March 20, 19 13] 



NATURE 



75 



the Meteorological Office each day by telegraph from | 

 thirty British stations, and from forty on the continent I 

 of Europe and the islands of the North Atlantic. 

 Information from thirty stations is 3 however, quite I 

 inadequate for checking the accuracy of the forecasts. | 

 For this purpose results from more than 130 stations 

 are used. The forecasts are checked separately for 

 wind and weather, the term weather being considered 

 in regard to (1) temperature; (2) precipitation; (3) 

 cloudiness or the reverse; (4) fog. The extension of 

 the period covered by the forecasts for " further out- [ 

 look " was described, and the application of this to [ 

 the notification of probable spells of fine weather 

 which the Meteorological Office now issues to farmers 

 during' the summer. 



Mathematical Society, March 13. — Prof. Love, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — H. M. Macdonald ; The diffraction ' 

 of light bv an opaque prism. — S. Lees : The natural | 

 radiation from transparent media. — L. J. Mordell : In- 

 determinate equations of the third and fot rth degrees. 

 A. Cunningham : Mersenne's numbers. — J. Proud- 

 man : 11) A two-dimensional potential problem with 

 applications to hydrodynamics and elasticity; (2) tidal 

 motion in rotating sheets of water. 



Royal Astronomical Society, March 14.— Major E. H. 

 Hills, C.M.G., F.R.S., president, in the chair.— H. F. 

 Newall and F .J. M. Stratton : Enhanced lines in the 

 early spectrum of Nova Geminorum No. 2. The 

 elements most strongly represented by these lines are 

 titanium and iron ; a number of other elements were 

 indicated with less certainty. Two well-known bands 

 frequently ascribed to helium were considered by the 

 authors to be enhanced lines of iron. — F. W. Dyson : 

 The distribution in space of the stars of Carrington's 

 circumpolar catalogue. This catalogue contains prac- 

 tically all the stars of the Bonn Durchmusterung 

 within o° of the north pole. The paper dealt at length 

 with the proper motions of the stars, the proper 

 motions being based on those determined in con- 

 nection with the Greenwich astrographic work. — 

 A. S. Eddington : The distribution in space of the 

 bright stars. The stars considered were those brighter 

 than 5-8 magnitude. Stars of the spectral types A 

 and K were separately dealt with, and in each case 

 results were obtained for two regions, one typical of 

 high galactic latitudes and one of low. — Major Hills 

 and F. C. H. Carpenter : Results of observations with 

 the Durham almucantar during 10,12. The results on 

 the whole were not very encouraging, as there are 

 two errors which are peculiar to all floating- instru- 

 ments — the temperature gradient and the unsteadiness 

 of the telescope. These may be reduced, but it does 

 not seem possible to eliminate them ; the almucantar 

 thus seems an inferior instrument to the transit circle. 

 — R. S. Capon : Note on the possibility of refraction 

 in the solar atmosphere (papers of the International 

 Union for Solar Research, No. 8). 



Cambridge. 

 Philosophical Society, February 10. — Dr. Shipley, 

 president, in the chair. — G. R. Mines : Note on the 

 respiratory movements of Torpedo occllata. A method 

 for recording the frequency and amplitude of rhythmic 

 movements over prolonged periods of time is described. 

 The respiratory movements of elasmobranch fishes are 

 known to be of two kinds, the ordinary breathing 

 movements interrupted by occasional " spouting move- 

 ments." The spouting- movements can be produced 

 with ease by the slightest irritation of the inside of 

 the pharynx, as by the introduction of foreign particles 

 with the water. It has therefore been supposed that 

 whenever the spouting movements are observed they 

 indicate the entry of some foreign object with the 



NO. 2264, VOL. 91] 



inspired water. Experiments made with the apparatus 

 referred to above show that the spouting movements 

 have a tendency to recur at rhythmic intervals. The 

 period of this rhythm is often as long as two to five 

 minutes, but sometimes it is shorter. The modifica- 

 tions it undergoes in response to changes in the 

 environment suggest that the nerve cells controlling 

 the movements have themselves a tendency to dis- 

 charge rhythmically. — F. A. Potts : The swarming of 

 Odontosyllis. The appearance of great numbers of 

 sexually mature individuals of Odontosyllis phosphorea 

 was observed on the surface of the sea near Nanaimo, 

 Vancouver Island, in the years 19 11 and 19 12, during 

 four days in the latter part of August. The swarming 

 begins before sunset, lasts nearly an hour, and is 

 almost over before it is quite dark. A comparison 

 was drawn with O. enopla from the Bermudas, de- 

 scribed by Galloway and Welch, in which the time of 

 -.warming is a little later and phosphorescence is so 

 greatly developed as to be used as a method of sexual 

 recognition. Only in the case of the insects else- 

 where has luminosity been proved to possess an adap- 

 tive significance.— S. R. Price ; Observations on Poly- 

 porus squamosus. Polyporus squamosus, Huds., is a 

 well-known timber-destroying fungus, frequent on 

 many species of our trees. The artificial culture of 

 the fungus on sterilised wood blocks was described for 

 the first time. — R. H. Rastall : Note on the composi- 

 tion of some Pleistocene sands near Newmarket. 



Manchester. 



Literary and Philosophical Society, February 18. — Prof. 

 F. E. Weiss, president, in the chair. — Prof. G. Elliot 

 Smith : The Sussex skull and its brain-cast. Plaster 

 copies were shown of the fragments of the Sussex 

 skull and the cast made from them to represent the 

 formation of the brain. An account of our present 

 knowledge of ancient man was given in order to 

 illustrate the importance of the new information sup- 

 plied by the Sussex remains. 



March 4.— Prof. F. E. Weiss, president, in the 

 chair. — A. D. Hall : The plant and the soil. The 

 plant takes but a very small portion of its substance 

 out of the soil, but that little is indispensable. Growth 

 especially depends upon the supply of nitrogen, phos- 

 phoric acid, and potash, and the function of a manure 

 is to suonly the deficiencies of an ordinary soil in one 

 or more of these substances. These substances having 

 to be in solution before entering the plant, one had 

 to conceive of the water which is always present in 

 the soil in a thin film coating the soil particles as a 

 nutrient solution containing more or less of the mate- 

 rials determining the plant's rate of growth. Com- 

 pounds of phosphoric acid and potash present in the 

 soil possess but a very slight solubility, and the soil 

 solution would become saturated to its utmost capacity 

 even though the soil contained much less phosphoric 

 acid and potash than are ever found in cultivated 

 land. The" acceptance of this view prevents the differ- 

 ence between good and bad soil being attributed to 

 any difference in the amount of phosphoric acid and 

 potash in the soil; moreover, additions of these sub- 

 stances could not directly stimulate the nutrition of 

 the plant. This hypothesis had then to face the well- 

 known fact that the yield of crops on particular soils 

 could be greatly increased by certain manures, namely 

 phosphates. American investigators propounding this 

 theorv suggest that the manure acts by precipitating 

 and nutting out of action certain injurious substances 

 excreted by the roots of the plants. The value of 

 proper aeration of roots was demonstrated, and results 

 of wheat- and bariey-growing experiments given. The 

 theory of the indifference of the plant to the amount 

 of nutrients in the soil was found to be untenable. 



