January 2, 1902] 



NA TURE 



15 



especially in reference to recent papers on the subject by M. 

 LcewyandMr. H. C. Plummer.— Other papers were taken as 

 read. 



Zoological Society, December 17, 1901. — Prof. G. B. Howes, 

 F.K.S., vice-president, in the chair. — A communication was read 

 from Mr. G. Metcalfe, M.A., of New South Wales, concerning 

 ihe reproduction of the duckbill {Ornithorhymhus anatimts). 

 The author stated that he was of opinion, after many years' 

 observation of the animal, that the duckbill was viviparous and 

 that the young were not, as was generally supposed, hatched 

 from the eggs after they had been deposited. — Dr. C. I. Forsyth 

 Major exhibited the skull of a fossil aquatic musteline animal, 

 Enhydrictis galictoJes, gen. et sp. nov., from the Pleistocene 

 ossiferous breccia of the island of Sardinia, which he stated had 

 affinities with both the neotropical Galictis and with the genus 

 Trochictis from the Middle Miocene of European deposits. — 

 Mr. J. S. Budgett read a paper (illustrated with lantern slides) 

 on the structure of the larval Polypterus. His observations 

 confirmed the belief that the Crossopterygians were a very 

 generalised group of vertebrata, and he concluded that the 

 particulars of structure in which other more recent groups 

 agreed with these ancient types were probably of a primitive 

 rather than of a secondary nature. ^Mr. L. A. Borradaile read 

 a paper on the spawn and young of a polychi^te worm of the 

 genus Marphysa from Ceylon, allied to, or identical with, 

 Marphysatereliusiula, Schmarda. — Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell 

 read a paper on the anatomy of gruiform birds, with special 

 reference to the correlation of anatomical characters. The com- 

 munication was based on dissections of birds belonging to the 

 Rallidi-e, Gruinre, Aramina;, Psophiina;, Dicholophida;, Otidid.T;, 

 Rhinochelidre, Eurypygid^ie and Heliornithid;v, the material con- 

 sisting chiefly of birds that had lived in the Society's gardens. — 

 I'rof. F. G. Parsons read the first portion of a paper, prepared 

 by himself and Prof. B. C. A. Windle, F.R.S., on the muscles 

 of the Ungulata. This part dealt with the muscles of the head, 

 neck and fore-limbs of these mammals. — Mr. F. E. Beddard, 

 F.R..S., gave an account of the minute structures in the sperma- 

 tophores of the earthworms of the genus Benhamia. — Mr. G. A. 

 Boulenger, F. R. S., read some further notes on the African 

 batrachians which he had recently described under the names 

 Trkhobatrachits robust lis and Gampsostconyx hatesi. A com- 

 munication was read from Dr. A. G. Butler consisting of a list 

 of thirty species of butterflies of which specimens were contained 

 in a collection sent home by Major A. H. Cowie, R.E., from 

 St. Lucia, West Indies. One of the species was new to science, 

 and was described under the name of Cyslinetira coiviana. 



P.\RIS. 

 Academy of Sciences, December 23, 1901. — M. Fouque 

 in the chair. — On the periods of double integrals, by M. Emile 

 Picard. — On the cultivation of clover on soils deprived of lime, 

 by -MM. P. P. Deherain and E. Demoussy. The experiments 

 described furnish two interesting examples of the influence of 

 inoculation and of the medium on the growth of Leguminosje ; 

 the clover grows in the soil of Brittany whenever lime and 

 phosphates are used, that is, as soon as the medium becomes 

 favourable to its vegetation ; it remains poor, on the other hand, 

 in a heath soil, in spite of the creation of a favourable medium, 

 because garden earth does not carry the necessary bacteria. — 

 Remarks by M. Bouquet de la Grye on the work done by the 

 third general conference of weights and measures. — Remarks 

 by M. E. Guyou on the annual of the Bureau des Longitudes 

 for 1902. — On the measurement of the meridian of France by 

 Mcchamat the end of the eighteenth century, by M.G.Bigourdan. 

 If to the measurements of Mechain, which formed the basis of 

 the metric system, the corrections of Delambre are applied, the 

 results are brought more nearly into line with the recent obser- 

 vations of Perrier. — On the observation of the annular eclipse of 

 the sun of November 11, 1901, by M. A. de la Baume-Pluvinel. 

 The observations, which were partly photographic and partly 

 ocular, were made in Lower Egypt. Owing to the early hour at 

 which the eclipse took place the ocular observations were the 

 most satisfactory. One point to which especial attention was 

 directed was the examination of the spectrum of the sun in the 

 neighbourhood of the edge of the moon. A thickening of 

 some of the Fraunhofcr lines here would indicate the exist- 

 ence round the moon of a gaseous atmosphere capable of 

 producing a sensible absorption. But no evidence of such 

 a thickening could be obtained either from the nega- 



NO. 1679, VOL. 65] 



tives or from the direct observations, thus confirming 

 the absence of a sensible atmosphere round the moon. — 

 Remarks on the note of M. de la Baume-Pluvinel, by M. J. 

 Janssen. — The calculation of real roots of equations, by M. A. 

 Pellet. — The progressive calculation of the integrals of certain 

 differential systems, by M. Riquier.— (Jn the separation and 

 calculation of the real roots of equations, by M. Raoul Perrin. 

 — On the numbers e and ir and transcendental equations, by 

 M. Edmond Maillet. — On the most general motion of a solid 

 body which possesses two degrees of freedom round a fixed 

 point, by M. Rene de Saussure. — The laws of electrical energy, 

 by M. E. Carvallo. A criticism of the two laws enunciated by 

 Maxwell. — On a new application of optical observations to the 

 study of diffusion, by M. J- Thovert. The two solutions are 

 superposed in a plane-sided box and the deviation of a horizontal 

 light ray measured. The deviation is proportional to the rate 

 of change of the concentration with the vertical ordinate. The 

 diffusion of a .solution of sodium chloride into water was 

 measured by this method and the results were found to be in 

 accord with the theoretical expression. — Contribution to the 

 study of Geissler tubes in a magnetic field, by M. H. Pellat. — 

 The cooling power and conductivity of air, by M. P. Compan. 

 An experimental determination of the velocity of cooling of a 

 blackened copper ball in dry air at different pressures. The 

 velocity of cooling could be expressed by the formula of Dulong 

 and Petit for pressures between 760 mm. and 15 mm. ; for 

 pressures below this the rate of cooling falls off much more 

 rapidly than would correspond to this formula. — Observation of 

 an antisolar corona on the Puy de Dome, by M. Bernard 

 Brunhes. — On a petroleum ether thermometer, byM. L. Baudin. 

 By the use of a light petroleum ether possessing a density of 

 0-647 at 15° C, a thermometer can be constructed which does 

 not solidify at the temperature of liquid air, and which can be 

 used to measure temperatures down to that point. It 

 was graduated at four fixed points, the boiling points of 

 oxygen, nitrous oxide, methyl chloride and the melting 

 point of ice. — On the dilution constant of saline solu- 

 tions, by M. Albert Colson. — On metallic strontium and its 

 hydride, by M. Guntz. Strontium can be prepared by the elec- 

 trolysis of an aqueous solution of strontium chloride with a 

 mercury kathode and then driving off the mercury from the 

 amalgam by very cautious heating. Heated in hydrogen at a 

 moderately high temperature it forms a hydride, fusible at a red 

 heat of the composition SrH„. The properties of strontium 

 resemble those of barium, except that strontium does not 

 appear to form an ammonium compound with liquid ammonia. 

 — On the plurality of the blue oxides of molybdenum, by M. 

 G. Bailhache. — On methylene chlorobenzoate and dibenzoate, 

 by M. Marcel Descude. These two compounds are obtained 

 simultaneously by the action of benzoyl chloride upon trioxy- 

 methylene in the presence of zinc chloride. — On the hypo- 

 sulphites of the aromatic amines, by M. A. Wahl. — Some new 

 reactions of the organo-metallic derivatives. Synthesis of 

 ketones, by M. E. E. Blaise. M.agnesium organo-derivatives 

 react with nitriles to form compounds immediately decomposable 

 by water with the formation of ketones. The reaction appears 

 to be gen.ral, and details are given of the preparation of ethyl- 

 tf-tolyl ketone, benzyl-«-propyl ketone, benzylisoamyl ketone, 

 o-methyldesoxybenzoin, «-butyl-/-tolyl ketone, ?;-propyl-/-tolyl 

 ketone, K-propylisoamyl ketone, ethyl-propyl ketone and ethyl- 

 phenyl ketone. The semicarbazides of these ketones were also 

 prepared, and their melting points are given. — On the basic 

 properties of oxygen and its quadrivalency in the xanthene 

 .series, by M. R. Fosse. — The action of normal propyl and 

 butyl alcohols upon their sodio-derivatives ; the synthesis of 

 dipropyl and dibutyl alcohols, by M. Marcel Guerbet. — The 

 study of fermentation amyl alcohol, by M. G. Bemont. Fer- 

 mentation amyl alcohol boils at 131" and gives on oxidation a 

 valeric acid boiling at 175°, probably methyl-ethylacetic acid. — 

 On the variation of the kidney and its excretion in fowls 

 fed with meat, by M. F. Houssay. Under a meat diet 

 the urea excreted is nearly three times the amount with a 

 grain diet, and the kidney would also appear to increase in 

 weight by about one-third. — A new contribution to the search 

 for the typhoid bacillus, by M. R. Cambier. The author has 

 shown in a previous note that the typhoid bacillus can make its 

 way fairly readily through the walls of a porcelain filter 

 immersed in a nutrient broth. The Bacillus coli communis, 

 which is also very mobile, can .grow through the walls in a 



