NATURE 
[JUNE 16, 1923 
ae 
the locomotion of the Oscillatoria.—H. Colin and H. 
Belval: The supposed reserve dextrins of Mono- 
cotyledons. A revision of the work of Leclerc du 
Sablon (1898-1899). The bulb of Hyacinthus orient- 
alis contains no dextrin: the reserve carbohydrates 
consist of starch and a soluble levulosan only.—R. de 
Litardiére: Remarks on the fixation of Merkel’s 
liquid and on certain so-called nuclear structures 
provoked by fixing reagents with osmic acid base. 
An adverse criticism of the results of Overton on the 
somatic kinesis in Podophyllum peltatum, with special 
reference to the action of various fixing fluids.— 
Raphael Dubois: The toxicity of copper with respect 
to moulds. Remarking on a recent communication 
by M. and Mme. Villedieu on the non-toxic action of 
copper on moulds, the author directs attention to the 
fact that he arrived at a similar conclusion in 1890. 
An explanation of the undoubted beneficial effects of 
copper suspensions in fighting mould in the vine and 
other plants has still to be found, and it is suggested 
that since it has been shown that salts of copper may 
act both as oxydase and peroxydase, this may be 
the cause of the observed beneficial action.—Jivoin 
Georgévitch : New researches on the Goloubatz fly. 
From the heads of this fly a poisonous substance can 
be extracted by either water, alcohol, chloroform, or 
ether, and injections of this material proved rapidly 
fatal to guinea-pigs, rabbits, and white mice. Losses 
of cattle through the ravages of this fly have been 
unusually heavy this year in Serbia, Roumania, and 
Bulgaria —Alfred Maubert, Léon Jaloustre, and Pierre 
Lemay: The influence of thorium-X on the catalase 
of the liver. Thorium-X acts on catalase from the 
liver, stimulating in small doses and paralysing in 
large doses. The action is due to the a-radiation.— 
René Jeannel: The origin of the entomological 
fauna of the Carpathians and of the Bihor mountains. 
—FPierre Lesne: A new appearance of Leucotermes 
lucifugus. A Strelitzia in the hot-house of the 
Natural History Museum at Paris has been found to 
have been seriously attacked by this ant.—Alphonse 
Labbé: The genesis of the nemato cysts of the 
nudibranchs. 
CaLcuTta. 
Asiatic Society of Bengal, May 2.—B. Prashad: 
Observations on the luminosity of some animals in 
the Gangetic Delta. Notes on the various methods 
of the production of light by different animals are 
given.—N. Annandale: Plant and animal designs in 
the mural decorations of an Uriya village. The 
designs discussed are painted on the walls of houses 
on an island in the Chilka Lake. They are mostly 
of a very simple nature, consisting of outlines in 
white chalk on a red background. The plants or 
parts of plants most commonly represented are the 
‘maize, the cocoanut, the sola plant, and the kadumba 
flower; the animals— ducks, peacocks, and _ fish. 
The last are always represented in pairs, forming a 
well-known Indian symbol. Other symbols such as 
the footprints of Krishna are combined with the 
plant designs.—Johan van Manen: on the 44th 
verse of the Dhammapada. Comparison of the Pali, 
Prakrit, Chinese, and Tibetan versions, with con- 
clusions concerning ‘‘ metaphysical punning” as an 
essential element of some of the earliest Buddhist 
utterances, ascribed to the Buddha himself. 

Official Publications Received. 
Report of the Astronomer Royal to the Board of Visitors of the Royal 
Observatory, Greenwich, read at the Annual Visitation of the Royal 
Observatory, 1923, June 2. Pp. 20. (Greenwich.) 
Eleventh Report of the Microbiological Laboratory (Government 
Bureau of Microbiology) for the Year 1920. (Bxtract from the Report 
of the Director-General of Public Health, New South Wales, for the Year 
NO. 2798, VOL. 111 | 
au oak December 1920, Section 4.) Pp. 181-195, (Sydney: J. A. 
pence, 
Twelfth Report of the Microbiological Laboratory (Government Bureau 
of Microbiology) for the Year 1921. (Extract from the Report of the 
Director-General of Public Health, New South Wales, for the Year ended 
31st December 1921, Section 4.) Pp. 81-94. (Sydney : J. A. Spence.) 
Sudan Government: Wellcome Tropical Research Laboratories, 
Khartoum. Report of the Government Chemist for the Year 1922, 
Chemical Section—Publication No. 26. Pp! 30. (Khartoum.) 
Department of the Interior : United States Geological Survey. Bulletin 
686: Structure and Oil and Gas Resources of ithe Osage Reservation, 
Oklahoma. By David White and others, Pp. xvi+427+60 plates. 
(Washington ; Government Printing Office.) 
Department of the Interior: United States Geological Survey. Water- 
Supply Paper 480: Surface Water Supply of the United States, 1918, 
Part 10: The Great Basin. Pp. vi+271. 20 cents. Water-Su ply 
Paper 483: Surface Water Supply of the United States, 1918. 
12: North Pacific Drainage Basins. B: Snake River Basin. Pp. v+171. 
15 cents. Water-Supply Paper 508: Surface Water Supply of the United 
States, 1919-1920. Part 8: Western Gulf of Mexico Basins. Pp. iv+136. 
15 cents. (Washington: Government Printing Office.) 
Annales de l’Observatoire Royal de Belgique. Troisiéme série, tome 1, 
fascicule 2. Pp. 269-415, (Bruxelles : M. Hayez.) ; 

Diary of Societies. 
SATURDAY, June 16. 
Roya ‘Tystrrvtion or Great Brirary, at 3.—Sir Ernest Rutherford: 
Atomic Projectiles and their Properties (VI.). 
MONDAY, Jone 18, 
ARISTOTELIAN Soctety (at University of London Club), at 8.—Prof. G. 
Dawes Hicks : The Nature of Images. 
Roya GEeooRapnivat Society (at Kolian Hall), at 8.30.—Capt C. J. 
Morris: The Gorge of the Arun. 
TUESDAY, June 19. 
Royat Soctety or Mepicrne (Special General Meeting), at 5. 
Roya Sratisticat Socrky, at 5.15.—Prof. A, L, Bowley; Death Rates, 
Density and Population.—Dr. J. C. Dunlop: Misstatement of Age in 
the Returns of the Census of Scotland. 
MINERALOGICAL Soctery (at Geological Society), at 5.30.—Dr. L. J. 
Spencer, with chemical analyses by E. D. Mountain: New Lead-Copper 
Minerals from the Mendip Hills (Somerset).—Dr. W. F. P. McLintock : 
A Petalite-bearing Rock from Devonshire.—A. Brammall and H. F. 
Harwood : Dartmoor Granite; Monazite and other Accessory Minerals ; 
Tourmalinisation.—S. Tsuboi: Optical Dispersion of Three Intermediate 
Plagioclases.—S. Tsuboi: A Method of determining Plagioclases in 
Fine Grains.—C. S. Garnett: The Toadstone Clays of Derbyshire,— 
Dr, G. T. Prior: The Meteoric Stone which fell at Ashdon, Essex, on 
March 9, 1923.—Dr. G. T. Prior: The Sinai Meteorite. 
RoyaL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, at 8.15.—Prof. P. G. H. Boswell 
and J. Reid Moir: Flint Implements at Foxhall Road, Ipswich. 
WEDNESDAY, June 20. 
Royat MeETeoroLocrcaL Society, at 5.—J. Edmund Clark and I D. 
Margary : Report on the Phenological Observations in the British Isles 
from December 1921 to November 1922.—Dr. T, G. Longstaff: Meteoro- 
logical Notes from the Mount Everest Expedition of 1922.—R. Arnison : 
Exhibit of a new form of Open-scale Barograph by Short and Mason, Ltd, 
GroLoaicaL Society oF Lonpon, at 5.30.—K. 8. Sandford: The River- 
Grayels of the Oxford District.—L. Dollo and P. Teilhard de Chardin : 
The Deposits of Paleocene Mammalia in Belgium. 
Society ror Constructive Birt Conrrot anp Raciat Prooress (at 
Essex Hall, Strand), at 8.—J. Lort- Williams: Birth Control as it 
interests me. (Lecture.) 
THURSDAY, June 21. 
Roya Socrery, at 4.30.—Dr. F. F. Blackman: Plant Respiration as a 
Catalytic Process (Croonian Lecture), f f 
Roya Society or Mepicine (Dermatology Section), at 5.—Sir Archdall 
Reid: New Method of treating Skin Diseases. 
LInNEAN Socrety oF Lonpon, at 5.—E. Heron-Allen and A. Harland : 
The Foraminifera of Lord Howe Island.—T. A. Dymes: The Seeds of 
the Marsh Orchids.—Prof. A. Dendy and L. M. Frederick: A Collection 
of Sponges from the Abrolhos Islands.—Prof. M. Zalessky : Some New 
Species of Permian Osmundacew.—Dr. Ethel N. M. Thomas; Observa- 
tions on the Seedling Anatomy of the Genus Ricinus.—Dr. C. H. 
O'Donoghue: Opisthobranchiata from the Abrolhos Islands.—C, N. 
Withycombe: The Function of the Bladders in Utricularia vulgaris L, 
Cuemicat Soctery, at 8.—O. R. Howell: The Constitution of the Higher 
Oxide of Nickel.—F. Allsop and J. Kenner: The Relationship of the 
Tautomeric Hydrogen Theory to the Theory of Induced Alternate 
Polarities.—S. Sugden : Electron Valency Theories and Stereochemistry, 
—Prof. W. A. Bone, D. M. Newitt, and D. T. A. Townend: The Relative 
Infinences of Water Vapour and Hydrogen upon the Combustion of 
Carbon Monoxide-Air Mixtures at High Temperatures.—I. W. Wark: 
Metallic -Hydroxy-Acid Complexes. Part I. Cuprilactates.—I. W. 
Wark: Metallic Hydroxy-Acid Complexes. Part II. Were | 
their Formation, Properties, and Composition.—S. Minovici: Cholesterol 
and its Role in the Organism, 
FRIDAY, Jone 22. 
r Society or Lonpon (at Imperial College of Science and 
eTrohaaleenyt at 5.—Prof. F. Horton: The Excitation and Ionisation 
Potentials of Gases and Vapours. (Lecture.) 
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