442 



NATURE 



[June 26, 1913 



donta (1), Pholoe (i), Praegeria (i), Mystides (i), and 

 Paronides (ij. A new genus, Praegeria, was described, 

 belonging to the family Pisionidae, previously known 

 only from the west coast of South America. In addi- 

 tion, twenty species were added to the British fauna. 

 (2) Hirudinea. The leeches found in the Clare Island 

 area comprise eleven species, of which six are fresh- 

 water species, and five are marine. Of the fresh- 

 water forms, Hemiclepsis marginata was found for 

 the first time in Ireland. — E. Heron-Allen and A. 

 Earland : Foraminifera from the area of the Clare 

 Island Survey. The authors have worked out as in- 

 dependent units of their study thirty-seven stations in 

 the area. Of these, eleven were shore-sands, five 

 were dredgings taken by themselves from small boats, 

 and the rest were dredgings made by them on board 

 the fisheries cruiser Helga. kindly placed at their ser- 

 vice by the Irish Fisheries Board. The authors record 

 fifteen species new to science, thirty-five species new 

 to Great Britain, and twelve species recorded for the 

 second time in British waters. The most important 

 contribution to zoology is a complete revision and re- 

 arrangement of the genus Discorbina, the affinities 

 of which have become almost hopelessly confused in 

 the literature of the subject. Altogether two hundred 

 and ninety-nine species are recorded from the district. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, June 16. — M. F. Guyon in the 

 chair. — P. Appell and H. Vergne : A transformation of 

 a movement of a given conservative holonomial system 

 into the movement of another system given the same 

 freedom. — Charles Moureu and Georges Mignonac : 

 The ketimines. It is suggested that imines derived 

 from aldehydes of the type R.CH : NH should be 

 termed aldimines, whilst those derived from ketones 

 of the type RR'.C : NH are called ketimines. A new 

 general method of preparing the latter is described 

 based on the condensation of a nitrile with alkyl- 

 magnesium bromide, and the treatment of the com- 

 pound thus formed with hydrochloric acid in dry ether 

 under special conditions. Eight ketimines have been 

 prepared, the properties of which are given. — M. de 

 Forcrand : The Trouton coefficient and the heat of 

 vaporisation of pure bodies boiling at low tempera- 

 tures. Data for helium. The empirical formula re- 

 cently proposed by the author is applied to the cases 

 of chlorine, radium emanation, oxygen, nitrogen, 

 hydrogen, and helium, and the values calculated for 

 the latent heats of vaporisation compared with the 

 experimental figures ; the agreement is fairly satisfac- 

 torv. The case of helium is dealt with in detail. — 

 Eugene Fabry : An attempt at a demonstration of 

 Fermat's theorem. — H. Jonas : A transformation which 

 depends on a partial differential equation of the third 

 order. — Paul Montel : Total differentials and mono- 

 tonous functions. — Michel Petrovitch : Hypertrigono- 

 metric series. — Ch. Platrier : The holomorphic solu- 

 tions of certain linear integral equations of the third 

 species. — Theodor PoschI : The canonical equations of 

 non-holonomial systems. — Z. Carriere : A new method 

 of measuring the velocity of fluids. A small jet of 

 steam is introduced into the flowing gas the velocity 

 of which it is required to measure. A series of small 

 isolated clouds is formed, which are studied by a 

 rotating mirror and a formula deduced giving the 

 velocity. — Marcel Moulin : The terminal curves of a 

 chronometer balance spring. — Pierre Weiss : The mag- 

 netisation of crystals and the hypothesis of the mole- 

 cular field. — G. Sagnac : Interferential strioscopes and 

 simplified interferometers with inverse circuits. 

 Stationarv vibrations on a transparent silver film. — F. 

 Bodroux and F. Taboury : The bromination of some 



NO. 2278, VOL. qi] 



ketones and some secondary hydroaromatic alcohols. 

 The method of bromination of cydohexanone and 

 cydohexanol described in a previous paper has been 

 extended to some homologues of these compounds. — 

 J . Durand : The fossil shells in inclusions in the clear 

 crystals of gypsum of the Oligocene at Narbonne. 

 i The shells observed include Potamides, Lymnoea, 

 Planorbis, and Helix. The inclusion of such shells in 

 gypsum crystals appears not to have been noted be- 

 fore ; it is of interest as regards the theory of the 

 formation of certain gypsums. — L. Reutter : Chemical 

 researches on cocoa seeds. — P. A. Dangeard : The 

 action of radiation in a mixture of colouring matters. 

 A mixture of chlorophyll and pinaverdol was exposed 

 on a collodion film to light ; the pinaverdol is trans- 

 formed and finally destroyed by the energy absorbed 

 by the chlorophvli. Pinaverdol exposed under similar 

 conditions in the absence of chlorophyll to light is 

 unaffected. — Y. Manouelian : Researches on the cardiac 

 plexus and on the innervation of the aorta. — Marcel 

 Belin : The action of oxidising substances on toxins 

 in vivo. The experiments were made with guinea- 

 pigs and the oxidising substance employed was sodium 

 chlorate in doses of 008 gram per kilogramme of 

 body weight. A favourable action was observed with 

 typhoid fever and streptococcus infections. — Charles 

 Nicolle and A. Conor : Vaccinotherapy in whooping- 

 cough. Inoculation with living cultures of Bordet's 

 micro-organism resulted in cure of about one-third of 

 the cases, improvement in a third, and the remainder 

 were stationary. One hundred and twenty-two chil- 

 dren were treated, and in no case was the inoculation 

 followed by any general or local reaction. — M. Emm. 

 Pozzi-Escot : Researches on the mechanism of the 

 acclimatisation of yeasts to formaldehyde. Formalde- 

 hyde loses its antiseptic properties in yeast solution 

 owing to its combination with the amido-compounds 

 present. There is no evidence that formic acid is 

 formed by oxidation. — W. Kopaczewski : An analytical 

 dialyser. — Henri Agulhon : The action of boric acid on 

 zymase ; comparison with the action of phosphates. — 

 Mme. and M. A. Chauchard : Quantitative study of the 

 action of monochromatic ultra-violet rays on amylase. 

 The photochemical action of the ultra-violet rays on 

 amylase is proportional to the absorption of these rays 

 bv the solution containing the ferment. — Jean Bielecki 

 and Victor Henri : Quantitative study of the absorption 

 of the ultra-violet rays bv monoamines, diamines, 

 nitriles, carbylamines, amides, and oximes of the fatty 

 series. — H. Zilgien ; The transformation of calomel 

 into soluble mercury salts in the digestive fluids. — 

 Emile Haug : The western termination of Sainte- 

 Baume. — Leon Bertrand and Antonin Lanquine : Tec- 

 tonic observations in the neighbourhood of Grasse. — 

 E. Hernandez Pacheco : The Miocene mammals of 

 Palencia in the Spanish Meseta. — Carl Slormer : An 

 expedition for the observation of the aurora borealis 

 at Bossekop in the spring of 1913. Six hundred and 

 thirty-six pairs of simultaneous photographs of the 

 aurora were taken, of which 450 pairs were good 

 enough to furnish material sufficient to calculate with 

 great precision the form, situation, and altitude of the 

 principal species of the aurora borealis. 



Cape Town. 

 Royal Society of South Africa, May 21. — The president 

 in' the chair. — A. G. Stigand : Notes on Ngamiland. 

 A general account of Ngamiland and its inhabitants. 

 — H. A. Wager : Some new South African mosses. — 

 W. A. Douglas Rudge : Magnetic observation taken 

 at Bloemfontein. In this paper some account is given 

 of the diurnal range of the declination at Bloemfontein 

 during the period from August to December, 1912. 



