68 
NATURE 
[ay 20, 1886 
question.—Prof. E. Ray Lankester, the Pleomorphism of the 
Schizophyta. A reminder of the simple fact that ten years ago 
Prof. Lankester called attention to the pleomorphism of the 
Schizophyta in a paper in this ¥owznad, which attracted the deep 
attention of all those botanists who had taken any interest in the 
subject. 
Jeurnal of Anatomy and Physiology, April 1886, ‘vol. xx., 
part 3, contains :—Dr. J. W. Frazer, on the action of infused 
beverages on peptic digestion. This paper is a continuation of 
one in the eighteenth volume of this Fournal, and is based on 
the results of the same experiments, the differcnee being that 
the amount of peptones <lialysed, instead of being estimated as 
the total organic matter, as was done in that paper, are here 
estinated by the amount of organic nitrogen.—W, A. Lane, 
some variations in the human skeleton; asymmetry of skull, 
spinal column, &c., bifid ribs. —Dr. R. L. MacDonnell, case of 
bicipital rib.—Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, osteology of Conurus caro- 
Zinensts (plates 10 and 11). The extermination of this parrot 
appears imminent. To this memoir there is appended a synop- 
sis of the skeletal characters of this bird which exhibit many 
pints of interest.—On a Navajo skull (plate 12), with a note by 
Sir Wm. Turner.—J. Bland Sutton, on the origin of certain cysts 
(plate 13).—Dr. J. Lockhart Gibson, the blood-forming organs 
and blood-formation : an experimental research (plate 14) (con- 
tinued). Among the chief conclusions are the following: through- 
out life, nucleated red cells, derived from white corpuscles and 
colourless marrow-cells, are the only predecessors of the non- 
nucleated red blood-corpuscles. The transformation takes place 
in the bone marrow, spleen, and lymphatic glands; the red 
bone marrow in extra-uterine life plays the more important 
part in the work, the spleen a subordinate one ; the lymphatics, 
while chiefly producing white, do also produce red corpuscles. 
Both colourless cells and nucleated red cells multiply by division 
in the blood-forming organs, and in these latter there are also 
to be found cells whose function appears to be to break down 
red blood-corpuscles.—Dr. E. E. Maddox, on the relation be- 
tween convergence and accommodation of the eyes,—Dr. R. 
Robertson, a contribution to splenic pathology (plate 15).—Dr. 
F. Tuckerman, supernumerary leg in a male frog (Rana palus- 
tris) (plate 16).—Dr. D. Noél-Paton, the nature of the relation- 
ship between urea formation and bile secretion. Both these 
phenomena would seem to depend in large measure on 
the destruction of blood-corpuscles, and through this they 
necessarily bear a direct relationship to one another.—Prof. 
D’Arcy W. Thompson, on the hind limb in Jchthvosaurus 
platyodon, and on the morphology of vertebrate limbs.—Sir 
Wm. Turner, on the lumbar curve of the spinal column in several 
races of men (see also abstract of a memoir on this subject by 
Prof. D. J. Cuningham, NATuRE, vol. xxxiii. p. 378).—Ana- 
tomical notes. 
American Fournal of Science, April.—On Lower Silurian 
fossils from a limestone of the original Taconic of Prof, Emmons, 
by James D. Dana. These fossils were recently found in the 
“sparry” or western limestone of the Taconic system, that is, 
the oldest limestone stratum of the system according to Emmons. 
They come from Canaan, New York, near the Massachusetts 
border, and several species have been determined by Prof. 
Dwight, notwithstanding the metamorphism of the rock. They 
include remains of Murchisonias, Pleurotomarias, Crinoids, 
Fenestellze, a Trilobite, and probably some Brachiopods, show- 
ing that this limestone is not pre-Cambrian or Cambrian, but 
belongs probably to the Trenton or Lower Silurian age of the 
Eastern or Stockbridge limestone. —Preliminary report of S. W. 
Ford and W. B. Dwight upon the fossils obtained in 1885 from 
metamorphic limestones of the Taconic series of Prof. Emmons 
at Canaan, New York: A. Explanatory statement with reference 
to the palzontological investigations at Canaan, by W. B. 
Dwight. The authors are strongly inclined to the opinion that 
the limestones of Canaan, which have yielded these fossils, are 
of Trenton age.—On surface transmission of electrical dis- 
charges, by H. S. Carhart. A practical bearing of the experiments 
here described and illustrated is that there is no sufficient scien- 
tific basis for making lightning conductors of large surface, and 
that large sectional area is essential to ample conductivity. —The 
minerals of Litchfield, Maine, by F. W. Clarke. The paper 
contains a careful study and analysis of the elzeolite, cancrinite, 
sodalite, hydronephelite (new species), albite, and lepidomelane 
from the numerous boulders of an elzolite rock scattered over 
the district between Litchfield and West Gardiner, in Kennebec 
County, Maine.—On the chemical behaviour ofiron in the mag- 
netic field, by Edward L. Nichols. A set of experiments withaqua- 
regia, nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, and sulphuric acid is h- =“ 
scribed in illustration of the phenomenon that, whe- 2#¢ly-divided 
iron is placed in a magnetic field of c~--serable intensity and 
exposed to the action of an aria, «ue chemical reaction differs in 
many respects from +h+« Which occurs under ordinary circum- 
stances. The experiments are preliminary to a more complete 
investigation of the novel series of effects developed by them. — 
The inculcation of scientific method by example, with an illus- 
tration drawn from the Quaternary geology of Utah, by G. 
K. Gilbert. This paper is a reprint of the Presidential Address 
read before the American Society of Naturalists at Boston, 
December 27, 1885. It discusses, not the results nor the subject- 
matter of the several sciences with which naturalists are con- 
cerned, but their methods of investigation and their methods of 
teaching generally.—Nova Andromede, by Asaph Hall. The 
history of the discovery of the new star in Andromeda by Dr. 
Hartwig, of Dorpat, last August, its observation and gradual 
fading away, forms the subject of this paper.—On some new 
forms of the Dinocerata, by W. B. Scott. What appears to be 
a missing link between the two sub-orders of Amblypoda (the 
Coryphodons of the Wahsatch Eocene and the Dinocerata of 
the Bridger) is here described under the name of Elachoceras. 
It was discovered by the Princeton Expedition of 1885 in the 
Bridger beds of Henry’s Fork, Wyoming, and represents a 
genus allied to Uintatherium, without upper incisors, and having 
six molars of the Uintatherium type and large upper canine 
tusks, but without nasal protuberances, and having only rudiments 
of the maxillary and parietal protuberances. The supra-occipital 
is pierced by two large venous foramina placed one on each 
side of the median line. In the same locality, but at a some- 
what higher level, was found a large Uintatherium skull, 
undoubtedly representing a new species (U7. alticeps) of that 
genus. 
The American Naturalist for April 1886 contains :—On the 
ancestry of Nasua, by Saml. Lockwood.—On the mechanism of 
soaring (illustrated), by J. Lancaster.—The Stone Age in 
Vermont (illustrated), by Geo. H. Perkins.—On Grosse’s 
classification and structure of the Mallophaga (illustrated), by 
Geo. Macloskie.—On traces of a cyclone which passed over 
Western Indiana more than 300 years ago, by Jno. T. Camp- 
bell.—On the mounting of fossils (illustrated), by F. C. Hill. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
Royal Society, April 1.—‘‘On a New Form of Stereo- 
scope.” By A. Stroh. 
Two optical lanterns are placed side by side, as for dissolving 
views. ‘Two transparencies, photographed in the same manner 
as if intended for an ordinary stereoscope, are placed one in each 
lantern, and projected on a screen in such a position that they 
overlap each other as nearly as possible. The picture which is 
intended to be seen by the right eye may be placed in the right- 
hand lantern, and the other in the left. 
Supported by suitable framework, and in front of the two 
lenses of the lanterns, is a revolving disk, portions of which are 
cut away, so that during its revolutions it obscures the light of 
each lantern alternately, or, in other words, so that only one 
picture at a time is thrown on the screen. A continuous change 
from one picture to the other is thus obtained. 
In the same framework, and in conyenient positions for the 
observers, two pairs of eye-holes are provided, one pair on either 
side of the apparatus. Behind each pair is also a rotating disk, 
and these disks are connected by suitable wheel-work or driving- 
bands with the one previously mentioned, in such a way that the 
three disks rotate together, and at the same rate. The two last- 
named disks are also so cut that they will obstruct the view through 
the right and left eye-holes alternately. 
Finally, the connection between the three disks has to be so 
arranged that the time of obscuring the view through the right 
eye-holes, or the left eye-holes, shall coincide with the time when 
the light is shut off from the right or left lens of the lanterns 
respectively. 
It is obvious that by this arrangement an observer can only see 
the picture projected from the left lantern with the left eye, and 
the one from the right-hand lantern with the right eye. 
The rotation of the disks must be of such a rate that the alter- 
nate flashes of the right and left pictures on the corresponding 
