May 4. 1882] 



NA TURE 



in a gyncecomastic maniac, by A. Raggi. — On varied systems of 

 forces, by G. Bardelli. 



Fasc. vi. — Origin of the Tractus olfactorius and structure of 

 the olfactory lobes of man and of other mammalia, by C. Golgi. 

 — Some theorems on the development in series by analytic 

 functions, by S. Pincherle. 



Atti dclla R. Acadcmia <l<i Lived, vol. vi., fasc. ". — On the 

 tombs and duellings of Iberian families existing in Italy, by L. 

 Pigorini. 



Natura, March. — A heat-electrometer, by G. Gandini. — On 

 the origin of electricity of thunderclouds (concluded), by F. G. 

 Nachs. — Alpine meteorology, by P. F. Penza. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Zoological Society, April 29. — Anniversary Meeting. — 

 Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S., president, in the chair. — After 

 some preliminary business the report of the council on the pro- 

 ceedings of the Society during the past year was read by Mr. 

 Sclater, the secretary. It stated that the number of fellows on 

 December 31, 1SS1, was 3213, against 3309 at the same time of 

 the previous year. The total receipts for 18S1 had amounted to 

 25,810/., against 27,38s/. for 1SS0. The ordinary expenditure 

 for 1SS1 had been 24,651/., again-t 24,753/. for 1SS0; and the 

 extraordinary expenditure 1036/., against 1825/. for the pre- 

 ceding year. Tbe sum of 1000/. had been devoted to the repay- 

 ment of the mortgage debt on the Society's freehold premises, 

 which had thus been reduced to 6000/. This expenditure had 

 left a balance at the bankers of 1203/. to be carried forward for 

 the benefit of the present year. The assets of the Society on 

 December 31 last, after payment of all liabilities, were estimated 

 to amount to nearly 20,000/., exclusive of the value of the library 

 and collection of living animals. As regards the gardens in the 

 Regent's Park, little has been done in the way of special works 

 during 1881, but the buildings and walks had been kept in good 

 repair, and several of the former had been thoroughly repaired 

 and painted. The number of visitors to the Society's Gardens 

 in 1881 had been 648,604, against 675,979 in 1SS0. The zoo- 

 logical lectures having been well attended during tbe past year, 

 would be continued during the pre-ent season. The number of 

 animals in the Society's collection on December 31 last was 

 2294, of which 617 were mammals, 1389 birds, and 258 reptiles. 

 Eleven mammals, 17 birds, and 11 reptiles belonging to species 

 new to the collection had been exhibited in 1881, and during 

 the same year a considerable number of mammals, birds, and 

 reptiles of a different species (of which detailed lists were given) 

 had reproduced their -kind in the Society's Gardens. — It was 

 moved by Viscount Powerscourt, seconded by Mr. Howard 

 Saunders, that the best thanks of the meeting be given to the 

 Council for their report. The motion having been adopted, the 

 meeting proceeded to elect the new Members of the Council and 

 the officers for the ensuing year, and a formal ballot having been 

 taken, it was declared that Mr. H. E. Dresser, Prof. Mivart, 

 F.R.S., Mr. Henry Pollock, Mr. W. Ayshford Sanford, and 

 Capt. George E. Shelley had been elected Members of the 

 Council in place of the retiring Members ; that Mr. F. Du Cane 

 Godman had been re-elected into the Council in the place of Mr. 

 Edward R. Alston, deceased ; and that Prof. Flower, LL.D., 

 F.R.S., had been re-elected president, Mr. Charles Drummond 

 treasurer, and Mr. Philip Lutley Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., 

 secretary to the Society until the next anniversary. 



Physical Society, April 22. — Prof. Clifton, president, in 

 the chair. — New member, Dr. E. Hopkinson. — The president 

 announced that copies of the Report of the Lightning Rod 

 Committee could be obtained from Dr. Guthrie, Science Schools, 

 South Kensington, price five shillings per copy. — A paper was 

 then read by Mr. \V. F. Stanley on the evidence of a flowing 

 liquid moving by rolling contact upon the interior surface of a 

 pipe. In his experimental work on fluids, published last year, 

 the author has endeavoured to show that liquids flowing in a 

 tube move by rolling contact on or past the resistent surfaces of 

 solids, and upon like principles that the moving parts of a flowing 

 liquid move by rolling contact on the more quiescent parts of its 

 own mass, so that in no case is there any element of sliding, 

 gliding, or shearing motion such as is generally assumed. Further 

 experiments tend to support this view in the case of liquids 

 flowing through pipes. The difficulty in tbe experiments arose 

 from the friction of the pipe impeding the free mo'ion of the 



particles. The principle was investigated by allowing liquids o 

 various kinds, such as solution of mastic varnish, to flow through 

 pipes, the liquids containing colouring matter, or air particles to 

 assist the eye. The author illustrated the effects by diagrams on 

 the screw.— Dr. W. H. Stone, Mr. Blaikley, Dr. Guthrie, and 

 the Pre-ident, offered some remarks on the paper. — Mr. J. M. 

 Whipple exhibited the magnetograph curves obtained at the 

 Kew Observatory during the past week, showing the progress 

 of the recent magnetic storms. After stating that two unusually 

 large spots were now passing over the sun's disc, he remarked 

 that although the magnets at Kew were somewhat disturbed on 

 the 14th, they were nearly stationary until the night of the t6th, 

 when, about 11.45 p.m., they became strongly affected, and 

 from then tiil 8 p.m. on the 17th, the magnetic storm raged. 

 The horizontal component of the earth's magnetic force was at 

 one time reduced more than 0.05 mm. mgrs. below its average 

 value, and the vertical component by about 0.07 of the same 

 units. This happened about 6 a.m. of the 17th. A little after 

 noon of the same day bi th forces became so increased, that the 

 light spot left the scale of the instrument for nearly two 

 hours. A second period of magnetic disturbance con menced 

 at about 3.40 a.m. of the 20th, and was violent up to 

 2 p.m., subsiding gradually until 7.45 p.m. of the 21st. 

 During this period, the magnetic force, though fluctuating 

 largely, did not experience such great changes of inten- 

 - ity as were indicated by that of the 17th. Mr. Whipple then 

 alluded to the work of Prof. W. G. Adams, and suggested 

 that sun-spots only produced such effects when cutting certain 

 lines of force, which he imagined might extend for a limited 

 angular distance round the earth's radius vector. Prof. Adams 

 pointed out the desirability of increasing the number of self- 

 recording magnetic observatories, especially in the southern 

 hemisphere, and after mentioning that the French were about to 

 equip such an observatory at Cape Horn, expressed the wish that 

 the Cape of Good Hope Observatory might again be provided 

 with magnetometers. — The Rev. S. J. Perry remarked on the 

 exceptional nature of the storm which he had seen recorded at 

 Brussels, and stated that in Belgium the telegraph service had 

 been disorganised by it. Attention was also called to the auroral 

 displays in America, and Mr. Lecky, Dr. Guthrie, the President, 

 and others, spoke on the general phenomena of the storms. — It 

 was then announced that the meetings of the Society in May 

 would be held on the 6th and 20th, instead of on the 13th and 

 27th, as previously announced ; also that the Society would hold 

 a meeting at the Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford, on June 17, by 

 invitation of the president. 



Victoria (Philosophical) Institute, May 1. — Prof. Reinsch 

 gave the results of his researches into the mode of the formation 

 of coal. The lecture was illustrated by several large drawings 

 and photographs. The professor stated that he had examined 

 with the microscope no less than 2500 sections of coal, and bad 

 come to the conclusion that coal had not been formed by the 

 alteration of accumulated land plants, but that it consisted of 

 microscopical organic forms of a lower order of protoplasm, and 

 although be carefully examined the cells and other remains of 

 plants of a higher order, he computed that they have contributed 

 only a fraction of the matter of coal veins, however numerous 

 they may be in some instances, he referred to the fact that Dr. 

 Muck, of Bochum, held that algae have mainly contributed to 

 the formation of coal, and that marine plants were rarely found 

 in coal, because of their tendency to decompose, and that cal- 

 careous remains of mollusks disappeared, on account of the rapid 

 formatiou of carbonic acid during the process of carbonic action. 



Royal Horticultural Society, March 2S. — Sir J. D. Hooker, 

 in the chair.— Savagus Jloccosus : Mr. Pascoe exhibited speci- 

 mens of this beetle from Queensland, attached apparently by 

 a species of Isaria, while living. — Doryanthes Palmeri : Sir J. 

 D. Hooker exhibited a leaf, some five feet long, and a cluster 

 of flow ers from a spike twelve feet in length, bearing a fanicle 

 of flowers, eighteen inches in length. — Coryanthis macranlha, 

 exhibited by S. T. Laurence ; the fertilisation of which, by 

 insects, is described by Mr. Darwin, in his " Fertilisation of 

 Orchids." 



Edinburgh 



Royal Socety, April 17, — The Rev. Dr. Lindsay Alexander, 



vice-president, in the chair. — Prof. Blackie communicated a 



paper on the definite article in Greek, with special reference to 



the revised version of the New Testament. He showed by quo- 



