38^ 



NA TURE 



IFeb. 17, 1887 



and gave the description of a new species of Cibhis, proposed 

 to be called GMiis johnstoni, of which specimens were in the 

 collection. — A communication was read from Mr. Charles O. 

 Watevhouse, containing a list of some coleopterous insects 

 collected by Mr. II. II. Johnston on the Camaroons Mountain. 



Geological Society, January 12. — Prof. J. W. Judd, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — The President announced the 

 sad loss which the Society had sustained since the last meeting 

 by the death of Mr. John Arthur Phillips, F.R.S., who had 

 been for several years a valuable member of the Council, and 

 one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society. — The following com- 

 munications were read: — The Ardtun leaf-beds, by J. 

 Starkie Gardner, with notes by Grenville A. J. Cole. Tlie 

 description of these beds by the Duke of Argyll thirty-five years 

 ago indicated that enormous tracts of trap in the Inner Hebrides 

 were of Tertiary age. Prof. Edward Forbes, who described the 

 leaves, inclined to the idea that they might be Miocene ; but in 

 estimating the value of this conjecture, we must remember that 

 at the time the existence of Dicotyledonous leaves of similar 

 aspect, but of undoubtedly Cretaceous age, was quite unfuspected, 

 and that no typical Eocene flora had then been properly investi- 

 gated or described. Frof. Heer adopted the opinion that the 

 age of this formation was Miocene, and unfortunately extended 

 its application to formations containing similar floras in Green- 

 land and elsewhere. The writer of the present communication 

 tried to show that instead of belonging to the Miocene, these 

 floras are of Eocene age, and in fact older than the Thanet beds. 

 He also re-described the plant-beds, and maintained that they 

 are part of a rather'extensive series of sedimentary rocks interca- 

 lated among the traps. — On the Echinoidea of the Cretaceous 

 strata of the Lower Narbada region, by Prof. P. Martin Duncan, 

 F.K.S. — On some Dinosaurian vertebrae from the Cretaceous of 

 India and the Isle of Wight, by R. Lydekker. — Further noles 

 on the results of some deep borings in Kent, by W. Whitaker. 



January 26.— Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S., President, in the 

 chair. — The following communications were read : — On the 

 correlation of the Upper Jurassic rocks of the Jura with those of 

 England, by Thomas Roberts. — The physical history of the 

 Bagshot Beds of the London basin, by the Kev. A. Irving. The 

 author, in reviewing the position taken up by him, attempted to 

 estimate the value of such palaeontological evidence as exists, 

 and insisted on the importance of the physical evidence in the 

 first place. He gave reasons for considering the evidence of 

 pebbles, pipe-clay, derived materials, irony concretions, per- 

 centages of elementary carbon (ranging in the more carbonaceous 

 strata up to nearly 2\ per cent.) taken together whh the evidence 

 of carbon in combination, as adduced in former papers, y«i/'- 

 U'atcr Diatoms (now, perhaps, recorded for the first time in the 

 Middle and Lower Bagshot), and the microscopic structure if 

 the sands and days, as furnishing such a cun ulative proof of the 

 fluviatile and delta origin of the majority of the Middle and 

 Lower Bagshot Beds, as can hardly be gainsaid ; while lie 

 regarded the wide distribution of the Sarsens as indicating, 

 along with the fauna, a much greater areal range formerly of the 

 Llpper Bag-shot than of the strata below them. 



Mineralogical Society, January 11. — Mr. L. Fletcher, 

 President, in the chair.— Messrs. A. Pringle, G. T. Prior, and 

 J. M. Thomson, were elected Members. — The following papers 

 were read :— On a specimen of meteoric iron found at Yundagin, 

 West Austraha, in 1884, by Mr. L. Fletcher, President. — 

 Additional notes on the feldspar from Kilima-njaro, by Mr. L. 

 Fletcher, and Mr. II. A. Miers.— On the occurrence of green- 

 ockite in a new locality, by Prof. M. F. Heddle. — Note on a 

 form of calcite from Heilim, Sutherlandshire, by Prof. M. F. 

 Heddle.- — Note on the occurrence of bismutite in the Trans- 

 vaal, by Mr. H. Louis. — Notes on celestine from Gloucestershire 

 and on apatite from East Cornwall, by Mr. R. H. Solly. — Note 

 on the presence of lead in calcite from Leadhills, by Mr. J. Stuart 

 Thomson. — On the use of gnomonic projection, by Mr. H. A. 

 Miers. — Prof. Judd exhibited a specimen of a new terrestrial alloy 

 of iron and nickel (Ni.,Fe) discovered in New Zealand by Prof. 

 Ulrichs. — Colonel MacMahon exhibited a crystal of sapphire 

 from a vein which had been revealed by a landslip in the south- 

 east of Cashmere, about the year 1S80. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, February 7. — M. Gosselin, President, 



in the chair. — Movements of a bird's wing represented according 



to the three dimensions of space, by M. Marey. In continuation 

 of his first communication on the flight of birds, the author here 

 shows, by a series of chrono-photographic images, how the 

 movement of the wing is made according to the three dimensions 

 of space. One of the illustrations gives a synoptic view of the 

 projections of the wing on three different planes at ten successive 

 instants of a single revolution, thus containing all the elements 

 necessary to determine the continuous action of the wing. 

 Further chrono-photographic experiments are promised, which 

 will convey a complete representation of all the alar movements, 

 and in general of all notions relating to the kinematics of flight. . 



— On the red fluorescence of alumina, by M. Lecoq de Bois- 1 



baudran. — On the composition of the ashes of cider, by M. 1 



G. Lechartier. The study of the composition of the ashes ,' 



which ciders yield by incineration is here undertaken, both for 

 its scientific interest and on account of the indications it may 

 give of their purity. The author inquires whether this composi- 

 tion presents uniform distinctive characters whatever its local 

 origin, and finds that the ashes of the cider apple are in no way 

 modified by the nature of the soil. He also shows the differ- 

 ences existing between the ashes of the fruit, the leaf, and the 

 wood of the apple-tree. — Experiments relative to the anti-pbyl- 

 loxeric disinfection of the grape-vine, by MM. Georges Couanon 

 and Etienne Salomon. The varying results of if. Balbiani's 

 already-described process are here reported from various districts I 



throughout France for the year 1886. Although generally satis- | 



factory, the remedy was found ia some cases to be as bad as the j 



evil, the failure being rttributed either to the unhealthy state of 

 the plant or to climatic or other local conditions. — Fresh 

 researches on the action exercised by cuprous preparations on the 

 development of the Peronospora of the vine, by MM. Millardet 

 and Gayon. These experiments, carried out last September, 

 fully confirm the conclusion already anticipated by the authors, 

 that in these mixtures the essential prophylactic agent is the 

 copper dissolved by rain-water and dew. — Memoir on the deve- 

 lopments of naval geometry, with application to the calculations 

 of stability, by MM. Guyou and Simart. The authors consider 

 their method as a distinct improvement on those of their prede- 

 cessors, Charles Dupin, Bravais, Rankine, Reech, Leclert, and 

 Daymard. Thanks to their new formulas, the still laborious 

 calculations which are required even by Daymard's method 

 (recently crowned by the Academy) are much shortened. — Geo- 

 graphical co-ordinates of Punta-Arenas, by M. Crrds. For this 

 important station the following values have been recently deter- 

 mined : Latitude 53° 9' 3S"'6 S. ; Longitude 4h. 43ni. 36"09s. 

 west of Greenwich. — Equatorial observations of the new comets, 

 Brooks and Barnard, made at the Observatory of Algiers with 

 the o'5om. telescope, by MM. Trepied and Rambaud. — On 

 entire algebraic series, by ]M. L. Lecornu. — Some experiments 

 on aerial eddies, by M. Ch. Weyher. The experiments 

 here described deal with waterspouts in the open air, with 

 whiilwinds in an inclosed space, with the attraction pro- 

 duced by vortices, and with the variation of temperature 

 in an eddy. — On the electrolysis of alkaline solutions, by 

 M. Duter. In the electrolysis of aqueous solutions of potassa, 

 soda, baryta, or lime, the volume of oxygen liberated on 

 the positive electrode is considerably less than half that of 

 the hydrogen liberated on the negative electrode. But with a 

 wide platina plate for positive and a fine platina wire for negative J 



electrode, the author obtains one volume only of oxygen for four ■ 



of hydrogen. In the electrolysis of alkaline solutions there 7 



appear to be formed small quantities of a superoxygenated com- 

 pound combined with an alkali in such a way that it crnnot be 

 liberated by ebullition but only by an acid. This appears to 

 be a peroxide of hydrogen, by the existence of which M. 

 Berlhelot explains various reactions, such as that of the per- 

 manganate of potassa on oxygenated water. — The principle of 

 maximum labour and the laws of chemical equilibria, by JI. H. * 



Le Chatelier. It is shown that under a single law may be I 



reduced all the phenomena without exception of vaporisation, I 



allotropic transformation, and dissociation from - 200° C, I 



boiling-point of oxygen, to + 1000' C, point of dissociation of I 

 the oxide of iridium. — Action of the oxide of lead on some dis- J 



solved chlorides, by M. G. Andre. Some true oxychlorides are 

 here described, which the author has obtained by studying the 

 action of certain oxides on the solutions of the alkaline earthy 

 chlorides. — Combinations of the glycerinate of potassa with the 

 monatomic alcohols, by M. de Forcrand. The glycerinates 

 here studied are those of methylic, ethylic, fpropylic, amylic. 



