April?., 1886] 



NA TURE 



551 



Geological Society, February 24. — rrof. J. W. Judd, 

 F.R.S., President, in tlie chair. — William Barns Kinsey 

 and Henry Mauiice Platnauer were elected Fellows, and Prof. 

 Juan Vilanova y Piera, the University, Madrid, a Foreign 

 Correspondent of the Society. — The following communications 

 were read : — On two Rhajtic sections in Warwickshire, by Rev. 

 P. B. Brodie, M.A., F.G.S. The sections noticed in this 

 paper were (i) one exposed on a railway at Summer Hill, near 

 Binton, between Stratford and Alcester, and (2) one, thirteen 

 miles further to the south-east, at Snitterlield, three miles north of 

 Stratford-on-Avon, in excavations for a tunnel connected with a 

 supply of water to that town. At the first-named locality, a 

 bed with insect remains overlies the firestone and Esthtvia-h^A., 

 and this is succeeded in descending order by a considerable 

 thickness of black and grey shales with the usual Rhartic fossils. 

 The bone-bed is not exposed. At the second locality, in 

 borings and shafts, black Rhcttic shales were found in three 

 places resting upon a denuded surface of new Red Marl, and 

 covered by between 40 and 50 feet of drift. Avicula contorla 

 and other typical fossils were obtained from the shales. In 

 other shafts the Rhanic beds were wanting, so that apparently 

 those met with were merely small portions remaining of a larger 

 mass which had been denuded away. — On the basement-beds of 

 the Inferior Oolite of Gloucestershire, by E Witchell, F.G.S.— On 

 the Pliocene Beds of St. Erth, by Percy F. Kendall and Robert 

 G. Bell, F.G.S. This paper consisted of a description of the 

 beds exposed at St. Erth, a list of the MoUuscan fossils identi- 

 fied, and some preliminary considerations of the evidence 

 afforded by the Mollusca, and may be considered a continuation 

 of that by the late Mr. S. V. Wood, read to the Society in 

 November 1S84. 



Royal Meteorological Society, March 17. — Mr. W. 

 Ellis, F.R.A.S., President, in the chair.— Mr. W. E. Addison, 

 Mr. A. W. Clayden, M.A., F.G.S., Mr. T. B. Moody, R.N., 

 and Dr. W. Schlich were elected Fellows of the Society. — The 

 President gave an historical sketch of the barometer. After re- 

 marking on the accidental nature of the discovery of the instru- 

 ment in the year 1643 in its best form, in ignorance for some 

 time of its value for purposes of meteorological inquiry, he gave 

 a brief account of many early kinds of barometers, the first en- 

 deavour being, in consequence of difficulties experienced with 

 the ordinary mercurial form, to enlarge the scale of variation, 

 attempts which in general introduced other errors and incon- 

 veniences. The desire to experiment on elevated positions 

 induced the construction of an early form of portable barometer 

 — one such with cistern completely closed, leaving the air to 

 communicate through the pores of the wood, having been made 

 above 200 years ago. The President further described various 

 points in the arrangement of the Ramsden, G.ay Lussac, and 

 other barometers, including also mention of some modern pat- 

 terns of long-r.tnge barometers, standard barometers, and sitch 

 liarometers as are more commonly used. The practice of driving 

 out air from the mercury by heating or boiling appears to have 

 been in use early in the last century. Engraved plates indicat- 

 ing the weather to be expected with different heights of the 

 mercury have been longer used, at least as early as 16S8. As 

 regards correction for temperature, De Luc in the last century 

 adopted a temperature corresponding to 54°'S F. as that to 

 which to make reduction, because corresponding nearly to the 

 average of observations, such reduction being now made to the 

 natural zero, 32° F. Reference was made to the employment 

 of water (as in the well-known Royal Society barometer) and 

 other liquids instead of mercury ; also to various kinds of float- 

 ing and other barometers not at all, or not entirely, mercurial, 

 and to metallic barometers. The President concluded his ac- 

 count with a sketch of the history of recording barometers or 

 barograjjhs, including a notice of the application of photo- 

 graphy and electricity to recording purposes. — At the conclusion 

 of the President s address the meeting was adjourned to afford 

 the Fellows and their friends an opportunity of inspecing the 

 valuable and interesting exhibition of barometers which was 

 opened on Tuesday evening. 



Anthropological Society, March 23. — Mr. Hyde Clarke, 

 Vice-President, in the chair. — Capt. C. R. Conder, R.E., read 

 a paper on the present condition of the native tribes in Bechu- 

 analand. The new Crown colony of Bechuanaland is a pastoral 

 countiy, consisting of a great plateau 4000 feet above the sea, 

 with a fine climate, and grazing-lands said to be among the 

 finest in South Africa. The native population consists of about 



183,000 souls, belonging to various tribes. The Korannas are 

 a small slightly-built people with a strongly Turanian type of 

 face, but with hair growing in isolated tufts as among the B.antu 

 races ; they colour the face and hands with red lead, and black lead 

 is often used for colouring the hair. The Matabele are originally 

 Zulu-, who, being unsuccessful in war, were afraid to reappear 

 before Chaka : they settled in the Transvaal, and were driven 

 thence to their present country by the Boers. Their name in 

 Sechuana means " naked," and is due, not to the fact that they 

 are lightly clad, but because they offend Bechuana ideas of 

 decency by not wearing the small fur apron which men and 

 boys always wear among the Bechuana, even when they have 

 no clothes. The author described the Batkaping and Baralay 

 tribes, and discussed some of the peculiarities of the Sechuana 

 language. Tlr^customs, superstitions, and native government 

 of the people were dwelt upon, and Capt. Conder concluded 

 by referring to some of the causes of the decay of the native 

 tribes, and urged that the chiefs should be supported in their 

 attempts to keep brandy out of their towns. 



EoiNBUitGH 

 Royal Society, JNIarch 15.— Sheriff Forbes Irvine, Vice 

 President, in the chair. — Prof. Blyth described an apparatus for 

 determining the absolute strength of an electric current by 

 weighing, — Dr. D. Noel Palon gave an account of an experi- 

 ment concerning the connection between urea formation and 

 bile secretion.— Dr. G. A. Atkinson read a paper on the volu- 

 metric estimation of inorganic nitrates. — Dr. Orme Masson read 

 a paper on sulphines — Prof. D'Arcy Thompson submitted a 

 paper on the pelvic girdle of birds and reptiles. 



Parks 

 Academy of Sciences, March 29. — M, Jurien de la 

 Graviere, President, in the chair, — On the flexion of prisms 

 (continued), by M. IT. Resal. In this concluding part of his 

 memoir the author deals with the lectangular piism and the 

 elliptical cylinder. In the special case of flexion here con- 

 sidered, the hypothesis advanced by him from the first on the 

 nullity of three pressures is rejected for the elliptical prism but 

 admitted for the rectangular prism, the problem regarding which 

 in connection with flexion may be c msidered as solved, — Notes 

 on the progress of the Panama Canal, by M. Ferdinand de 

 Lesseps. The eminent engineer reports favourably of the 

 progress made since his first visit six years ago. '1 here has been 

 great improvement in the sanitary conditions, with correspond- 

 ing diminution of mortality amongst the workmen. During his 

 inspection a rocky eminence 30 metres high, at Gamboa, about 

 the centre of the isthmus, was successfully disintegrated by the 

 explosion of a mine, two parts dynamite and one part powder, 

 which removed 20,000 cubic metres without accident. With 

 the means at present avaikable, he considers that the canal will 

 be completed, as promised, in 18S9. — On the variations in the 

 toxic properties of the urine in the healthy subject while awake 

 and asleep, by M. Ch. Bouchard. — Equatorial observations of 

 Fabry's and Barnard's comets, made at the Observatory of 

 Algiers with the 0-50 m. telescope, by M. Ch. Trepied.— On 

 the best instrumental dispositions for determining the elements 

 of refraction by means of M. Lcewy's method, by Mr. David 

 GiU. Some modifications of M. Loiwy's apparatus are pro- 

 posed, with a view to simplifying its application, and increasing 

 the general accuracy and usefulness of the method.— On the 

 Fuchsian functions and the indefinite ternaiy quadratic forms, 

 by M. H. I'oincare. — On an extension of Paschal's theorem to 

 surfaces of the third order, by M. A. Petot.— On the deterini- 

 nation of the gemis of a holomorphous function in certain special 

 cases, by M. de Sparre.— Note on the surface of the sixth order 

 with six straight lines, by M. Giovanni Bordiga.— Note on the 

 screw-pile, by M. Leaute. M. Resal having worked out 

 the theoretical principle of this useful mechanical appliance, 

 the author proposes a case, not considered by hiiri, which 

 presents the twofold practical advantage of diminishing 

 the friction oftered to the action of the screw-pile in borings, 

 and preserving greater cohesion to the surrounding sod. 

 In reply to this communication M. Resal expressed himself 

 unable to adopt M, Leaute's standpoint at least until it has been 

 put to ;ome practical test.— On the theory of dynamo-electric 

 machines acting as receivers (two illustrations), by M. Giza 

 Szarvady. — Description of an absolute electrometer with con- 

 tinuous indications, constructed by MM. E. Bichat and R. 

 Blondlot.— Combinations of vanadic acid with the oxygenated 



