Feb. 3. 18S7] 



NA TURE 



335 



perpendicular to the direction of the stress, and the clamp can 

 rotate in a vertical plane about this line as an axis. The lower 

 clamp is levelled by a screw pressing against the surface of the 

 bar, and the upper one by means of a micrometer-screw parallel 

 to the axis of the bar, the nut of which is secured to the bottom 

 clamp. By this means the elongation can be measured to 

 l/lo,ocxj of an inch. In a third form two similar clamps with- 

 out levels are kept apart by a steel rod ending in knife-edges. 

 One of the clamiis carries a small roller, which turns .about an 

 axis p.arallel to the line joining the steel points above mentioned, 

 and the axis tarries a small plane mirror. The other clami) sup- 

 ports a projecting arm parallel with the axis of the test-piece, 

 and which presses on the surface of the roller. When the bar 

 is elongated the mirror is turned through a small angle and 

 the elongation is determined by a reading-telescope and vertical 

 scale to l/icx>,cioo of an inch. A similar apparatus is used for 

 testing the compression of stone, but in this the compres- 

 sion is multiplied by a lever and measured by a micrometer 

 microscope to 1/100,000 of an inch. — At the conclusion of the 

 meeting Prof. Unwin invited the members to visit the lingineer- 

 ing Laboratory of the City and Guilds of London Central Insti- 

 tution, where he broke a bar of .Stallfordshire iron in the loc-ton 

 testing-machine, the force antl elongation being automatically 

 recorded. 



Royal Meteorological Society, January 19. — Mr. W.Ellis, 

 President, in the eh.iir. — Mr. J. Willis Bund was elected 

 a Fellow of the Society. — The following papers by the 

 Hon. K. .A.bercromby, F.R.Met.Soc, were read: — (i) On the 

 identity of cloud-forms all over the world, and on the general 

 principles by which their indications must be read ; (2) On the 

 cloud to which the name " Roll-Cumulus " has been applied. 

 — After the reading of these papers the annual general meeting 

 was held, when the Report of the Council was read by Dr. Tripe, 

 w hich showed the Society to be in a satisfactory condition. The 

 rumbcr of Fello«s is 524. — The President, Mr. W. Ellis, then 

 delivered his address. — The Officers and Council for the ensuing 

 year were elected : — President : William Ellis ; Vice-Presidents ; 

 George Chalterton, Charles Harding, Cuthbert Edgar Peek, 

 (}eorgc Mathews Whipple ; Treasurer : Henry Perigal ; Trustees : 

 Hon. Francis Albert Rollo Russell, Stephen William Silver ; 

 Secretaries : George James Symons, F. R. S. , John William Tripe, 

 M.D. ; Foreign Secretary : Robert Henry Scott, F. R. S. ; Council : 

 Hon. Ralph Abercromby, Edmund Douglas Archibald, Francis 

 Campbell Bayard, William Morris Beaufort, .\rthur Brewin, 

 Frederic William Cory, Ilenrv Storks Eaton, Richard Inwards, 

 Baldwin Lath.im, William 'Marcet, M.D., F.R.S., Edward 

 Mawley, Charles Theodore Williams, M.D. 



Entomological Society, January 19. — Mr. R. McLachlan, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — This was the fifty-fourth anni- 

 versary meeting. — An abstract of the Treasurer's accounts was 

 reail by Mr. Stainton, one of the auditors ; and the Secretary 

 read the Report of the Council. — The following gentlemen 

 were elected as Officers and Council for 1887 : — President : 

 Dr. David Sharp ; Treasurer : Mr. Edward Saunders ; Secre- 

 taries, Mr. Herbert Goss and the Rev. W. W. Fowler ; 

 Librarian : Mr. Ferdinand Grut ; and as other Members 

 of the Council : Messrs. Robert McLachlan, Ger\'ase Malhew, 

 R.N., George T. PorritI, Edward B. Poulton, Osbert Salvin, 

 F.R.S., Henry T. Stainton, F.R.S., Samuel Stevens, and J. 

 Jenner Weir. — The retiring President delivered an address, and 

 a vote of thanks to him was moved by Mr. E. B. Poulton, and 

 seconded by Prof. Meldola, F.R..S. — A vote of thanks to ihc 

 Treasurer, Secretaries, and Librarian was moved by Mr. 

 McLachlan and seconded by Mr. Stainton ; and Mr. Goss and 

 Mr. Grut replied. 



Middlesex Natural History and Science, Society, 

 J.anuary iS.— Dr. ."Vrchibald Geikie, F R.S., in the chair. — Mr. 

 Robert B. Hayward, F. R.S., read a paper on the water in 

 the Chalk, beneath the London Clay, of the London Basin. 

 The gcolog)' of the area in question was described, and the water 

 in the beds above the Ch.ilk briefly referred to. Mr. Hayward 

 then drew attention to the great extent of the Chalk area, to the 

 rainfall, and other atmospheric conditions affecting the water- 

 supply, and gave detailed chemical anrdyscs of the watei's of a 

 large number of wells in and near London, which draw their 

 supplies from the Chalk. Those of Harrow and the north of 

 London, being well known to the lecturer, received special 

 attention. The water-levels were described and elucidated by 

 Joseph Lucas's hydro-geological maps, and the movements of the 



underground waters fully treateil of. A table of the above- 

 mentioned chemical analyses was distributed to the members 

 present. In the discussion which ensued. Dr. Geikie gave some 

 interesting observations upon the probable origin of Harrow 

 Hill, and the other hills of London Clay to the north of London, 

 and was followed by Mr. Clement Reid, Mr. Mattieu Williams, 

 and Mr. Klein. 



P.\K1S 



Academy of Sciences, January 24. — M. Gosselin, Presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Fresh statistics of persons that have been 

 treated at the Pasteur Institute afier having been bitten by 

 animals either mad or sucpected of madness, by M. Vulpian. 

 This report covers the whole peril id from October 1885 to Decem- 

 ber 31, 18S6, the tabulated results showing 2682 subjects treated in 

 the Institute, of whom only 31, or I "15 per cent., succumbed. — 

 On the direct fixation of the gaseous nitroi^en of the atmosphere 

 by vegetable soils, by M. Berthelot. The experiments are here 

 described which the author carried on during the year 18S6 at 

 the Meudon establishment for agricultural chemistry. As a 

 general result it appears that vegetable soil is incessantly fixing 

 free atmospheric nitrogen, apart even from any vegetation pro- 

 perly so called. Nor can the phenomena be attributed to the 

 exclusive action of rain-water, for it was shown that in some 

 cases the rain carried off under the form of nitrates alone more 

 nitrogen than it had contributed under the combined forms of 

 ammonia and nitric acid. In a future paper the experiments will 

 be described that have been carried on simultaneously on the 

 same soil with the co-operation of plant life. — The mechanism of 

 the flight of birds studied by chrono-photography, by M. Marey. 

 This is a further application of the author's new chrono-photo- 

 graphic method, already so successfully applied by him to the 

 study of human motion. The paper is provided with four illus- 

 trations, one of which shows fifty images per second of a bird on 

 the wing. Measured by the metric scale, the distance traversed 

 during one complete revolution of the wing was i"37 metre, or 

 6 "85 metres per second, and 24,660 metres per hour. — Solar 

 observations for the second half of the year 1886, by M. P. 

 Tacchini. The results, as here tabulated, show a progressive 

 diminution of spots and faculs?, with a very marked minimum 

 in November. The phenomenon of protuberances also 

 shows a falling off, although not to the same extent 

 as that of the spots. This result appears to be in harmony 

 with the fact that the maximum of protuberances always occurs 

 after the maximum of spots. — On surfaces whose isothermal lints 

 are constituted by a family of circles, by M. Demartres. — On 

 the theory of algebraic forms with / variables, by M. R. Perrin. 

 It is shown that a form of order m with/ variables possesses a 

 pure covariant, distinct or reducible, of 2/ - 3 degree and order 

 (2/ - 3) m - 2f. — On the action of the tetrachloride of carbon on 

 chlorochromic acid and the phosphates of sesquioxide, by M. H. 

 Quantin. To the reactions of the tetrachloride of carbon 

 already described by M. Demar^ay, the authors here add two 

 others, dealing fully with that produced by making this substance 

 act on the oxygenated salts. They describe the action that it 

 exercises, without previous decomposition, on the neutral phos- 

 phate of the sesquioxide of iron. They hope by the dry 

 method to be able to apply this reaction to the separation of 

 minute quantities of phosphoric acid. — Preparation, properties, 

 and constitution of inosite, by M. Maquenne. This substance, 

 hitherto unavailable in sufficient quantities for the purpose of 

 experiments, the author has succeeiled in producing by a process 

 here described, very rapidly and easily. The analysis of 

 anhydrous inosite yields carbon 4O'00, and hydrogen 6"56, and 

 its formula, C5H,.,0|i -t- 2H0O, is shown to be correct. — On 

 the separation of mono- and di isobutylamine by means of oxalic 

 .acid, by M. H. Malbot. — On the preparation of a silicostannate 

 of lime corresponding to sphene, by M. L. Bourgeois. The 

 object of this paper is to show the possibility of preparing 

 a silicostannate of lime, CaO,Si02,Sn02, isomorphous with 

 sphene, CaO,Si0.j,TiOo. In solving the question, the 

 author has employed "the same method by which Haute- 

 feuille obtained some fine specimens of the latter mineral. 

 — Description of a lamellary thomsonite from Bishopton, 

 Renfrewshire, by M. A. Lacroix. This specimen, picked up by 

 the author in 18S4, shows the same optical properties as the 

 substance known <is Stirlingshire gyrohte, and contains a con- 

 siderable proportion of aluminium. At 13° C. the density is 

 2-34. — Note on a white epidote from Beagle Channel, Tierra 

 del Fuego, by M. A. Lacroix. This specimen, brought back by 



