2 3 8 



NA TURtz 



[7?//j<6, 1882 



silk from a cocoon; this species was called "Matere." L. 

 florida also occurred, and was called "m'bunga"; its rubber 

 was worked up into balls, but was inferior in value. The rubber 

 of L. Petcrsiana was of little importance. In South America 

 Hancoruia speciosa yielded what was called "mangabeira 

 rubber." 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



At the summer commencements of the University of Dublin, 

 held on June 29 last, the degree of LL.D. Honoris cau^a was 

 conferred on Dr. Siemens and on Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace. 



At a special meeting of the Council of the University of 

 Dublin, held on June 30, Mr. Robert Crauford was nominated 

 for the important post of Professor of Engineering in the Uni- 

 versity. Mr. Craufurd is well known for his many fine engineer- 

 ing works successfully carried out in North and South America, 

 and in Europe. 



University College, Bristol.— The new wing of the 

 permanent buildings of University College, Bristol, is nowrising 

 rapidly. The portion devoted to physical and engineering 

 laboratories and lecture-rooms will be ready for occupancy in 

 October; the new chemical laboratories and lecture-rooms will 

 be completed before Christmas. This greatly-needed extension 

 will not, however, meet all the requirements of the growing 

 institution, and additional buildings to accommodate the medical 

 faculty are greatly wanted. One of the laboratories of the 

 Physical Department is to be fitted up as an electrical labora- 

 tory. Prof. Thompson is actively endeavouring to raise funds 

 for its complete outfit. Mr. C. C. Starling has been appointed 

 Demonstrator in Physics. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, June 15.— "On the Specific Heat, and Heat 

 of Transformation, of the Iodide of Silver, Agl, and of the 

 Alloys Cu„I„.AgI; Cu„I„.2AgI ; Cu.,I 2 .3AgI; Cu 2 I 2 .4AgI ; 

 CuJ„.i2Agf; PbL.Agl." By Sigr. Manfredo Bellati and Dr. 

 R. Romanese, Professors in the U niversity of Padua. 



The authors have determined the specific heat, and heat of 

 transformation, of iodide of silver, aud of five alloys or com- 

 pounds of that substance with iodide of copper, and one with 

 iodide of lead. The substances have already been studied by 

 Mr. G. F. Rodwell as regards their expansion and con- 

 traction on heating, and the results communicated to the 

 Royal Society ; the same specimens were transmitted to Padua 

 for the experiments of Prof. Bellati and Romanese. The fol- 

 lowing results were obtained. 0, and 0„ are the temperatures 

 at which change of molecular structure respectively commences 

 and finishes ; c the mean specific heat between t and T for tem- 

 peratures below 6, ; c^ specific heat for temperatures above 3 ; 

 and A the heat absorbed by the unit weight of the substance in 

 consequence of change of structure. 



The results are compared and discussed, and inferences are 

 drawn therefrom as to the constitution of the bodies experi- 

 mented upon. 



Geological Society, June 7. — J. W. Hulke, F.R.S., presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Alfred Morris, C.E., and William Henry 

 Watson were elected Fellows of the Society. Prof. Louis 

 Lartet of Toulouse was proposed as a Foreign Correspondent of 

 the Society. The following communications were read : — The 

 President read the following note, forwarded by Don Manuel F. 



de Castro, Director of the Geological Survey of Spain : — " On the 

 Discovery of Triassic fossils in the Sierra de Gador, Province of 

 Almeria, Spain. The metalliferous limestone of the Sierra de 

 Gador, owing to no fossil remains having been found prior to 

 this occasion, has been a perfect puzzle to all geologists for the 

 last fifty years. MM. Maestre, Amar de ,1a Torre, rernolet, 

 Ansted, and Cooke considered these limestones to belong to the 

 Transition series, the former taking it as a representative of the 

 Mountain Limestones of other parts of Europe. M. Prado 

 hinted that they might be Devonian ; whilst M. Willkomm, in 

 the geological map published to accompany his botanical re- 

 searches in Spain, considered them Silurian. Lately MM. 

 Botella and Vilan va, in their respective maps, have marked 

 them as belonging to the Permian series, whilst M. de Verneuil, 

 coming nearer to the truth, took the whole of the limestones to 

 the south of Granada and the Sierra de Gador as Triassic, 

 though in doubt ('Trias incertain') Under these circumstances 

 I was commissioned by the Director of the Geological Survey of 

 Spain to investigate ihe south-west portion of the Province of 

 Almeria, which comprises the Sierra de Gador. In February 

 last I had the good fortune of discovering abundant fossil re- 

 mains in different ports of the Sierra de Gador, which perfectly 

 fix the age of the metalliferous limestones of this part of Spain. 

 The whole series of rocks forming this iierra, resting on the 

 mica-schists and slates of the Sierra Nevada, is a succession of 

 black, white, and purple talcose schists at the base, which alter- 

 nate with some beds of yellowish and porous limestone, and 

 which pass through a considerable thickness of grey limestones 

 and slates, and precisely where the fossils have been fouud, to 

 the metalliferous limestone of Sierra de Gador, which appears 

 to form the top of this interesting formation. The fossils found 

 belong to the following genera: — Myophoria {M. lavtgataa.uA 

 M. Goldfussi), I/iiuii.'cs, Monotis, Avicula (A . Bronni), Myacites, 

 Kissoa, and many others difficult to determine, 'ihe places 

 where the fossils have been found are the following : — On the 

 southern slopes of the Sierra de Gador, in the Rambla del 

 Canuelo, midway on the road from Felix to Marchal, and in the 

 place named La Solana del Fondon, to the left of the River 

 Andarax, following the track between the mine Sebastopol and 

 the town of El Fondon. — Joaquin Gonzalo Y Xavier." — The 

 Girvan Succession. — Part 1. Stratigraphical, by Charles Lap- 

 worth, F.G.S., Professor of Geology in the Mason Science Col- 

 lege, Birmingham. The Lower Palaeozoic rocks of the neigh- 

 bourhood of Girvan, in the sou'.h of Ayrshire, have long been 

 famous for the remarkable variety of their petrological features and 

 for the abundance and beauty of their organic remains ; but the 

 strata are so intermingled and confused by faults, folds, and in- 

 versions, that it has hitherto been found impossible to give a 

 satisfactory account of the geological structure of the region. 

 The most remarkable formation in this Girwan area is a massive 

 boulder-conglomerate, several hundreds of feet in thickness, 

 which forms the high ground of Benan Hill, and ranges through- 

 out the district from end to end. Employing this formation as 

 a definite horizon of reference, the author showed, by numerous 

 plans and sections, that it was possible for the geologist to work 

 out the natural order of the strata both above and below this 

 horizon, and to construct a complete stratigraphical and palteon- 

 tological scheme of the entire Girvan Succession. The develop- 

 ment of the palacontological features of the several zones of life 

 in this succession, and the demonstration of their correspondence 

 with the zones already recognised in the synchronous Lower 

 PaUx-ozoic strata of Moffatt, the Lake District, Scandinavia, and 

 elsewhere were reserved by the author for a second part of this 

 memoir. — Notes on the Annelida tubicola of the Wenlock 

 Shales, from the washings of Mr. George Maw, F.G.S., by 

 Mr. George Vine. Communicated by Prof. P. Martin Duncan, 

 M.B., F.R.S., V.P.G.S. — Description of part of the femur of 

 Nototherium Mitchclli, by Prof. Owen, C.B., F.R.S., F.G.S. 

 The specimen described consisted of the distal portion, probably 

 about one-half, of a femur obtained from Darling Downs, 

 Queensland, and received by the author from Dr. George 

 Bennett. Its principal differences from Diprotodon are that it 

 has no depression above the outer condyle, but in its place a 

 rough longitudinal rising for the attachment of the same or of a 

 homologous muscle ; and the hinder surface of the condyle is 

 transversely convex. The relative width of the post-condylar 

 fossa resembles that in Pluiscolomys ; and a further resemblance 

 to the Wombats consists in the more equal prominence of the 

 lateral boundaries of the rotular surface than in Diprotodon and 

 Macropus. The bone differs from the corresponding part in the 



