302 



NA TURE 



\yan. 24, I ! 



also consistent with the view that the elementary subbtances lose 

 a portion of their molecular activity when they unite to form 

 acids or salts, and that electrolytes therefore have usually a less 

 degree of molecular motion than the metals of which they are 

 partly composed. 



The cuiTent from a thermo-couple of metal and liquid, therefore, 

 may be viewed as the united result of difference of molecular 

 motion, first, of the two junctions, and second, of the two heated 

 (or cooled) substances ; and in all cases, both of thermo- and 

 chemico-electric actinn, the immediate true cause of the current 

 is the original molecular vibrations of the substances, whilst con- 

 tact is only a static permitting condition. Also that whil-t in 

 the case of thermo-electric action the su-taining cause is molecu- 

 lar motion, supplied by an e.\ternal source of heat, in the case 

 of chemico-electric action it is the motion lovt by the metal 

 and liquid when chemically uniting together. The direction of 

 the current in thermo-electric cases appears to depend upon 

 which of the two substances composing a junction increases in 

 molecular activity the fastest by rise of temperature, or decreases 

 the most rapidly by cooling. 



Zoological Society, January 15. — E. W. H. Holdsworlh, 

 F.Z.S., in the chair. — The Secretary exhibited, on the part of 

 Mr. H. Whitely, an inmiature specimen of the Night-Heron 

 (Nycticorax griseiis), which had been shot in Plumstead Marshes, 

 Kent, in Decemlier last. — A communication was read from 

 Mr, J. C. O'Halloran, Chief Commissioner and Police Magis- 

 trate for Rodriguez, accompanying a specimen of a large lizard 

 found only in that inland, and very rare there. The specimen 

 had been identified by Mr. Boulenger as Phelsuniu lu-vtoni, 

 belonging to the family Geckotidse. — Sir Joseph Fayrer exhibited 

 some additional specimens of the horns of deer gnawed by other 

 deer, in confirmation of previous remarks on the subject. — Canon 

 Tristram, F.U.S., exhibited and made remarks upon some speci- 

 mens of species of the genus Packycephala, \\hich appeared to 

 have been ignored or wrongly united to other species in a recently 

 published volume of the Catalogue of Birds of the British 

 Museum. — Mr. W. F. R. Weldon read a paper in which he gave 

 a description of the placenta in Tetraceros quadricorms. The 

 author showed that this placenta is intermediate between that of 

 Moschus and that of the typical Bovidse, having few cotyledons 

 with diffuse vascular ridges between them. Associated with 

 this primitive character is a uniserial psalterium. — A second 

 paper by Mr. Weldon contained some notes on the anatomy of 

 a rare American monkey, Callithrix gigot, which had recently 

 died in the Society's Gardens. The author gave a description 

 of the external characters, and the principal viscera were cora- 

 )iared with those of C. moloch and of Mycetes. — A communica- 

 tion was read from Mr. E. J. Miers, F.Z.S., giving an account 

 of a collection of Crustacea from the Maurhius, which had been 

 forwarded to the British Museum by M. V. de Robillaid. In 

 the collection was an example of a new species of Callianassa, 

 proposed to be called C. mariensi. — Mr. Francis Day read a 

 paper on races and hybrids among the Salmonidfe, and exhibited 

 a series of specimens of young salmon and hybrid Salmonidae 

 reared at Sir J. Gib-on Maitlaud's Howie-town Fish Establish- 

 ment. — Prof. F. Jeffrey Bell read a paper on the generic position 

 and relations of /;'<•/«'«««//»« tumidtis of Tenison-Woods, from 

 the Australian seas, which he showed to belong to a different 

 genus, proposed to be called Anomalanthus. 



Chemical Society, January 17. — Dr. W. H. Perkin, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — The following gentlemen were elected Fel- 

 lows :— B. H. Brough, G. Daubeney, C. C. Hutchins.m, W. 

 S. Kilpatrick, E. Matthey, H. Peile, J. Pallister, R. Romanis, 

 S. G. Rawson, F. M. Rogers, W. Robinson, T. Stenhouse, W. 

 O.Senier, J. A Voelcker. — The following papers were read : — On 

 camphoric peroxide and barium camphorate, by C. T. Kingzett. 

 In 1863 Brodie described the formation of camphoric peroxide by 

 triturating camjihoric anhydride with barium peroxide in the 

 presence of ice-ctld water. The author has repeated the above 

 experiments, and concludes that no camphoric peroxide is 

 formed, but that the anhydride is first converted into camphoric 

 acid, which decomposes the barium peroxide, yielding camphor- 

 ate of barium and peroxide of hydrogen. — On the decomposition 

 of silver fulmmale by hydrochloric acid, by E. Divers and 

 Michitada Kawakita. Formic acid and hydroxyammonium 

 chloride are formed, as is the case with mercury fulminate, but 

 the authors have only been able to obtain two-thirds of the cal- 

 culated quantity (.f these bodies. Some ammonia and hydro- 

 cyanic acid are also formed. — Supplementary note on Liebig's 



production of fulminating silver without the use of nitric acid, 

 by E. Divers and Michitada Kawakita. The authors have suc- 

 ceeded in preparing the fulminate, but only when the reaction 

 was allowed to proceed for some time. The solution was then 

 warm, and always contained nitric acid. — On hyponitrites, Ijy 

 E. Divers and Tamemasa Haga. The authors criticise the recent 

 paper of Berthelot and Ogier, and give an account of fre>h inves- 

 tigations, which confirm the formula originally proposed by 

 Divers, AgNO. They have not been able to obtain hyponitrite, 

 either by the method proposed by Mencke, i.e. heating potassium 

 nitrate with iron filings, or the method proposed by Zorn, in 

 which ferrous hydrate is used as the reducing agent. 



Royal Meteorological Society, January 16. — Mr. J. K" 

 Laughton, F. k.A.S., president, in the chair. — The Secretary 

 read the Report of the Council, which showed that the past 

 few months mark a very important epoch in the hi-tory of the 

 Society. In October the Council received the intimation that 

 Her Majesty had been graciously pleased to grant the Society 

 permission to assume the prefix "Royal." In consequence the 

 Society has become, and will henceforth lie called, the Royal 

 Meteorological Society. In December the Fellows made certain 

 alterations in the by-laws by which the annual subscription has 

 been increased. The Report also showed that the Society is 

 doing a great deal of practical work, not only by holding meet- 

 ings and publi^hing the papers read at the same, but also by the 

 establishment of a large number of observing-stations, w hich are 

 regularly inspected, so that the results obtained from them may 

 be strictly uniform and comparable. The number of Fellows is 

 549 and of honorary members 19, thus making a total of 568. — 

 The President then delivered his address, in which he referred 

 to the experiments made by Mr. Saxon Snell, Mr. Bertram, and 

 Mr. Hele Shaw, with the object of determining the coefficients 

 of Biram's anemometers ; as yet these can scarcely be con- 

 sidered quite satisfactory, for, though made with the utmost 

 care, they give results differing from each other by nearly 25 per 

 cent, and from the known truth in opposite directions. The 

 reduction of barometric readings to sea-level is another problem 

 of great interest and importance, the solution of which is far 

 fiom perfect, and, as applied to the converse determina- 

 tion of altitudes, has been pronounced by Mr. Gilbert, 

 of the U.S. Geological Survey, to be beset with diffi- 

 culties " so numerous and so baffling that there is no 

 reason to hope that they will ever be fully overcome." In 

 many cases, too, the reduction, even if correct, implies an 

 accunmlation of air in places where no air exists ; and isobars 

 so drawn, traversing mighty mountain ranges such as the Rocky 

 Mountains or the Himalayas, or elevated plateaus such as those 

 of Central or Eastern Asia, convey an impression which may 

 easily lead to serious mistakes. The great achievement of the 

 year is unquestionably the gathering in of the observations taken, 

 by international agreement, at nine Arctic stations, in which, 

 amidst circumstances of more or less discomfort, parties continued 

 through a full period of twelve months. With one station 

 established by the United States on the shores of Lady Franklin 

 Bay, it has been found impossible to communicate ; this was 

 established in the summer of 1881, and no trustworthy news 

 has since been received. Preliminary reports have been pub- 

 lished from the English station at Fort Kae on the northern shores 

 of the Great Slave Lake ; from the German station in Cumber- 

 land Sound ; from the Austrian at Jan Mayen, and from some 

 of the others ; but the principal interest attaches not to the 

 observations taken separately but to the collation and com- 

 parison of the whole, which may be expected to lead the way 

 towards problems of the greatest importance to meteorology. 

 In the present day one science is so mixed up with a number of 

 others, and so involved in them, that it is impossible to separate 

 them, or to define the exact limits of each. Many of the 

 problems of meteorology belong as much to geography, or at 

 times even to experimental physics, and an address which speaks 

 of the progress of meteorology is perhaps apt to appear in some 

 degree discursive. It is that the true student of nature, whilst 

 limiting his detailed work to one particular direction, must 

 consider her kingdom as a grand and comprehensive whole, one 

 and indivisible. — The following gentlemen were elected the 

 officers and Council for the ensuing year : — President : Robert 

 Henry Scott, F.R.S. ; Vice-Presidents: Hon. Ralph Aber- 

 cromby, Edmund Douglas Archibald, M.A., John Knox 

 Laughton, F.R.A.S., William Marcet, M.D., F.R.S. ; Treasurer : 

 Henry Perigral, F.R.A.S. ; Trustees: Hon. Francis Albert 

 Rollo Russell, M.A., Stephen William Silver, F.R.G.S. ; 



