454 



NA TURE 



[March lo, 18S7 



some still higher temijeratiire. The average divergence of all 

 the mean results from linei of perfect slraightness amounled to 

 le>s than one-thousandth of a degree. . . . The heat of com- 

 liination of a salt with its water of crystallisation is deduced from 

 the author's results. He concludes that it is not a constant 

 quantity at all femperaturei ; the general elifect of rise of 

 temperature being to diminis;h it, although at very low temperatures 

 this effect seems to be more than counterbalanced by some other 

 cause, probably the tendency of the water molecules to unite 

 with each other, the heat of combination diminishing then with 

 fall of temperature. The more water a salt contains the more 

 marked are both these results, — Periodates, by Dr. C. W. 

 Kimmins. — Sulphcnic acids derived from the ;8-monohaloid- 

 derivatives of naphthalene, by Prof. Henry E. Armstrong and Mr. 

 \V. P. Wynne. — Thedecomposition of potassium chlorate and per- 

 chlorate by heat, by Dr. Frank L. Teed. — The formation of ethylic 

 cyanacetoacetate, by Dr. J. William James. — The relation of 

 diazohenzene anilide to amidoazobenzene, by Mr. R. J. Friswell 

 and Mr. A. G. Green. — Note on Wallach's explanation of the 

 isomeric transformation of diazoamidobenzene into amidoazo- 

 benzene, by Prof. R. Meldola, F.R. S. 



Victoria Institute, February 21. — Prof. T. McKenny Hughes 

 read a paper on caves, their formation, uses as places of refuge, 

 and the influences which in many cases cause uncertainty as to 

 the ages of the deposits therein. In regard to E'iglish sea caves 

 he held that our coasts ha 1 not recovered their present elevation, 

 after the .submergence that followed on the Glacial age, before 

 man came on the scene, marine shells being found buried in the 

 same e.arth as Palaeolithic man and the e.\tinct animals. 



Middlesex Natural History Society, February 15. — Mr. 

 Maltieu Williams in the chair. — Mr. Eogan Lobleyread a paper 

 on the geology of the parish of Hampstead. Commencing with 

 a sketch of the work of those distinguished geologists who have 

 made Hampstead classic ground, Mr. Lobley referred especially 

 to the w.5rk of the late Mr. Caleb Evans, and mentioned that 

 Mr. Evans's well-known model of the area had passed into safe 

 keeping. The London Cl.ay was described in detail ; its mine- 

 rals, the nature of its clays, and the material manufactured from 

 theai, were treated of, as well as the sections, and the fossils 

 they have yielded. Passing on to the Bagsliot Sands, Mr. 

 Lobley traced their age, their connection with similar beds of 

 other districts, and the important part they play in the question 

 of water-supply. Some remarks upon the formation of the 

 present features of the area hy denudation, and some interesting 

 and suggestive notes upon the .sources .and direction of flow of 

 the former smaller stream;, such as the Fleet, the West Bourne, 

 and the Bays Water, with a reference to the great folds of the 

 Chalk, and the relation of the geology of London to that of the 

 southern area, concluded the paper. 



EDINfiURGH 



Royal Society, February 7. — Lord Maclaren, Vice-Pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — Dr. E. Sang read a paper on cases of 

 instability in open structures. — Mr. W. Peddie communicated a 

 paper on the time-rate of increase of electrolytic polarisation.--- 

 Sir W. Thomson discussed the equilibrium of a gas under its 

 own gravitation alone, and pointed out the bearing of the 

 problem on the question of the probable age of the sun. — Dr. 

 Ralph Copeland, of Dun Echt Observatory, communicated some 

 astronomical notes. 



Royal Physical Society, January ig. — Dr. .Ale.\ander Bruce 

 showed some mic-oscopic specimens tending to confirm Gower's 

 views with regard to the existence of the ascending lateral tract in 

 the spinal cord. His sections were taken from acaseof meningo- 

 myelitis confined to the lower dorsal cord. They showed 

 ascending degeneration of Goll's columns, of both cerebellar 

 tracts, and of a comma-shaped tract in the situation of the 

 ascending lateral tract of Gower's. — Dr. R. H. Traquair com- 

 municated the first part of a revision of the nomenclature of 

 the fishes of the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland,— Mr. W. E. 

 Hoyle read a report on a collection of shells brought from the 

 West Coast of Africa, the Canaries, and Cape Verde Islands, 

 by Mr, John Rattray. 



Mathematical Society, February 11. — Mr. George Thorn, 

 President, in the chair. — Mr, W. J. Macdonald gave a proof of 

 a geometrical tlieorem ; Mr. A. Y. Fraser submitted a paper on 

 vortices, by Mr. Charles Chree ; Mr. R. E. .-Vllardice communi- 

 cated a note on a theorem in algebra, by Mr. John L. Mac- 



kenzie ; Mr. George .\.. Gibson called attention to a point in 

 the history of definite integrals ; and Mr. John S. Mackay gave 

 a few trigonometrical notes. 



Cambridge 



Philosophical Society, January 31. — Prof. Babington in 

 the chair. — On the motion of a ring in an infinite liquid, by Mr. 

 A. B. Basset. — Form and position of the Horopter, by Mr. J, 

 Larmor. — On the finer structure of the walls of the endosperm 

 cells of Tamils cominiinis, by Mr. Walter Gardiner. It would 

 appear, from the author's n-iore recent researches, that the per- 

 foration of the walls of the endosperm cells in the plant referred 

 to is established after the formati m of the wall, and in a siinilar 

 manner to that which occurs in sieve-tubes during the formation 

 of the sieve-plate. The author further hopes to show that this 

 is a special instance of a general phenomenon. 



February 14. — Mr. Trotter, President, in the chair. — On 

 the influence of capillary action in some chemical decomposi- 

 tions, by Prof. Liveing. — On homotaxis, by Mr. J. E. Marr. — 

 Note on the function of the secreting hairs found upon the nodes 

 of young stems of Thuiibcrgia laiirifolia ; on the petiolar glands 

 of the Ipomoeas ; and on the occurrence of secreting grandular 

 organs on the leaves of some Aroids, by Mr. Walter Gardiner. 

 In the last paper the author remarked that it has been frequently 

 stated that the entire absence of all extra-floral secretory stnic- 

 tures in monoc:)tyledonous plants furnishes one of the most 

 striking points of difference between the above-named group and 

 the Dicotyledons. One would be led to expect, hov.'ever, that 

 some form of secretive organ should be present, and that 

 ]irobably they would be found — if anywhere — among the Aroids. 

 Guided by these considerations, the author made a careful exa- 

 mination ofithe Aroids at Kew, and was so fortunate as to find 

 two individuals, viz. Aglaonemi Mannii and Alvasia cuprea, 

 which appear to him to possess definite organs of secretion. 

 The structure of these organs was then shortly described, and a 

 comparison was instituted between them and certain forms of 

 extra-floral nectaries. As to the existence of intramural glands, 

 e.g. in Anthitrium piinclatum, the author's observations con- 

 firmed those of Dalitzsch recently published in the Bolanisches 

 CciitratUill. 



Liverpool 



Biological Society, Januaiy 22. — Prof. W. Mitchell Banks, 

 President, read his inaugural address, which dealt with the aims 

 and objects of the Society. — Prof. W. A. Herdman read a paper 

 on recent researches in connection with the vertebrate brain (the 

 pineal eye in lizards, and the pituitary gland in the Vertebrata 

 and Tunicata), and their bearing on the hypothetical proto- 

 chordata. 



February 12. — Prof. W. A. Herdman, Vice-President, in the 

 chair. — Mr. A. O. Walker contriiiuted some notes on the Mysidie 

 of Liverpool Bay, with a description of some abnormal specimens. 

 — A paper was read by Mr. J. l.omas on some points in the struc- 

 ture of AlcyoniJiuin gdatinosuin. — The Secretary (Mr. R. J. 

 Harvey Gibson) drew attention to the new English translation of 

 Sachs's "Text-book of Botany," Book II., by Goebel, and made 

 some remarks on the value of a uniform terminology for the repro- 

 ductive organs, not merely in botany, but in biology generally. — 

 Dr. Ellis contributed some notes on boring insect larv*. — Dr. 

 Larkin exhibited and described some physiological apparatus. 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, February 28, — M. Gosselin, President, 

 in the ch,;ir. — Remarks accompanying the presentation of MM. 

 Charcot and P. Kicher's work, " Les Demoniaquesdansl'Art, " by 

 M. Charcot. Representations of persons "possessed by the 

 devil," that is subject to epilepsy and other nervous aflections, 

 have been brought together from ivories, enamels, tapestries, 

 engravings, paintings, and other sources, for the purpose of 

 studying these works from the stand-point of scientific truth. 

 Such masters as Andrea del Sarto, Domenichino, and Rubens are 

 generally found to have depicted these subjects with a strict 

 regard to nature, so that their figures accurately reproduce the 

 traits of a now well-understood pathological state. — Determination 

 of the constant of aberration : first and second method of obser- 

 vation, by M. Loewy. The author here deals with the somewhat 

 feeble part played by refraction in these already described pro- 

 cesses. From this study it appears that, the action of refraction 

 being at all altitudes the same, the measure of the distance (except 

 for very low regions) may be everywhere effected under almost 



