612 
Serranus lanceolatus, Bleek, a species new to Australia, and a 
species of Eleotris, probably undescribed, remarkable for its 
minute scales. Collected from the same district were a number 
of frogs, among sanich Mr, Fletcher pointed out examples of 
Ayla dolic hopsis, caerulea, H. lesueurii, H. peronii, H. 
nasuta, FH. ee Limnodynastes ornatus, and two other 
species not determined. 
PARIS 
Academy of Sciences, October 11.—M. Jurien de la 
Graviere, President, in the chair.—On a principle in rational 
mechanics, and on a demonstration used by Daniel Bernoulli in 
1757, by M. de Jonquitres. The reference is to the author’s 
recently-explained theory of the hydro-extractor, the funda- 
mental principle of which he now finds was already known to 
Bernoulli, at least so far as concerns the action of the pendulum. 
His demonstration, analogous to that of M. de Jonquieres, is 
contained in his memoir entitled, ‘‘ Principes hydrostatiques et 
méchaniques, &c.,’’ which obtained the prize of the Royal 
Academy of Sciences.—On the persistence of the instinctive 
functions and voluntary movements in bony fishes after extrac- 
tion of the cerebral lobes, by M. Vulpian. In supplement to 
his previous paper on this subject, the author mentions the case 
of a carp operated upon on March 18, 1886, and which survived 
till September 29. During this period it acted in almost every 
respect like any ordinary fish, noticing and avoiding -obstacles, 
seizing and swallowing its food, rejecting non-alimentary sub- 
stances, and soon. With the exception of smell, it evidently 
retained all its senses and instinctive and intellectual faculties. 
This experiment fully confirms the results already determined by 
the researches of M. Is. Steiner, and shows that in fishes instinct 
and will survive the extraction of the cerebral lobes, which in 
reptiles, birds, and mammals are the seat of those faculties. — 
Experimental researches on the nature of vigor mortis, by M. 
Brown-Séquard. The object of these studies is to show that 
the rigidity ensuing after death is due neither altogether 
nor eyen to any great extent to the coagulation of the 
albuminous substances of the muscles, as still maintained by most 
physiologists on the authority of Briicke, Kuhne, and Wundt.— 
On the temperature of the bed of oceanic basins compared with 
that of the continents at the same depth, by M. Faye. In con- 
nection with the reference made to this subject in the opening 
address of the President of the British Association at Birming- 
ham, the author takes the opportunity of generalising the law 
already established by him respecting the more rapid and deeper 
cooling of the earth’s crust under the seas than under the con- 
tinents. Not only is this law applicable to the Polar seas, whose 
lowest depths have a temperature very near zero, but also to 
those which do not freely communicate with the Poles. In these 
waters also the temperature decreases with the depth, the differ- 
ence between them and the continents at the same depths being, 
within about 15°, as great as forthe oceans, —Purification of yttria, 
by M. Lecoq de Boisbaudran. In the process of purification here 
described the earth A, differing little from that of M. Cleve, 
yielded a beautiful phosphorescence of a pink auroral tint, due 
not to the yttria itself, as supposed by Mr. Crookes, but to the 
presence of a minute trace of bismuth derived either from the 
primary substance or from the reagents.—Fiuorescence of the 
compounds of bismuth subjected to electric effluvium 72 
vacuo, by M. Lecoq de Boisbaudran. In this paper the 
author sums up his observations on the pink fluorescence 
referred to in his previous communication. He remarks inci- 
dentally that during these studies he detected traces of bismuth 
in numerous chemical products, several of which were supposed 
to be quite pure.—Summary of the meteorological observations 
made during the year 1885 at four stations in the Upper Rhine 
and Vosges districts, by M. Hirn. The observations here tabu- 
lated give the highest and lowest temperatures from month to 
month at Colmar, Thann, Schlucht, and Munster, the actino- 
metric readings taken at the Colmar Observatory, the atmo- 
spheric pressure, rainfall, and other meteorological data at these 
stations. —On the transformation, of surfaces, and on a class of 
differential equations, by M. E. Picard.—The reciprocal re- 
lations of the great forces of Nature, by M. Emile Schweerer. 
The author’s remarks are in reference to his French translation 
of M. A. Klein’s remarkable analysis of MM. Hirn and 
Clausius’s recent memoirs contributed to Gaea.—Saturation of 
normal arsenic acid with lime-water and with the water of 
strontian, by M. Ch. Blarez.—Contribution to the study of the 
alkaloids, by M. Oechsner de Coninck. Two very sensitive 
reagents are described, which are easily produced, and which 
NATURE 
[Oct. 21, 1886 
are likely to prove very serviceable in the diagnosis of 
the various alkaloids and of the different bases treated by 
the author.—On the genus Zv¢ione, Kossmann, by MM. 
A. Giard and J. Bonnier. In the Porcel/ana longicornis 
of Concarneau the authors have discovered an Lx/oniscus 
closely allied to those met by Fritz Miillerin the Porcellanz of 
the Brazilian seaboard. The study of this species, here named 
Entoniscus miilleri, justifies the division of the genus proposed 
by Kossmann. The term Ax/oniscus being reserved for the 
two species of parasites of the Porcellanz, the Zvtomiscus of 
the crabs would then constitute the genus Ztione.—Diseased 
grapes in the vineyards of La Vendée, by M. Prillieux. The 
vineyards of this district have this year been attacked by a 
species of mildew here fully described. —On some garnet-bearing 
rocks of Puy-de-Déme, by M. Ferdinand Gonnard, It is shown 
that, contrary to the received opinion, the important group of 
garnets, whether as a mineralogical accident, or as an essential 
constituent element of the different grenatites, is largely repre- 
sented in the primitive or plutonic formations of Puy-de-D6éme. 
—On the phosphated deposits of Beauval (Somme), by M. 
Stanislas Meunier. From a careful study of the phosphate of 
lime recently discovered at Beauval, the author infers that the 
phosphated chalk of Picardy belongs to an older geological 
epoch than that of Belgium. 
CONTENTS PAGE 
Our'Guns 2. Mecrierceors secic,o o 2 ol) ORE 
Hainan and its People... ..:-. 5 5) 591 
Giglioli’’s'<°Avifauna Italica?). . =) = 4)-) snes 
Our Book Shelf :— 
Rosser’s ‘‘ Law of Storms, considered practically”. 594 
Hartlaub ‘* Ueber Manatherium delheidi, eine Sirene 
aus dem Oligocan Belgiens?? . 2). 1. see 
Letters to the Editor :— 
The Tangent Scale in a Galvanometer.—J. Rennie 594 
On the Connection between Chemical Constitution 
and Physiological Action.—James Blake ... 594 
Relation of Coal-Dust to Explosions in Coal-Mines.— 
Arthur Watts . . °, Se ee 
Volcanic Ash from New Zealand. ah Joly Momo. Sis 
An Abnormal Starfish,—Prof, W. A) Herdman »_ 596 
Peculiar Growth of the Cchitoks ‘Acorn-Shell, — 
Francis P. Pascoe, (Z//ustrated)~ . . %)s - e500 
Lunar Rainbow—Halo round the Sun in Connection 
with the Storm of October 15 and 16.—J. H. 
Kinahan) | . 25 woo 
Mimicry in Snakes. “pr. A.B. Meyer oa! 4 eo 
The Gale: —W 1k. Denning: 3 2.1). 0.) -)- e- ee 
Adam’s Peak.—W. L.. . : 596 
The Marine Biological Station of Banyuls- sur-Mer, 
By BL. Sclatery RUS.) 2) 5 0-- 20 oo 
Kew Gardens . . Mes hE 
Lepidoptera in the Sikkim Himalaya. By H. J. == 
Elwes... 597 
Sketch of the Early History and Subsequent Pro- 
gress of Paleobotany. By J.S. Gardner. ... 598 
The Recent Earthquakes ead Volcanic Eruptions 599 
Ro on BIREINE eae 601 
Notes) <a *. je) ie. Ta) oes 0) Ven ie NO REOOM 
Our Astronomical Column : — 
The Binary Star Cygni> 2.7.) - jeu) 6) el eee COS 
The Licki@bservatory. 2 fs = ess) oO 
Comet) Barnard\(1886377)) “=. 2) ie) «eo 
Io Sagitte .. 2 a. @ GoM 
The Observatory of Rio de Janeiro . ~ tet 1602} 
Astronomical Phenomena for the Week 1886 
October 24-30 . . ee 
Geographical Notes ooo 5 604 
The Fifty-ninth Meeting of. German Naturalists 
and Physicians, Berlin, September 18-27... . 605 
The Harveian Oration . . 606 
Note on the Astronomical Theory of the Great Tce 
Age. By Sir Robert Stawell Ball, F.R.S..... 607 
The British Association :— 
Section H—Anthropology . ant eevee OS) 
University and Educational Intelligence oo ok a OES 
Scientific Serials. . . oie eos So he. (oi mee eee ane 
Societies and Academies. ............ 611 
