimuli of their immediate surroundings rather than 
forms that are greatly influenced by their past history, 
and their unity is not of a pronounced type; they are 
more in the nature of a sum of parts than they are 
organic units of the type of most of the higher 
animals.—J. P. Iddings and E. W. Morley: A contribu- 
tion to the petrography of Japan. Seventeen detailed 
chemical analyses are given of Japanese lavas.—J. 
Loeb and J. H. Northrop: Is there a temperature 
coefficient for the duration of life? In three series of 
experiments on the fruit-fly Drosophila it is found that 
the duration of life in the cases examined has a tem- 
perature-coefficient of the order of magnitude which is 
characteristic for life phenomena and chemical reactions 
in general.—C. E. St. John: The suggested mutual re- 
pulsion of Fraurhofer lines. The author is unable to 
NO. 2448, VoL. 98] 
NATURE 
83 
find evidence of the mutual repulsion suggested, and 
in so far as mutual influence is a necessary corollary 
of anomalous dispersion in the sun, evidence of this ~ 
also is lacking.—A. S$. King: An attempt to detect the 
mutual influence of neighbouring lines in electric fur- 
nace spectra showing anomalous dispersion. Although 
the material in the investigation is limited by tne 
scarcity of suitable pairs of lines, the lines actually 
tested have shown no tendency towards a repulsion.— 
C. A. Rouiller ; Synthesis of the base C,H,ON, derived 
from methylaminomethyl-3 : 4-dihydroxyphenylcarbinol. 
A continuation of some work by Abel, with a sugges- 
tion as to a relation to work by Curtius.—W. M. 
Davis ; (1) Extinguished and resurgent coral reefs. (2) 
The origin of certain Fiji atolls. The two papers 
offer a discussion of observations made during the 
author’s Shaler Memorial voyage across the Pacific.— 
C. Barus: Interferometer methods based on _ the 
cleavage of a diffracted ray. The prismatic. method 
of cleaving the incident beam of white light is avail- 
able for the superposition of non-reversed spectra, 
under conditions where the paths of the component 
rays may have any length whatever. It is thus an 
essential extension of the same method as used for 
reserved spectra heretofore, and also of the methods 
in which the paths are essentially small.—F. M. 
Surface: The inheritance of certain glume characters 
in the cross Avena fatua x A sativa, var. Kherson. 
A study of inheritance of certain characters, particu- 
larly directed towards revealing phenomena of linkage. 
C. Zeleny ; A comparison of the rates of regeneration 
from old and from new tissue. The data as a whole 
show clearly that there is no essential difference be- 
tween the rate of regeneration from new cells and from 
old cells. The rate,of regeneration seems, therefore, to 
be under central control.—C. Zeleny: The effect of 
successive removal upon the rate of regeneration. 
Apart from the slowing due to age, there is no indica- 
tion of the amount of new material that may be pro- 
duced by regeneration. The actual limitation comes, 
not from the using up of regenerative energy, but from 
changes in the non-regenerating part associated with 
age.—E. Blackwelder : The geologic réle of phosphorus. 
Phosphorus appears in Nature in many forms and in 
many situations.” Its numerous transformations, how- 
ever, follow an orderly sequence—in a broad way form 
a evcle which is here discussed in some detail.—J. 
Barrell: Dominantly fluviatile origin under seasonal 
rainfall of the Old Red Sandstone.- Geologists have 
differed so widely in their conclusions in regard to the 
nature of the habitat of the early vertebrate faunas 
the remains of which are found in the formations of 
the Old Red Sandstone, that the author is led to 
examine critically the criteria for the interpretation 
of the facts. He comes to the conclusion that the 
deposits which make up the Old Red Sandstone, 
although they undoubtedly contain lacustrine beds 
and other beds laid down in shifting, shallow, and 
variable bodies of water, are dominantly fluviatile in 
origin. The Great Valley in California may therefore 
in the present epoch, both-in physiography and in 
climate, be cited as a striking illustration of the nature 
of the Old Red Sandstone basins.—J. Barrell: The 
influence of Silurian-Devonian climates on the rise of 
air-breathing vertebrates. The evidence for the hypo- 
thesis of the continental origin of fishes has heen 
examined, and seems to vrevail over that for their 
marine origin. The author also believes that natural 
selection, although discredited as a cause determining 
specific variations, appears nevertheless to be a major 
factor in evolution.—T. W. Richards and C. Wads- 
worth 3d; Density of radio-lead from pure Norwegian 
cleveite. The density of this lead is found to be 11-273, 
distinctly less than the densitv (11-289) of Australian 
radio-lead, and still less than that (11-337) for ordinary 
