40 



NATURE 



[May 9, 187: 



elected as officers and council of the society for the present 

 session : — President — Prof. E. Perceval Wright, M. D. ; Vice- 

 Presidents— Mr. William Archer, Dr. Alexander Carte, Dr. 

 Robert M'Donnell, Lord Ventry ; Honorary Treasurer — Mr. 

 A. Andrews; Honorary Secretaries — Mr. William Andrews 

 and Dr. A. W. Foot ; Council— Mr. R. Ball, Mr. H. Barton, 

 Rev. S. Haughton, M.D., M. A. Jacob, M.D., Mr. T. Kift, 

 Mr. A. Macalister, M. B., Mr. D. Moore, Mr. M. Barrington, 

 Mr. Edward Crowe, Dr. Fr.aser, Kev.T. (J'Mahony, M. A., Rev. 

 Eugene (3'Meara, M.A., and Mr. George Porte. Dr. E. P. 

 Wright relumed thanks to the members for the honour they 

 had conferred upon him, and stated that, at the suggestion of 

 the Hon. Secretary, he would defer the introductory address to 

 the next meeting of the Society. 



KiLlvE.NNV 



Royal Historical and Archseological Association of 

 Ireland, April 3. — Rev. P. Moore in the chair. — The secretary 

 exhibited an ancient ecclesiastical seal of the Primatial .See of 

 Armagh, and read a report on the state of the Round To\ver of 

 Kilm.acduagh, County G Iway, The following papers were read : 

 "On the old Church of Donaghmore, County Limerick, with a 

 photograph," Ijy the Kev. M. Malone ; " On the old Kilkenny 

 Canal," by A. Walters ; "On the Corrack or Ancient Wicker 

 Boat covered with Skin," byjW. F. Wakeman ; "On an Ancient 

 Bell found near the old Church of Drnmratli, County Tyrone, 

 with a photograph, and on a Silver Ring-brooch found in the 

 Gran nog of Aghalougher, County Antrim," by J. Nolan. 



Vienna 



Imperial Academy of Sciences, March 21. — Prof. 

 Hlasiwetz presented a memoir by M. A. Exner, on the 

 synthesis of hyponitric acid, N=0*. — Prof. Suess made a 

 preliminary communication on the structure of the Italian 

 Peninsula, in which he showed that the mountain chain which 

 forms the Calabrian peninsula is a fragment of the tectonic axis 

 of the peninsula, but that the continuation of this axis lies con- 

 cealed under the Tyrrhenian sea. The southern half of the 

 western part of the Alps is also sunk beneath the plain of Lom- 

 bardy. The Appenines form the north-eastern, and Sicily a 

 fragment of the south-western, subsidiary zone of the Tyrrhenian 

 mountain chain ; and the volcanoes stand for the most part either 

 in series on the margins of fracture, or in groups in the middle of 

 the regions of depression. The relation of the Hungarian tra- 

 chytes to the Carpathians is the same as that of the Italian volca- 

 noes to the Appenines. — Prof. E. Weiss reported upon the 

 difference of longitude between the observatory of Vienna and 

 that at the Military Academy of Wiener-Neustadt. — Dr. H. W. 

 Reichardt reported upon tlie Botanical Results of the Polar Ex- 

 pedition of 1S71. Thenumber of species brought by Lieutenant 

 Payer was about thirty ; they were collected in the southern 

 part of Spitzbergen and some adjacent islands, and in Hope 

 Island. 



BOOKS RECEIVED 



English.— Extracts from the 13th vol. of the Astronomical Observations 

 m.ije at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh : C. P. Smyth (Neil and Co., 

 Edinburgh).— Botany for Beginner.^;, Dr. M. T. Masters (Bradbury and 

 Evans). — Beeton's Science, Art, and Literature, a Dictionary of Universal 

 Information, Vol. i. (Ward, Lock, and Tyler).- The Martyrdom of Man : 

 Winwood Keade (Triibner and Co.).— Spiritualism Answered by Science, 

 2nd edition ; E. W. Cox (Longmans). 



PAMPHLETS RECEIVED 



English. — Journal of thcQuekett Microscopical Club, April.— Concerning 

 Sewage and its Economical Disposal : F. H. Dailchell.— The Ukara Lake: 

 R. F. Burton.— The Scottish Naturalist, April.— Quarterly Journal of 

 Science, April. — Journal of the Statistical Society, March. — A Series of 

 Chemical Labels for Use in Laboratories : Mottershead. — University of 

 Cambridge : Report of the Museums and Lecture Rooms Syndicate. — On 

 the Curability of Cancer ; Dr. G- von Schmidt. — Proceedings of the Cleve- 

 land Institute of Engineers, March. — Currents and Surface Temperature of 

 the North Atlantic Ocean.— Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists' Society, 

 1871.— An Appeal to Reason to Reform Itself —39th Annual Report of the 

 Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, 1871. — The Miners' Association of 

 Devon and Cornwall, Report of Annual Meeting, — Report of the Rugby 

 School Natural History Society, 1872.— Quarterly Journal of Microscopical 

 .Science, April. — Proceedings of the Roy.al Physical Society of Edinburgh, 

 3870-71. — On Teaching Geology and Botany as part of a Liberal EdULation : 

 J. M.Wilson.— Annual Report of the Maidstone and Mid-Kent Natural 

 History and Philosophical Society, 187 1. 



American and Colonial. — Third Annual Report of the State Board of 

 Health, Massachusetts.— On two new Oinithosaurians from Kansas : E. D. 

 Cope.— Some Phases of Modern Philosophy: E. K. Price.— The Use and 

 Origin of the Arrangements of Leaves in Plants : Dr. Chauncey Wright. — A 



Continuation to a Catalogue of Maps of the British Possessions of India. — 

 The Development o^ Liinulus polv/'hcinns: A. S. Packard. — On the Families 

 of Fishes : E. D Cope. — Historical Notes on the Systems of Weather Telc- 

 gr,iphy in the United States: C. Abbe'.-The Cincinnati Medical News, 

 Vol. i., No. 3.— The Indiana Journal of Medicine. Vol. ii., No. 2 —Medical 

 Education in America : J. H. Bigelow. — Preliminary Report of the United 

 States Geological Survey of Montana ; Prof. Hayden —Canadian Naturalist, 

 Vol. vi., No. 3.— Report of the Chief Commisiiouer of Mines for the Province 

 of Nova Scoti.a, 1S71.— Acoustical Experiments : Alfred M. Mayer. 



Foreign — Ofverslgt af konig. Vetenskaps Akad. Fiirhandlinger.- An- 

 wendung der Darwinschen Lchre auf Bienen : H. Muller.— Memorie della 

 Societa degli Spettroscopisti Italiani, 3 nos. — Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthro- 

 pologie de Paris, July and August, 1 871. —Contributions to the Biology and 

 History of the Development of the Ustilaginece : Dr. A. Fischer von 

 Waldheim,— La Belgique Horticole, March and April —k. k Ak.ademie der 

 Wissenschaften zu Wien, No. 7, 1872.- Acadcmie Royale de Belgique, 1872. 

 — Berichte der k. sachsischen Uesellschaft der Wissenschaften, July, 1871. — 

 Notes sur des singes fossiles trouves en Italic : C. J. Forsyth Major. 



DIARY 



THURSDAY, May 9. 

 Society op Antiquaries, at 8.30. — Inventories of Westminster, Waltlium, 



and St. Albans: Rev. M. E. C. Walcott, F.S.A. 

 London Institution, at 7.30. — On Solution and Supersaturation : C. 



Toudinson, F.R.S. 

 Mathematical Society, at 8. 

 Royal Institution, at 3. — On Heat and Light ; Pi of. Tyndall, F.R.S. 



FRIDAY, May 10. 

 Astronomical Society, at S. 

 QuEKETT Microscopical Club, at 8. 

 Royal Institution, at 9. — On Meteoric Stones : Ncvil Stoiy-Maskclyne. 



SATURDAY, May 11. 

 Royal Institution, at 3. — The Star-Depths: R. A. Proctor. 

 Government School of Mines, at 8.— On Geology : Dr. Cobbold, F.R.S. 



MONDAY, May 13. 

 Royal Geographical Society, at 8.30. 



TUESDAY, Mav 14. 

 Royal Institution, at 3. — On the Development of Belief and Custom 



amongst the Lower Races of IMaukind : E. B. Tylor, F.R.S. 

 Photographic Society, at 8. 



WEDNESDAY, May 15. 

 Society or Arts, at 8.— On a New Mode of Utilising Sewage Precipitates : 



M.ajor-General H. Y. D. Scott, C.B. 

 Pharmaceutical Society, at ii a.m. — Anniversary Meeting. 



THURSDAY, May 16. 

 Royal Society, at 8.30. 

 Society of Antiquaries, at S.30. 

 Chemical Society, at 8. 

 Royal Institution, at 3.— On Heat and Light : Prof. Tyndall, F.R S. 



CONTENTS Page 



Mental Darkness in High Places 21 



Hood on Bone-Setting. ByA. Maclaren. i^li'ith llbistration.) . 22 



Our Book Shelf 24 



Letters to the Editor: — 



Recent Climatic Changes. — Henky H. Howorth 24 



A New Mode of T.aking Casts.— W. BovdDawkins, F.R.S. . . 25 



The Denudation of the Mendips 25 



Segmentation of Annulosa — J. J. MuRi-HV, F.G.S 25 



Brittany Dolmens and Tumuli. — G. A. Lebour, F.G.S 25 



The University of Freiberg 26 



Sources ot Sandstone.— M. Hawkins Johnson, F.G.S 26 



Polarised Light. — R. S. CCLLEY 26 



Cholera and SunSpots 26 



On the Depths of Water in which Waves Break — Observations 



made at Scarborough in 1870. By T. Stevenson, F.R.S. E. ... 27 



Cyclones in the Indian Ocean. By C. Meldrum, F.R.A.S. . . 28 

 Physical Science in Glasgow University. By J. T. Bottomley, 



F.R.S.E. (With Illustrations) 29 



Notes 32 



History of the Names Cambrian and Silurian in Geology. — II. 



By T. Sterry Hunt, F.R.S 34 



Acoustical Experiments. By Prof. Mayer, Ph.D 37 



Scientific Serials 38 



Societies and Academies 39 . 



Books an:> Pamphlets Received 40 



Diary • 40 



NOTICE 



Wt beg leave to state that we decline to return rejected communica- 

 tions, and to this rule we can make no exception. Communica- 

 tions respecting Subscriptions or Advertisements must be addressed 

 to the Puhlislurs, NOT to the Editor. 



