234 



NATURE 



[May i, 1913 



nutrient media. It has been found that soils so inocu- 

 lated with B. coli, together with other soil organisms 

 of a sporogenous type, are able to retain and absorb 

 moisture from the air in a remarkable manner, so 

 that during a period of three years flasks containing 

 these soils and only closed with cotton-wool plugs 

 retained and even increased the original water added 

 to them, whilst controls which did not contain the colon 

 organism rapidly dried up. — C. Revis : Variation in 



B. coli. The. production of two permanent varieties 

 from one original strain by means of brilliant green. 

 From the experiments it appears (1) that from one 

 single cell there may arise new cells differing in the 

 power of resistance to the same environment and 

 consequently modified by it in a different manner ; (2) 

 that the exhibition of physiological activity is not an 

 intrinsic and integral part of the protoplasm, but that 

 such powers may be entirely lost without loss of 

 vitality in the organism itself. 



Zoological Society, April. 15.— Sir J. R. Bradford, 

 K.C.M.G., F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — 



C. Tate Regan : (1) Fishes from Easter Island collected 

 by Prof. F. Fuentes. The collection included examples 

 of ten littoral species, four widely distributed in the 

 tropical Indo-Pacific and six new to science; of the 

 latter two were related to tropical forms and the rest 

 to species described from New South Wales or from 

 Norfolk Island. (2) A revision of the fishes of the 

 genus Kuhlia ; twelve species were recognised, includ- 

 ing three described as new to science. — R. I. Pocock : 

 The affinities of Canis antarcticus. It was shown that 

 (1) C. antarcticus and C. latrans are not closely re- 

 lated, as has been claimed ; (2) the affinities of C. ant- 

 arcticus lie with certain South American species of 

 Canidae; and (3) C. latrans must be affiliated with the 

 wolves and large jackals of the northern hemisphere. 

 These conclusions were based mainly upon cranial and 

 dental characters, and the points were illustrated bv 

 a series of lantern-slides of the skulls of several species 

 of Canida?. — Major G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton and 

 M. A. C. Hinton : A collection of mammals from the 

 Inner Hebrides. This collection was made during an 

 expedition organised and managed by Mr. W. R. 

 Osrilvie-Grant. Three new forms were discovered : 

 of these one (Sorex grantii) is regarded bv the authors 

 as an insular develooment of 5. araneus, whilst thev 

 are inclined to think that the other two (Evotomvs 

 alstnni and Microtus agrestis macgiUivrai) are slightly 

 modified survivals from the Pleistocene period. The 

 authors arg;ue that the evidence shows that Tslav. and 

 perhaps Jura, were separated from the old Hebridean 

 land-area as well as from the mainland of Scotland 

 earlier than were the other islands. Secondly, they 

 think it likelv that the severance of the Hebridean 

 district transpired before that of the Orkneys. Lastly, 

 thev consider that the evidence of the mammals sup- 

 ports the susrcestion of a former direct land-connection 

 between western Norway and the Hebrides, put for- 

 ward bv Steineger. — R. Lydekker : Bubalis caama 

 ^elbornei. subsp. n., a male hartebeest from the 

 Transvaal. 



Royal Meteorological Society, April 16. — Mr. C. J. P. 

 Cave, president, in the chair. — W. H. Dines : The 

 vertical distribution of temperature in the atmosphere 

 and the work required to alter it. It seems likelv 

 that the vertical distribution of temperature is the 

 result of two opposing tendencies, one the effect of 

 radiation, and the other the forced mixing produced 

 by the general circulation, aided perhaps bv the con- 

 vection caused by the heating of the earth bv solar 

 radiation and bv the latent heat set free by condensa- 

 tion. — J. E. Clark and R. H. Hooker : Report on the 

 ohenological observations for the year ending Novem- 

 bpr, iqt2. The chief factors affecting the field crops 

 NO. 2270, VOL. 91] 



were probably the dry warm April and May, followed 

 by the cold wet sunless summer. The spring was 

 perhaps the more important of the two ; it affected 

 the corn crops and the hay. All the crops in the 

 United Kingdom were below the average of the pre- 

 ceding ten years, although in Great Britain alone 

 meadow hay' was a little better than usual, and hops 

 were also above the mean by fully 23 per cent. The 

 harvest of iqi2 must thus be classed as very deficient, 

 and one of the worst experienced for many years. — R. 

 Corless, G. Dobson, and Dr. C. Chree : Meteorological, 

 electrical, and magnetic observations during the solar 

 eclipse of April 17, 1912. The observations discussed 

 were mostly made at the Meteorological Office, South 

 Kensington, and Kew Observatory. The temperature 

 fell nearly ^° during the eclipse, the minimum occur- 

 ring ten minutes after the maximum phase. At 

 Stations in the south of England the loss of recorded 

 sunshine due to the eclipse varied from about twenty 

 to twenty-five minutes. 



Dublin. 



Royal Irish Academy, April 14. — Rev. Dr. Mahaffy, 

 president, in the chair. — H. Kennedy : The large ions 

 in the atmosphere. This paper is a continuation of 

 work by Prof. McClelland and the author. The pre- 

 vious work had reference to the air of the city, and 

 it was suspected that flames of various sorts were 

 chiefly responsible for the large ions observed. This 

 view was supported by laboratory experiments show- 

 ing that ions of the same mobility (1/2000 cm. per 

 sec.) were present in flame gas when allowed to cool. 

 Observations were therefore made at Dalkey, about 

 eight miles from Dublin, at a point on the coast, so 

 that tests could be made of air from over the sea, from 

 country districts, or coming from the city. The_average 

 number of large ions per c.c. previously observed in 

 Dublin was 16,000, with a maximum of 54,000. At 

 Dalkey the average was about 1000, and numbers as 

 low as 200 were observed. Only when the air was 

 coming from the city to the place of observation or 

 during fogs were large numbers observed. The paper 

 also contains further data on the relation between 

 the numbers of small and large ions present. The 

 small ions increase in number with the decrease of 

 large ions present. — R. Southern : (1) Oligochaeta 

 (Clare Island Survey) ; (2) Gephyrea (Clare Island 

 Survey). (1) OligochaHa. Thirty-four species were 

 recorded. The earthworm fauna of Clare Island was 

 poor, only fourteen species being found. Two new 

 species of the family Enchytraeidae were described, the 

 first, Enchytraeus cliarensis, living in weeds on the 

 shore. The second species was of considerable in- 

 terest, being the first undoubted Oligochaste found 

 below low-water mark. Its remarkable character- 

 istics necessitated the creation of a new genus, and 

 the species was named Grania maricola. It was 

 dredged in twenty-four fathoms in Clew Bay. It is 

 closelv related to Enchytraeus mnnochaetus, described 

 by Michaelsen from South Georgia, an island in the 

 South Pacific, a species which evidently belongs to the 

 genus Grania. The chief character of the genus is 

 the great reduction in the number of setae,- which are 

 quite absent from the anterior end of the body. (2) 

 Gaphyrea. Ten species were recorded from the dis- 

 trict. The most interesting were Aspidosiphon mul- 

 let i, Diesins:. and Phascolosoma intermedium, a new 

 species dredged in twenty-four fathoms, showing char- 

 acters intermediate between the genera Phascolosoma 

 and Phascolion. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, April 21. — M. F. Guyon in the 

 chair. — A. Haller : The formation of tetra-alkyl 

 derivatives of rrcZohexanone and 0-methyIcydo- 

 hexanone and of trialkyl derivatives of menthone. 



