












a ot See 
Y 27, 1923] 
serfectly through allegiance to some existing organisa- 
tion the triumph of which in the world he identifies 
vith the victory of God’s will. Another believes 
that he communes with God most deeply when he 
hdraws his attention from all that is finite and 
we and concentrates it upon the attempt to 
e the immediate presence of God. A third is 
yersuaded that he communes with God most truly 
a ya ins his fellows in remaking the institutions 
(including the church itself) according to 
onstantly clearer apprehension of the will of God, 
that will is being progressively revealed to all 
o seek it in humility and faith. These three 
types may be ig ee imperialism, individualism, 
md democracy. Each has given rise to institutions 
app opriate to its genius. 
_ Mineralogical Society, January 9.—Dr. A. E. H. 
Tutton, t-president, in the chair—A. Brammall 
and H. F. Harwood: Dartmoor occurrences of (1) 
futile, brookite, and anatase; (2) zircon. (1) 
\natase, with less abundant brookite and scanty 
utile, is common in Dartmoor stream-sands, etc. 
atase and brookite,,absent from the unaltered grey 
granite, have been found in pneumatolysed rocks, 
especiz ly “red ’’ granites, and the mode of genesis 
of two minerals is discussed. Data provided 
by chemical work on “ baueritised"’ Dartmoor 
tite (containing about 1-8 per cent. TiO,) and by 
the occurrence of anatase granules encrusting detrital 
rains of ilmenite are examined in their bearing 
on the ibility that some anatase may have 
develo (or existing crystals may have continued 
a =) in detrital material after sedimentation. 
(2) strongly contrasted kinds of zircon crystals 
are described: differences in crystal habit, nature 
inclusions, and mode of occurrence in the granite 
uggest that the dominant kind, which is tawny, 
zoned, and rich in inclusions, crystallised out from 
the magma early, and that the subordinate kind, 
water-clear, and containing few inclusions, separated 
out at a much later stage—Dr. L. J. Spencer, with 
emical analyses by E. D. Mountain and micro- 
scopical determinations of the udomorphs by 
. Campbell Smith: A davyne-like mineral and its 
Pseudomorphs from St. John’s Island, Egypt. Two 
sr crystals found with peridot, . lerite, etc., 
wed the physical characters of davyne, but 
‘consist of a complex silicate (with sulphate and 
carbonate) of aluminium, calcium, magnesium, and 
odium, together with a considerable amount of 
or. udomorphs after this material are more 
ibundant ; they consist of a complex of hydrated 
silicates of aluminium and magnesium together with 
1 amounts of corundum and spinel. 
_ Royal Meteorological Society, January 17.—Dr. C. 
shree, ident, in the chair.—C. Chree: Aurora and 
enomena. Brilliant aurora in England seems 
ays to be accompanied by a magnetic storm, and 
ny outstanding magnetic disturbance is accompanied 
by aurora. Thus presumably they have a common 
use, now generally believed to be electrical currents 
the upper atmosphere, originated by a discharge 
of some d from the sun, Our knowledge of the 
ight of aurora is mainly due to Norwegian men of 
mee. Prof. Carl Stérmer discovered how to photo- 
ph aurora, and by taking simultaneous photographs 
om the ends of a long base, and measuring the 
ent parallax, he is able to calculate the height. 
the lower level of aurora he finds heights in the 
ghbourhood of too kilometres. The height of the 
st visible appearance varies greatly. Heights 
eding 300 iometres are not ve uncommon, 
some measurements have exceeded 600 kilo- 
NO. 2778, VOL. 111] 






































lied 
NATURE 
“were 
135 
Travelling northwards from the south of 
England, aurora and etic disturbances both 
increase, the former at least very rapidly. The 
auroral frequency in Shetland is said to be 10 to 20 
times that in the extreme south of England. There 
is thus within the British Isles a great variety in the 
frequency or intensity of aurora, and it is also 
believed in the intensity of magnetic disturbance. 
An observatory provided with magnetographs has 
recently been cata blishied in Shetland, and if adequate 
means are forthcoming for the intensive study of 
auroral and magnetic phenomena, substantial contri- 
butions to knowledge may reasonably be expected. 
metres. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, January 3.—M. Albin Haller 
in the chair.—The president announced the death 
of Gaston Bonnier, member of the section of botany. 
—R. de Forcrand: The alcoholates of thallium. 
Thallium differs from sodium and potassium in that 
it does not displace hydrogen directly from the 
alcohols. Alcohol vapour acts upon thallium in the 
presence of oxygen, giving the compound C,H, . OT1 
as a dense oily liquid (density, 3°55). This liquid 
added to an excess of anhydrous methyl alcohol 
gives thallium methylate, CH,.OTI, as a solid. 
With the same thallium ethylate as the starting 
point, corresponding compounds have been prepared 
from glycol, glycerol, and phenol.—Paul Vuillemin : 
The classification of the monocotyledons.—Bertrand 
Gambier: The curves of Bertrand.—Stanislas Millot : 
Probability a posteriori—J. Haag: The study of 
certain problems in kinetic theory, with the hypo- 
thesis that the intermolecular force is some function 
of the distance.—Margaret G..Tomkinson: The 
catalytic hydrogenation of sulphur dioxide. A 
mixture of dry hydrogen and sulphur dioxide in the 
presence of reduced nickel at about 400° C. gives 
water, sulphuretted hydrogen, and sulphur. The 
nickel is wholly converted into nickel sulphide, but 
in spite of this, the catalytic reduction can be carried 
on indefinitely—A. Mailhe: The catalytic de- 
composition of castor oil, The oil was decomposed by 
passing over alumina and metallic copper at 550° 
to 570° C. The gaseous products contained 36 per 
cent. of unsaturated hydrocarbons: from the liquid 
portion oenanthylic aldehyde, hexane, and heptane 
isolated. At temperatures above 600° C. 
aromatic hydrocarbons were also identified.—Mme. 
A. Hee: Study of the Algerian earthquake of August 
25, 1922, from the microseismic observations. A 
discussion of the seismographs from eight observa- 
tories. The epicentre was deduced from these to 
be near Cavaignac, and this is in agreement with the 
macroseismic observations. —Emmanuel de Martonne : 
The Pliocene delta of the Var and the erosion levels 
of the valleys opening into it. 
SYDNEY. 
Linnean Society of New South Wales, November 20. 
—Mr. G. A. Waterhouse, president, in the chair.— 
‘J. Mitchell: Descriptions of two new trilobites and 
note on Griffithides convexicaudatus Mitch. A species 
of Cordania is described from Australia for the first 
time. A new species of Ptychoparia forms an 
addition to the fossil fauna of North-west Queensland. 
Griffithides convexicaudatus Mitchell is transferred to 
the genus Phillipsia—Marguerite Henry: A mono- 
gra h of the freshwater Entomostraca of New South 
Vales. Pt. ii. Copepoda. Twenty-three species of 
copepods, one of which is recorded for the fixst time 
in Australia, four for the first time in New South 
Wales and three which are new, are described. Two 
