ii6 



NATURE 



\Jun-e 3, 1880 



to the botanist, for though belonging to tlie European area, tlie 

 Riviera exhibits in climate and character of vegetation an 

 obvious link between the temperate and tropical zones. Its 

 accessibility and .singular flora, with scenes of unrivalled beauty, 

 offer ample material for study. 



Statistical Society, May 11.— Dr. W. A. Guy, F.R.S., 

 in the chair. — Two papers were read : the first by Capt. P. G. 

 Craifie, Secretary of the Central Chamber of Agriculture, on 

 ten years' statistics of British agriculture, 1870-79, and the 

 second by Messrs. J. B. Lawes and J. II. Gilbert, on the home 

 produce, imports, consumption, and price of wheat, over twenty- 

 eight harvest years, 1852-53, to 1S79 So, inclusive. Messrs. 

 Lawes and Gilbert in their paper arrived at the following con- 

 clusions : — The area under wheat was about 20 per cent, less 

 over the last three than over the first eight years of the twenty- 

 seven. The average produce per acre over the United Kingdom 

 amounted to only 27f bushels over the whole twenty-seven years 

 as compared with 28| bushels which we had previously assumed 

 to represent the average produce per acre of the country at large. 

 The annual imports averaged about three times as much over the 

 last three as over the first eight of the twenty-seven years. The 

 total consumption of wheat per annum had increased from an 

 average of about 18 million quarters over the first eight years to 

 nearly 24 million quarters over the la^t three years. The price of 

 wheat per ciuarter had declined from an average of 57.r. S(/. over 

 the first eight years (including the period of the Crimean war) 

 to 49J. over the last three years. The annual value of the home 

 produce available for consumption had declined from an average 

 of nearly 38,000,000/. over the first eight years, to less than 

 25,000,000/. over the last three years. The annual value of the im- 

 ported wheat had increased from an average of little more than 

 13,000,000/. over the lirst eight years, to more than 33,000,000/. 

 over the last three years. Over the whole period of twenty- 

 seven years, 40^4 per cent, of the wheat consumed had been 

 derived from imports ; and the amount supplied from foreign 

 sources had increased from an average of 26"5 per cent, of the 

 total over the first eight years, to 57*4 per cent, of the total 

 consumed over the last three years of the twenty-seven. 



PHILADELrHIA 



Academy of Natural Sciences, January 6. — On the nudi- 

 branchiate gasteropod moUusca of the Northern Pacific Ocean, 

 with especial reference to those of Alaska, by Dr. R. Bergh, 

 Copenhagen (Part 2). — The terrestrial moUusca inhabiting Cook's 

 Islands, by Andrew Garrett. 



January 27. — Carcinological notes: Revision of the Gelasini, 

 by J. S. Kingsley.— On the Pacific species of Caulolatilus, by 

 W. N. Lockington. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, May 24.— M. Edm. Becquerel m the 

 chair.— The .following papers were read :— On the secular varia- 

 tions of the mathematical figure of the earth, by M. Faye. Re- 

 garding the anomaly of the small action of such masses as the 

 Himalayas on the pendulum, and the great attractive force often 

 found at sea, he points out that under seas the cooling of the 

 globe i>rocecds more quickly and deeply than under continents. 

 The bottom of the first seas would thicken in advance of the dry 

 crust, and would press increasingly on the liquid nucleus, raising 

 the weak parts of the first crust, which were mostly round the 

 North Pole. The water level would rise on our hemisphere and 

 fall on the southern, and the ellipsoid of revolution become a 

 simple spheroid. With further cooling the basins of the southern 

 seas would have increasing attraction and the waters would 

 gradually rise in the southern hemisphere, their surface of level 

 returning to the ellipsoidal form, which, M. Faye thinks, is 

 slightly exceeded at present. Thus the earth's crust shows an 

 alternate lialancing movement determined by excess of weight of 

 maritime cru'-ts and the points of less resistance [in the heart of 

 continents. — On the refrigerating mixtures formed by an acid 

 and a hydrated salt, by M. Berthelot. The chemical energies act 

 according to the principle of maximum work, giving a first exo- 

 thermic reaction ; then the calorific energies act inversely, causing 

 absorption of heat under the four-fold form of dissociation, 

 disaggregation by the solvent, dissolution, and liquefaction. — 

 Actum of acids on alloys of rhodium with lead and zinc, by M. 

 Debray. He describes a peculiar substance (deflagrating at about 

 400' with heat and light) obtained from treating the rhodium- 

 lead alloy whh nitric acid. Rhodium forms, with zinc, alloys 

 which may exist in two isomeric states, giving very different 



reactions. — Determination of ^the position of a bridge to jbe 

 constructed over the Danube, near .Silistria, by M. I.alanne. — 

 On the transcendants which play a fundamental part in the theory 

 of planetary perturbations, by M. Callandreau. — On the theory 

 of ideal complex numbers, by M. Dedekind. — Integration of 

 certain differential equations with the aid of functions 0, by'.M. 

 Appell. — On elimination, by M. Le Paige. — Industrial utilisa- 

 tion of solar heat, by M. Mouchot. He has been experimenting 

 near Algiers since May last year. He specifies improvements, 

 (e.g., an arrangement for keeping the liquid to be vaporised in 

 contact with the whole heated surface), and indicates results. 

 Inter alia, since March the receiver has actuated a horizontal 

 engine (without expansion or condensation) at the rate of 120 

 revolutions a minute with constant pressure of 3*5 atm. ; the 

 disposable work being about 8 kgm. he set it to work a pump 

 giving 6 litres per minute at 3'Som., or 1,200 litres per hour at i m., 

 and to throw a jet 12 m. This goes on from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. — 

 Combinations of alcohols with baryta and lime ; products of 

 decomposition, by heat, of these combinations, by M. Destrem. 

 — Reactions produced between ammoniacal salts and carbonate 

 of lime, by M. Nivet. A double decomposition is shown to 

 occur in the ground and in water, the result being a loss of 

 ammonia, which is greater, the less absorbent the soil, or the 

 less the quantities of COo formed in it. — On the formation of 

 callosity, by MM Rigal and Vignal. — Experiments relative to 

 peritoneal shock, by MM. Reynier and Kichet. — On the form 

 and the seat of movements produced by cortical excitation of the 

 brain, by M. Couty. There is no relation between the cortical 

 region excited and the form or the place of the motions. Expla- 

 nation of the phenomena is possible only by admission of 

 the theoiy that the cortical white fibres are conductors of bulbo- 

 medullary excitations, and comparable to the peripheric con- 

 ductors, notwithstanding their course and their much more compli- 

 cated connections. — On the fixing power of certain organs for 

 alkaloids introduced into the blood which traverses them, by M. 

 Ileger. The hepatic tissue retains most ; the lungs absorb very 

 little. — Discovery of horse-pox vaccination, by M. De Pietra- 

 Santa. Several heifers were successively (and with effect) inocu- 

 lated in Paris with lymph from a young blood horse which had 

 come from Germany, and had horse-pox. — On a phenomenon of 

 sensibility observed in acacia, by Mr. Phipson. He obtained this 

 by striking the terminal leaflet several times with his finger. — On 

 the tertiary strata of Brittany; environs of Saffre (Loire- 

 Inferieure), by M. Vasseur. — M. Dubrunfaut retrnmed several 

 pieces (letters, memoirs, and reports) belonging to the Archives 

 of the Academy. 



CONTENTS Pagb 



Sign Language among the American Indians. By Prof. A. H. 



Savce 93 



Tkstikg Telegraph Lines 94 



Our Book Shelf :— ^ . . _ 



Johnston's "Physical, Historical, Politicil, and Descriptive Oeo- 



graphy " • 95 



" Zeitschrift fiir das chemische Grossgewerbe 9.5 



Letters to the Editor: — 



The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.— The Duke of Argyll ... 95 



Mr. Preston on Vortex Atoms.— G. H. Darwin, F.R.S 93 



The Inevitable Test for Aurora.— Dr. Warren Dk la Rue. 



F.R.S. ; Dr. Hugo MuLLBR 96 



Cloud Classification.— E. H 96 



■■Chipped Arrow-Heads."— Dr. R.W.CorpiNGER 97 



Cup and Rin? Stones.— J. RoMILLV Allen 97 



Songs of Birds.-A. N „' c ' * '' 



Comparative .\natomv of Man, III. By Prof. Flower, F.R.S. . 97 



The United States Weather Maps, Septh.-jber, 1877 . . . . . 100 

 Contributions to Molecular Physics in High Vacua. Ey 



William Crookes, F.R.S. ((F/M ////«/«</««) . • -■■ : 1°' 

 Rock-Weatheking, as Illustrated in Churchyards. By Prof. 



Geikie, F.R.S 104 



Gerhard Johannes Mulder i"" 



Notes '°5 



Our Astronomical Column :— 



Occultationof a Fixed Star by Saturn 11= 



The Polar Compression of Mars "= 



The Next Total Solar Eclipse " = 



Biological Notes: — 



Chinese Alligators ''- 



Fossil Corals ^^^ 



Circulation in Worms ^^3 



Large Cuttle Fish ^'3 



Sternum in Dinosaurs "3 



Antipatharia of the fi/(?fe Expedition "3 



American (East Coast) Siphonophora ''3 



Parasite on the American Blue Pike ^^4 



Motion in Alga: ^^4 



Geographical Notes "4 



LrNivERSiTY AND Educational Intelligence 115 



Societies AND ACADE.MIES "5 



