478 



NA TURE 



L March 19, 1908 



Assmann's Melitaca atirelia, var. britomarlis, they being 

 absolutely identical with the specimens so labelled in the 

 Swiss national collections at Berne. The close affinity on 

 the underside with M. dictynna made separation superficially 

 very difficult, and until all forms were reared from the ovum 

 it would be impossible to determine whether britomarlis 

 constituted a separate species or not. — Papers. — Descrip- 

 tions of new species of Lepidoptera-Heterocera from the 

 south-east of Brazil ; H. D. Jones. — Ercbia lefebvrei and 

 Lycacna pyrenaica : Dr. T. A. Chapman. — A contribution 

 to the classification of the coleopterous family Dynastidse : 

 (;. J. Arrow. — Hymenoptera-.Aculeata collected in Algeria 

 by the Rev. A. E. Eaton and the Rev. F. D. Morice, 

 part iii., .\nthophila : E. Saunders. 



Royal Meteorological Society, March ii. — Dr. 

 H. R. .Mill, president, in the chair. — The dawn of meteor- 

 ology : Dr. G. Hellmann, Some of the modern weather 

 proverbs can be traced back to Indo-Germanic and Baby- 

 lonian sources. Some of the tablets excavated from old 

 Babylon contain references to the weather. Speaking of 

 the names of the winds and their combinations. Dr. Hell- 

 mann said that the cardinal points, north, east, south, 

 west, were found in old Babylonian times. The Greeks 

 were the first to make meteorological observations, and 

 had parapegmata or weather almanacks fixed on public 

 columns. The measurement of rain was first recorded in 

 Palestine. After referring to the first idea of the thermo- 

 scope, the lecturer alluded to the meteorology of Aristotle, 

 and said that it had very little influence on English 

 meteorologists. It was the fathers of the Church who 

 kept meteorology alive, for in their works on the Creation 

 they devoted much attention to the atmosphere. The 

 writings of the Venerable Bede were also referred to. The 

 resuscitation of experimental science in the thirteenth 

 century led to the development of regular meteorological 

 observations in the fourteenth century. The earliest known 

 record in this country was kept by the Rev. William Merle 

 at Oxford from January, 1337, to January, 1344, the manu- 

 script of which is still in the Bodleian librarv. 



Mathematical Society, March 12.— Prof. \V. Burnside, 

 president, in the chair. — The projective geometry of some 

 covariants of a binary quintic : Prof. E. B. Elliott. The 

 roots of the quintic being represented by points on a 

 conic, ruler constructions, depending only on symmetric 

 functions of the roots, and not on the roots individually, 

 are given for those linear covariants which are of degrees 

 5 and 7 in the coefficients, and for the quadratic covariant 

 which is of degree 2 in the coefficients. Constructions are 

 also obtained for the linear covariants of degrees 11 and 

 13 in cases where the roots of the quintic are known 

 individually. It appears that sots of four linear covariants 

 and three quadratic covariants can be arranged as a 

 quadrangle on a conic and the pairs of points in which 

 the conic is met by the sides of the harmonic triangle of 

 the quadrangle, but that two members of such sets of 

 seven covariants are reducible to simpler members of a 

 complete system. — The inequalities connecting the double 

 and repeated upper and lower integrals of a function of 

 two variables: Dr. W. H. Young-. Difficulties arise in 

 the theory of integration of a function which may become 

 infinite, especially as to the possibility of replacing' a double 

 integral of puch a function by a repeated integral. The 

 paper contains a systematic investigation of such cases, 

 and conditions are obtained which are sufficient to secure 

 that the double integral can be evaluated as a repeated 

 integral. — The operational expression of Taylor's theorem : 

 Dr. \V. F. Sheppard. Cases arise in which it is desired 

 to express f(x + y) in a form depending on f(x), some 

 differential coefficients of f{x), and some difTerential co- 

 efficients of f{x + y). Operational formula; are obtained for 

 such cases, and the remainders discussed. — Note on a 

 soluble dynamical problem : Prof. L. J. Rogers. The 

 problem is of a general type which includes Jacobi's 

 problem of the attraction of a body to two fixed centres 

 and various problems appropriately expressed in terms of 

 elliptic coordinates.— A formula for the sum of a finite 

 number of terms of the hvpergeometric series when the 

 fourth element is unity (second paper) : Prof. M. J. M. 

 Hill. The formula previously obtained by the author was 

 NO. 2003, VOL. 77] 



proved to hold for the sum of i terms of the series 

 F(o, ;3, 7, i), provided 7 — a — j8 is not zero or a negative 

 integer. It is now proved to hold in the case of the 

 negative integer, and the appropriate modification is 

 obtained in the case of the zero value. 



Royal Astronomical Society, Maich 13. — Mr. H. F. 

 Newall, F.R.S., president, in the chair. — A suggested ex- 

 planation of the ancient Jewish calendar dates in the 

 Aramaic papyri, translated by Prof. A. H. Sayce and Mr. 

 A. E. Cowley : E. B. Knobel. The papyri are business 

 documents relating to a Hebrew colony in Syene, and 

 date from B.C. 471 to 410; they have duplicate dates, 

 according to the Egvptian and Jewish reckoning, and are 

 thus of unique importance for the elucidation of the ancient 

 Jewish calendar, about which very little has hitherto been 

 known. The Egyptian year and chronology are perfectly 

 well understood. The period of the documents is extended 

 by a Babylonian record of the eclipse of B.C. 523, translated 

 by Father Strassmaier, in which the Jewish date is also 

 given, and from these data a calendar has been con- 

 structed. — Double-star observations, 1902-7 : VV. H. 

 Maw. The author described his method of measuring the 

 position angle of a bright star and faint companion. The 

 wire was set near the bright star, at right angles to the 

 line joining the two stars ; it was then found easy to 

 estimate a perpendicular to the wire. — Investigations on 

 the distribution and motions of stars : F. W. Dyson. The 

 conclusions of Prof. Kapteyn and Mr. Eddington as to 

 two drifts of stars were confirmed, and the same result 

 found from stars in the southern hemisphere. — The varia- 

 bility of the nucleus of the planetary nebula N.G.C. 7062 ; 

 E. E. Barnard. A drawing made with the Verkes 

 telescope showed the nebula as a broad ring with a dark 

 space in the centre, in which was a star-like nucleus. 

 From Prof. Barnard's observations of the variability of 

 this nucleus Prof. Turni-r deduced a period of 27^ days. 

 — Note on the discover^' of a moving faint object near 

 Jupiter : Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The object 

 had been detected by Mr. Melotte on several plates taken 

 for Jupiter's sixth and seventh satellites. It was not yet 

 certain whether it is a new satellite or a minor planet 

 moving very near Jupiter, but in either case it appeared 

 of much interest. — The relative number of star images 

 photographed in different parts of the plates for the Oxford 

 portion of the Astrographic Catalogue ; H. H. Turner. 

 — The perturbations of Halley's comet, 1759-1900 ; P. H. 

 Cowell and A. C. D. Crommelin. Further investigations 

 indicated that Pont^coulant's date for the perihelion passage 

 in 1910 was somewhat too late; the most probable date is 

 .April 8. — The perturbations of Halley's comet in the past. 

 Third paper, the period 1066-1301 : P. H. Cowfell and 

 A. C. D. Crommelin. Four returns of the comet from 

 10O6-1301 now appeared to be well identified from Chinese 

 and European observations. It had been found that a 

 satisfactory identification of the return of 1222 was obtained 

 by accepting the Chinese observations as they stood, and 

 mailing a change in the interpretation of the Western 

 records. 



Cambridge. 



Philosophical Society, February 24. —Mr. D. Sharp, vice- 

 president, in the chair. — Relation between the geographical 

 distribution and the classification of the Onychophora : 

 Prof. Sedgwick. The Onychophora comprise the single 

 genus Peripatus, which was discovered in St. Vincent in 

 the Antilles in 1826. Later, specimens of it were obtained 

 from South Africa and Australasia, and its arthropodan 

 nature was established by Moseley in 1874. In 1888 it was 

 shown by the author of the present communication that 

 the species of it fell into discontinuous groups, all capable 

 of precise definition. At present seven such groups are 

 known, each occurring in a definite geographical area. 

 The geographical groups, together with the names which 

 have been applied to them by the author, are as follows : — 

 (1) Neo-Peripatus from the neotropical region as far south 

 as Rio de Janeiro ; (2) Congo-Peripatus from the Congo 

 district in Africa ; (3) Eo-Peripatus from Malaya (Malacca 

 and Sumatra) ; (4) Capo-Perlpatus from South Africa 

 (Natal to Cape Town) ; (5) Melano-Peripatus from New 

 Britain ; (6) Austro-Peripatus from Australia, Tasmania, 



