npril 7, 1887] 



NATURE 



55f 



ami specimens of sections of sponges were cxhibitcil of ex- 

 ceptionally large size. — An arrangement by Mr. W. -\. Haswell 

 was exhibited for mounting series-sections to the number of 

 thousands on one disk for consecutive examination. 



F.DI.NBURGH 



Royal Society, March 7. — Sir W. Thomson, President, in 

 the chair — The President read a third communication on the 

 equilibrium of a gas under its own gravitation alone. lie finds 

 that a large part of his former conclusions has been anticip.iled 

 by Mr. Homer Lane. — Sir \V. Thomson also communic.ited 

 a pai>er on Laplace's nebular theory, considered in relation to 

 ihermo-dynamias. In the light of thermo-dynamical principles, 

 Laplace's theory is seen to be not a mere plausible hypothesis 

 but a statement of actual fact. — Dr. Thomas Muir read part of 

 a paper on the history of the theory of determinants, treating of 

 authors from Hindenburg {1784) to Reiss (1829). — Dr. Muir 

 also communicated papers on a class of alternating functions, 

 and on the quotient of a simple alternant by the dilTerence-pro- 

 duct of the variables. — .Mr. J. Aitken read notes on solar radia- 

 tion, and on hoar-fro>t. — An account of researches on tlic in- 

 fluence of certain rays of the solar spectrum on root-absorption 

 and the growth of plants, by Dr. A. B. GriflTiths, was submitted 

 by Prof. Crum Brown. 



March 21. — Lord Maclaren, Vice-President, in the chair. — 

 Prof. Nicholson read a communication on variations in the 

 value of the monetary st.mdard. — Mr. J. V. Buchanan read a 

 paper on ice and brine, and another on thc'distribution of tem- 

 perature in the Antarctic Ocean. 



Paris 



Acadenny of Sciences, March 28. — M. Janssen, President, 

 in the chair. — On the calorimetric bomb and measurement of 

 heats of combustion, by M.\I. Berthelot and Recoura. The 

 improvements are described which have been made in this 

 apparatus, origin.ally invented by MM. Berthelot and Vicille 

 for the purpose of measuring the heats of combustion of orsjanic 

 compounds. The method, already applied to slightly volatile 

 substances and gases, may now be easily extended to all volatile 

 compounds, and is consequently a universal melhoil. — On .aeiial 

 vortices, by M. D. Colladon. The author announces that he 

 has succeeded in carrying out on a small scale the experiment 

 alluded to in his note of March 3, demonstrating that in a fluid 

 there may be set up a vortex with vertical axis and .ascending 

 movement. — On the variation of solubility of substances accord- 

 ing to the amount of heat liberated, by MM. G. Chancel and F. 

 Parmentier. The experiments here described show that to a 

 solubility increasing with (he temperature there does not neces- 

 sarily correspond an absorption of heat, so that one of the 

 relations established by M. Le Chatelier must be rejected. — • 

 Extracts from various reports of the local engineering seri'ice on 

 the cdfects caused by the earthquake of February 23, communi- 

 cated by the Minister of War. .\mong the results recorded at 

 Nice were the fissures produced in the Barbonnet Hill running 

 along its entire elevation aim .st vertically to the magnetic north 

 pole. — The same earthquake as observed at Moncalieri, by M. 

 F. Denza. The diagram is given which was traced by the 

 seismograph (Cecchi system) at the Moncalieri Observatory. — On 

 the latent heats of vaporisation of some very volatile substances, 

 by M. James Chappuis. The process here applied to the study 

 of the chloride of methyl, sulphurdus .acid, and cy.inogen is based 

 on the employment of the Bunsen calorimeter, by means of 

 which may be determined with considerable .accuracy the latent 

 heals of ebullition at o' under the maximum tension correspond- 

 ing to the melting of snow. The mean results obtained were 

 for the chloride of methyl, 96 9 ; sulphuric acid, 917 ; cyanogen, 

 1037. — On the determinaiion of the coefiicient of self-induction, 

 by .MM. P. Ledeboer and (i. Maneuvrier. The method here 

 employed to determine this quantity consists of a new adaptation 

 of those of Maxwell and Lord Rayleigh to a particul.ir case in 

 which the coeffi.ient is too we.ik to produce an appreciable 

 shock in the g.alvanometer. It possesses the advantage of dis- 

 pensing with the use of the ballistic galvanometer, and of ren- 

 dering possible the employment of an ordinary galvanometer 

 with mirror. — A study of the .alkaline vanad.ates, by M. A. 

 nitte. With a view to determining the place that vanadium 

 should occupy in a cl.assificalion of simple elements, the author 

 hire begins a study of the litlle-known metallic vanadates, taking 



first the vanadates of potassa : (i) VO5.KO; (2) 2VO„KO ; 

 (3) 3V05,2KO, i&c. — Double phosphate and arseniate of .stron- 

 tian and .'oda, by M. H. Joly. — On some ammoniacal combina- 

 tions of the chloride of cadmium, by M. G. Andre. This 

 .subject, already treated by Croft and Hauer, is here resumed 

 chiefly from the stand-point of the comparisons that it .suggests 

 between the three metals zinc, copper, and cadmium, whose 

 oxides are soluble in ammonia. — Act'on of nitric acid on the 

 solubility of the alkaline nitrates, by M. R. Ergel.— On the 

 metallic propionates, by M. .4dolph Renard. Among the pro- 

 pionates here studied are those of aluminium, barium, calcium, 

 cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lithium, magnesium, mangan- 

 ese, Itad, potassium, sodium, strontium, and zinc. — Age of the 

 upheaval of the Montague Noire, French Pyrenees, by M. .\. 

 Caravcn-Cachin. This ujihcaval is regarded as comparatively 

 recent, being referred to the beginning of the Upper Eocene. 

 It is more recent than the profoundly dislocated Lutetian and 

 Bartonian beds, but older than the Ligurian system. — On the 

 dolmens of Enfida, Central Tunisia, by M. Rouire. For the 

 first time a systematic description is given of this remarkable 

 group of dolmens, about 800 of which are found concentrated 

 in a space of some 250 hectares, disposed without any apparent 

 order, at distances of from 10 to 50 metres from each other. 

 All belong to a perfectly uniform type, consisting of a long hori- 

 zontal slab lesting on upright stones joined at right angles. 

 Except in a few depressions of the ground, none are covered 

 with heaps of earth or stones so as to form true mounds or 

 barrows, and all that were examined had the entrance on the 

 east or south-east side. Like those of Constantine (Algeria), 

 they are all of small size, the vertical stones scarcely exceeding 

 I metre in height, and varying from o'20 to 025 metre in thick- 

 ness. In the few that were opened, little was found except 

 some human bones and very coarse pottery, now deposited in 

 the Ethnographic Museum. 



Berlin 



Physiological Society, March 11. — Prof. Munk in the 

 chair. — Dr. A. Baginski communicated the results of his 

 observations and experiments respecting acetomiria in children. 

 He found that acetone was present in small quantities in the 

 urine of healthy chi'dren, though not in all ; and that in the 

 case of fever attending any of a very wide range of diseases, the 

 quantity of acetone present in the urine was increased. When 

 children were affected with eclampsia, attended, as such 

 disease mostly was, by serious disorders in the digestion, a larger 

 proportion of acetone was regularly observed in their urine. In 

 regard to the formation of .acetone in the blood, experiments in 

 feeding, on different sorts of animals, showed that it was not 

 produced by carbo-hydrates, as might be conjectured from the 

 composition, CH3 — CO — CH^, but from the decomposition of 

 albumfn. A longer course of flesh food yielJed a very con- 

 siderable increase in the secretion of acetone, whereas during a 

 course of feeding with farinose and fatty foods, the yield of acetone 

 very rapidly declined, and at length ceased altogether. When 

 a large deposit of albvimen occurred in the animal body, after 

 the period of lactation for example, no acetone was found in the 

 urine, even though food rich in albumen was administered. No 

 causal connexion between acetonous urine and eclampsia could 

 'oe demonstrated eitherclinically or experimentally. In rhachitis, 

 in which eclamptic attacks often occurred, no acetone was found 

 in the urine, nor was the administration of large quanlilics ol 

 acetone, even though continued for a considerable length of 

 time, found to produce any effect on the nervous system. — Dr. 

 Frenzel produced a long series of zoological and anatomical 

 prep.irations preserved in accordance with his method. The 

 preparations were hardened by means of alcohol containing 

 sublimate, and injected with glycerine. The glycerine injection 

 was eflected first with a more diluted and then with a more 

 concentrated solution, to which a solution of sugar was added 

 as an ingredient. The relative proportion of glycerine and 

 sugar was determined by tbe nature of the object. — Dr. Bl.aschko 

 demonstrated, by drawings and very beautiful microscopic pre- 

 parations, the structure of the epidermis. Starting with the 

 assumption that the final endings of the nerves of feeling must 

 be sought in the layer of the epidermis and not in the cutis, he 

 h.ad studied the structure of the upper skin at the boundary 

 between epidermis and cutis. He distinguished the main parts 

 of direct feeling (the hairless parts of the skin) from the parts of 

 indirect feeling (the hairy parts of the skin). The former. 



