March 6, 1884] 



ATA TURE 



447 



Fothergill, F. K.G.S., was announced. — Mr. Park Harrison 

 exbiliited some remains found la^t year in Castlefield, Wheatley, 

 by Mr. E. Gale, the occupier of the land. The s';ulls were of 

 t«o ty|)e^, and belonged to suljjects who have been interred for 

 the most part in a flsxed or contracted position, but some at full 

 length. The objects associatei with the skulls were aUo diverse. 

 Amongst those lent by Mr. Gale wer.; an unusually long and 

 naiTow spear-head and the boss of a target with rivets orna- 

 mented with tinned studs, such as have been found elsewhere 

 in Oxfordshire. Other objects excavated at the expense of the 

 late eminent archaeologist, Mr. J. H. P.u-ker, and given by him 

 to the Ashmolean Museum, which he had intended to send, were 

 not exhibited, owing to his lamented deith. Mr. Harrison 

 thought the remains at Wheatley dated from the time of the 

 exten-ion of the kingdom of Mercii to the Thames. Dr. G.arson 

 is preparing a description of the cranial peculiarities of the 

 skulls. — Mr. Worthington G. .Smith exhi »ited two skulls of the 

 Bronze Age from a tumulus at Whitby. — Mr. Henry Prigg ex- 

 hibited two Palas^lithic implements ami a fragment of a human 

 skull from Bury St. Edmund's. — Mr. R. Morton Middleton ex- 

 hibited some human bones from Morton, near .Stockton. — Mr. 

 John T. Young read a paper on some Paleolithic fishing imple- 

 ments from the Stoke Newington and Clapton gravels. Mr. 

 Voung exhibited a large collection of flints of various sizes, 

 which he considered had been manufactured for use as fish- 

 hooks, gorges, and sinkers ; some of them showed evident 

 traces of human workmanship ; and the paper gave rise to an 

 animated discussion. — Miss A. \V. Buckland re.ad a paper on 

 traces of commerce in prehistoric times, in which she urged that 

 the similarity of three cups of gold discovered, one in Cornwall, 

 another at Mycena;, and the third in the Necropolis of old 

 Tarquinii, might be taken as evidence of the existence of com- 

 mercial relations between Etruria and Ancient Britain. — A paoer 

 was read on a human skull found near Southport, by Dr. G. B. 

 Barron . 



Institution of Civil Engineers, February 26. — Sir J. W. 

 Bazalgette, C.B. , president, in the chair. — The paper read was 

 on hydraulic propulsion, by Mr. Sydney Walker Barnaby, 

 Assoc.M.Inst.C.E. 



Edinburgh 



Royal Physical Society, February 20. — Ramsay H. 

 Traquair, M. D., F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The follow- 

 ing communications were read : — On the geological structure 

 and age of the Harz Mountains, by H. M. Cadell, B..Sc., of 

 H.M. Geological Survey of Scotland, a continuation of his 

 former paper. The rocks of the Palaeozoic core of the region 

 had been deposited in an area subject to occasional volcanic out- 

 bursts. There were many patches of diabase on the Lower 

 Harz which were usually associated with rocks of Hercynian 

 aye, and were regarded by German geologists as portions of 

 interbedded sheets. Mr. Cadell believed they were intrusive 

 sheets and bosses of later date, and gave as his reasons that (l) 

 the adjacent strata were metamorphosed by heat on all sides ; 

 (2) the diabase sometimes cut obliquely through the sedimentary 

 strata ; (3) there was no tuff associated with these diab.ases as 

 there wa.s with the true interbedded Lavas of the Harz ; (4) these 

 diabases did not, like the contemporaneous volcanic rocks, occur 

 as continuous sheets, but were found in isolated patches like the 

 intrusive diabases of the Scottish Midlands. The Whintill of 

 Northumberland was cited as an example of an intrusive sheet 

 which, like some of those on the Harz, kept on nearly the same 

 horizon for considerable distances, but was not on that account 

 alone to be regarded as interbedded. The first great tireak in 

 the deposition of the Harz rocks took place in the middle of the 

 Carboniferous period at the time of the irruption of the Brocken 

 granite. The melalliferous veins of Clausthal and St. Andreas- 

 berg were all in faults traversing the culm strata and the granite, 

 but were truncated by theZechstein, which rested unconformably 

 on the flanks of the Harz, and were therefore of Permian age. 

 The Harz was bare during the Coal-measure and Permian 

 periods, as conglomerates of Harz fragments were found in these 

 strata. During the Secondary period the whole region appeared 

 to have remained submerged, but the huge fault « hich bounded 

 the north side of the Harz and inverted the whole of the 

 Secondary rocks showed that the final upheaval had begun at 

 the close of the Cretaceous period. — Remarks on the genus 

 Megalkhlhys (Ag.), with description of a new species, by K. H. 

 Traquair, M.D., F.R.S. This specimen was found a' Burdie- 

 house, and was believed to be a different species from the Mega- 



Ikkfhys ofthe Coal-measures. — O.i tha principles of cla^.ificitijn, 

 by Prof. J. Cossar Ewart, M.D.— On the occur.-e:ice of an afult 

 specimen of Sabine's gull {-Lam; sMnii) in Scotland, with exhi- 

 bition of specimen, by Mr. E. liidwell. This was a male bird 

 shot last autumn on a loch in Mull, and is said to he only the 

 second specimen of the bird in a mature state kiown to have 

 been found in Europe. Immature specimens of this rare bird 

 have occa^ionaUy been met with on the west coast of Irehnd, 

 but its home is on the borders of the Arctic region. In connec- 

 tion with this, Mr. Harvie-Brow.i, F.Z.S., made some interest- 

 ing remark-s on the migration of birds. 



Paris 



Acadenny of Sciences, February 25. — M. Rolland in the 

 chair. — Notice of the scientific labours of the late M. Th. du 

 Moncel, by M. Edm. Becquerel. — A second communication on 

 hydrophobia, by MM. Pastenr, Chamberland, and Roux. The 

 results are reported of further experiments on do;s, r.ibbits, 

 poultry, sheep, monkeys, an! other animals who were inoculated 

 with the virus, chiefly by trepanning. The object of the opera- 

 tion was to ascertain how far immunity could thus be secured 

 against rabies communicated by mad dogs. As many as twenty- 

 three dogs have by the process been rendered absolutely safe 

 from the effects of the virus in whatever way and in whatever 

 quantity administered. To make the whole species in this way 

 free from the disorder would affird a practical solutioi of the 

 question in a prophylactic sense, for human beings are never 

 affected by rabies except from virus proceeding directly or in- 

 directly from dogs. — On the equilibriums established between 

 chlorhyiricand fluorhydric acids, by MM. Berthelotand Giintz. — 

 General considerations on the distribution of plants in Tunis, and 

 on their chief botanical affinities, by M. E. Cosson. — On the quan- 

 tities forming a group of nonions analogous to the quaternions of 

 Hamilton, by M. Sylvester. — Note on the chief inventions of 

 the Geneve'-e watchmaker, G. A. Leschot, who died on Feb. 4, 

 by M. D. Colladon. Leschot was the first to suggest the use of 

 carbonado {fragments of Brazilian black diamonds) for piercing 

 rocks and tunnelling. — Memoir on atmospheric movements above 

 barometric depressions and risings ; ^chemas deduced from the 

 results of the work of Hildebrand-Hildebrandsson, entitled 

 "On the distribution of the meteorological elements about 

 the barometric minima and maxima," by M. A. Poincare. — 

 RisHvti of the observations made at Cape Horn on atmo- 

 spheric electricity, by M. Lephay. — Determination of the pro- 

 portion of carbonic acid present in the air effected by the 

 mission to Cape Horn, by MM. A. Miintz and E. Aubin. 

 From these observations it appears that the quantity of carbonic 

 acid present in the atmosphere at Cape Horn is only about 2"56 

 in 10,000 volumes of air, as compared with 2'S4, the .average in 

 Europe. — Observations of the Pons-Brooks comet made at the 

 Observatory of Marseilles, by M. Borrelly. — On the appendices 

 to the nucleus of the Pons-Brooks comet, by M. P. Lamey. — 

 On the red glows observed at sunset and sunrise during the mild 

 winter of 1876-77, by M. P. Lamey. — On the rosy, crepuscular 

 after-glows recently observed at Buenos Ayres, by M. Beuf. — 

 On a sudden earthquake-wave observed on January 14, at 

 Montevideo, by M. Beuf. At 7.30 a.m. the w.ater suddenly fell 

 several feet, and th?n rose in two successive waves about 

 I '5 m. above the ordinary .sea-level. The disturbance seems 

 to have been quite local, and was not felt at Buenos 

 Ayres on the opposite side of the estuary. — On the cal- 

 culation of the diurnal rotation of the solar spots, by 

 M. Pansiot. — On the hyperfuchsian groups (mathematical 

 analysis), by M. H. Poincare. — On the propagation of a uniform 

 shock communicated to a gas inclosed in a cylindricil tube, by 

 MM. .Sebert and Hugoniot. — On the lowering of the freezing- 

 point of solutions of alkaline .salts, by M. F. Raoult. — Heat of 

 formition of the chloride and oxychlorides of antimony, by M. 

 Guntz. — On the heat of formation of the oxybromides of mercury, 

 by M. G. Andre. — Synthesis of the pyridic and piperidic bases, 

 by M. A. Ladenburg. — On the addition of the chloride of iodine 

 ICltomonochloruretted ethylene, CHj =CHC1, by M. L. Henry. 

 — New reduction of the carba nale of ethyl, by M. G. Arth. — 

 On ethyl and the methylacetylcyanacetate of ethyl, by M. A. Held. 

 — Ontheactionofbromuretted ethylene on benzine in the presence 

 ofchlorine of aluminium, by MM. Hanriot and Guilbert. — On the 

 action of rennet on milk, by M. E. Duclaux. — Researches on 

 the fermentation of farmyard manure, by M. U. Gayon. — Ex- 

 perimental researches on rabies, showing (i) that birds are liable 



