July 13, 1911J 



NATURE 



6/ 



Alcyonaria. \ specimen of a compound tubular coral was 

 obtained by the naturalists of the Blake off Cuba in ioo 

 fathoms of water. This specimen was figured by Agassiz 

 in his account of the expedition, and referred to as " a 

 supposed Favosites is probably a bryozoan genus allied to 

 Heteropora." A more detailed examination of the dried 

 corallum shows the presence of long tuberculate spicules, 

 in addition to the crystalline calcareous tubular skeleton, 

 which is formed in a horny matrix. There are no tubulae, 

 and the tubular walls are not perforated. The evidence 

 suggests that this coral is an alcyonarian belonging to the 

 order Caenothecalia, and it is proposed to give it the name 

 Ceratopora nicholsonii. — Dr. W. Watson : Note on the 

 sensibility of the eye to variations of wave-length. The 

 author has compared the width of Edridge-Green's mono- 

 chromatic patch with the minimum change in wave-length 

 perceptible as a change in hue in the yellow under exactly 

 similar conditions, and finds there is a marked difference. 

 It is also shown that an admixture of white light would 

 not account for the increased sensitiveness when two mono- 

 chromatic patches are compared. — E. N. de C. Andrade : 

 The distribution of slide in a right six-face subject to 

 pure shear. — Major C. L. Williams : The viability of 

 human carcinoma in animals. — Prof. W. B. Bottomley : 

 The structure and physiological significance of the root- 

 nodules of Myrica gale. — H. W. Harvey and W. B. 

 Hardy : Note on the surface electric charges of living 

 cells.— Prof. C. S. Sherrington and Miss S. C. M. 

 Sowton : Reflex inhibition of the knee flexor. — Prof. 

 H. E. Armstrong: and Dr. E. F. Armstrong; : The 

 origin of osmotic effects. IV. — Note on the differential 

 septa in plants with reference to the translocation of 

 nutritive materials. 



Zoological Society, June 27. — Mr. Frederick Gillett, 

 vice-president, in the chair. — Dr. R. Broom : Some new 

 South African Permian reptiles. — F. E. Beddard : Two 

 new genera of cestodes from mammals. — Miss Ruth 

 Harrison : Some madreporaria from the Persian Gulf ; 

 with a note on the memoir and some further notes on 

 Pyrophyllia inflata by Prof. S. J. Hickson. This 

 memoir idealt with a collection of corals made by Mr. 

 F. W. Townsend, the most interesting species obtained 

 being P. inflata and Trcmatotrociuis zelandiae, the latter 

 of which was identical with the specimens from Cook's 

 Straits, New Zealand, described as Conocyathus zelandiae 

 by Prof. Martin Duncan. A new species of Heterocyathus 

 was described, and Prof. Hickson appended a note on the 

 affinities of Pyrophyllia. — C. L. Boulenger : Variation in 

 the medusa of Moerisia lyonsi. This paper was based on 

 an examination of 400 specimens. Nearly 14 per cent, of 

 these were found to be abnormal, and to fall naturally into 

 two well-marked groups containing completely distinct 

 phenomena. The author discussed these separately and in 

 detail, and stated that he knew of no form in which such 

 a variety of abnormalities occurred as in Mcerisia. — Cyril 

 Crossland : (1) The marginal processes of lamellibranch 

 shells ; (2) warning coloration in a nudibranch mollusc and 

 in a chameleon. As a pendent to the second of these 

 papers, Sir Charles Eliot contributed a paper on chromo- 

 dorids from the Red Sea collected and figured by Mr. 

 Crossland, containing an account of three species of 

 Chromodoris, which were noteworthy as being varieties of 

 known species or forms hitherto imperfectly described. 



Royal Microscopical Society, June 2S. — Mr. H. L. 

 Plimmer, F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Mr. Strachan : 

 The structure of scales from Thermobia domestica (Packard). 

 The author showed that the longitudinal stria; which 

 appeared to project at the free margin of the scale were 

 in reality the walls of a set of longitudinal tubes, and when 

 pressure was applied to the scales the tubes might be made 

 to collapse and disappear, and in some instances, when 

 heat was applied, both fluid and air bubbles were observed 

 to traverse the tubes. These tubes were on the convex side 

 of the scales. Radial striae also crossed the longitudinal 

 stria; at various angles, and the author illustrated his 

 paper by an ingenious model composed of two sets of 

 parallel thin glass tubes in close contact, almost filled with 

 fluid and sealed at the ends, one set containing oil of 

 NO. 2176, VOL. 87] 



turpentine, the other ethyl alcohol. One set of tubes was 

 fixed, the other set, placed in contact with them, could be 

 rotated over a considerable angle. By illuminating this 

 model obliquely and varying the angle at which the tubes 

 crossed, all the appearances of beaded, exclamation, and 

 cuneate markings observed in the natural scales could be 

 reproduced exactly. — Mr. Murray : Further report on the 

 rotifera collected by the Shackleton Antarctic Expedition of 

 1909. Rotifera of Neiv Zealand. There were collected 

 forty-one species of Bdelloids, and twenty-six species of 

 other orders. Three new species were described — Callidina 

 microcornis, Rotifer curtipes, and R. montanus. A species 

 of Pedalion (not identified) occurred as a plankton animal 

 in a great lake (Wakatipu). These Bdelloid fauna of New 

 I Zealand appeared to be poor, considering the variety of 

 I conditions found in different regions. Rotifera of S. Africa. 

 During a short stay at Cape Town nine Bdelloids were 

 collected on the lower part of Table Mountain. There was 

 i one new species, Dissotrocha pectinata, related to D. 

 spinosa. This small collection was noticeable for the 

 absence of any of the species characteristic of tropical and 

 subtropical Africa, many of which occurred in other parts 

 of Cape Colony. — Conrad Beck : Use of an interferometer 

 for measuring small distances. 



Edinburgh. 

 Royal Society, June 5. — Dr. Tames Burgess, vice- 

 t president, in the chair. — The absorption of light by in- 

 organic salts. No. i, Dr. R. A. Houstoun : Aqueous 

 solutions of cobalt salts in the infra-red. No. 2, Dr. 

 R. A. Houstoun and Alex. R. Brown : Aqueous solu- 

 tions of cobalt salts in the visible spectrum. No. 3, Dr. 

 R. A. Houstoun : Aqueous solutions of nickel salts in 

 the visible spectrum and the infra-red. No. 4, Dr. R. A. 

 Houstoun and John S. Anderson : Aqueous solutions of 

 cobalt and nickel salts in the ultra-violet. The four 

 papers describe the first of a series of researches in which 

 it is proposed to determine the absorbing power for light 

 of aqueous solutions of inorganic salts under different con- 

 ditions of concentration and temperature throughout the 

 ultra-violet and infra-red, as well as in the visible spec- 

 trum. The absorbing power of a solution is specified by 

 A, the molecular extinction coefficient, which fulfils the 

 equation I = I io~ A "', I and I„ being the intensity of the 

 light before and after passing through the solution, c the 

 concentration of the solution in gm. mols. /litre, and d the 

 thickness in cm. of the layer traversed. A varies with 

 the wave-length, but is independent of c except for wide 

 ranges and at particular points in some spectra. The 

 salts investigated were the fluorides, chlorides, bromides, 

 iodides, nitrates, and sulphates of cobalt and nickel. The 

 apparatus used in the visible spectrum was a spectrophoto- 

 meter, in the infra-red a linear thermopile with highly 

 sensitive galvanometer, and in the ultra-violet a quartz 

 spectrograph in combination with a photographic photo- 

 meti i of an entirely new type. A was fully determined for 

 the twelve salts from \ = o-22 fi to 71 = 1-27 fi an( i the 

 results were shown in the form of curves of a highly 

 striking nature, A being approximately for these salts an 

 additive property of the acid and base even at high con- 

 centrations. Cobalt has bands at 0-510 fi and 1-3 fi, 

 nickel at 0-405 fi, 0-690 fi, and 1-2 1 pi. The sulphate 

 radical exercises no absorption whatever ; in the nitrates 

 there is a band at 0-302 fi. The fluorides and chlorides 

 have evidently a band just below 022 fi. The bromides 

 have a band at 0-285 fi, and the iodides have two very 

 intense bands in the ultra-violet which agree with those 

 shown by an aqueous solution of iodine itself. Quantita- 

 tive measurements were also obtained on the colour 

 changes produced by concentration and heating. It was 

 discovered that there are changes in nickel chloride and 

 bromide in the violet analogous to but not so great as in 

 the case of the cobalt salts, and so similar that any 

 explanation of the cobalt colour changes must take 

 account of them also.- — Profs. Alex. Smith and A. W. C. 

 Menzies : The vapour pressure of dry calomel. In a 

 previous paper the authors showed that calomel vapour 

 contained no measurable amount of Hg 2 CI„ or of HgCl, 

 and consisted wholly of the dissociation products mercury 

 and mercuric chloride. According to chemical theory, 



