June 26, 1913] 



NATURE 



443 



Tables are given showing the daily range of the 

 variation, and also the times of the maximum and 

 minimum declinations to the east. The mean value 

 of the declination is about 24° W. The greatest 

 deviation from this occurs during the afternoon, and 

 amounts in some cases to 7-2 minutes of arc, less than 

 ->4° The total change in the declination has been 

 as much as io-S minutes in the day. Twelve curves 

 are given. The change in the position of the maxi- 

 mum, and also of the range, is of the same order as 

 that noted by General Sabine in the records taken at 

 Cape Town more than sixty years ago.— R. B. 

 Thomson : Note on the vertebral column of the bush- 

 man race in South Africa. The object of the inves- 

 tigation was to determine whether racial character 

 could be said to exist in the cervical and thoracic 

 vertebras, such having already been pointed out in 

 the lumbar and sacral regions. The results would 

 tend to show that the bodies of the cervical and 

 thoracic vertebra; are relatively narrower in their 

 anterior-posterior diameter, and deeper in their vertical 

 depth by about 5 per cent as compared with 

 Europeans. The vertebral foramen in both regions is 

 relatively longer, but not to such a marked extent 

 in the thoracic region. The vertical anterior and pos- 

 terior depths of the bodies of the cervical and thoracic 

 vertebra? show that these vertebrae, in common with 

 the lumbar, are not adapted to the vertebral curves. 

 The adaptation of the curves must therefore be purely 

 undertaken by the cartilaginous disc. 



Calcutta. 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal, June 4.— Rasik Lai Datta : 

 The action of nitrosyl chloride on secondary amines, 

 methylbenzylnitrosamine and ethylbenzylmtrosamine. 

 The 'amines experimented with were methylbenzyl- 

 amine and ethylbenzylamine, the corresponding nitros- 

 amines being obtained as yellowish oils. — Sarat 

 Chandra Jan : A new compound of ethylacetoacetate 

 with mercuric oxide. The preparation of the com- 

 pound sHgO^CrTCOCHXOC-aH, is described.— 

 Rasik Lai Datta and Haridas Mukherji : The double 

 mercuri-periodides of substituted ammonium bases. 

 Terrapropylammonium mercuri-periodide. A descrip- 

 tion of the preparation of the salt sN(C,H 7 ),LHgL is 

 given. — Hem Chandra Das-Gupta : Two-shouldered 

 stone implements from Assam. A short note describ- 

 ing two small stone adzes approaching the Burmese 

 type, obtained from the districts of Tezpur and Cachar 

 in Assam and now in the collection of prehistoric 

 antiquities of the Indian Museum. The occurrence 

 of these implements in areas through which the wave 

 of Khasia immigration may have passed is of some 

 interest in view of the relationships which exist be- 

 tween this tribe and the Mon-Hkmer peoples of 

 Burma.— Prof. George H. Carpenter : A new springtail 

 from Galilee. In describing a new species of Cypho- 

 derus from near Tiberias the author notes its re- 

 semblance to forms from the valley of the White Nile. 



Dr. N. Annandale : Polyzoa from the Lake of 



Tiberias. A large number of specimens of Phylacto- 

 laematous Polvzoa were obtained in the Lake of 

 Tiberias, but only two species were represented, a 

 hitherto undescribed Plumatella, remarkable for its 

 yellow lophophore, and Fredericella sultana, Blomh. 

 Reasons are given for regarding the Galilean race of 

 the latter as distinct from the common European form, 

 and particulars of its biology are noted. — Dr. N. 

 Annandale : Note on a sponge larva from the Lake of 

 Tiberias. Free-swimming larvae of Nudospongilla 

 were found to agree in the more important characters 

 with those of Spongilla. In view of the resemblance 

 between the skeleton of the former genus and that 

 of some marine sponges the point is of interest. 



NO. 227?, VOL. 91] 



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