Dec. 17, 1885] 



NA TURE 



167 



angles in the deposit, must have acted fi'om the entrance 

 inwards, r.nd the only force which seems to meet these condi- 

 tions is marine action. The following seem to the author to 

 be the changes indicated by the deposits. The lowest in the 

 caverns, consisting almost entirely of local materials, must 

 have been introduced by a river which flowed in the valley 

 at a very much higher level than does the little stream at 

 present. Gradually, as the valley was being excavated, and the 

 caverns were above the reach of floods, hya;nas and other beasts 

 of prey occupied them, and conveyed the remains of other ani- 

 mals into them. Man also must have been present at some 

 part of this period. Gradually the land became depressed, the 

 animals disappeared, stalagmite was formed, and the sea at last 

 entered the caverns, filling them up with sands and pebbles, and 

 burying also the remains not washed out. Floating ice deposited 

 in this sea the fragments of rocks derived from northern sources, 

 and these became mixed with local rocks and clays brought 

 down from surrounding areas. The greater part of the boulder- 

 clay in the Vale of Clwyd was pro'iably deposited as the land 

 was being raised out of this Mid-Glacial sea. During the pro- 

 cess of elevation the caverns became again disturbed by marine 



j action and the upper fine reddish loam and the laminated clays 

 were deposited. It seemed to the author impossible to avoid 



' the conclusion that these caverns must have been submerged, 

 and afterwards elevated to their present height of about 400 feet 

 above the level of the sea, since they were occupied by Palaeo- 

 lithic man and the Pleistocene animals. — On the occurrence of 

 the Crocodilian genus Toiiiistoina in the Miocene of the Maltese 

 Islands, by R. Lydekker, F. G.S. — Description of the cranium 

 of a new species of Eriuaceus from the Upper Miocene of 

 QLningen, by R. Lydekker, F.G. S. 



Anthropological Institute, Nov. 24. — Mr. Francis Galton, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — The election of W. Seton 

 Karr, E. Lawrence, Dr. R. tMunro, and Dr. W. Summerhays, 

 was announced.- — Mr. C. H. Read exhibited a number of 



j ethnological objects from Terra del Fuego. — The President 



1 exhibited on behalf of Dr. J. E. Billings, of the United States 

 Army, a collection of composite photographs of skulls. There 

 were in all twenty photographs, forming four series, referring 

 respectively to Sandwich Islanders, Ancient Californians, Arapa- 

 hoe Indians, and Witchitaw Indians ; each composite was the 

 mean of six adult male skulls. — Dr. Edward B. Tylor exhibited 



I some Australian Tunduns or bull-roarers, and explained the 

 manner in which they were used. — Mr. J. Theodore Bent read a 

 paper on insular Greek customs, in wliich he described many 



] ceremonies now used by the Christian inhabitants of the islands 



! of the ."Egean Sea that were obviously derived from, or survivals 

 of, ancient Pagan customs. Mrs. Bent exhibited a collection of 

 Greek dresses, drapery, and other objects from the islands 

 referred to in the paper. — Mr. _!• W. Crombie read a paper on 

 the game of hop scotch, in which he traced the origin of the 

 I game to a period anterior to the introduction of Christianity, 

 and showed that in early Christian times children had some 

 ! rough idea of representing in this game the jirogress of the 

 I soul through the future world, and that the division of the 

 j figure into seven courts was on account of the belief in seven 

 j heavens. — Dr. E. B. Tylor gave a risunil of a paper by Mr. A. 

 i VV. Howitt, on the migrations of the Kurnai ancestors 

 (.Gippslandl. 



Royal Microscopical Society, November 11. — Rev. Dr. 



DaUinger, F.R. S., President, in the chair. — The President 



referred in feeling terms to the death of Dr. W. B. Carpenter, 

 IC.B., a Fellow, and formerly President, of the Society, and a 

 |]esolution of condolence with his family was passed. Prof. 

 I Stewart was appointed to represent the Society at the funeral. 



— Mr. Beck exhibited a portable form of his "Star" micro- 

 I scope, and Mr. Crisp exhibited a microscope with focussing 



adjustment by means of a piece of catgut, which, it was 

 I claimed, gave a very simple and easy motion. — Mr. J. Mayall, 

 i jun. , exhibited the Helot-Trouve electric photophore, which had 

 I been recommended as an excellent illuminant for microscopical 

 I purposes. — Mr. Groves exhibited a Barrett microtome, a very 

 'large form, intended for cutting sections of exceptional size. — • 



!Mr. Dowdeswell exhibited a cholera bacillus showing a flagellum 

 at either end, one straight and the other coiled. — Mr. Nelson 

 exhibited a very fine image of Triceratium seftangulalum, show- 

 ing markings in the areolation with a |-inch objective, and the 

 low a|)erture of 0^29. — Mr. Badcock described an unknown 

 fresh-water organism, closely resembling a Polycystin. The 



President suggested that it might possibly be one of the various 

 forms oi Actinophrys. — A paper was read by Mr. W. B. Turner, 

 describing some ' new and rare Desmids ; also one, by Dr. 

 Giltay of Holland, on the proper mode of describing the 

 amplifying power of a lens or objective. ^Mr. Cri.sp read a 

 paper on the limits of resolution in the microscope, in which he 

 showed that whilst the limit with white light might be taken at 

 14^.543 hnes to the inch, the use of monochromatic light gave 

 an increase to 158,845, and with photography to 193,037. — A 

 paper was read by Dr. Lavis on preparing sections of pumice 

 and other vesicular rocks. — It was announced that Mr. Mayall, 

 jun., was about to give a course of five lectures on the micro- 

 scope at the Society of Arts, illustrated by microscopes from 

 the Society, and from Mr. Crisp's extensive collection. 



Mineralogical Society, December 8. — L. Fletcher, M.A., 

 President, in the chair. — The following papers were read : — On 

 a glaucophane eclogite from the Val d'Aoste, by the Rev. Prof. 

 Bonney, F.R..S. — Note on orthoclase from Kilima-njaro, by H. 

 A. Miers, M.A. — Preliminary notice of penetration twins of 

 arragonite from New Mexico, by R. H. Solly, F.G.S. — On 

 some specimens of idocrase and garnet from the neighbourhood 

 of Tzermatt, by Prof. W. J. Lewis. — Dr. Burghardt exhibited 

 some pseudomorphs of native copper after arragonite, from South 

 America. — Mr. Miers also exhibited some peculiar twins of 

 calcite from Eyam, Derbyshire. 



Entomological Society, December 2. — Mr. J. W. Dun- 

 ning, Vice-President, in the chair. — Two new Fellows were 

 elected. — Mr. F. Enock described experiments in mounting 

 Mymarida, and exhibited photographs of the insects. — Mr. 

 A. Eland Shaw exhibited an undetermined species of Coni- 

 cephaltis, which had been taken in a hothouse at Birmingham ; 

 it was believed to be an Australian or South American species. 

 — Mr. G. T. I'orritt exhibited two species of a melanic variety 

 oi Ayr Otis obclisca from Sligo. — Mr. Dunning read a note on the 

 election of honorary foreign members. 



Victoria Institute, Decem.ber 7. — A paper on the un- 

 reasonableness of agnosticism was read. The author treated the 

 subject in such a manner as to make his essay specially valuable 

 at this time. — Mr. E. Charlesworth read a paper on the skull of 

 the gorilla, of which he exhibited a specimen considered the 

 most perfect that had as yet reached England. 



Cambridge 



Philosophical Society, November 23. — Prof. Foster, Pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — The following communications were 

 made : — C)n a new method of producing the fringes of interfer- 

 ence, by L. R. Wilberforce, B.A. The author stated that in 

 the course of an inquiry into the suitability of various forms of 

 interference-fringes for certain investigations on the velocity of 

 light upon which he had been engaged, he had been led to adopt 

 the mode of production which was the subject of his paper. 

 He briefly described the method, indic.ited the elements of its 

 theory, and, by a comparison of his results with those of former 

 experimenters, showed the great increase of accuracy attainable 

 by means of it. — On the dielectric strength of mixtures of gases, 

 by Dr. C. Olearski. The author described a series of experi- 

 ments from which it followed that the dielectric strength of a 

 mechanical mixture of two gases is intermediate between the 

 strengths of its constituents. — On the mutual action of oscillatory 

 twists in a vibrating medium, by A. H. Leahy, M.A. — On the 

 transpiration stream in cut branches, by F. Darwin, M.A., and 

 R. W. Phillips, B.A. The paper consists chiefly of an experi- 

 mental criticism of Dufour's experiments on transpiration. The 

 authors show that (contrary to Dufour's contention) there is an 

 essential similarity between the natural current of water in a 

 transpiring branch, and the current induced by pressure in a 

 similar specimen ; this similarity being understood to hold good 

 under the conditions of Dufour's experiments, namely, when 

 certain incisions are made, or when the branch is compressed in 

 certain ways. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, December 7. — M. Jurien de la 

 Graviere, Vice-President, in the chair. — Determination of the 

 differences of longitude between Paris, Milan, and Nice, by 

 MM. F. Perrier and L. Bassot. The values obtained for the 

 differences of longitude between the observatories of these 

 places is found to be : — 



