December i6, 1909] 



NA TURE 



209 



the Conglomeratic Grit, yielding a Paradoxides fauna.— J. B. 

 Scrivenor: The rocks of Pulau Ubin and Pulau Nanas 

 (Singapore). Pulau Ubin and Pulau Nanas are islands set 

 in the eastern entrance to tlie Straits of Johore, and consist 

 of igneous rocks of considerable interest. Pulau Ubin is 

 composed mainly of hornblende-granite, but a pyroxene- 

 bearing microgranite is found also, while the hornblende- 

 granite is cut by rhombic-pyroxene bearing veins and also 

 contains angular masses of rock resembling the veins. 

 Pulau Nanas consists of dacite-tuffs and dacite, which are 

 referred to the Pahang volcanic series, of Carboniferous 

 or Permo-Carboniferous age. The tuffs and lavas have 

 been altered by the adjacent granite of Pulau Ubin, and 

 contain much secondary biotite and hornblende ; their most 

 remarkable feature is the presence of fragments of altered 

 granite. The mutual relations of the different rocks are 

 described. The normal granite of Pulau Ubin is horn- 

 blende-granite, the age of which is certainly post-Triassic 

 and pre-Eocene, perhaps post-Inferior-Oolite and pre- 

 Cretaceous. Veins of quartz-norite and masses of quartz- 

 biotite-gabbro, and veins and masses of a fine-grained rock 

 which may be described as enstatite-spessartite, are found 

 in the normal granite of Pulau Ubin. A pyroxene-micro- 

 granite and porphyry on Pulau Ubin, and a rock at 

 Changi, having the mineral constitution of an amphibole- 

 vogesite, are described. The dacite-tuffs of Pulau Nanas 

 contain fragments of granite which must be of pre- 

 Carboniferous age, and are referable to the granite of 

 Amboyna. The fragments of granite, and perhaps certain 

 pebbles of schorl-rock, are the only evidence found as yet 

 in the Malay Peninsula of pre-Carboniferous rocks. — J. B. 

 Scrivenor : The tourmaline-corundum rocks of Kinta 

 (Federated Malay States). Overlying the limestone on the 

 west side of the Kinta Valley is a thin cap of schists, with 

 which are found certain rocks, the two chief constituents 

 of which are tourmaline and corundum. They are often 

 carbonaceous, and, in the many variations found, white 

 mica, brown mica, pleonaste, rutile, and metallic sulphides 

 occur. The tourmaline-corundum rocks of Kinta consist 

 of varying amounts of tourmaline, corundum, carbon, white 

 mica, spinel, and other minerals. They contain cavities 

 about 6 millimetres in greatest width, generally bordered by 

 a layer of corundum grains, with tourmaline grains on the 

 inside of this border. Sometimes solid bodies similar in 

 sire and shape to the cavities occur. Smaller bodies occur, 

 sometimes, but not always, accompanied by the larger 

 cavities and bodies. They consist of tourmaline, of corun- 

 dum, and of tourmaline and corundum. When both 

 minerals are present the corundum forms a shell to a 

 nucleus of tourmaline. The tourmaline-corundum rocks are 

 associated with other rocks, which lead to the conclusion 

 that the structures described are the result of replacement 

 of the materials of preexisting bodies at the time of 

 e.xtensive granitic intrusions. They also are associated 

 with rocks which point to the original beds having been 

 laid down under conditions similar to those that obtained 

 when the Pahang chert series was deposited. As tourma- 

 line-bearing partings in the limestone at Changkat Pari 

 constitute a case of selective metamorphism, so it is thought 

 that the tourmaline-corundum rocks mark a process of 

 intense metamorphism in beds associated with schists. 

 These beds were probably chert and silicified limestone, both 

 being in many cases carbonaceous. The larger cavities 

 and bodies mentioned are believed to be the result of re- 

 placement of oolitic grains. The smaller bodies may be, 

 in part, the result of replacement of the materials forming 

 casts of radiolarian structures. 



Mathematical Society. Ilecember 9. — Sir W. D. Niven, 

 president, in the chair.^T. H. Blakesley : An instrument 

 for the kinematical solution of cubic equations. — A. L. 

 Dixon : The eliminant of the equations of four quadric 

 surfaces. 



Cambridge. 



Philosophical Society, November 22. — Prof. W. Bate=on, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — J. C. F. Fryer : Aldabra 

 and neighbouring islands. — Prof. Stanley Gardiner : 

 Western Indian Ocean. — D. G. Lillie : Notes on the larger 

 Cetacea. It is pointed out that whaling stations have been 

 recently established off the shores of Ireland and Scotland 

 which offer excepfional opportunities for a study of the 



NO. 2094, VOL. 82] 



larger Cetacea. The history of the whaling industry is 

 briefly traced, and a short account given of the modern 

 methods of whaling from notes taken during a visit to the 

 Irish station. The paper also contains a note on the occur- 

 rence of hairs in whales. Hairs appear to be absent in 

 Odontocetes. The distribution of hairs in two species of 

 Balajnoptera is described, and a reason suggested for the 

 occurrence of hairs in the Mystacoceti. — G. N. Watson : 

 The continuations of functions defined by generalised hyper- 

 geometric series.— L. Vegard : Some general properties of 

 mixed solutions. 



Manchester. 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, No\emb-r 3c. — 

 Mr. Francis Jones, president, in the chair. — Prof. E. 

 Rutherford : The action of the a rays on glass. The 

 author recently reproduced the conditions under which 

 pleochroic halos, such as have been observed in mica, 

 would be formed, by enclosing a large quantity of radium 

 emanation in a fine capillary tube of soda glass. When 

 looked at under the microscope the walls of the tube were 

 seen to be surrounded by a well-defined halo about 04 mm. 

 in depth, which was equivalent to the maximum distance 

 of the a particle from the active matter. This result 

 confirms the correctness of the explanation given by Joly 

 of haloes in mica, as being due to small inclusions of radio- 

 active material. — Dr. B. B. Boltwood and Prof. 

 Rutherford : Production of helium by radium. After 

 mentioning that Rutherford, Geiger, and Royds had shown 

 that the a particle was an atom of helium, and that Ruther- 

 ford and Geiger had also calculated, by counting the 

 a. particles, that i gram of radium in equilibrium should 

 produce 158 cubic mm. of helium per year, the authors 

 state that they have recently made a determination of the 

 rate of production of helium by actually measuring the 

 volume produced. They used a barium-radium salt con- 

 taining about 200 milligrams of radium, loaned to one of 

 them by the Vienna Academy of Sciences. The experiments 

 gave a result corresponding to the production of helium at 

 the rate of 163 cubic mm. per gram of radium per year. 

 Sir James Dewar last year made systematic measurements 

 which indicated that helium was produced at a constant 

 rate equivalent to 135 cubic mm. per gram of radium per 

 year. — Dr. A. N. Meldrum : Development of the atomic 

 theory, i., Berthollet's doctrine of variable proportions. 

 The controversy between Berthollet and Proust at the 

 beginning of the nineteenth century as to whether the 

 composition of chemical substances is variable or not has 

 been greatly misunderstood. The histories of chemistry 

 represent Berthollet as a " person who had preposterous 

 notions " about the composition of chemical substances, and 

 was " deservedly annihilated " by Proust. A study of the 

 period shows that Berthollet's teaching, having easily 

 survived the criticisms of Proust, was refuted by Dalton's 

 teaching, and that the doctrine of fixed proportions was 

 onlv then put on a sound basis. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences. December 6.— M. Bouchard in 

 the chair. — The number of foreign associates has been in- 

 creased from eight to twelve. — H. Poincar# : Curves 

 traced on algebraic surfaces. — T. Carpentier : Remarks on 

 an isothermal barometer invented by the Marquis de Mont- 

 richard.— C. Guichard : Surfaces such that the tangents 

 to a series of lines of curvature touch a quadric. — D. 

 Cirera : The magnetic disturbance of September 25, 1909. 

 Details of observations made at the Observatory of Ebro. 

 — J. Comas Sola : Risumi of observations of Mars, made 

 at the Fabra Observatory, Barcelona, during the opposi- 

 tion of 1909. These observations were made with the 

 double Mailhat equatorial of 38-ciTi. aperture, the atmo- 

 spheric conditions in October being extremely good. The 

 main topographical details of Mars are invariable, but this 

 is not the case with the smaller details. A diagram of a 

 portion of the planet accompanies the paper. — Ch. Nord- 

 mann : A new approximation in the study of the effective 

 temperatures of the stars. These results are based on the 

 application of Planck's radiation law to the spectrophoto- 

 metrical measurements described in an earlier paper. The 

 temperatures found range from 2870° for p Perseus, 5320° 

 for the sun, to S Perseus 18,500°, and \ Taurus more than 



