296 



NATURE 



\Au^r. 8, [872 



Camp and Ovibury ; and the week's proceedings concluded witli 

 a visit to Stokesay Castle, ift wliicli the Rev. James Parker gave 

 an interesting account of the curious okl pile. Thanks were 

 most warmly accorded to the Rev. Mr. La Touche and to Prof. 

 Morris for their able conduct of the excursion, and tire members 

 then took their departure from the Craven Arms .Station, con- 

 gratulating each other on the very interesting, instructive, and 

 successful^character of the visit of the Geologists' Association to 

 Shropshire. 



Kent 



East Kent Natural History Society, August i.— .\ com- 

 munication was made by Mr. Gulliver, F.R..S., in relation to the 

 shark [Lamiiia Coniubka) taken last November off Rye. As 

 this is the first description of this important skeleton of this hu-e 

 fish, which may now be seen at the College of Surgeons, wc 

 give it at some length. Tiiis shark is the Porbeagle of many 

 authors and the Beaumaris Shark of Pennant. Every anatomist 

 knows more or less how an ordinary natural skeleton is made ; 

 but as this of the Porbeagle is an extraordinary one, it is well 

 worth while to note some of the means employed in its prepara- 

 tion. In the first instance careful measurements were made of 

 the different appendages, and kept for guidance in regulating 

 their due position, since in the drying there would be much dis- 

 tortion or displacement which could only be corrected by a con- 

 stant reference to their state in the fresh fish. Then came tlie 

 question, how to get out the brain ; and this it was found could 

 be easily done through a natural opening — a sort of fontanelle— 

 more than an inch in diameter, in the upper and front part of the 

 skull. Next, it was foreseen that, in such a large fish, there 

 would be great shrinking in its length from the contraction by 

 drying of the intervertebral substances, as had happened to the 

 skeleton of tliis shark at Ilaslar ; and this fault was prevented by 

 the insertion between the bodies of the vertebra; of temporary 

 wedges or plugs of wood. And as the skull and orbits, being 

 cartilaginous, would shrink and curl into a shapeless and ugiy 

 mass, unless means could be devised to preserve their form, all 

 these parts were supported by plaster casts, while the foramina 

 were kept open by wooden plugs. In this state six weeks were 

 passed in the drymg, although this was often hastened by arti- 

 ficial heat. The plugs and plaster being removed, the skeleton 

 parts were left in tlieir natural form and position, as now so ad- 

 mirably preserve! for the instruction of anatomists. The eyes, 

 too, are shown in situ without the least shrinking. The spine 

 has been strengthened by a strong cane introduced along the 

 neural canal, and remaining permanently there, but not visible 

 without curious inspection. It is remarkable that there is but 

 little fatty matter in the skeleton. Among the manifold parts of 

 the skeleton are seen, in their natural position, the five pairs of 

 Branchial Arches ; the Hyoid Arch with its three pieces on each 

 side, and the Branchiostegous Rays ; the Scapular and Pelvic 

 Arches ; and, as appendages of the pelvis, the pair of osseous 

 Claspers, each of two pieces and a curious Spine of hard bone, 

 particularly noticed by Prof. Flower, at the free end. The Ver- 

 tebra:, of which the number has not hitherto been recorded in 

 thi; species, are, as counted by Prof. Flower and Mr. Gulliver, 

 no less than 152, of which 60 belong to the tail. These caudal 

 vertebra-" turn abruptly upwards at an angle of about forty 

 degrees from the straight vertebral column of the trunk, and run 

 straight along the upper border of the superior lobe of this 

 caudal fin. The frame-work of this fin-lobe is chiefly formed of 

 the caudal vertebr.x, with their broad and flat inferior spinous 

 processes ; the lower lobe of the caudal fin is composed of a 

 densely-packed layer or plate of parallel rays proceeding from 

 above downwards, and aiiparently of fibro-cartilaginous texture. 

 The vertebral column has no ribs. The Rays of the front 

 Dorsal Fin are distantly jointed; the joints like those of soft- 

 finned bony fishes, but much further apart in each ray ; and tliis 

 is so remarkable in the Pectoral Fins of this fish as to remind 

 us of the digit.il jihalanges of mammalka. Of course, every 

 ichthyologist well knows that the caudal fins of the Plagiostonies 

 are unequal (heteroctrcal) ; but it is not so familiarly known 

 that the caudal vertebr.e in several of these fishes, and also 

 in some other fishes, pursue a different course. Indeed, the 

 disposition of the caudal vertebra; of osseous and cartilaginous 

 fishes, both in adults and in the different st.ages of develop- 

 ment, affords, as Agassiz and Huxley have recognised, a very 

 interesting subject for more research than has yet been de- 

 voted to this branch of ichtliyology. Meanwhile we have in 

 this skeleton of the Porbeagle a noble contribution to the 

 osteology of the Selachians. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, July 22. — .V paper w,as read by Prof. 

 Cayley on the conditions enabling a family of given surfaces to 

 form part of an orthogonal system. — M. A. d; Caligny com- 

 municated a note on a liquid vein formed in part by a current, 

 and in part by the blows of the waves against two convergent 

 breakwaters. — .\ note on the vibrations of cords under the Influ- 

 ence of a diapason by ;M. E. Gripon wa; read. — M. F. Lucas 

 communicated the results of experiments made liy him in the 

 Seine during the siege of Paris for the purpose of ascertaining 

 how far the waters of the river would convey sounds which might 

 be employed for telegraphic purposes. He found that the 

 sounds produced by heavy bells were not transmitted more than 

 1,500 to i,Soo metres. — M. W. de Fonvielle described a new 

 example of the danger caused by large masses of metal during 

 thunderstorms. — M. Le Verrier read a memoir on the masses of 

 tlie planets and the parallax or the sun, in which he indicated 

 that in the present day the exact determination of theie and some 

 collateral matters had become a necessity, and dwelt especially 

 upon the desirableness of a new direct measurement of the 

 velocity of light. Upon this subject M.M. Fizeau and d'Abb.adie 

 made some remarks. — M. Boussingault communicated a note on 

 the determination of iron in the blood of an invertebrate anima'. 

 The animal employed was the common garden slug ; its blood 

 contains only o '00069 per cent, of iron. — .\ note was read by 

 M. P. Tlienard on a new process for the quantitative determina- 

 of ozone, and a second by the same author on the action of per- 

 manganate of potash or oxygenated water in the midst of a 

 freezing mixture. — M. Sace presented a memoir on a new pro- 

 cess for the preservation of alimentary substances by means of 

 acetate of sod.a. — M. Berthelot communicated a note on the con- 

 stitution of acid salts in solution ; and M M. P. Champion and 

 II. Pellet a note on the theory of the explosion of detonating 

 compounds. — M. A. Boillot described a procesi for the prepara- 

 tion of ozone by means of a new mole of production of tlie 

 electrical effluvia. — M. C. Bernard communicated a further note 

 by M. Ore on M. Liebreich's endeavour to demonstrate that 

 stryclinine is an antidote to chlorak — M. C. Robin presented a 

 note by M. Rabuteau on the physiological properties of quinic 

 acid, and on the reduction of perchloride of iron in the organism^ ; 

 and M. C. Sainte-Claire Deville communicated a letter from >t. 

 Diego P'ranco on the la'e eruption of Vesuvius. 



PAMPHLETS RECEIVED. 



■C-lssell's Book of Birds, Pait xxill —The Lead. andZInc Mines 

 oflhcMentlip: H B. Woodward, F.G.S.— Wh.it determines Molecul.ir 

 Molecular Motion? tlie Problem of Nature.— The Industrial Monthly, 

 No 5, Vol, vii.— The Jojrnal of Applied Chemistry, No. 7, Vol. vii.— A 

 Letter 10 the Most Noble the Marquis of Salisbury on the Public Health 

 Bill: G. W. Child, M.A.-The Building and Ornamental Trades of Great 

 Britain and Foreign Countries : E. Hill — Grevillea, No. 2 : M. C. Cooke — 

 Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, No. 6. Vol. ii.— The Monthly 

 Microscopical Journal, August.— The Astronomical Register, August. — The 

 Publishers' Circular, August. — Journal of the Chemical Society, July,— The 

 Food Journal, No. 31, Vol. iii. 



American and Colo.nial.— The American Chemist, No. 12, Vol. ii. — 

 The Canadian Naturalist, No 4, Vol. xiii.— The American Naturaliit, 

 No. 7, Vol. vi. — The American Journal of Science and Art, No. 18, Vol. iii. 

 —The Cincinnati Medical News, Nos. s and 6, Vol. i.— The Indiana Journal 

 of Medecine, Nos. i and 2, Vol. iii. — Van Nostrand's Eclectic Engineering 

 Mag.izine, No. 44, Vol. vii. 



CONTENTS Pagb 



The Government and the Society of Antiquaries 277 



New Researches in Entozoa. By T. Spencer Cobbolp, F.R.S. 278 



OuK Book Shelk 279 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Bree on D.irwinism. —Charles Darwin, F.R.S 279 



Ants and Aphides.— R. Me LDOIA ^79 



Atmospheric Elluct.— J. Rand Capron 279 



'the Carbonic Acid in Sea-water. — Dr. Oscar Jacobsen .... 279 



Mr. Avhton and Dr. Hooker 280 



The Royal Archaeological Institute Meeting at Southampton 281 



The Electric Telegraph — Its Improvement and Capabilities. 2S2 



The British Coal Fields 2^3 



Mr. T'odhunter on the Arc of the Meridian measured in 



Lapland ^Sj 



The Beginnings of Life. {IVith Illustrations.') 2S4 



Du. Livingstone 2S7 



Notes . . .... -90 



FoR.Ms of Solar Protuberances. By Prof. Tacchini .... 29; 



Astronomy ;— On the Meteors of April 30-May I 295 



Societies and Academies 205 



Pamphlets Received 2y6 



