Novemser 23, 19 16] 
A particular plane movement with two parameters. 
—(CE. de Coninck and M. Gérard: The atomic weight 
of lead. The method used was to determine the 
ratio of lead nitrate to the lead oxide obtained by 
ignition. For ordinary lead the value 206-98 is given, 
and for lead extracted from uranium minerals 206-71. 
—E. Harlé and J. Harlé: The continental dunes of 
the landes of Gascony.—R. César-Franck : The presence 
of forms of wind erosion in the Isle of Wight.—J. 
Dedijer: The traces of the Glacial period in Albania 
and New Serbia (upper basins of the Drim Noir and 
the Skumba).—C,. Sauvageau:; The plantules of some 
Laminaria.—L. Daniel: The effects of continual capil- 
lary watering. Various seeds and plants were kept 
continuously supplied with water by capillary siphons, 
the amounts of water required for each plant having 
been previously determined by studies of the trans- 
piration of the plant and soil evaporation. The re- 
sults were compared with ordinary intermittent water- 
ing, and showed distinct advantages for the capillary 
method.—L. Roule;: The migration for spawning in 
lake trout, Salmo fario lacustris. The fish are shown 
to select streams in which the proportion of dissolved 
oxygen is highest.—L. Boutan: The plane of equili- 
brium or of least effort of Teleostean fish with swim- 
ming bladder.—A. Paillot: The existence of several 
varieties and races of Coccobacilli in natural septicemia 
of the cockchafer.—J. Courmont and A. Devic: The 
leucocytosis resulting from antityphoid and antipara- 
typhoid vaccination.—J. Danysz : The causes of intoler- 
ance to the arsenobenzenes and the means of avoiding 
or preventing them.—G, Sanarelli: The pathogeny of 
cholera. Experimental reproduction of the disease. 
WasuHinGton, D.C. 
National Academy of Sciences (Proceedings, No. 10, 
vol. ii.).—F. H. Seares : Preliminary results on the colour 
of nebula. Photographs of the spirals Messier 51, 94, 
gg show that the nebulz condensations have large nega- 
tive colour indices. The kn@ts of nebulosity are bluer 
than the bluest of the neighbouring stars. The spec- 
tral character of the outlying regions differs from that 
of the central nucleus. In the case of the planetary 
nebula N.G.C. 3242 no important differences of this 
sort are revealed.—k. G. Falk; The action of alkali 
in the production of lipolytically active protein. The 
author discusses inactivation of the enzymes by acid, 
by alkali, by alcohols, by acetone, by salts, and by 
heat; nature of the chemical changes involved in 
the inactivations; and activation of proteins by alkali. 
—A. R. Haas: The excretion of acids by roots. The 
author finds that no acid other than carbonic was 
excreted from the roots of corn seedlings. Similar 
results were obtained with wheat seedlings.—W. W. 
Campbell and J. H. Moore : Spectrographic observations 
of relative motions in the planetary nebula. Further 
observations indicating the probability of the hypothesis 
that the so-called ring nebulz are in reality not ring 
forms, but ellipsoidal shells. Tentative conclusions are 
also drawn as to the probable masses of the’ nebulz. 
~—S. C. Brooks: New determinations of permeability. 
The determinations have been made by a new in- 
dependent method and by improved older methods. 
The results agree in showing that living protoplasms 
are normally permeable to the salts studied, but salts 
of pure solutions may alter permeability, some causing 
an increase of permeability, while others cause a de- 
crease, followed by an increase. In a properly 
balanced solution the permeability remains normal. 
Cell-walls may be semi-permeable to an ex- 
tent which renders them important in such experi- 
ments.—A. A. Coble; Point sets and Cremona groups. 
Part iii. The group G,.. is used in the problem of 
determining the lines of a cubic surface. The deter- 
mination differs from that of Klein.—C. Barus: The 
NO. 2456, VOL. 98] 
NATURE 
243 
interferences of spectra, both reversed and inverted.— 
A. M. Banta : Sex intergrades in a species of Crustacea, 
The atthor has collected a large amount of data. on 
several species of Cladocera, which is interesting be- 
cause of the remarkable array of sex forms, the stock 
in general consisting of perhaps 40 per cent. normal 
males and about 8 per cent. normal females, the 
remainder being intergrades with almost every com- 
bination of sex characters.—G. H. Hardy and J. E. 
Littlewood : Some problems of Diophantine approxima- 
tion: a remarkable trigonometrical series. A series is 
given which is never convergent or summable for any 
value of @, and is accordingly not a Fourier’s series; 
and further, a function which. does not possess a 
finite differential coefficient for any value of @.—G. N. 
Lewis ; Steric hindrance and the existence of odd mole- 
cules (free radicals). It is contended that the hypo- 
thesis underlying the somewhat elusive phrase, ‘ steric 
hindrance,”’ should not be introduced until phenomena 
are known which cannot be so well explained in other 
ways. It is shown how the so-called free radical of 
organic chemistry may be explained independently of 
the hypothesis of steric hindrance.—A, A, Bennett : 
Newton’s method in general analysis. An extension 
to general analysis of the special algebraic work of 
H. B. Fine.—W.-D Harkins, R. E. Hall, and W. A. 
Roberts ; The cobaltammines. The authors have deter- 
mined accurately the freezing-point lowerings caused 
by eight different cobaltammine salts, and have derived 
from the results the number of ions into which each 
salt dissociates. These are found to be in accordance 
with Werner’s theory.—National Research Council : 
Report of the first meeting of the council; reports of 
meetings of the Executive Committee; organisation 
of the Research Council (as at present constituted). 
New Sovutu WALEs. 
Linnean Society, August 30.—Mr. A. G. Hamilton, 
president, in the chair.—R. J. Tillyard: Further ob- 
servations on the emergence of dragonfly larve from 
the egg, with special reference to the problem of 
respiration. The observations were made upon eggs 
of Anax papuensis (Anisoptera) and Austrolestes leda 
(Zygoptera). By curtailment of the oxygen supply 
during embryological development, larvae of Anax were 
made to hatch from the eggs in a weakened condi- 
tion, so that the pronymphal stage lasted three and a 
half hours instead of a few seconds. Results :—(1) 
The first gas to enter the trachez appears during the 
pronymphal stage, and enters simultaneously into 
dorsal and ventral trunks and their connecting trachee. 
(2) Experiments with a ro per cent. solution of caustic 
potash, and with a 4 per cent. solution of azol, indicate 
that this gas is CO,, and that it is replaced by a mix- 
ture of oxygen and nitrogen differing little from air. 
(3) Sections of a pronymph, made to discover the 
nature of the ‘cephalic heart,’ suggest that this is 
not a special organ, but merely a temporary develop- 
ment in the cesophagus. (4) The abnormal conditions 
imposed upon one egg, with an embryo which had not 
completed reversion, caused this embryo to continue 
its development head downwards, and, finally, to hatch 
tail foremost. (5) Newly hatched larve of Austro- 
lestes practise rectal respiration regularly for the first 
half-hour of larval life, thenceonward intermittently. 
Practically all dragonfly larvae must practise rectal 
respiration directly after hatching to replace the CO, 
in the tracheal system.—Dr. E. W. Ferguson: Revision 
of the Amycterides (Coleoptera), part v. This part 
deals with the genera Molochtus (four. species, one 
new) and Cubicorrhynchus (twenty-eight species, seven 
new).—A. H. S. Lucas: Notes from the Botanic Gar- 
dens, Sydnev. Parthenogenesis in aquatic phanero- 
gams. Elatine triandra, Schrank (Elatinacez), and 
Glossostigma spathulatum, Arnott (Scrophulariacee), 
