Da. 1 6, iS8o] 



NA TURE 



i6i 



lastic materials and best didactic metliods adopted with success 

 by the most cultivated and civilised nations. Tliis museum is 

 styled the Pedagogic Museum, and mil have its seat in the Royal 

 University. Its aim is to collect, with a view to their recogni- 

 tion and adoption, all objects and publications connected with 

 the mode of instruction in elementary schools, and in general all 

 the new means and appliances which are bein<^ successively 

 invented to insure greater efficiency and progress in the arts of 

 instruction and education. All that has till now been collected 

 by the Professor of Pedagogy in the present Museum of Palermo 

 will henceforth belong to the new institution, which is dependent 

 on the Minister of Public Instruction. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, Normal and 

 Pathological, vol. xv. part I, October, contains : — Dr. C. 

 Creighton, on an infective form of tuberculosis in man, identical 

 %vith bovine tuberculosis, plates I to 6. — Dr. W. Allen, on a 

 third occipital condyle in the human subject, plate 7. — Dr. J. 

 Dreschfeld, some points in the histology of cirrhosis of the liver, 

 plate 8. — Dr. S. Mortiz, a contribution to the pathological 

 anatomy of lead paralysis, plate 9. — Dr. G. S. Middleton, 

 vascular lesions in hydrophobia and in other diseases characterised 

 by cerebral excitement, plate 10. — Dr. D. Macphail, an ether per- 

 colator, for use in physiological or pathological laboratories, plate 

 II. — Dr. D. Newman, the comparative value of chloroform 

 and ethidene dichloride as anresthetic agents. — Dr. R. Pinkerton, 

 observations on the temperature of the healthy human body in 

 various climates. — Dr. George Hoggan and Dr. F. Elizabeth 

 Hoggan, the lymphatics of cartilage and of the perichondrium. — ■ 

 Dr. R. j. Anderson, a palatine branch ft-om the middle meningeal 

 artery. — J. F. Knott, muscular anomalies. 



youriialofthe Royal Microscopical Society, vol. iii. No. 5 , October. 

 — W. H. Gilbert, on the structure and function of the scale-leaves 

 of Lathrea sipiamaria. — Dr. H. E. Fripp (the late), on daylight 

 illumination with the plane min'or, an appendix to Part I. of the 

 "Theory of Illuminating Apparatus." — W. Webb, on an im- 

 proved finder. — W. A. Rogers on ToUes' interior illuminator 

 for opaque objects, with a note by R. B. ToUes. — The record of 

 current researches relating to invertebrata, cryptogamia, micro- 

 scopy, &c. 



The American Naturalist, November. — F. M. Endlich, the 

 Island of Dominica. — ]. D. Caton, the Sand-hill Crane. — W. 

 K. Higley, on the microscopical crystals contained in plants 

 (concluded). — J. M. Stillman, on the origin of lac (regards it as 

 a secretion of Coccus iacca). — Edward L. Greene, botanising on 

 the Colorado desert,— The Editor's table : on the obligations of 

 educational and charitable institutions. 



Zeitschrift fiir wisscnschaftliche Zoologie, Baud 34, Heft 4, 

 September, contains ; — a veiy elaborate memoir by Dr. Ferdinand 

 Sommer of Greifswald, on the anatoiuy of the liver-fluke, 

 Distomum hepaticum, L., pp. 540-640, with six plates ; also by 

 Dr. H. Michels, an account of the nervous system of Oryctes 

 nasicornis as it appears in the larval, pupal, and imago conditions 

 of this beetle, pp. 641, 700, with four plates. 



Revue luternationale dcs Sciences biologiques, October 15, con- 

 tains : — M. Vulpian, a physiological study of poisons ; fifth 

 lecture, on curare. — M. Hanstein, protoplasm considered as the 

 basis of animal and vegetable life ; introduction. — M. Borodin, 

 on the physiological characteristics of asparagine. — M. L. Portes, 

 on the asparagine of the Amygdalese. — G. Thoulet, contributions 

 to the study of the physical and chemical properties of micro- 

 scopical minerals. 



The Transactions of the Vorkshii-e Naturalists' Union. — Three 

 parts of the above have been issued to the subscribers. These 

 contain reports on the birds of the district, pp. 1-48. On the 

 land and freshwater moUu ca, pp. 1-16. On the lepidoptera, 

 pp. i-So. Botany, pp. 1-51. These reports seem well and 

 exhaustively worked out, and deserve every support from the 

 naturalists of the Yorkshire district and others. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Mathematical Society.December 9.— Mr. Samuel Roberts, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Mr. William Ralph Roberts 

 and Mr. Ralph Augustus Roberts were elected Members. — The 



following communications were made: — Note sur la Derivation 

 des Determinants, Prof. Teixeira (Coimbra, Portugal). — Solu- 

 tion of the equation xp - 1 =0; quinquisection, Prof. Cayley, 

 F.R.S. — A general theorem in kinematics. Prof. Minchin. — On 



the solution of the inverse logical problem, Mr. W. B. Grove. 



Motion of a viscous fluid, Mr. T. Craig. — On the electrical 

 capacity of a conductor bounded by two spherical sm-faces cutting 

 at any angle, Mr. ^V. D. Niven. 



Chemical Society, December 2. — Dr. Gilbert, vice-pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — The following papers were read : — On 

 the volumes of sodium and bromine at their boiling-points, by 

 W. Ramsay. — On the volume of phosphorus at its boiling- 

 point, by D. O. Masson and W. Ramsay. The authors have 

 determined the atomic volume (the atomic volume = the specific 

 volume X atomic weight) of the following elements in the free 

 state. Bromine 27'I35, sulphur 21 '60, phosphorus 20-91, 

 sodium 3l'oo. The authors discuss the formula of oxy-tri- 

 chloride of phosphorus, and conclude that in that substance 

 phosphorus is a pentad, and that the constitution of that 

 substance is = P = Cl3. The atomic volume of phosphorus in 

 this compound is therefore 21 'i. — On the specific volume of 

 chloral, by Laura Maude Passavant. Great care was taken in 

 purifying the chloral ; the specific volume, determined according 

 to the method of Thorpe, was found to be 107-37. — Note on the 

 formation of carbon tetrabromide in the manufacture of bromine, 

 by J.C . Hamilton. A quantity of a white crystalline substance 

 was obtained as a residue, after distilling a quantity of com- 

 mercial bromine, it melted at 90°, and contained 97 per cent, of 

 bromine. — Researches on the relation between the molecular 

 structure of carbon compounds and their absorption-spectra, by 

 W. N. Hartley. Part i. — General conclusions as to the nature 

 of actinic absorption exerted by various carbon compounds. 

 Part ii. — Experiments which prove the diactinic character of 

 substances constructed on an open chain of carbon compounds. 

 Part iii. — The actinic absorption exerted by various closed 

 chains of carbon atoms. Part iv. — The absorption-spectra of 

 condensed benzen- nuclei. Part v. — The cause of absorption- 

 bands in the spectra transmitted by benzene and its derivatives. 



Geological Society, December I. — Robert Etheridge, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Wm. Heward Bell, Wm. Jack- 

 son, Peregrine Propert Lewes, William Libbey, jun., D.Sc. , New 

 Jersey, U.S.A. ; David Morgan Llewellin, John Marshall, Cyril 

 Parkinson, Cornelius McLeod Percy, Thos. John Robinson, Rev. 

 Alfred Rose, Beoby Thompson, and Stuart Crawford Wardell 

 were elected Fellows of the Society. — The following communi- 

 cations were read : — On remains of a small lizard from the 

 Neocomian rocks of the Island of Lesina, Dalmatia, preserved 

 in the Geological Museum of the University of Vienna, by Prof. 

 H. G. Seeley, F.R.S. The author proposed to name this lizard 

 Adriosaunis sucssii. — On the beds at Headon Hdl and Colwell 

 Bay in the Isle of Wight, by Messrs. H. Keeping and E. B. 

 Tawney, M.A. The authors criticised the views put forward 

 by Prof, judd in his paper published in the Q. y. G. S. xxxvi. 

 p. 13, and supported those established by the late E. Forbes and 

 the publications of the Geological Survey. The authors reject 

 Prof. Judd's term Brockenhurst series, and revert to the classifi- 

 cation and nomenclature of the Geological Survey. 



Zoological Society, November 30. — Dr. Edward Hamilton, 

 vice-president, in the chair. — Mr. Alfred E. Craven, F.Z.S., read 

 a paper on a collection of land and fresh-water shells from the 

 Transvaal and Orange FreeState in South Africa, withdescriptions 

 of nine new species. — A second paper by Mr. Alfred E. Craven 

 contained the descriptions of three new species of land shells 

 from Cape Colony and Natal. — Surgeon Francis Day, F.Z.S., 

 communicated a paper by Prof. A. A. W. Hubrecht, which 

 gave an account of a collection of reptiles and amphibians made 

 by Dr. C. Duke in Beloochistan. — A communication was read 

 from Mr. J. H. Gurney, F.Z.S., containing a description of the 

 immature plumage of Dryotriorchis spectaiilis {SMeg.), a very 

 scarce raptorial bird from Gaboon, now living in the Society's 

 collection. — A communication was read from Mr. Roland 

 Trimen, F.Z.S., on an undescribed ZaK«a/-K« obtained by Dr. 

 B. F. Bradshaw on the Upper Limpopo, or Crocidile River, in 

 Southern Africa, which he proposed to name Laniarius atro- 

 croceiis. — A communication was read from Dr. G. Hartlaub, 

 F.M.Z.S., containing descriptions of five new birds that had 

 been collected by Dr. Emin Bey in Central Africa. These were 

 proposed to be called Tricholais Jlavolorquata, Cisticola hypox- 

 antha, Eminia lepida, Drymocichla incana, and Musicapa 



