FEBRUARY 8, 1917 | 
EDINBURGH. 
Royal Society, December 4, 1916.—Dr. J. Horne, 
president, in the chair.—Miss Margaret Ferguson ; 
The family budgets and dietaries of forty labouring- 
class families in Glasgow in war-time. The paper 
was founded upon statistics which had been gathered 
in connection with the investigation into the causes 
of rickets now being carried out by the Medical 
Research Committee of the National Insurance Act. 
The average income in war-time was about 42 per 
cent. higher than in the years preceding the war, 
and the average expenditure for food and rent was 
37 per cent. higher. The supply of food energy was 
much the same. The consumption of proteins had 
fallen, that of fats risen, the latter fact being ex- 
“plained as due to the increased consumption of mar- 
garine. 
per cent., the cost of living had increased only 36 
per cent., thus leaving a greater surplus for other 
expenditures.—P. MacNair: The Hurlet sequence in 
the east of Scotland. The purpose of the paper was 
to correlate various members of the lower Limestone 
series of the Carboniferous rocks in the east and west 
‘of Scotland, and, in particular, to compare certain | 
sections in the east with the well-known sequence at 
Hurlet between Glasgow and Paisley. The various 
Limestone horizons which were so correlated were 
characterised by a faunal association by means of 
which they could be traced over wide areas. This 
faunal association had been discovered by the author 
everywhere in the same position throughout the west 
of Scotland, and a similar fauna existed at Abden, in 
Fife, and in other localities in the Lothians. Its 
importance lay in the fact that it formed a _ well- 
marked datum line from which to determine the posi- 
tions of the other members of the series. 
December 18, 1916.—Dr. J. Horne, president, in 
the chair—G. P. Darnell-Smith: The gametophyte of 
Psilotum. This formed one of a series of investiga- 
tions now being carried out in the University of 
Sydney.—J. Russell: Transverse and codirectional in- 
duction changes in demagnetised iron and nickel in 
relation to the molecular theory of magnetism. When 
a rod of iron or nickel has been demagnetised by re- 
versals, the application of a magnetising force at right 
angles to the original direction of magnetisation pro- 
duces induction changes in that direction. The experi- 
mental results were compared with theoretical deduc- 
tions based upon certain assumptions concerning the 
distribution as regards orientation of the molecules con- 
stituting the magnetic matter. Good agreements were 
obtained.—-Prof. W. Peddie: The magnetic test of mole- 
cular. arrangement in crystals: Magnetite and the 
a, 8, and y forms of iron. Iron exists in these three 
crystalline forms, of which a is the magnetic one. 
The author previously showed that the magnetic 
quality of a crystals, as tested by Weiss, proved that 
the arrangement of the magnetic molecules could 
not be on a simple cubic lattice, but might be on a 
face-centred lattice. The only other possible lattice 
is that of the centred cube. In the present paper it 
is shown that this lattice also could not give the ob- 
served characteristics. Therefore, the arrangement is 
on the face-centred lattice. The X-ray test has already 
led to this conclusion. It 
centred cubic lattice arrangement readily gives a non- 
magnetic grouping of molecules, and, therefore, pre- 
sumably exists in the 8 form. This leaves the open 
cubic arrangement as a possibility in the y form. 
The value of the magnetic test is further illustrated 
by the possibility of a magnetic molecular arrange- 
ment in magnetite different from that given by Bragg, 
but also fairly well satisfying the X-ray test. ; 
NO. 2467, VOL. 98] 
NATURE 
While the cost of food had risen about 50 | 
is shown also that the | 
463 
DwB.in. 
Royal Irish Academy, January 8.—The Most Rev. 
Dr. J. H. Bernard, president, in the chair.—D. 
McArdle: Musci and Hepatice of the Glen of the 
Downs, Co. Wicklow. The paper dealt with the 
moss and liverwort flora of the Glen of the Downs, 
a wooded Glacial ‘‘dry gap” near Bray, Co. Wicklow. 
Of mosses eighty species, and of hepatics  thirty- 
seven species, were enumerated, of which about one- 
half were previously unrecorded from the county. 
January 22.—The Most Rev. Dr. J. H. Bernard, 
president, in the chair.—F. L. Hitchcock : The simul- 
taneous formulation of two linear vector functions. 
The author considers Joly’s expressions for two linear 
vector quantities in terms of six vectors. The possi- 
bility of such reduction fails in certain cases, and 
methods are explained for proceeding in each case. 
Geometrical applications to ithe curve of intersection 
of two quadrics are given. The theorem, funda- 
mental in the theory of quadratic vector functions, 
that the locus of the irreducible vector Vop#p cannot 
be a fixed plane is proved. 
New SoutH WALES. 
Linnean Society, November 22, 1916.—Mr. C, Hed- 
sey, vice-president, in the chair.—D. B. Fry: A new 
Batrachian genus from New Guinea, with compara- 
tive notes on the pectoral musculature. The new 
genus belongs to a group comprising sixteen out of the 
twenty-six genera of Brevicipitide (Engystomatidae 
auct.) recorded from the Oriental and Australian 
regions, characterised by having a highly specialised, 
sternal apparatus, modified by the loss of the pro- 
coracoid cartilage and clavicles. Apart from sternal 
characters, its affinities appear to be about equally 
divided between Hylophorbus, Macleay (Mantophryne, 
Blgr., et auct.), and Metopostira, Méhely.—Dr. J. M. 
Petrie: The chemical. investigation of some poisonous 
plants in the N.O. Solanacez. Part iii., The occur- 
rence of nor-hyoscyamine in Solandra longiflora. The 
leaves are found to contain nor-hyoscyamine as the 
chief alkaloid. This was previously isolated and de- 
scribed by the author as a new alkaloid in 1907, under 
the name of “solandrine,’’ and is now identified with 
the alkaloid which Carr and Reynolds isolated in 1912 
from other solanaceous plants. Solandra also con- 
tains hyoscyamine in smaller amount, but scopol- 
amines are absent, The total amount of allcaloid 
obtained was 0-17 per cent. in the leaves (dried at 
100° C.).—G. I. Playfair: Australian fresh-water phyto- 
plankton (Protococcoidez). One new genus is pro- 
posed, and descriptions are given of sixty-one forms 
which appear to be new, eighteen being classed as 
species, thirtv-seven as variations, and six as forms.— 
Dr. H. S. H. Wardlaw: The change of composition 
of alveolar air after the stoppage of normal breathing. 
When normal ventilation of the lungs is stopped, (a) 
by holding the breath, (b) by rebreathing the same 
quantity of air, the changes in the alveolar tensions 
of CO, and O, are exponential functions of the time 
for which ventilation is stopped. When the same air 
is rebreathed, the rates of change of the tensions are 
greater, and the final values approached are further 
removed from the original tensions than when the 
breath is simply held. In ‘the latter case, (a). the 
values reached are close to those which have been 
given for the tensions in venous blood. In the former 
case, (b), the tension of CO. approached is consider- 
ably higher, while that of O, is considerably lower, 
being zero. Holding the breath under positive pres- 
sure seems to have no effect on the rate of change of 
composition of alveolar air, while negative pressure 
: accelerates the change to the same extent as rebreath— 
