January 27, 19 10] 



NA TURE 



o^/ 



This is well washed with boiling water and dried in a 

 desiccator over sulphuric acid. Formed in this way, 

 scandium tartrate forms a white crystalline powder, in- 

 soluble in hot and slightly soluble in cold water, and 

 Insoluble in alcohol. 



CH(OH)COO.. 

 Scandium Racemate, I ,Sc(0H),4H.,0, 



CH(OH)COO^ 

 is prepared in a similar manner to the tartrate. The two 

 salts are, however, not quite similar, as the _ racemate 

 comes down less plentifully on boiling, and it is not 

 anhydrous as is the tartrate, but contains four molecules 

 of water, one of which is driven off at 115°. 

 CH{OH)COO. 

 Scandium L.Tjvo-taitrate, 1 ,,Sc(OH),2H.p, 



CH(OH)COO 

 is prepared in a similar way to the tartrate. When dried 

 in a desiccator over sulphuric acid it contains one molecule 

 of water. Dried in the air it contains two molecules of 

 water. 



CH(OH)COOx 

 Scandium Me.so-tartrate, | ^Sc(OH),H.jO, 



CH(OH)COO^ 

 is prepared by gently warming a slight excess of scandium 

 hydroxide with aqueous meso-tartaric acid, and then boil- 

 ing the filtered solution. The meso-tartrate comes down 

 as a white granular precipitate. The analysis of the com- 

 pounds of scandium with tartaric acid and its isomers has 

 been complicated by the tendency to form basic salts 

 admitting of no simple formula. Thus both the tartrate 

 and lacvo-tartrates occasionally form salts containing per- 

 centages of scandium ranging near to 23-5, with a deviation 

 of two- or three-tenths of a unit one side or the other. 

 The nearest basic salt which contains such an amount of 

 scandium has the composition 



fCH(OH)COO CH(OH)COO-Sc : O 



SJ I /Sc OH + 1 



lCH(OH)COO/ CH(OH)COOSc : O 



and contains 2349 per cent, of scandium. 



Linnean Society, December 16, 1909. — Prof. E. B. P -ulton, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — Rev. T. R. R. 

 Stebbing ; (i) Report on the Crustacea Isopoda and 

 Tanaidacea collected by Mr. Crossland in the Sudanese 

 Red Sea; (2) Isopoda from the Indian Ocean and British 

 East Africa. Among the Red Sea species the most interest- 

 ing novelty is one named Lanocira latifrons, in allusion to 

 the peculiar widening of the frontal process. In British 

 East Africa, Wasin has yielded a new genus and species 

 meriting the significant appellation Kalliapseudes makro- 

 thrix, which may be rendered in the vulgar tongue as the 

 " long-haired beauty of the .^pseudidae. " The species is 

 remarkable for the extensive fringes of feathered setje on 

 the mandibles, maxillipeds, and first gnathopods, as well 

 as for the short round-ended finger of its second gnatho- 

 pods. In the Stanley Gardiner collection the new species 

 Apanthitra xenocheir is unique within its own family in 

 the structure of the hand and finger of the first gnatho- 

 pods. The new genus and species Pontdgelos asclgokeros, 

 of the family Eurydicidse, from Mauritius, displays a pro- 

 longation of the first antennje hitherto unexampled in that 

 family. Several new species and a new genus of 

 Epicaridea, isopods parasitic on other crustaceans, are 

 described from specimens transmitted by Miss M. J. 

 Rathbun, who had extracted them with great care from 

 the crabs of the Stanley Gardiner Expedition. In one 

 instance it proved that the maternal pouch of the parasite 

 was occupied, not by the usual enormous mass of eggs, 

 but by another parasite, probably itself an epicaridean, 

 though strangely metamorphosed. The discussion of this 

 difficult tribe was opportune for offering a tribute of re- 

 spect to the memory of the late Prof. Alfred Giard, one 

 of whose latest writings was a luminous essay on Lamarck 

 and Darwin. — Prof. G. H. Carpenter : Pycnogonida from 

 the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, collected by Mr. Cyril 

 Crossland. — R. Shelford : A collection of Blattida; pre- 

 served in amber, from Prussia. — A. W. Waters : The 

 Bryozoa from collections made by Mr. C. Crossland, 

 part ii., Cyclostomata, Ctenostomata, and Endoprocta. 

 NO. 2100, vol,. 82] . 



The collections dealt with only contain sixteen species, 

 and these are nearly all known from the Mediterranean, 

 while nine are British. In this and the previous paper 

 ninety-nine Red Sea species and varieties are referred to ; 

 of these, 34 are known from the Atlantic, 26 from British 

 seas, 39 from the Mediterranean, 34 from Indian and 

 neighbouring seas, 17 from Crossland's Zanzibar collection, 

 8 from Japan, 35 from Australia. The classification of 

 the Ctenostomata is examined, and it is considered that 

 the group Stolonifera of Ehlers must be divided into 

 Vesicularina and Stolonifera. In the first there is usually 

 a moderately thick erect stem from which the zocecia arise 

 directly, and they all have gizzards, an organ not general 

 in the Ctenostomata, and probably confined to this group. 

 In the Stolonifera as now reduced there is a delicate creep- 

 ing rhizome expanding at intervals, and from these places 

 the zocecia arise, usually in pairs. There is no gizzard. 

 The gizzards of the Vesicularina usually have a large 

 number of sharp and irregular teeth surrounded by a band 

 of strong muscles, but in Cryptopolyzoon the gizzard has 

 but two teeth with nearly flat edges. 



Geological Society, Januarv :2, — Prof. W. J. SoUas, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — C. I. Gardiner and 

 Prof. S. H. Reynolds ; with a palseontological appendix 

 by F. R. C. Reed : The igneous and associated sedi- 

 mentary rocks of the Glensaul district (County Galway). 

 The general succession of the rocks of the Glensaul district 

 is given, in descending order, in tabular form. The 

 graptolitic beds occurring in the Mount Partry beds have 

 yielded nineteen species, which indicate the upper part of 

 the zone of Didymograptus extenstis. The commonest 

 species met with are D. cxtensits. Hall, and D. bifidus. 

 Hall. In a previous description of the rocks of the Tour- 

 makeady district, the term Shangort beds was applied to 

 a series of grits and tuffs, and the term Tourmakeady beds 

 to an associated series of calcareous strata which generally 

 take the form of limestone-breccias. In the Glensaul dis- 

 trict it is not possible to draw a sh.nrp line of distinction 

 between the two rock-types. The fossils from the Shangort 

 and Tourmakeady beds show a close resemblance to those 

 of the Tourmakeady district, but the finding of certain 

 additional forms, especially Nileiis armadillo and Niobe sp., 

 has impressed the close connection between this fauna and 

 that of the Orthoceras Limestone of Sweden, and it is 

 rather of Arenig than of Llandeilo age. The conclusion 

 is in conformity with the field evidence. The relegation 

 of the Shangort and Tourmakeady beds of Glensaul to the 

 .\renig w^ould imply a similar age for those of the Tour- 

 makeady district. The Glensaul district contrasts strongly 

 with that of Tourmakeady as regards the character of_ the 

 crystalline igneous rocks, which are all quartz-felsites. 

 One species of IllcEnus, one of Niobe, one of Nileus, two 

 of Bathyurus, three of Cheirurus, one of Pliomera, one of 

 Encrinurus, one of Phacops, and a new species of 

 Bathvurellus are described ; also three species of Orthis, 

 one of Hyolithes, one of Rafinesquina, one of Camerella, 

 and one of Porambonites. — Prof. E. W. Skeats : The 

 gneisses and altered dacites of the Dandenong district 

 (Victoria), and their relations to the dacites and to the 

 granodiorites of the area. The area described lies about 

 twentv-five miles south-south-east of Melbourne. The early 

 geological surveyors regarded the dacites as Palaeozoic 

 " traps " passing into the granodiorites. Prof. J. W. 

 Gregory described the rocks as dacites, probably of Lower 

 Tertiary age, resting upon the denuded surface of the 

 granodiorites and ofthe adjoining Lower Pal.ieozoic sedi- 

 ments. The field-relations of the rocks are described, and 

 gneiss is shown to occur between the dacite and the grano- 

 diorite. The contact with the plutonic rock is abrupt. 

 No foliation or banding occurs in the granodiorites, but 

 acid veins pass from the junction into the altered dacite 

 and also cut across the foliations of the gneiss. The field- 

 evidence shows that the dacites are older than the grano- 

 diorites, and also that the gneiss was formed before the 

 intrusion of the acid veins. The chemical evidence 

 indicates that differentiation of a magma took place ; the 

 dacite was first erupted, and, following on that, the grano- 

 diorite (of more acid composition) was intruded into the 

 dacite. In the altered dacites a schistosity occurs near 

 the contact, ilmenite is changed to biotite by reaction with 

 the felspar in the ground-mass, biotite is corroded by the 



