422 



NATURE 



[September 29, 1910 



Broeck and E. A. Martel : The conditions of effective 

 filtration of the underground waters in certain chalk 

 formations. In Belgium tlie crinoidal chalk at the base of 

 the Carboniferous of the Dinant geological basin furnish 

 filtered potable waters in a remarkably constant manner. 



New South Wales. 

 Linnean Society, July 27.— Mr. C. Hedley, president, 

 m the chair.— G. 1. Playfair : Polymorphism and life- 

 history in the Desmidiacea;. A number of new forms 

 described.— L. A. Cotton : The ore-deposits of Borah 

 Creek, New England, N.S.W. The Borah Creek Mine is 

 situated in the New England district of New South Wales 

 within two miles of the Gwydir River. The ores contained 

 in the mine are arsenopyrite, zinc blende, chalcopyrite 

 stannite, and galena. They are very uniformly distributed 

 through the mine, both along the lode and in depth. The 

 order of deposition of the minerals, which form sym- 

 metrical zones in the fissure, is arsenopyrite, pyrite zinc 

 blende, chalcopyrite, stannite, galena, and finally quartz. 

 Comparison with other occurrences indicates the prob- 

 ability of a genetic relationship between the silver-lead 

 deposits and the tin deposits. It is suggested that the 

 Borah Creek deposits have been formed later than the 

 tin deposits by deposition from highly aqueous and 

 siliceous magmatic extractions containing relatively large 

 amounts of metallic sulphides.— T. G. Sloane : Revisional 

 notes on Carabida; (Coleoptera), part iii. The tribes 

 Oodini, Chlaeniini, and Sphodrini, as represented in 

 Australia, are reviewed, and the Australian genera of these 

 tnbes, as well as the species of every genus found in 

 Australia, are tabulated. Synonymy is dealt with, and 

 six species are described as new (ChU-enius. i' sp • 

 Anatrichis, i sp. ; Coptocarpus, 2 spp. ; Platynus, 2 spp.')' 

 Certain rharacters not hitherto deemed of importance in 

 classification are discussed. 



Cape Town. 

 Royal Society of South Africa, August 17.— Mr. S. S. 

 Hough, F.R.S., president, in the chair.— H. Bohle : The 



influence of uniformity and contrast on the amount of 

 light required. The author dealt first with the adapta- 

 bility of the human eye to various daylight illuminations, 

 and gave a new definition of glare. When the eye looks 

 at an illuminant of great intrinsic brilliancy in front of a 

 dark background it tries to do two thing? at once : to open 

 wide for the dark background and to close up for the 

 intrinsic _ brilliancy. The author then considered the 

 physiological effects of radiation, explained overheating of 

 the eyes due to excess light absorption, and considered 

 the cH^ects of the ultra-violet rays of modern illuminanta 

 and of solar radiation. In addition he treated the effects 

 of light radiation on germs of disease, the destructive 

 action of rays when applied excessively, and finally dealt 

 with the effect which uniformity and the avoidance of 

 contrast in artificial lighting have on the amount of light 

 required. He came to the conclusion that in a room with 

 black walls an illumination of 35 to 40 candle-metres is 

 required, whereas in a place with white ceilings and light 

 walls the amount of light can be reduced to 30 candle- 

 metres. For perfect uniformity in such places, as obtained 

 with inserted lamps, 20 candle-metres give, in the opinion 

 of the author, complete satisfaction. The effects of various 

 lamp-shades on the uniformity of illumination were also 

 shown. 



Calcutta. 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal, Septemlier 7.— T. H. D. 

 La Touche : The Lonar Lake.— B. L. Chaudhuri : 



Triacanthiis ivcheri. sp. nov. It is one of the new fishes 

 found widely distributed in the Bay of Bengal by the 

 trawling operation of the Golden Crown. In the collection 

 of the Indian Museum there are five species of this interest- 

 ing genus besides this new one. — J. Coggin Brown : A 

 description of a Lisu Jew's harp. The paper describes a 

 Jew's harp which is the favourite musical instrument of 

 the Lisu's, a tribe living in western China. It differs 

 from those described from Assam, and approximates to 

 those found in the Malay Peninsula. It consists of three 

 delicate harps cut out of bamboo, and held upright between 



the thumb and first finger or between the first and second 

 fingers of the left hand, while the tongues are made to 

 vibrate with the right hand. The mouth acts as the 

 sounding-board. The instrument is used by the young men 

 in their serenades, and forms a part of the orchestra at 

 all their festivals. 



GOTTINGEN. 



Royal Society of Scences.— The NachiichUii (physico- 

 mathematical section), parts ii. and iii. for 1910, contain 

 the following memoirs communicated to the society : — 



.May 28. — R. Courant : The establishment of the 

 Dirichlet-principle. — M. Born : Kinematics of a rigid body 

 in relation to the principle of relativity. — P. Koebe : The 

 uniformisation of algebraic curves by means of auto- 

 morphous functions with imaginary substitution-groups 

 (concluded). — R. Cans : The electron-theory of ferro- 

 magnetism. — J. K. Whittemore : Convex curves. — H. 

 Bohr and E. Landau : The behaviour of the functions 

 i\s) and fA)(s) in the neighbourhood of the straight line 



(T=\ . 



June II. — F. Riesz : Quadratic forms with an infinite 

 number of variables. 



The Business Conimtinications of the society, part i. 

 for 1910, contains reports on the Samoa Observatory 

 (1909-10), on the progress of the complete edition of Gauss's 

 works, and on subjects for prize dissertations. The 

 obituary notices of F. Kohlrausch, by Riecke, and of 

 T. W. Engelmann, by Verworn, are included. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



History of Botany 391 



Fuels and Furnaces. By Prof. A. Mc William . . 392 



Medical Parasitology. By E. A. M 393 



Popular Astronomy 393 



Marine Biological Research in British Seas. By 



J- J 394 



Our Book Shelf 395 



Letters to the Editor: — 



British Marine Zoology. — Prof. W. A. Herdman, 

 F.R.S. : Dr. Wm. J. Dakin ; Prof. E. W. 



MacBride, F.R.S 396 



The Spotted Kudu.— R. Lydekker, F.R.S 396 



The Habits of Worms.— Rev. Hilderic Friend . . 397 

 Erasmus Darwin on Flying Machines. — Arthur 



Piatt 397 



Causal Geology. (lUustraleil.) By Prof. Grenville 



A. J. Cole 397 



The British Section of the Brussels Exhibition. 



By Dr. F. MoUwo Perkin 398 



Mathematics in Austria 399 



Notes 400 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Velocities and Accelerations of the Ejecta from 



Halley's Comet 404 



Observations of Comets 404 



The Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington . . 404 



The Determination of Longitude 404 



The Royal Commission on Welsh Monuments. 



By Rev. John Griffith 404 



Annual Report of the Government Laboratory , . 405 



The Archaeological Survey of Nubia 406 



Manganese-ore Deposits. By H. L 406 



Zoological Work in India. By R. L 406 



The British Association at Sheffield. 



Section li. — Engineering, — Opening Address by Prof. 

 W. E. Dalby, M.A., M.Inst.C.E , President 



of the Section 407 



Section II. — Anthropology. — Openinc Addres'! by 



W. Crooke, B.A., President of the Section 414 



University and Educational Intelligence 420 



Societies and Academies 421 



NO. 2135, VOL. 84] 



