July 13, 1882] 



NATURE 



263 



species of Erythropygia, one from the Zambesi, the other from 

 the Congo Rivei, which he proposed to call respectively E. zam- 

 besiana and E. ruficauda. — A second paper by Mr. Sharpe con- 

 tained the description of a new Flycatcher which had been 

 obtained by the late Governor Ussher on the Gold Coast. The 

 author proposed to call it Muscicapa ussheri, in acknowledgment 

 of the services which its discoverer had rendered to ornitho- 

 logical science. — A communication was read from Mr. F Moon 

 on the Lepidoptera collected by the Rev. J. H. Hocking, chiefly 

 in the Kangra District, N.Y. Himalaya. The present com- 

 munication, being the second on the same collection, contained 

 the descriptions of seven new genera and of forty-eight new 

 species. An account of the transformation of a number of the 

 species was also given. 



Physical Society, June 24. — Prof. Clifton, president, in the 

 chair. — New Members: Prof. Bartholomew Price, Principal 

 Viriamu Jones. — Prof. G. Carey Foster moved a vote of thanks 

 to Prof. Clifton for the excellent reception accorded to the 

 Physical Society at Oxford on the preceding Saturday, ard drew 

 attention to the high efficiency of the Clarendon Laboratory and 

 the admirable provision made for the teaching of physics at 

 Oxford. Prof. W. G. Adams seconded the motion, and endorsed 

 Prof. Forster's views of the position of physical science on the 

 Isis. Prof. Clifton in response to the vote, stated that the 

 University of Oxford had liberally supported him in organising 

 the Clarendon Laboratory, giving him all the funds he required, 

 and showing a laudable desire to put physical teaching on the 

 best possible footing in Oxford. — Prof. C. A. Bjerknes of 

 Christiania, was then introduced to the meeting, and, assisted by 

 his son, M. Vilhelm Bjerknes, delivered a lecture on " Hydro- 

 dynamic Analogies to the Phenomena of Electricity and Magne- 

 tism," which was illustrated by experiments and projections on 

 the screen. Prof. Bjerknes has been engaged in tracing these 

 analogies for the last twenlvfive years, at first mathematically, 

 but latterly by experiments in verification of the deductions from 

 his formula?. These experiments were shown in the Paris Elec- 

 trical Exhibition last year, and have been published repeatedly 

 in this country. Dr. Bjerknes has, however, advanced beyond 

 the results there shown. These were chiefly confined to 

 illustrating the static attractions and repulsions of electricity and 

 magnetism ; but he has now taken up the subject of electro- 

 dynamic attractions and repulsions. The former effects are 

 shown by brass balls oscillating, or by small tambours pulsating, 

 near each other in water. These motions are communicated to 

 the balls and drums by pulses of air transmitted from an inge- 

 nious air-pump or bellows along india-rubber tubes. A pul- 

 sating drum corresponds to a magnetic pole ; an oscillating body 

 to a magnet. When two tambours are vibrating near each other 

 in like phase, they attract ; when in unlike phase, they repel 

 each other. The same holds true of the oscillating balls. The 

 motion-lines round these bodies correspond to the lines of force 

 round magnets, as was demonstrated by a hollow ball oscillating 

 or a stem, and tracing its movements in ink on a glass plate. All 

 the phenomena of magnetic forces were illustrated in this way 

 by Prof. Bjerknes, including diamagnetism, which was shown by 

 means of pith cylinders lighter than the wateror medium of oscil- 

 lation. A pulsating drum or oscillatory ball repelled the cylinder 

 of pith, whereas it attracted a cylinder of wax, which is heavier than 

 the water. The more novel part of the experiments consisted in 

 representing the attraction between two electric currents flowing 

 in the same direction by means of two cylinders about five inches 

 long and one inch in diameter, oscillating round their longitudinal 

 axes at close quarters in the water. The cylinders were oscillated 

 by means of a pulsating tambour which communicated its motion 

 to them by a toothed gearing on their ends. Attraction 

 resulted when the oscillations of the cylinders were opposed to 

 each other, and repulsion when they were in the same direction. 

 This is an inversion of what might have been expected to take 

 place after the theory of Ampere. A square of four oscillating 

 cylinders was also formed, and a fifth cylinder oscillated inside 

 it, the attraction or repulsion exerted on the latter being ob- 

 served. A hydrodynamic galvanometer was made by placing an 

 oscillating ball (which corresponds to a magnet) beside an 

 oscillating cylinder, the result being a deflection of the ball 

 according to the direction of the oscillation of the cylinder. The 

 experiments were witnessed by a full meeting, which accorded a 

 hearty vote of thanks to Dr. Bjerknes. — A paper by Dr. C. R. 

 Alder Wright, F.R.S., was taken as read. It was on the 

 determination of chemical affinity in terms of electromotive 

 force (Part vi.), and on the relations between the E.M.F. in cells 



constructed like Daniell's cells, but containing different metals, 

 and the chemical affinities involved in their actions. The cells 

 employed were constructed of cadmium and copper, and 

 their sulphates, zinc and cadmium and their sulphates, zinc 

 and silver and their sulphates, cadmium and silver and 

 their sulphates, copper and silver and their sulphates. In 

 all cases the sulphate solutions were of equal molecular 

 strengths. The general result is that the effect of a given altera- 

 tion in the character of the plates opposed to cadmium or silver 

 was found to be practically identical with that of the same altera, 

 tion in the case of a Daniell cell. Volta's law of the summation 

 of E.M.F. forces sensibly holds true in the cases examined. 

 These cells also behave like a Daniel under variations of current 

 density. The Society meets again in November. 



Geological Society, June 21.— J. W. Hulke, F.R.S., presi- 

 dent, m the chair. — Robert Bruce Napoleon Walker was elected 

 a Fellow of the Society. — The following communications were 

 read:— On Thecospondylus humeri, a new Dinosaur from the 

 Hastings Sand, indicated by the sacrum and the neural canal of 

 the sacral region, by Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S., F.G.S.— On 

 the dorsal region of the vertebral column of a new Dinosaur, 

 indicating a new genus, Sphenospondylus, from the Wealden of 

 Brook, in the Isle of Wight, preserved in the Woodwardian 

 Museum of the University of Cambridge, by Prof. H. G. Seeley, 

 F.R.S.— On organic remains from the Upper Permian strata of 

 Kargalinsk, in Eastern Russia, by W. H. T\\ elvetrees, F.G.S. 

 In this paper the author described the Kargalinsk steppe, north 

 of Orenburg, as consisting of a grassy, treeless, undulating 

 steppe, with sluggish, winding streams, in the banks of which, 

 and in the ravines, the exposures of subsoil show only red marl 

 or sandstone devoid of fossils. Mine-borings and shafts go 

 down through red, yellow, and grey sandstones and red and 

 white marls, which are fossiliferous wherever the beds of copper- 

 ore exist. On the eastern border of the steppe there are two 

 protrusions of limestone, with Terebratula elongata, Loxonona, 

 &c, on outcrops running nearly north-west and south-east, which 

 throw off the cupriferous sands east and west. The wes'ern of 

 these outcrops in its southern continuation near Sakmarsk is 

 charged with Permian Fossils, including the above ; the same 

 limestone, regarded by the author as belonging to the Zechstein, 

 crops up in other places, and apparently underlies the whole 

 basin of the steppe, the upper sandstones resting conformably 

 upon it. From the latter the author gave the following list of 

 fossils - — Cardiopteris A~utorg,e ( = Aroides crassispat/ia), Walchia 

 biarmica and piriformis, Lepidodendron , Schizodendron tubercu- 

 latum, Anomorrhaa Fischeri, Cavlopteris?, Catamites infractus, 

 Suckcnoi gigas and leioderma, Unto umbonatus, Platyops Richardi 

 (a Labyrinthodont), Rhopalodon Wangtnhauseri, Cliorhizodon, 

 feenburgensis, Deuterosaurus, and various Labyrinthodont and 

 Reptilian remains. Upon these the author remarked that the 

 list of plants has a Paleozoic aspect, while the Reptilian remains 

 seem to be more of a secondary character. After consideration 

 of all the facts, the author came to the conclusion that possibly 

 some of the beds in the central part of what is known as the 

 Permian basin may be passage-beds between the Permian and 

 TriaF, but that the Kargalinsk series includes the uppermost 

 beds of the Permian. — The Rhretics of Nottinghamshire, by E. 

 Wilson, F.G.S. — On the Silurian and Cambrian strata of the 

 Baltic provinces of Russia, as compared with those of Scandi- 

 navia and the British Islands, by Dr. F. Schmidt. Communi- 

 cated by Dr. H. Woodward, F.R.S., F.G.S. The Cambrian 

 and Silurian strata in question are found stretching over an area 

 400 miles long by Sc miles wide. The country occupied by 

 these strata is a nearly uniform plain covered by glacial deposits, 

 but sections are presented by the sea-cliffs, which are from 90 to 

 150 feet high. The strata consist mainly of marls and lime- 

 stones, arenaceous deposits being rare, and they form a con- 

 tinuous series from the base of the Cambrian to the top of the 

 Silurian, the whole of these strata being in conformable succes- 

 sion and unconformably overlain by the Devonian. Although 

 the representative of the Cambrian or Primordial Silurian con- 

 tains neither Paradoxides nor Orlenus, nor, indeed, any Trilo- 

 bites whatever, but only Lingulidse and Graptolites, yet its 

 stratigraphical position leaves no doubt as to its age. — On 

 Chilostomatous Bryozoa from Bairnsdale (Gippsland), by A. 

 W. Waters, F.G.S. — The Silurian species of Glauconome, and 

 a suggested classification of the Palteozoic Polyzoa, by G. W. 

 Shrubsole, F.G.S., and G. R. Vine. — On the cause of the de- 

 pression and re-elevation of the land during the glacial period, 

 by T. F. Jamieson, F.G.S. 



