April 23, 1908J 



NA TURE 



599 



of conimorcial murexide maTuifactured about the year 1861, 

 and 'also a specimen of calico printed with it, which still 

 exhibited the characteristic bright rose tint. 



Zoological Society, Apiil 7.— Dr. Henry Woodward, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — .A monograph of the 

 chiropteran genera Uroderma, Enchisthenes, and .-Xrtibeus : 

 Dr. Knud Andersen. The work was based on an 

 examination of the material in the British and United 

 States National Museums, and contained a discussion of 

 the homologies of the teeth and molar cusps in steno- 

 dermatous bats, a full description of the genera mentioned 

 in the title, their species and subspecies, with a discussion 

 of their probable inter-relations, and, finally, remarks on 

 the bearing of the present geographical distribution of 

 the species and subspecies on a former connection of the 

 West Indian Islands with continental .America. — Certain 

 points in the structure of the cervical vertebrae of the okapi 

 and giraffe :' Sir E. Ray Lankester. The paper dealt 

 chiefly with the posterior cervical and anterior dorsal 

 vertebrae, the author concluding that where the okapi 

 differed in these respects from the giraffe, it resembled 

 other, and particularly bovine, .\rtiodactyles. It also in- 

 cluded a discussion of the Z3'gapophysial articulations of 

 the cervical and dorsal vertebrae in the giraffe, okapi, and 

 some other mammals.— Some .Australian spiders : H. R. 

 Hogg. The author gave further notes on the type species 

 of the genus Missulena, hitherto known only by two speci- 

 mens, a synopsis of the New Zealand genus Hexathele, 

 with description of two new species, and a description of 

 two new species of Dolomodes (Latreille) from Pitt Island 

 of the Chatham Group, showing affinities with the only 

 two species recorded from New Zealand. 



Association of Economic Biologists, Aprili5. — Mr. A.E. 

 Shipley, F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The pecking of 

 fowls and their vision : E. Steains. — The inter-relation 

 between entozoa and their hosts : .A. E. Shipley. The 

 author emphasised the important ro/e internal parasites 

 play in disease, the full weight of which had scarcely 

 been realised as yet by the medical profession. — The pre- 

 disposition of plants to parasitic diseases : H. T. Gijssow. 

 — -The need of an organised inquiry into the feeding habits 

 of British birds : C. Gordon Hewitt. — The possibility and 

 danger of the introduction of the San Jose scale into Great 

 Britain : Walter E. Collinge. The author had seen this 

 scale alive on pears in this country, and twigs had been 

 sent to him from Canada on which the insects had repro- 

 duced by eggs, and hatched out in his laboratory. In 

 view of its spread northwards in Canada, he was of opinion 

 that some stricter and more careful examination of 

 imported nursery stock should without delay be organised 

 and carried out in this country. — .An important factor in the 

 natural control of the large larch saw-fly, Nematus erich- 

 soiiii : C. Gordon Hewitt. The factor referred to was the 

 field vole (Arvicola agrcstis), which extracts and eats the 

 larvae from the cocoons. 



Royal Meteorological Society, April 15. — Dr. H. R. 

 Mill, president, in the ih.iir. — Report on the phenological 

 observations for 1907 : K. IVIawley. Wild plants came into 

 blossom behind their usual dates throughout the whole of 

 the flowering season. .Such early immigrants as the 

 swallow, cuckoo, and nightingale were also behiii(i their 

 average dates in reaching these islands. The only deficient 

 farm crop, taking the country as a whole, was that of 

 potatoes, most of the other crops being much over average. 

 On the other hand, the yield of apples and pears, and 

 particularly that of the former, was below average. There 

 was also a deficient crop of strawberries, whereas plums, 

 raspberries, currants, and gooseberries were over average. 

 — Anticyclonic belt of the southern hemisphere : Colonel 

 H. E. Rawson. From an examination of the daily 

 synoptic charts of the northern hemisphere, the author was 

 led to the conclusion that some of the permanent anti- 

 cyclonic systems had a progressive seasonal movement 

 ■which did not take place along the same latitude each 

 year, but was in some years north and in others south 

 of a mean latitude. This was noticeable in the years 

 1881-1891, and was capable of easy explanation if the belt 

 itself in which they moved shifted its latitude from year 

 to year in addition to migrating north and south with the 

 sun. On analysing the isobaric charts of the southern 



NO. 2008, VOL. rrl 



hemisphere, the author found the seasonal migration of the 

 anticyclonic belt to be accompanied by a real displacement 

 of the action-centres within it to the northward and to the 

 southward. It appears that there is a period of about 

 9.5 years between the greatest north and greatest south 

 position of the anticyclonic belt over South Africa, the 

 double oscillation thus taking nineteen years. 



Manchester. 



Literary and Philosophical Society, February 11. — 

 Prof. 11. B. Dixon, F.R.S., president, in the chair. — A 

 method of counting the number of a particles from radio- 

 active matter ; Prof. E. Rutherford and Dr. H. 

 Geiger. The total number of a particles expelled per 

 second from one gram of radium has been estimated 

 (Rutherford, Phil. Mag., August, 1905) by measuring ex- 

 perimentally the total positive charge carried by the a rays 

 from a thin film of radium, on the assumption that each 

 a particle has the same charge as an ion produced in 

 gases. If the a particle is an atom of helium, it is neces- 

 sary to assume that each o particle carries twice the 

 ordinary ionic charge. The need of a method of directly 

 counting the number of o particles shot out from radio- 

 active matter has long been felt in order to determine with 

 the minimum of assumption the charge carried by the 

 a particle, and also the magnitude of other radio-active 

 quantities. It can be calculated that an a particle expelled 

 from radium produces about 80,000 ions in a gas before 

 its ionising power is lost. With very sensitive apparatus, 

 it should be just possible to detect the ionisation produced 

 by a single a particle by electrical methods. The effect, 

 however, would be small and difficult to measure with 

 accuracy. In order to overcome this difficulty, the authors 

 have employed a method which automatically increases the 

 ionisation produced by an a particle several thousand times, 

 and so makes the electrical effect easily observable with 

 an ordinary electrometer. By counting at intervals the 

 number of a particles e.xpelled per minute, the authors 

 have been able to obtain the curves of decay of activity 

 of a plate coated with radium C or actinium B. The 

 a particles from a constant source are shot out at irregular 

 intervals. The time interval between the entrance of 

 successive a particles has been observed over a long 

 interval, and the results show that the distribution curve 

 with time is similar in general shape to the probability 

 curve of distribution of the velocity of molecules in a gas. 



February 25. — Prof. H. B. Dixon, F.R.S., president, in 

 the chair. — Notes on the greater horseshoe bat (Rliino- 

 lophus ferninwquintim) in captivity : T. A. Coward. The 

 author, after giving a resume of his previous notes on 

 the habits of the greater horseshoe bat, showed that the 

 conclusions he arrived at were confirmed by the behaviour 

 of examples in captivity. The winter sleep of this species 

 is not profound ; the bats leave their retreats and feed in 

 mild weather. Bats in captivity usually awoke every 

 evening, but during the cold weather in January slept 

 occasionally for one, two, or three nights. When awake 

 they captured insects on the wing, and also, though unable 

 to walk, dropped on the floor, seized beetles, and rose 

 with them in their mouths without difficulty, proving how 

 the bats are able to obtain flightless insects. — Cavity 

 parenchyma and tyloses in ferns : Mary IMcNicoi. 



March 10. — Dr. W. E. Hoyle, vice-president, in the 

 chair. — Report of the recent Foraminifera from the coast 

 of the island of Delos (Grecian Archipelago), part v. : 

 H. Sidebottom. The author restricted himself to a con- 

 sideration of two forms (Cynibalopora bulloides and 

 Spirillina erecta) as being of special interest, and described 

 them in some detail. — The action of selenium and tellurium 

 on arsine and stibine : F. Jones. In a previous paper it 

 was shown that sulphur decomposes stibine in presence of 

 light, and at a temperature of 100° C, but not in the 

 dark. The action results in the formation of hydrogen 

 sulphide and antimony trisulphide. It was also shown that 

 the liberated hydrogen sulphide decomposes stibine with 

 formation of antimony trisulphide and free hydrogen. A 

 similar action was found to take place between sulphur 

 and the two gases analogous to stibine, namely, arsine 

 and phosphine. It appeared probable that selenium and 

 tellurium would act on these gases in a similar manner 

 to sulphur, and this has been found to be the case. 



