4c A 
- Marcu 3, 1923] 
NATURE 311 

SYDNEY. 
Royal Society of New South Wales, December 6.— 
Mr. C. A. Sussmilch, president, in the chair.—Miss 
Ida Brown: Notes on hornblende and bytownite 
_ from hypersthene gabbro, Black Bluff, near Broken 
Hill. A description of the separation of hornblende 
and plagioclase felspar from a gabbro which occurs 
about six miles to the south-east of Broken Hill, and 
a discussion of their chemical composition and optical 
properties.—H. G. Smith and J. Read: The glucoside 
occurring in the timber of the red ash, Alphitonia 
excelsa, Reiss. The red colour of this timber is due 
to the oxidation, upon exposure to light and air, of a 
characteristic constituent, which shows a marked 
resemblance to fustin, the glucoside of young fustic, 
Rhus cotinus. The substance sometimes occurs as a 
chalky deposit in the cracks and shakes of the timber, 
and it may also be extracted from the wood shavings 
with boiling water. It melts at 218-219°, and is 
probably identical with the glucoside of Rhodosphacra 
rhodanthema, having the formula C,H 3 Q,,. It forms 
a mono-potassium salt, and a corresponding am- 
monium salt. It is hydrolysed with extreme difficulty 
by boiling dilute acids.—A. R. Penfold and R. Grant : 
e economic utilisation of the residues from the 
‘steam rectification of the essential oil of Eucalyptus 
eneorifolia and the germicidal values of the crude oil 
and the pure active constituents. The dark-coloured 
waste product contains 6-5 per cent. australol 
(phenol) and 25 per cent. aromatic aldehydes, princi- 
pally cryptal, the remainder being sesquiterpenes, 
etc. The active constituents when tested by the 
Rideal-Walker method have high germicidal values. 
The crude oil when emulsified with rosin soap has a 
coefficient of 6-5, and forms a cheap and powerful 
disinfectant.—A. R. Penfold and F. R. Morrison: 
The essential oil of Eviostemon Crowei (Crowea 
saligna). This tall shrub, found on the rocky sloping 
banks of creeks and rivers in the Sydney district, 
yielded o-4 of an oil heavier than water ; the principal 
constituent (90 per cent.) was a new phenol ether, 
for which the name “ croweacin”’ is proposed. Its 
molecular formula is C,,H,,O3, and it contains one 
methoxy group. On oxidation with potassium per- 
manganate it yields a neutral body, C,,H,,O;, of M.P. 
93° C., and an acid, C,H,Os, of M.P. 153° C.—M. B. 
Welch: A method of identification of some hard- 
woods. In search of an accurate method of identify- 
ing certain hardwood timbers, particularly the 
Eucalypts, extracts obtained by boiling a definite 
weight of shavings in a known volume of water were 
examined. Various reagents, such as ferric chloride, 
lime-water, etc., were added to the extract, and a 
E ee made between similar timbers. The 
m does not give results with certainty.—M. B. 
Welch: The resinous exudation of rosewood. The 
resinous exudation or ‘‘ sweating ’’ which destroys 
the polish of rosewood is due to numerous minute 
drops of oil in certain parts of the wood. A steam 
distillation of shavings gave a yield of more than 
3 per cent. of a bluish-coloured oil. Sweating is 
apparently due to lack of seasoning, or to polishing a 
; ly prepared surface.—W. S. Dun and Sir Edge- 
worth David: Notes on the occurrence of Gastrio- 
ceras, at the Irwin River Coalfield, W.A., and a 
comparison with the so-called Paralegoceras from 
 Letti, Dutch East Indies. Gastrioceras Jacksoni 
occur in the Gascoyne River district, W.A., in a very 
well-marked horizon in the Lower Marine Permian 
beds, which has been traced for more than 20 miles. 
A new form is identical with Haniel’s Paralegoceras 
sundaicum from the Permian of the Island of Letti. 
This is associated with a brachiopod fauna of a 
definite Asiatic Permian facies, and it will thus be 
NO. 2783, VOL. 111] 







possible to attempt a more definite correlation of the 
Western Australian beds with the Permian of Asia 
and Eastern Europe.—W. R. Browne and W. A. 
Greig: On an olivine-bearing quartz-monzonite from 
Kiandra, N.S.W. An explanation of the very rare 
association of the two minerals olivine and quartz in 
the same igneous rock. The chemical composition of 
the rock is given.—W. R. Browne: Note on the 
occurrence of calcite in a basalt from the Maitland 
district, N.S.W. An account of a basalt containing 
about 15 per cent. of interstitial calcite, which is 
believed to be the result, not of surface alteration, but 
of deposition from magmatic waters during the 
crystallisation of the rock.—J. K. Murray: Notes on 
the bacteriological aspect of pasteurisation of milk 
for cheddar cheese-making. Pasteurisation, coupled 
with the use of a good starter, greatly favours those 
bacteria which prqduce a cheese of good flavour and 
aroma. The ‘ pasteurised’’ cheese was better in 
flavour and aroma than the “ raw ’’ check cheese and 
did not markedly lose in texture or body. Its 
vitamin content is not considered to be in any marked 
degree different from that of the ordinary “ raw” 
cheese. 
MELBOURNE. 
Royal Society of Victoria, December 14.—Mr. F. 
Wisewould, president, in the chair.—F. Chapman and 
I. Crespin: The Austral Rhynchonellacea of the 
“nigricans series’ with a description of the new 
genus Tegulorhynchia. The forms of the “ nigricans 
series,’’ fossil and recent, in the southern hemi- 
sphere, which have been referred to the boreal genus 
Hemithyris, constitute a distinct zoological group 
Tegulorhynchia. The Cainozoic species of Tegulo- 
rhynchia have probably evolved from a Jurassic form 
like that of Burmirhynchia, without the intervention 
of the Cyclothyris type, which was so predominant 
in the Cretaceous of Europe. The direct line of 
descent is probably from the European type Burmi- 
vhynchia variabilis. The bathymetrical distribution 
of the forms living in southern waters has been found 
to be of value in comparing the stratigraphical 
characters of the fossil series—J. R. Tovey and P. F. 
Morris: Contributions from the national Herbarium 
of Victoria, No. 3. The paper contains a description 
of a new species, Kunyea sulphurea Tovey and 
Morris, from West Australia, and records of new 
regional distribution of native and introduced plants. 
A new introduction, Tvadescantia fluminensis Vell. 
(Water Spiderwort), isrecorded and alsosome additions 
to the introduced flora of Coode Island.—H. S. Baird: 
The occipital bones of the Dipnoi. Sections of the 
exoccipital bone of Ceratodus, and comparison with 
a developmental series of Lepidosiren, show no 
evidence of endochondral ossification. It appears prob- 
able that the endochondral method of ossification—a 
phylogenetically more highly developed mode of bone 
formation—does not exist in the Dipnoi.—G. Horne: 
Aboriginal cylindro-conical stones. Cylindro-conical 
stones are found in the Darling district and West to 
L. Eyre. They are unknown by the Darling blacks ; 
also by all except a few old men of L. Eyre tribes. 
These call them uncanny, being the petrified penis of 
one circumcised with a firestick before the moora 
introduced the knife. Afterwards the stones must 
be lost. Circumcision was unknown where the stones 
most abound. 

Official Publications Received. 
Académie des Sciences (Ceska Akademie Véd a Uméni). Bulletin 
International. Résumés des travaux présentés. Classe des Sciences 
mathématiques, naturelles et de la Médecine. 18¢ année (1913). Pp. iii 
+307. 19° année (1914). Pp. iv+415. 20¢ année (1916). Pp. iii +408 
2le année (1917). Pp. iv+408. 22¢ année (1920). Pp, iv+225. (Prague. 
