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NA TURE 



\_Nov. 1 8, 1 886 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 

 Mathematical Society, November ii. — I\rr. J. W. L. 

 Glaisher, F.R.S., President, in the cliair.— Mr. Y. S. McAiiIay, 

 St. Paul's School, was elected a Member. — The following 

 gentlemen were elected to form the Council for the ensuing 

 session : — President : Sir T. Cockle, F.R.S. ; Vice-Presidents : j. 

 W. L. Glaisher, F.R.S., Prof. Harry Hart, and the Right lion. 

 Lord Rayleigh, Sec.R.S. ; Treasurer: A. B. Kempe, F.R..S. ; 

 Hon. Secretaries : Messrs. M. Jenkins and R. Tucker ; other 

 Members: Prof. Cayley, F.R.S. ; E. B. Elliott, Prof. Green- 

 hill, J. Hammond, Prof. M. T- M. Hill, C. Leudersdorf, Capt. 

 Macmahon, K.A., S. Roberts, F.R.S., and J. J. Walker, 

 F.R.S.— The retiring President, J. W. L. Glaisher, F.R.S., 

 delivered an address, which treated of the Mathematical Tripos 

 Examinations at Cambridge, and of the bearings of recent 

 changes in the same upon the advancement of mathematics. — 

 The following communications were made : — Certain operators 

 in connection with symmetric functions, by R. Lachlan. — The 

 transformation of a certain quartic elliptic element, by R. Russell. 

 — Discussion of a multilinear operator, with applications to the 

 theories of invariants and reciprocants, by Capt. Macmahon. — ■ 

 The theory of screws in elliptic space (fourth note), by A. Buch- 

 heim. — The lectification of certain curves, by R. A. Roberts. — 

 Rectification of a sphero-conic, by H. F. ISurstall. — Third paper 

 on reciprocants, by L. J. Rogers. — The "sine-triple-angle" 

 circle, by R. Tucker. 



Linnean Society, November 4. — Mr. Williara Carruthers, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — The President paid a passing 

 tribute to, and commented on the loss sustained in the death 

 of, Mr. George Busk, a former Secretary and Vice-President 

 of the Society. Afterwards he drew attention to phosphorescent 

 organisms obtained by him in the Firth of Clyde last September. 

 — Mr. John Murray also made remarks on the same, alluding 

 to his own observations of Ccralium trifos being found in long 

 chains in the ocean ("Narrative of the Cruise of the CJwl- 

 lengcr "), and to Klebs's opinion of Ceratium being a genus of 

 unicellular Algae, and not an infusorian. — Prof. J. Macoun made 

 remarks on a series of cones of Canadian Piceas. He showed 

 that the various forms occurring from east to west of the con- 

 tinent, which had been hitherto considered different species, 

 were doubtless local varieties of but one species, slightly modi- 

 fied according to the altitudes and region they inhabited. — Dr. 

 F. Day exhibited a salmon parr, twenty months old, raised at 

 Howietoun from parents which had never visited the sea. He 

 also showed coloured drawings of hybrids raised in the same 

 establishment — one being a cross between the American charr 

 and the Loch Leven trout, a second between the American and 

 the British charr, and a third between the last-mentioned hybrid 

 and the Loch Leven trout ; all were fertile. — Fresh specimens 

 of a white variety of Crocus nuJiforns from Biarritz, France, were 

 shown for Mr. W. D'Arcy Godolphin Osborne, who first observed 

 the variety there in 1S82, but since then it has been figured by 

 Mr. G. Maw in his monograph of the genus. — Mr. E. M. Holmes 

 exhibited examples of Lycoperdon cchinalum, Pers. , viz. the 

 young plants, and the reticulate appearance of theperidium left by 

 the falling off of the spines. — Mr. F. Pascoe exhibited one of the 

 round olive green balls from Sicily, formed by the action of the 

 sea on fragments of the Posodonia cauliiiia^ and reduced, after 

 a few days' exposure, to a flat cake-like body densely covered 

 with minute crystals of salt. He also showed some acorn-.shells 

 [Balaiiiis), where several individual animals had united their 

 shells into a common tube, and where the outer valves of each 

 animal had lengthened, forming a series of irregular subsidiary 

 tubes radiating from the apex of the primary one. — Mr. E. C. 

 Bousfield read a paper on the natural history of the genus Dero. 

 In this he gives a full account of their habits and the best 

 method of observing them. The Naias digi/ata, Miill., he rejects 

 as a specific appellation, Miiller's reference being defective. He 

 shows wherein the Deros diflfer from the Naiades, viz. in the 

 former having a respiratory apparatus at the end of the tail. He 

 diagnoses seven species, four being new ; all are figured. — Mr. 

 S. O. Ridley gave in abstract his researches on the genus 

 Lophopus, and description of a new species from Australia. This 

 latter, L. lendcnfcldi, obtained by Dr. Lendenfeld near Sydney, 

 N. S.W., is distinguished from L. crystallinus by length of 

 tentacles equalling the body of the polypide, and by the non- 

 pointed outline of the statoblast. The new species is the fourth 

 fresh-water Polyzoon recorded from Australia, and the first of its 



genus satisfactorily determined from the southern hemisphere. 

 Staining with borax-carmine brings out multipolar cells in the 

 ectocyst, indicating mesodermal elements, and denoting that 

 the ectocyst is something more than mere epithelium. A modi- 

 fication of the diagnosis of the genus is necessitated from these 

 observations. 



Chemical Society, November 4. — W. Crookes, F.R.S., 

 Vice-President, in the chair. — Messrs. H. Crompton, G. Dyson, 

 T. B. Tyson, and S. Williamson were admitted Fellows of the 

 Society. — The following papers were read : — The action of 

 chlorosulphonic acid on naphthalene-ct- and yS-suIphonic acids, 

 by Henry E. Armstrong and W. P. Wynne, B.Sc. — The action 

 of bromine on (Schafer's) fl-naphtholsulphonic acid, by Henry 

 E. Armstrong and F. W. Streatfeild. — The action of bromine 

 on the naphthalenesulphonic acids, by Henry E. Armstrong and 

 W. P. Wynne, B.Sc. — a-Nitro-, a-bromo-, and a-chloronaphtha- 

 lenesulphonic acids, by Henry E. Armstrong and S. Williamson. 

 — The hydrolysis of sulphonic acids, by A. K. Miller, Ph.D. — 

 The action of bromine on tolueneparasulphonic acid, by A. K. 

 Miller, Ph.D.— Phosphonts tetroxide, byT. E. Thorpe, F.R.S., 

 and A. E. Tutton. — Conversion of ditolane-azotide into diphen- 

 anthrylene-azotide, by Francis R. Japp, F.R.S., and Cosmo 

 Innes Burton, B. Sc. — A chemical study of vegetable albinism ; 

 part 3, experiments with Qiiercus rubra, by A. H. Church. 

 — The synthetical formation of closed carbon-chains ; part 2, 

 some derivatives of tetramethylene, by W. H. Perkin, Tun., 

 Ph. D. — The action of the halogens on the salts of organic bases ; 

 part 2, tetramethylammonium salts, by Leonard Dobbin, Ph.D., 

 and Orme Masson, M.A., D.Sc. — Glycyphyllin, the sweet prin- 

 ciple oi Stiiilax glycyphylla, by Edward H. Rennie, M. A., D.Sc. 



Entomological Society, November 3. — Mr. Robert 

 McLachlan, F.R.S., President, in the chair. — The following 

 gentlemen were elected Fellows : — Messrs. P. Cameron, F. 

 Archer, H. J. S. Pryer, H. Norris, N. P. Fenwick, J. Brown, 

 J. P. Tutt, and A. P. Green.— Mr. E. B. Poulton exhibited a 

 mass of minute crystals of fonnate of lead, caused by the action 

 of the secretion of the larva of Dicranura vinula upon sub- 

 oxide of lead. He stated that a single drop of the secretion had 

 produced the crystals which were exhibited ; and he called at- 

 tention to the excessively high percentage uf formic acid which 

 must be present in the secretion. — Mr. S. Stevens exhibited a 

 specimen of Laphygma exigiia, recently captured by Mr. Rogers 

 in the Isle of Wight. — Mr. W. F. Kirby exhibited, and read 

 notes on, a specimen of Perilampus manrus recently bred by 

 Mr. Walter de Rothschild from Antheraa tirrhea, one of the 

 rarer South African Saturnidte. — Mr. T. W. Hall exhibited a 

 number of specimens of Xanthia fulvago {ccrago), somewhat 

 remarkable in their variation, and showing a graduated series, 

 extending from the pale variety, flavescens of Esper, to 

 an almost melanic form. — Mr. Boyd exhibited, and made re- 

 marks on, the larva of a species of Ornithoptera from New 

 Guinea. — Mr. H. Goss exhibited a series of Bankia argentula 

 collected by him in Cambridgeshire in June last ; and also, for 

 comparison, a series of specimens of the same species taken at 

 Killarney in June 1877. It appeared that the Irish form of the 

 species was larger and more brightly coloured than the English 

 form. — Mr. Eland Shaw exhibited a female specimen of Decticiis 

 ~'errucivonis taken in July last at St. Margaret's Bay, Kent. — 

 Mr. Waterhouse recorded the recent capture of Dciopeia pul- 

 chella at Ramsgate, by Mr. Buckmaster ; and the capture of 

 Anosia plexippus ^\. Gibraltar was also announced. — Mr. J. W. 

 Slater read a paper on the relations of insects to flowers, in 

 which he stated that many flowers which gave off agreeable 

 odours appeared not so attractive to insects as some other less 

 fragrant species ; and he stated that Petunias, according to his 

 observations, were comparatively neglected by bees, butterflies, 

 and Diptera. Mr. Distant, Mr. Stainton, Mr. Weir, Mr. Ste- 

 vens, and the President took part in the discussion which ensued, 

 and stated that, in their experience. Petunias were often most 

 attractive to insects. Mr. Stainton referred to the capture, by 

 himself, of sixteen specimens of Sphinx convolvuli at the flowers 

 of Petunias, in one evening in 1846. — Jonkeer May, the Dutch 

 Consul-General, asked whether the reported occurrence of the 

 Hessian fly (Cecidomyia destructor) in England had been con- 

 firmed. In reply, Mr. McLachlan stated he believed that several 

 examples of an insect, thought to be the Hessian fly, had been 

 bred in this country, but that everything depended upon correct 

 specific determination in such an obscure and diflicult genus as 

 Cecidomyia, 



