478 



NA TURE 



[March 20, 1902 



blue pollen of Ihe flowers. A favourite nesting-site of the til, 

 Pctroeca macroccphala, was said to be immediately under the 

 head of the ti-tree, Cordyline atistralis, a good photograph of 

 which was likewise exhibited. — A paper was read by Dr. f. E. 

 Duerden on the internal structure and histology of Bunodeopsis 

 :^iobiili]era, Verrill, a West-Indian sea anemone, which he had 

 previously described as new (in a paper on the Jamaica Aclini- 

 aria published in 1S98) although without bestowing any speci6c 

 name. Prof. Verrill had since described it unSer the name 

 Bunodeopsis globulifoa, but his description was limited to an 

 account of the external characters. Dr. Duerden now described 



in detail the peculiarities of its anatomy and minute strucmre. 



Mr. B. Daydon Jackson, in a report on the botanical publica- 

 tions of the United Kingdom as a part of the "International 

 Catalogue of Scientific Literature," gave the history of botanic 

 bibliography from the time of Linna:us, mentioning the admir- 

 able catalogue by Dryander of Sir Joseph Banks's library and 

 passing on to the Royal Society's "Catalogue of Scientific 

 Papers," at present consisting of eleven volumes, ranging from 

 1800-1883, the last seventeen years being in course of compila- 

 tion. The genesis of the " International Catalogue of Scientific 

 Literature " was then briefly described and the means adopted 

 for the collection and classification of titles given. The Linnean 

 Society had contributed the titles of papers and books issued 

 within the United Kingdom, amounting to about 2301:1, and the 

 first part of the volume devoted to botany for 1901 was now in 

 the hands of the printers for early publication. — A paper by 

 Miss Lettice Digby was read on her behalf by Mr. I. E. S. 

 Moore, on the structure and affinities of some Gastropoda from 

 Lake Tanganyika belonging to the genera Chytra and Limno- 

 trochus, the paper being based on material which formed part 

 of Mr. Moore's African collections. The external features, 

 nervous system and viscera were described in detail and the 

 affinities of the species considered. 



Zoological Society, March 4.— Mr. William Bateson, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — Mr. E. N. Buxton gave 

 an account, illustrated by lantern slides, of his recent sporting- 

 expedition to the Egyptian Soudan, in the course of which he 

 traversed the route along the White Nile between Khartoum and 

 Eashoda. Mr. Buxton exhibited a series of photographs of 

 mammals and birds taken from living specimens. Among these 

 were views of the white-eared kob [Colms kucotis) and the tiang 

 {Damaliscus fiaitg).— Dr. H. I.yster Jameson read a paper 

 on the origin of pearls. The author's observations referred 

 especially to Mytitus edulis, the common mussel. The pearls 

 were found to be due to the presence of parasitic Distomid 

 larvoe, which entered the subcutaneous tissues of the mussel and 

 became surrounded with an epidermal sack similar in its 

 characters to the outer shell-secreting epithelium of the mantle. 

 If the Distoma died in the sack it became calcified, and formed 

 the nucleus of a pearl, the pearl arising, like the shell itself, 

 from the calcification of the cuticle of the epithelial cells. The 

 parasite sometimes migrated out of the sack, in which case the 

 nucleus of the pearl was inconspicuou.s. Dr. Jameson had 

 investigated the life-history of this parasite, and found that it 

 arose as a tailless Cercarian larva, in sporocysts, in TaUs 

 decitssatus and Carditim ediile. He had succeeded in infecting 

 mussels from Tapes in an aquarium. The adult .stage of this 

 parasite was apparently Disloma somatinae, Levinsen, which 

 occurs in the intestine of the eider duck, and which the author 

 had found in the scoter or black duck ( CEdemia nigra). The 

 complicated life-history of the parasite, and the absence of 

 organs of locomotion in the Cercaria-stage, sufficed to account 

 for the anomalous and hitherto inexplicable distribution of pearl- 

 bearing mussels. Dr. Jameson had found that pearls were 

 caused by similar parasites in several other species of Mollusca, 

 including some of the pearl-oysters ; and he believed that the 

 artificial infection of the pearl-oysters could be eftecteil in a 

 similar manner to that which he had found successful in the 

 case of the common mussel. When this was achievetl the 

 problem of artificially producing pearls would be solved. — Dr. 

 P. L. Sclater enumerated Ihe species of parrots of which speci- 

 mens were contained at the present time in the Society's collection 

 — 109 in all — and made remarks on some of the rarer species.— 

 Mr. G. T. Bethune-Baker read a paper entitled "A Revision 

 of the Amblypodian Group of Butterflies of the Family Ly- 

 crenid;^." The author was of opinion that the whole ofthe species 

 of this group could be conveniently relegated to six genera — 

 viz., Amblypodia, Iraota, Surendra, Thaduka, Mahathala and 

 Arhopala — and that it was useless to split up the genera further, 



NO. 1690, VOL. 65] 



as had been attempted by some entomologists. — A communica- 

 tion from Mr. Martin I acoby contained the descriptions of sixty- 

 three new species of Coleoptera of the family Ilalticidx from 

 Central and South America. 



Geological Society, Febru.iry 26.— Prof. Charles Lapworth, 

 F. R.S., president, in the chair. — On some gaps in the Lias, by 

 Mr. Edwin A. Walford. The author's endeavour is to prove 

 gaps in the stratigraphical succession of the Lias, involving the 

 removal of zones or parts of zones, and also to prove paloeonto- 

 logical gaps by the abrupt appearance of many new genera of 

 Mnllusca. — On the origin of the river-system of South Wales, 

 and its connection with that of the Severn and Thames, by Mr. 

 Aubrey Slrahan. The southerly courses of some rivers from the 

 Usk to the Ogmore are described, and shown to be independent 

 of both the east-and-west folding and the north-north-westerly 

 faulting of the rocks on which they lie. Farther west the 

 drainage-system takes a different direction, the rivers coinciding 

 so closely with a set of west-south-westerly disturbances as 

 obviously to have been determined in direction by them. Of 

 the three systems of disturbance alluded to, the east-and-west 

 (Armorican) folding was pre-Triassic ; it marks a period of 

 compression with impulse from the south, and though it reached 

 great intensity in Devon, Somerset and South Wales, it died 

 away in Central Wales. The north-north-westerly (Charnian) 

 faulting, though partly of pre-Triassic age, was renewed in post- 

 Eocene limes, and is manifested over much of the British Isles. 

 It marked periods of relief from pressure, and of subsidence. 

 The west-south-westerly (Caledonian) folding was the latest ; 

 it marked a period of compression, with impulse from the north, 

 and displayed greater energy in Central than in South Wales. 

 It gave rise to a series of subsidiary disturbances in the latter 

 region, and initiated and controlled the river-system. The 

 ignoring by the rivers of the structures due to the earlier dis- 

 turbances is attributed to the Palaeozoic areas having been over- 

 spread by Upper Cretaceous rocks at the time of the initiation 

 ofthe river-system. The eastward course of the Upper Severn 

 is attributed to the upheaval of a main axis (now the main water- 

 parting) in Central Wales. Its deflection to the south and south- 

 west was due to the formation of an anticline m the Chalk, which 

 must have been parallel to, but a little west of, the present 

 Chalk-escarpment, and which was parallel to, and contempo- 

 raneous with, the Caledonian disturbances in Wales. This 

 anticline, acting in combination with the Armorican folding 

 displayed in the London and Hampshire basins, initiated the 

 systems of the Thames and Frome. Those systems were 

 initiated in post-Oligocene and pre-Pliocene times, and the 

 same age is inferred for the systems of South Wales and of the 

 Severn. 



Manxhester. 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, February 18. — Mr. 

 Charles Bailey, president, in the chair. — -Mr. R. L. Taylor read 

 a paper on a modification of Rose's method of separating cobalt 

 and nickel. In the original process described by Mr. Rose and 

 improved by Mr. T. II. Henry, barium carbonate and chlorine 

 (or bromine) were added to rather strongly acid dilute solutions 

 of the two metals and allowed to stand, with frequent shaking, 

 for from twelve to eighteen hours. The cobalt was precipitated 

 as sesquioxide, while the nickel remained in solution. Mr. 

 Taylor finds that if a neutral .solution is used, the precipitation 

 of the cobalt is complete in a few minutes, and that excellent 

 quantitative results can be obtained. The retardation of the 

 reaction which occurs when the solution is (as Rose and Henry 

 used it) strongly acid at the outset, the author shows, is due to 

 the free carbonic acid which is produced ip the solution when 

 the carbonate is added to the acid liquid. A similar retardation 

 occurs in a neutral solution if carbon dioxide is first bubbled 

 through it or if soda-water is added to it. Mr. Taylor recom- 

 mends the process for the separation and detection of cobalt 

 and nickel in the ordinary process of qualitative analysis. 

 Either barium or calcium carbonate may be used (dry, precipi- 

 tated, as usually sold, will do) with bromine water, and if no 

 free acid is present at the outset, the cobalt is all precipitated in 

 five minutes. On filtering, nickel can be readily detected in 

 the filtrate by adding a little ammonia and ammonium sulphide. 

 If there is any free acid present at the outset, it must either be 

 boiled away or neutralised before adding the carbonate. 

 Sodium carbonate may be used for neutralising, but then the 

 free carbonic acid must all be boiled away, and the liquid 

 cooled, before adding the carbonate and bromine water.— Mr. 



