1 66 



NA TURE 



^Dcc. 17, I J 



that Buccros castiarinus, described by Mr. G. R. Gray in 1871 

 from the head only, was merely the young stage of Bycanislcs 

 cyliii(lriats.—Mr. E. Lort Phillips exhibited a fine series of 

 heads of antelopes obtained dimng his recent expedition to 

 Somali-land in company with Messrs. James, and read notes on 

 their habits and localities. — Mr. W. T. Blanford exhibited, on 

 behalf of Capt. C. S. Cumberland, the head of a wild sheep 

 from Ladak, supposed to be a hybrid between Ovis Jiodgsoiii 

 and Ovis -ngnd. — Mr. John Bland .Sutton read a paper on the 

 origin of the urinary bladder, in which he endeavoured to show 

 that the atrophy of the gills in all forms of the vertebrates above 

 the amphibians might possibly be explained by the assumption of 

 embrj'onic respiration by the allantois. — A communication was 

 read from Lieut.-Col. Swinhoe, containing the fourth part of his 

 memoir on the Lepidoptera of Bombay and the Deccan. The 

 present paper concluded his description of the Heterocera ; and 

 also contained descriptions of the Tortricidse and Tineina, which 

 had been worked out by Lord Walsingham. — A communication 

 was read from Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, containing a memoir on 

 the comparative osteology of the Trochilida;, Caprimulgid.e, 

 and Cypselidas. Dr. Shuffldt came to the conclusion that the 

 Trcchilidre should form an order by themselves, and were not 

 nearly related to the Cypselidre, which were only much modified 

 Passeres. — Mr. F. E. Beddard read the second of his series of 

 notes on the Isopoda collected during the voyage of H.M.S. 

 Challenger. In the present paper the author treated of speci- 

 mens referable to the family Munnopsid^. — A communication 

 was read from Mr. Martin Jacoby, containing descriptions of 

 some new species and a new genus of Phytophagous Coleoptera^ 



Physical Society, November 28. — Prof. F. Guthrie, Presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Mr. T. H. Blakesley was elected a Member 

 of the Society. — The following communications were read : — On 

 the calibration of galvanometers by a constant current, by Mr. T. 

 Mather. A cuiTent is passed through the coils of a galvano- 

 meter, which may be of any form ; the galvanometer is turned 

 in a horizontal plane through any angle, which need not be 

 recorded, and the deflection 6 of the needle noted. The current 

 is then broken, and the needle swings back, taking up its posi- 

 tion in the magnetic meridian ; the angle through which it turns 

 to do this is also noted 8. This is repeated with the galvano- 

 meter in various positions and with the same current, and a curve 



is drawn showing the relation between the values of 2 — ^ and 



sin 5 

 corresponding values of 9. When the instrument is now 

 used in its normal position it is readily seen that a cuiTent pro- 

 ducing a deflection fl of the needle is proportional to the value 



of ^1" corresponding to fl, obtained in the calibration experi- 

 ment which may be read off at once from the curve. — On a 

 machine for the solution of cubic equations, by Mr. H, H. 

 Cunyngham. This machine the author believes to be the only 

 one hitherto constructed that gives the imaginary as well as the 

 real roots of a cubic equation. A cubical parabola is drawn 

 upon paper, the ordinates being the cube roots of the corre- 

 sponding abscissae. To find the roots of a cubic, first reduce it 

 by Cardan's rule to the form .r^ - ^.v - B = o. Then measure 

 off along Ox, a distance equal to B, and from this point, T, 

 draw a line making an angle equal to cofM with Ox. The 

 ordinates of the points where this line cuts the curve are the 

 roots of the equation. To find the imaginary roots when Ihey 

 exist, first find the real root as before ; from this point draw a 

 tangent to the branch of the curve the other side of Oy, then if 

 this line cut the axis of .v at a point Q, and a be the real root, 

 the two imaginaiy roots are 



/QT_ 



Instead of actually going through the construction as above, the 

 operation is preferably performed by applying a protractor with a 

 tangent scale to the curve with its centre at T, setting it, and 

 leading off the point of the curve cut by its edge. — On a machine 

 for the solution of equations, by Mr. C. V. Boys. After men- 

 tioning I\Ir. Hinton's apparatus, lately shown to the Society, 

 and briefly describing Mr. Kempe's equation-machine, Mr. Boys 

 explained a machine he had constructed, consisting of a system 

 of beams, each provided with a pair of pans, and working upon 

 a fulcrum at the middle. The pans of the first beam are marked 

 + « and -,7, those of the second -b and +l>, the next +c and 

 - f, and so on. Into these, weights equal in value to the co- 



efficients a, b, c, &c., of an equation a + bx + ex- + . . . . = o 

 are to be placed. A sliding joint is arranged to connect a point 

 opposite the positive pan of each beam, with a rib at the back 

 of the next lower one. Alternate beams are placed opposite 

 one another, and each set can be slid past the other, the pecu- 

 liar connecting-joints being able to slide past the fulcra and the 

 pans on each beam. To solve an equation, the coefficient 

 weights are placed in their pans, and the two sets of beams are 

 made to slide past one another. At certain positions the beams 

 change the direction of inclination. These positions of balance 

 are noted on a scale, the readings of which are roots of the 

 equation. When there are not more than two impossible roots, 

 the machine will find them ; for this purpose the real roots are 

 first found and divided out, the resulting quadratic being placed 

 on the machine. Instead of a change of inclination of the 

 beam, a maximum or minimum of pressure is observed by a 

 spring balance. The reading of the scale is then the real jiart 

 of the root, and the square root of the pressure the impossible 

 part. — Mr. A. Hilger exhibited and described a new driving 

 clockwork of isochronous motion regulated by a fan-governor, 

 and a new direct-vision spectroscope. 



Geological Society, Xovember 8. — Prof T. G. Bonneyi 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — Henry M. Ami andR, Mountford 

 Deeley were elected as Fellows of the Society. — The following 

 communications were read : — Results of recent researches in 

 some bone-caves in North Wales (Fynnon Beuno and Cae 

 Gwyn), by Henry Hicks, F.R. S., with notes on the .animal re- 

 mains by W. Davies, F.G.S., of the British Museum (Nat. 

 Histoi-y). This paper contained the results of researches carried 

 on in these caverns in the summers of 1883, 1884, and 1S85 fy 

 Mr. E. Bouverie Luxmoore, of St. Asaj^h, and the author. The 

 enormous collection of bones belonging to the now extinct 

 animals of Pleistocene age obtained had been submitted for 

 examination to Mr. W. Davies, and afterwards distributed to 

 various museums. Several well-worked flint implements were 

 also discovered in association with the bones. The following 

 are the conclusions .arrived at by the author, from the facts ob- 

 tained during the explorations : — That abundant evidence has 

 been furnished to show that the caverns had been occupied by 

 hyjenas, and possibly by other beasts of prey, as dens, into which 

 portions of carcasses of various animals had been conveyed in 

 Pleistocene times. The very great abundance of some animals, 

 such as the rhinoceros, horse, and reindeer, and the frequent 

 presence of bones belonging to young animals, proved that the 

 plain of the Vale of Clwyd, with that extending northward 

 under the Irish Sea, must have formed a favourite feeding- 

 ground even at that time. The flint implements and worked 

 bones showed also that man was contemporary with these 

 animals. The facts perhaps, however, of greatest importance, 

 made out during these researches, are those which bear on some 

 questions of physical geology in regard to this area, which 

 hitherto have been shrouded more or less in doubt. The views 

 on the physical conditions in Pleistocene times of the areas in 

 North Wales in which these and the other bone-caverns occur, 

 so ably put forward by Sir A. Ramsay, appeared to the author 

 to be strongly supported by the results obtained in these ex- 

 plorations. The ravine in which the caverns occur must have 

 been scooped out previous to the deposition in it of the glacial 

 sands and boulder- cl.ays. This sand and clay, there seems good 

 evidence to show, must have filled up the ravine to a height 

 above the entrances to the caverns, and such sands and clays are 

 now found at some points to completely fill up the caverns. 

 How, then, did the.=e sands and clays get into the caverns? 

 Were they forced in through the entrances by marine action or 

 by a glacier filling the valley ? Or were they conveyed in subse- 

 quent to the deposition of the boulder-clay in the valley and 

 surrounding area? The position of the caverns in an escarp- 

 ment of limestone, at the end of a ridge of these rocks, with a 

 shai-p fall on either side, prohibits the idea that the m.iterial 

 could have been washed in from the higher ground, as has been 

 suggested by some in the case of other caverns, if it had any- 

 thing like its present configuration. Moreover, there is scarcely 

 any deposit now visible upon the limestone ridge, and there is 

 no certainty that there ever was deposited there any great thick- 

 ness of such a clay as that now found in the caverns. The 

 general position also of the bones in some of the tunnels seems 

 to indicate clearly that the force which broke up the stalagmite 

 floor, in some places 10 to 12 inches thick, and stalactites 6 to 8 

 inches across, which thrust many of the large and heavy bones 

 into fissures high up in the caverns and placed them at all 



