\May 20, 1880] 



NATURE 



71 



(a) 24 hours' exposure to not very bright clouds ; {b) in dark : — 

 (a) Temp. 12° C. in light. (b) Temp, ao" C. in dark. 



Sulphu 

 used, sam 

 acidity. 

 0-4 



o-S 

 1-6 

 3'z 



C sol. 

 required. 



. O-S 



• 39 



• 49 

 . 6-1 



Sulphuric acid. 



... 0-4 ... 



... o-S ... 



... 1-6 ... 



... 3-2 ... 



11. There seems, therefore, no reason to doubt that this is a 

 true photometric process, with special capacities to be developed 

 lin time. I may add that I did obtain better results at the window 

 of my house than at the laboratory at the same time, the latter 

 being nearer the centre of the town ; thus the process has done 

 tlie duty it was intended for, although only once tried for this 

 special purpose. I am looking to it as an agent specially for the 



, e.vamination of climate, but of course it may have many uses. 



"This process does not aim at delicacy, but at accumulation of 

 eflect. I have not spoken of a standard ; the results are only 

 comparative, but the process may be made to supply its own 



'standard. 



12. Since writing the above it appears that by using sulphuric 

 lacid some of the fears at first entertained may be avoided, as is 

 Isliown by the following extract : — 



C sol. required after zi C. sol. required after 



B sol. hours' exposure of A 50 hours' exposure of 



\ to Ught. A to darkness. 



0-2 7"6 0-3 



o'S iS'i 0-6 



I i-o 23-4 0-6 



I 2-0 30-4 0-7 



4'° 43'6 07 



6-0 53-S 1-3 



The temperature of the solutions exposed to light = 13° C, 

 kept in darkness = 22° C. The iodine volatilised by heat was 

 found so little that it might be ue4lected here. 

 : The strength of solutions and the kind of acid to be used may 

 i'var)'. Similar results may be got by using bromide of potassium, 

 i but it is less delicate. The surface exposed and other questions 

 •require attention. 



• Mathematical Society, May 13.— C. W. Menifield, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — The following communications were 

 Imade: — On Cremonian congruences, by Dr. Hirst, F.R.S. ; on 

 iSome statical and kinematical theorems, by Prof. Minchiu; on 

 la class of analytical problems, by Prof. Cayley, F.R.S. 

 ' Linnean Society, May 6. — H. T. Stainton, F.R.S., in the 

 chair. — Three Foreign Members were elected. — Mr. T. Christy 

 read a letter from Mr. Blacklaw-, of St. Paulo, Brazil, intimating 

 I that his experiments to rear the Liberian coffee-plant had all 

 failed, though different seasons, altitudes, and other conditions, 

 v.ithout and indoors, had been tried. — The abstract of a paper 

 by Prof. G. Dickie, notes on alga; fro'm the Amazon, was read 

 liy the Secretary, This collection was made by Prof, J. \V. H. 

 Trail, and consists of 2SS species, whereof 190 are diatoms, 31 

 desmids, and 67 other alga', 9 of the latter being new forms. — 

 Prof. P. M. Duncan orally communicated the substance of a 

 paper on an unusual form of the genus Hemipholis, Agass. 

 This was dredged by Dr. Wallich off the Algulhas Bank, S.W. 

 cf the Cape of Good Hope. Its zoological position may be 

 doubtful, for the classification of the Ophiuroidea is at present 

 full of anomalies ; but the specimen itself nevertheless pos- 

 sesses unusual interest from the nature of the so-called dental or 

 chewing apparatus. These peculiar dental structures and other 

 points were elucidated by the author. — Mr. G. T, Bettany gave 

 some remarks on the vocabulary of botanical terms in use in the 

 description of flowering plants. The author advocated making 

 a distinction between terms used in elementary descriptions in 

 educational w orks and those used in the terse and complete floras. 

 Under evolution there was much chance of botanical progress if 

 terms were simplified and made such as children could compre- 

 hend ; but almost every book aiming at comprehensiveness 

 became obscure. Thinking it necessary to give every possible 

 variety of terms and to add to them, it repelled, instead of 

 aiding in the wide diffusion of knowledge. For these and other 

 reasons the author strongly objected to the now too frequent 

 v.:e of tri- and polysyllabic terms. — Prof. Ray Lankester read a 

 paper on the tusks of the fossil walrus found in the red crag of 

 .Suffolk. He withdraws the generic name of Trichccodon, insti- 

 tuted by him in 1S65, and refers a series of later-discovered 

 large tusks in the Ipswich Museum, as also his formerly- 



described specimens, to the living genus Trichechus, but specifi- 

 cally distinguished in this case as T. Htixleyi. He is inclined to 

 think there is insufficient ground for the generic subdivisions 

 Alachtherium and Trichecodon, as used by Van Beneden, and 

 moreover signifies his opinion that there is yet no good evidence 

 in support of the association of the Suffolk and Antwerp tusks. 

 — A short communication, on an irregular species of Ambly- 

 fneustes, by Mr. Chas. Stewart, was taken as read. 



Zoological Society, May 4.— Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — Mr. Sclater exhibited a specimen of the 

 Ibis (Ceroiituiis comatus), lately obtained at Biledjik, on the 

 Euphrates, by Mr. Danford, and made some remarks on its 

 previously-known distribution.— Dr. A. Giinther read a note 

 correcting the statement made by him at the meeting of the 

 Society on January 20 last respecting the occurrence of Holocan- 

 thiis tricolor on the British coa^t. Further particulars received 

 by Dr. Giinther had led him to decide that this fish could not be 

 considered as having been caught on the British coast. — Mr. W. 

 A. Forbes read a note on the cause of death of a leopard in the 

 Society's menagerie. — Mr. Dobson exhibited and made remarks 

 on some bones of the Dodo which had been transmitted from 

 Mauritius in 1S47-50 by Dr. F. Reid to Sir James Macgregor, 

 and having been deposited at Fort Pitt, Chatham, were after- 

 wards removed to Netley Museum. — Mr. F. Jeffrey Bell ex- 

 hibited the immature specimen of Echinolampas, referred to by 

 him in his communication on Palteolampas, pointing out its more 

 differentiated characters, and suggested the possibility of its 

 being an example of £. oviforinis. — Prof. Flower called the 

 attention of the meeting to the fact that a young specimen of 

 the Lesser Fin Whale (Balceonoptei-a rostrata), fifteen feet long, 

 which had been taken off the coast of Cornwall, was now being 

 exhibited in London. — A communication w-as read from Prof- 

 J. O. WestHood, containing an account of the species of Saw. 

 flies composing the Australian genus Pcrga of Leach. — A com- 

 munication was read from Dr. W. J. Hoffman on a supposed 

 instance of hybridisation between a cat and a lynx. — Mr. W. A. 

 Forbes read the second and third parts of his series of papers on 

 the anatomy of Passerine birds. These communications related 

 to the syrinx and other points in the anatomy of the Eurylii- 

 midce, and to the structure of Phih-pitta, and its position among 

 the Passeres. — A communication was read from Mr. F. Day, in 

 which he gave the description of a new Entomostracon from 

 Afghanistan. — Mr. Oldfield Thomas read a paper on a collection 

 of mammals brought from Ecuador by Mr. Clarence Buckley. 

 Among these was a new species of Bassaricyon, proposed to be 

 called B. aUeni. — Mr. A. G. Butler read a paper containing 

 descriptions of a collection of Lepidoptera made by Major 

 Howland Roberts at Rokeran, near Kandahar, on the River 

 Urgundab. — Mr. G. French Angas read a paper containing 

 further additions to the marine moUuscan fauna of Snuh Aus- 

 tralia, with descriptions of six new species. — A second paper by 

 Mr. Angas contained the descriptions of three species of marine 

 shells from Port Darwin, Torres Straits, discovered by Mr. W. 

 J. Bednall, and of a new Helix frcm Kangaroo Island, South 

 AustraUa. 



Geological Society, April 28. — Robert Etheridge, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — Rev. James Oliver Bevan, M.A., 

 Arnold Hague, Augustus Constable Maybury, Henry Peter 

 Meaden, William Peregrine Propert, and Francis Randell vi'ere 

 elected Fellows of the Society. — The following communications 

 were read : — Description of parts of the skeleton of an anomodont 

 reptile (/'/a/y/ca'waarM robiistus, Ow.) from the trias of Graaff 

 Reinet, South Africa, by Prof. Owen, C.B., F.R.S. The 

 author referred to certain triassic reptiles from South Africa, 

 already described by him, as showing certain resemblances to 

 implacental mammals. Another still more interesting indication 

 of such resemblances is furnished by some remains from Graaff 

 Reinet received from Mr. E. J, Dunn. These consist of some 

 thoracic vertebra; with portions of ribs, a sternal bone, a 

 scapula, and a right humerus, found imbedded in one mass 

 of rock, and of a femur and phalanges, and a pelvis in another 

 mass. The author described these bones in detai'. The 

 vertebrae were said to agree most nearly « ith those of Dicynodon 

 and Oudenodon. The supposed sternal bone is of a rounded 

 hexagonal form, and is regarded by the author as the anterior 

 bone of the sternum proper, wliich is usually unossified in recent 

 lizards, but well ossified in Oynitlwrhymhus. In the scapula, 

 also, the author pointed out resemblances to that bone in (Drin- 

 ihorhynchtis. The humerus in its general proportions, and 



