December 2, 1909J 



NA TURE 



147 



exist. — Dr. Ediidge Green : Colour-perception spectro- 

 meter. This consists of an ordinary spectrometer with a 

 single prism, fitted with two wave-length drums, which 

 work two shutters placed in the focal plane of the eye- 

 piece. By means of the shutters any part of the spectrum 

 can be viewed at will, and the wave-lengths of the edges 

 of the patch under observation can be read off from the 

 drums. Dr. Green described how the instrument is used 

 for testing colour-blindness, and referred to the superiority 

 of the method over those usually adopted. — H. G. 

 Savidg^e : Tables of the ber and bel and ker and kei 

 functions, with further formulae for their computation. 



Mineralogical Society, November i6. — Prof. W. J. Lewis, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — J. B. Scrivener: An 



occurrence of native copper with tin ore in the Federated 

 Malay States. In concentrates obtained in the final wash- 

 ing of the tin ore from the Rotan Dahan mine in the 

 district of Kinta, Perak, the cassiterite was found to be 

 mi.\ed with a reddish mineral, which could not be separated 

 from it. This proved to be native copper in minute and 

 beautifully sharp crystals. The tin ore is obtained from 

 a mass of partially decomposed soft schists overlying lime- 

 stone, and the copper was probably the result of reduction 

 in situ of a copper, salt held in solution by water perco- 

 lating through the schists. — Dr. G. T. Prior : A meteoric 

 stone from Simondium, Cape Colony. Two or three 

 masses of a meteoric stone were discovered in 1907, 100 

 yards apart and a foot below the surface, in gravel near 

 Simondium Station, on the Paarl to French Hoek line, in 

 Cape Colony. The masses, of which the largest was not 

 more than a foot in diameter, were broken up by the 

 finders, who supposed the particles of nickel-iron seen on 

 the fractured surfaces to be native silver. Six of these 

 fragments, which were preserved, have been presented to 

 the British Museum collection by Mr. R. T. Hancock and 

 Mr. R. H. Stanley, one of the prospectors who discovered 

 the masses. The meteorite belongs to the less common 

 class of aerolites which show no chondritic structure ; it 

 consists of enstatite, olivine, and felspar, with nickel-iron, 

 magnetite, and some troilite. — L. J. Spencer : The occur- 

 rence of alstonite and ullmannite (a species new to 

 Britain) in a barytes-witherite vein in the New Brancepeth 

 Colliery, near Durham. A large vein of barytes, coinciding 

 with a fault, in the New Brancepeth Colliery is worked 

 commercially on a large scale for barytes, and has yielded 

 many finely crystallised mineral specimens. These include 

 barytes and witherite in large crystals, and the rare species 

 alstonite and ullmannite (NiSbS, with 28 per cent, of 

 nickel), the latter of which has not been previously re- 

 corded in the British Isles. Galena, blende, copper- 

 pyrites, iron-pyrites, and melanterite are also present in 

 small amount. The order of formation of the non-metallic 

 minerals is (i) barytes, (2) witherite, and (3) alstonite, 

 the two last having been derived from the barytes. The 

 ullmannite is found as cubes of considerable size and as 

 octahedra, and it sometimes forms a parallel intergrowth 

 with galena. — Prof. W. J. Lewis : Sartorite and other 

 minerals from the Binnenthal. .\ crystal of sartorite show- 

 ing twin lamellae was described. 



Royal Anthropological Institute, November 16. — Prof. 

 W. Ridgeway, president, in the chair. — F. G. Parsons : 

 The Rothwell crania. The church of Rothwell is situated 

 in the north of Northamptonshire. About 200 years ago 

 some workmen discovered the existence of a crypt, in 

 which was stored a large number of human skulls and 

 other remains. The date circa 1700 is the latest, there- 

 fore, to which the skulls can be assigned. As, however, 

 at the time of their discovery all knowledge of their exist- 

 ence had been lost, it is safe to consider 1600 as the latest 

 possible date for them. On the other hand, they can hardly 

 be earlier than 1180, which is the earliest date to which 

 can be assigned the vault in which they are stored. There 

 are probably some five or six thousand individuals repre- 

 sented in the vault, and it is practically certain that, as 

 at Hythe, the bones represent the burials of a very con- 

 siderable number of years, removed at various times to 

 the vault when the graveyard became overcrowded. It 

 seems justifiable, therefore, to consider the bones as being 

 the remains of English men, women, and children, most 

 NO. 2092, VOL. 82] 



of whom lived in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 

 It is interesting to notice that, except for a greater breadth 

 of forehead, these Rothwell crania are almost identical 

 with those of the students at St. Thomas's Hospital, 

 measured by the author. On the whole, however, the 

 Rothwell crania are slightly larger. The bones are in a 

 very bad condition owing to the damp. 



Royal Meteorological Society. November 17. — Mr. H. 

 Mellish, president, in the chair. — C. J. P. Cave : Methods 

 employed for observing pilot balloons used for investigating 

 the currents of the upper atmosphere. Two theodolites 

 are used, each at the end of a measured base-line, and 

 observations of the balloon are taken each minute from 

 its start. The readings are subsequently worked out and 

 plotted graphically, when the height, direction, and rate 

 of travel of the balloon during its course are determined. 

 The best time for observing balloons is shortly before sun- 

 set, as the sky will be becoming dark when the balloon 

 reaches its greatest height, and, being illuminated by 

 direct sunlight, will shine like a star. The author has 

 seen a balloon burst at a distance of forty miles under these 

 conditions. The rate of ascent of balloons is found to vary 

 considerably near the ground, and in cloudy weather, par- 

 ticularly when there is cumulus cloud, but higher up the 

 rate of ascent remains fairly uniform up to great heights. 

 — W. Marriott : Registering balloon ascents at Gloucester, 

 June 23 and 24, 1909. During the Royal Agricultural 

 Society's recent show the author sent up ballons-sondes 

 with recording instruments on three consecutive days. Two 

 of the meteorographs were found and returned. The 

 balloon on June 23 fell thirty-seven miles south-east, and 

 that on June 24 fell forty-three miles north of Gloucester. 

 The records showed that the temperature decreased pretty 

 uniformly up to between five and six miles ; above that 

 height the temperature increased somewhat, and then kept 

 nearly stationary up to the highest point reached by the 

 balloons, about twelve miles. The temperature recorded 

 on June 23 was higher than that recorded on June 24, and 

 the point of change, or the so-called " isothermal layer," 

 was about half a mile lower in altitude. This was prob- 

 ably due to the balloon on June 23 having ascended on 

 the eastern side of the centre of a cyclone, while that on 

 June 24 ascended on the western side of the centre. — W. P. 

 Brown : Winter temperatures on mountain heights. In 

 1867 the author placed a minimum thermometer on the 

 summit of Y Glyder-fach, a mountain near Snowdon, and 

 3262 feet above sea-level, and this has been regularly 

 observed and the lowest winter readings recorded each 

 year. The author gives the readings in full. — E. Gold : 

 The semi-diurnal variation of rainfall. The results of the 

 author's investigation seem to indicate that the upward 

 motion associated with the semi-diurnal variation of 

 pressure is the probable cause of the semi-diurnal variation 

 of rainfall. 



Geological Society, November 17.— Prnf. W. J, Sollas, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair.— A. R. Andrew and 

 T. E. G. Bailey : The geology of Nyasaland. E. A. N. 

 Arber : Description of the fossil flora. R. B. Newton : 

 Notes on the non-marine fossil MoUusca. Dr. R. H. 

 Traquair, F.R.S. : Description of the fish-scales of 

 Colobodus, &c. The greater part of Nyasaland consists of 

 crystalline rocks, which comprise : — (a) metamorphosed 

 sedimentary beds, including graphitic gneisses with lime- 

 stones, and muscovite-schists ; (6) foliated igneous rocks, 

 especially augen-gneiss ; (c) plutonic intrusions, usually 

 granite or syenite, more rarely gabbro. In the N.W. 

 corner of Nyasaland is an altered sedimentary series, which 

 forms the Mafingi Hills. It consists of accumulations of 

 quartzites, grits, and sandstones of pre-Karoo age. The 

 Karoo system is represented both in the north and in the 

 south of Nyasaland ; in the north it occurs in patches. It 

 has afforded remains of fresh-water lamellibranchs (Palso- 

 mutela), fish-scales (Colobodus), and species of Glossopteris. 

 Recent lacustrine marls and sands are found at great 

 heights above the present level of the lake, and as much 

 as fifteen miles away from its margin. Pumiceous tuffs 

 are found in the north of the country ; across the border, 

 in German East Africa, Tertiary and recent lavas and tuffs 

 are distributed widely. Nyasaland consists of high plateaux 

 rising irregularlv one above the other. — S. Smith : The 



