i66 



NA TURE 



[December 15, 1898 



the Society of Apothecaries and the Koyal C^iUetre uf riijsicians 

 in turn, the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and the 

 Senate of the University of London. It is intended that the 

 existing; garden should be fully maintained, a suite of rooms 

 being provided for lectures and experimental teaching, whilst 

 the Trustees are to be given authority, if they think fit, to erect 

 and fully equip a physiological laboratory. 



To carry out the new scheme referred to above, an annual 

 income of eight hundred pounds is to be provided by the 

 Trustees, and it is proposed in addition that the committee shall 

 be furnished with such a capital sum as may be necessary to 

 enable them to enforce the scheme to its full extent. The 

 committee is to appoint a curator for the scientific supervision 

 of the garden, and other members of the staff. Further, the 

 committee will be authorised by the scheme to provide instruc- 

 tion in botany by means of lectures, demonstrations, &c. , with 

 special reference to the requirements of elementary education ; 

 to arrange for the maintenance of botanical collections of living 

 plants for teaching purposes, and, so far as practicable, for the 

 supply of botanical specimens for the purpose of external 

 instruction. Students of institutions receiving aid from the 

 funds of the City Parochial Foundation are to be eligible for 

 admission without payment of fees ; and it is provided that, so 

 long as a yearly payment of not less than one hundred and fifty 

 pounds is made to the Trustees out of the moneys provided by 

 Parliament, students of the Royal College of Science shall also 

 be admitted to the garden without payment, while they, the 

 professors and teachers of the College, shall be entitled to the 

 use of the garden, the botanical collections, and the lecture 

 rooms for such time as may be approved by the Charity Com- 

 missioners. It will thus be seen that the scheme is of a far- 

 reaching character, and calculated materially to increase the 

 usefulness of the garden. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Memoirs of the Kazan Society of Naturalists. Vol. xxx. — 

 On the oro-hydrography of the Nizhne-Isset mining region in 

 Middle Ural, by V. Rozhkoflf, with an orographic map in which 

 the plateau character of the region appears very well. — On intra- 

 cellular growths in cancer, by A. Kebrovsky, with a plate. 

 Sporiferous growths were not found in cases unaccompanied by 

 wounds. — On the parisitism of the Rotatoria jVa/uwa/Zir Her- 

 ticciti m the Vaucheria, by W. Rothert, with a plate. — On the 

 geology of the water-parting between the Volga and the Don at 

 Tsaritsyn, by M. ^■anischewskJ•. A large development of old 

 Post-1'liocene alluvial deposits was found. — Water in wells at 

 Kazan, by Prof. Scherbakoff. — On crystal-bearing cells in cork 

 membranes, by W. Rothert. The observations of Zacharias, 

 Cederwall, and Meyer are confirmed by observations on Agave, 

 Foiircroya, Dracaena, and several others. 



Vol. xxxi. — On the structure of the membrane of the vessels 

 in plants, by W. Rothert, with a plate. A preliminary report 

 on extensive researches into this question. — On the patho- 

 logical and anatomic changes in organs and tissues resulting in 

 raphania, ergotismus, and similar diseases, by N. Vinogradov, 

 with one coloured plate. A detailed investigation of many cases 

 of these diseases, which often assume in Russia an epidemic 

 chamcter. — On investigations of the soil, made in 1896 by K. 

 Rispolozhensky. Part of a wide system of investigation which 

 is being carried on for many years in Russia. — Chemical and 

 physical researches into the soils of Kazan, by V. .Sorokin. — 

 The fauna of the upper parts of the Permo-Carbonic formations 

 on the Kama and Chusovaya rivers, by N. Romanov. Eighty- 

 nine species are described, the following being new : Aviculo- 

 pecten Sluckenhergi, A, parx'ulns, and Pleurotomaria flnc- 

 iuosa. The deposits belong to the Kungur division of I'rof. 

 Stuckenljerg. 



Bolleltino delta Sociela Sisuioloi^ca Ilaliana, vol. iv., 1S9S, 

 No. 4. — On the investigation of .seismic periodicity by the 

 method of overlai)ping means, by C. Davison. A description 

 (in English) of a rough method of harmonic analysis suitable 

 for the investigation of the annual and diurnal periodicity of 

 earthquakes, with examples worked out in illustration of the 

 method. — On the increase of activity presented by Vesuvius in 

 the months of April and May, by K. \'. Matteucci. — Notices 

 of earthquakes recorded in Italy (September 1897), by 

 (■>. .Vijamennonc. A long and valuable series of records of 



NO. 1520, VOL. 59] 



three earthquakes, two of which originated at L-\buan (B )rneo) 

 on September 20 and 21, and the third in the province of 

 Ancona (Italy) on September 21. 



Bulletin lie la SociJti! des Naturalistes de Afoscou, 1897, No. 4. 

 This volume contains one paper, " De Aphodio scuticollt m, 

 (nigrivitti, V.\)\ ) /jtisque cognatis," \n Latin, by A. Semenoff. 

 The remainder is taken up with the proceedings, which contain a 

 number of shorter notes, and the yearly report. During the year 

 1897 a considerable number of members of the Society, chiefly 

 botanists, explored various parts of Russia. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEAflES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, November 17. — "The Electrical Coo* 

 ductivityand Luminosity of Flames containing Vaporised Salts.*? 

 By Arthur .Smithells, H. M. Dawson, and H. A. Wilson} 

 Communicated by Sir II. E. Roscoe, F. R.S. , 



(i) The authors conclude from their experiments, that the 

 conductivity of vaporised salt is of an electrolytic character, but 

 that there are features connected with it that distinguish it from 

 electrolytic conduction in aqueous solution. Thus Ohm's law 

 is only obeyed within certain limits, ami the general relation^ 

 between current strength and electromotive force can only b6 

 represented generally by a more complex expression. 



(2) The conductivities of different salts differ greatly, accord-' 

 ing to the electropositive constituent. ' 



(5) Among different salts of the same metal differences of 

 conductivity appear at the higher concentrations, but at low 

 concentrations equivalent solutions have equal conductivity. 



(4) The conductivity of the haloid salts as a group is distinct 

 from that of the oxy salts. 



(5) The conductivity of the haloid salts of a metal among 

 themselves increases with the increasing atomic weight of the 

 halogen. 



(6) The conductivity of the oxysalts of a metal is approxi- 

 mately equal, and approaches that of the hydrates. 



(7) The more easily oxidisable halogen salts are probibly 

 partly converted into oxide in the flame, so that their con- 

 ductivity is composed of two parts. 



(8) The behaviour of the salts in flames supplied with chloro- 

 form vapour seems to establish the fact that the conductivity 

 and the colour produced by the salt vapour are not due to a 

 common cause. 



The coloration of a flame by an alkali salt does not seem 

 therefore to be connected with the conisation of the salt. It 

 must be attributed to the metal set free by a chemical process. 

 This process consists probably in a reduction effected by the 

 flame gases. An oxy-isalt would, generally speaking, form in 

 the first instance an oxide, which would then be reduced. In 

 the case of haloid salts it seems also necessary to suppose that 

 an oxide is intermediately formed, the metal being then liberated 

 by reduction. 



Physical Society, December 9. — Mr. Shelford Bidwell, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair.— Dr. C. Chree read a paper on 

 longitudinal vibrations in solid and hollow cylinders The 

 ordinary formula for the frequency ol longitudinal vibrations 

 refers to an ideal rod of infinitely small section. This formula 

 constitutes a first approximation, according to w hich the higher 

 notes are exact harmonics of the fundamental note. I'rot 

 Pochhammer, and Lord Rjiyleigh independently, over twenty 

 years ago, arrived at a corrective term for solid isotropic rods of 

 circular section, according to which the harmonic relation be- 

 tween the notes is no longer exact. During the last twelw 

 years Dr. Chree has devoted several papers to the subject, con*^ 

 firming by independent methods the lesulls obtained by Poch- 

 hammer and Rayleigh, and arriving at analogous results for 

 other forms of section, and for material symmetrical round ao 

 axis but not isotropic. The first part of the present paper 

 develops what appears to be a new method, based on expres- 

 sions obtained some years ago by the author for the mean values 

 of the strains in an elastic solid of any kind or shape, exposed 

 to any system offerees. Besides confirming his previous resulISi 

 Dr. Chree obtains new results applicable to material neither 

 isotropic nor symmetrical round the axis of the rod. The second 

 part of the paper treats of a hollow circular rod, or tube, of 

 isotropic material. When the walls of the tube are thin, the 

 correction to the ordinary formula is twice a& large as for a solid 



