July 24, 1913] 



NATURE 



549 



was no longer needed, so that the contrivance was 

 entirely free from gyrostatic oscillations. The model 

 was shown moving slowly about the room under the 

 direction of an electromagnetic driver seated on the 

 car and controlled bv a switch on the lecture table. 

 The driver could also be operated by wireless trans- 

 mission. . 



|ulv 7.— Dr. J. Home, vice-president, in the chair. 

 — S. D. Carothers : Plane strain in a wedge with 

 application to masonry dams. The equations of 

 equilibrium for plane strain were applied to a sector 

 of an infinite right cylinder bounded by two planes 

 through the axis, when the plane faces were subject 

 to various conditions of pressure, which was either 

 constant or varying as the distance from the axis. 

 The several appropriate solutions were combined with 

 the solution appropriate to "the case in which the body 

 forces were considered so as to obtain a solution 

 applicable to the case of a masonry dam. The dis- | 

 placements were worked out for one case.— Prof. J. 

 Stanley Gardiner : The corals of the Scottish National 

 Antarctic Expedition. Five species were described, of 

 which one, referred to genus Madracis, was new. It was 

 dredged off the Abrolhos Bank.— Dr. W. M. Tatter- 

 sail :"The Schizopoda, Stomatopoda, and non-Antarctic 

 Isopoda of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, i 

 Of Schizopoda twenty-four species were recorded, in- ; 

 eluding one new species of Boreomysis. The Stomato- > 

 poda were represented by one species of Squilla and 

 three larval forms of Lys'iosquilla ; and of the eighteen 

 species of Isopoda recorded, three were new, two of 

 Exosphaeroma, and one of Antarcturus.— Dr. J. H. 

 Ashworth : Some pseudo-hermaphrodite examples of 

 Daphnia pulex. The specimens were undoubted 

 females, but in each the antennule of one side re- 

 sembled that of a male, and in one case also one of 

 the valves of the carapace had a configuration similar 

 to that of a male. In all other features, both external 

 and internal, the specimens exhibited female char- 

 acters. The offspring of two of the specimens were 

 available for examination, and proved to be entirely 

 normal— that is, the structural peculiarities of the 

 antennule were not transmitted. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, July 15.— M. F. Guyon in the 



chair. J. Boussinesq : The theorv of Savart's retractile 



liquid sheets.— Armand Gautier and P. Clausmann : 

 Fluorine in the animal organism, brain, glands, 

 muscles, blood, milk, excretions. Fluorine exists_ in 

 all animal organs and tissues, but in very varying 

 proportions. Excluding organs not completely formed 

 in very young animals, and the excretions, there is a 

 relation between the amounts of fluorine and phos- 

 phorus present ; the two increase together without 

 being proportional. The dental enamel has the 

 highest proportion of fluorine, 1S0 to 118 milligrams 

 in 100 grams of dry material ; muscle has the smallest 

 amount, 06 to 015 milligram in 100 grams of dry 

 material. In man about 1 milligram of fluorine is 

 excreted per day, and as the fluorine taken with the 

 food is considerably greater than this figure, t In- 

 difference represents" epithelial desquamation, hair and 

 nails. &c. — H. Block : The energy of nebulae and 

 Carnot's principle. A discussion of the theory of 

 Arrhenius and an extension of some recent calcula- 

 tions on this subject bv Schwarzschild.— Kr. Birkeland : 

 The general magnetism of the sun. — M. Robinson : 

 Systems of partial differential equations. — Th. 

 Anghelutza : A generalisation of Riemann's summation. 

 — M. Aries : Remarks on a form of the velocity of 

 propagation of sound in a homogeneous fluid. — Thadee 

 Peczalski : New forms of the characteristic equations 



no. 2282, VOL. ai"! 



of gases.— Marcel Boll: The influence of the wave- 

 length on the velocity of a photochemical reaction. 

 A formula is given, based mi experimental results, 

 expressing the velocity of a reaction as a function of 

 the thickness of the layer, com nitration, coefficient 

 of absorption, power and frequency of the incident 

 radiation. The wave frequency acts in a manner 

 analogous with temperature in ordinary chemical re- 

 actions.— M. Blanchetiere : Oxidation and luminescence. 

 A large number of substances have been examined 

 "for the production of luminescence on oxidation. The 

 phenomenon was marked with lophine, amarine, 

 hydrobenzamide, extracts of meat, urine, tea. lhe 

 question as to the exact nature of the organic complex 

 the oxidation of which results in luminescence was 

 not solved.— S. Wologdine : The heats of formation of 

 some silicates of iron and manganese.— Paul Braesco : 

 The baking of clays.— Victor Henri and Rene Wurm- 

 ser • The action of ultra-violet rays on solutions of 

 hydrogen peroxide. The velocity of decomposition ot 

 hydrogen peroxide in monochromatic light is propor- 

 tional to the concentration, to the incident energy, 

 and to the energy absorbed. Einstein's law of photo- 

 chemical equivalence does not apply to this reaction. 

 The energy which is absorbed by the decomposition 

 of a gramlmolecule of hydrogen peroxide is sensibly 

 equal to the energy evolved by the decomposition of 

 the same quantity in the dark.-Daniel Berthelot and 

 Henrv Gaudechon": Addition reactions between carbon 

 monoxide and other gases under the influence of the 

 ultra-violet rays. Carbon monoxide, under the action 

 of ultra-violet light, combines with chlorine oxygen, 

 water, ammonia, but not with bromine, iodine, sul- 

 phur, sulphuretted hydrogen, phosphine, arsine— Leo 

 Vignon : The formation of methane by catalysis, start- 

 ing- with carbon monoxide and water vapour. De- 

 tails of experiments with iron, nickel, copper, and 

 their oxides, silica, alumina, and magnesia^as cata- 

 Ivsers at temperatures ranging from 300 L. to 

 12 co° C — H Gault : The lactonisation of the a-ketomc 

 esfers -Ipaul' Lebeau and Marius Picon : The action of 

 sodammonium on the true acetylenic hydrocarbons of 

 the fatty series, and on a mode of formation ot 

 ethvlenic hydrocarbons. Sodammonium reacts with 

 the' acetylenic hydrocarbons of the fatty series, giving 

 the sodium derivative of these hydrocarbons and the 

 corresponding ethvlenic hydrocarbon in the proportion 

 of one molecule of the ethylene to two molecules of 

 the sodium derivative. The products of the reaction 

 are very pure, and no secondary reactions . were 

 observed — L Bounoure : The influence of the size of 

 insects on the production of chitin. The mean thick- 

 ness of the chitin layer is constant, or the quantity ot 

 chitin is proportional to the secreting surface— 

 Edouard Chatton : Orchitosoma parasiticum, a parasite 

 with three rudimentary leaflets of Paracalanus parvus. 

 _E Faure-Fremiet : The action of the ultra-violet rays 

 on 'the egg of iscaris magnalocephala.— Charles 

 Nicolle, \ Conor, and E. Conseil : Intravenous inocula- 

 tion o "some living tvohoid bacilli -Gabriel Bertrand 

 and Robert Sazerac : The favourable action exercised 

 bv manganese on the acetic fermentation The power 

 o7 the organism of transforming alcohol into acetic 

 acid is stronglv accelerated bv the addition of a certain 

 proportion of manganese; the acceleration increases at 

 first as the amount of manganese increases then 

 passes a maximum— R. Fosse: The presence of urea 

 In the invertebrates and in their excretion products- 

 Jules Ventre : The influence of the yeasts and the 

 initial constitution of the musts on the acidity of fer- 

 mented liquids—Andre Mayer and Georges Schaeffer : 

 Researches on the liooevtic constancy. The_ propor- 

 tion of lipoids containing phosnhorus in the tissues— 

 M Repelin : The geology of Sainte-Baume. 



