212 



NATURE 



\_Dcc. 30, 1S80 



M.D. W. T. Paulin, J. Torter, and Capt. W. C. Smith were 

 elected Fellows. — The following papers were read :— Report 

 on the phenological observations for the year 18S0, by the Kev. 

 T. A. Preston, M.A., F.M.S. Agriculturally speaking the 

 year may be considered as disappointing. Till June the 

 weather was such as has rarely been experienced for farm 

 operations. The severe cold of the winter broke up and 

 mellowed the soil, and the dry open weather enabled farmers to 

 clean their land from the excessive growtli of weeds caused 

 by the damp of the year before. The dry May was not favour- 

 able for the hay, which suffered severely in some places, but 

 still a crop with far more real nourishment in it than would be 

 obtained from a rank growth would have been secured had it 

 not been for the terrible floods of July in the Midland Counties, 

 which not only seriously injured the crop, so that it was fre- 

 quently not worth the trouble of removing off the land, but also 

 carried it entirely away in low-lying districts. The corn again, 

 which was looking most promising till July, suffered much 

 duriniT that damp period, and had it not been for the subsei|uent 

 fine weather would have been ruined. But the unfavourable 

 season of 1879 produced very serious effects on vegetation, 

 especially on trees and shrubs and their produce. The 

 young wood of the trees was not ripened, and as a natural 

 consequence the severe winter killed an enormous quantity 

 of some kinds, and greatly injured others. " Lauru^tinus " 

 was generally killed to the ground, and in some districts 

 the destruction of other shrubs was severely felt. The ever- 

 greens in many cases lost large quantities of their leaves. Hollies 

 especially are mentioned by several observers, and privet-hedges 

 were sometimes quite leafless. With respect to fruit-trees, apples 

 and pears in some localities (but not all) were hardly able to put 

 forth any bloom, and the crops were consequently extremely 

 poor. Wall-fruit was also a general failure, but this was parti- 

 ally owing to severe \ieather when the trees were in bloom, 

 for in some instances the show of bloom was splendid. Goose- 

 berries and currants produced enormous crops, and strawberries 

 were very fine, but they lasted an unusually short time. Seeds 

 generally ripened with difficulty ; much of the corn could not be 

 grounH, and a great deal was mixed up with roughly -ground 

 Indian corn and ilavoured to induce the cattle to eat it. The crop 

 of ordinary garden seeds was also far below its usual quality, and 

 some of the favourite garden flowers were consequently very poor. 

 Among the spirial features of the year may be mentioned the 

 great quantity of certain insects. "Aphis" was in astonishing 

 numbers in the early part of the year. The apple-shoots, before 

 the leaves expanded, were in almost every case covered m ith the 

 "green fly," and among wild plants the Mealy Guelder-rose was 

 especially attacked by them. "Wasps," again, have been in 

 extraordinary numbers, and dreadful accounts of them have been 

 sent to the various entomological periodicals ; their numbers 

 appear to have exceeded all previous experience. The larv-i; of 

 the gooseberry moth and of the gooseberry saw-fly have also 

 been extremely destructive ; and finally, as an undoubted result 

 of the wet season of 1879, the larva- of the crane-fly have been 

 a perfect plague in some localities, and sheep-licks in others. 

 The scarciiy of small birds has been universally noticed ; some, 

 no doubt, perished from the cold, but vast numbers had migrated. 

 The enormous numbers of larks which hastened to the l*-a-tern 

 Counties on the outbreak of cold weather was astonishing. — On 

 the variations of relative humidity and thermometric dryness of 

 the air, wiih changes of barometric pressure at the Kew Observa- 

 tory, by G. M. Whipple, B.Sc, F.R.A.S.— On the relative 

 frequency of given heights of the barometer readings at the Kew 

 Observatory daring the ten years 1S70-79, by G. M. Whipple, 

 B.Sc, F.R.A.S. 



Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 



December 23.— Prof. M. Forster Heddle, F.R.S.E., president, 

 in the chair. — Prof. F. J. Wiik of Helsingfors was elected a 

 corresponding member, and Messrs. Baxter, Gray, James Cun- 

 ningbam, R. Shaw Simpson, H. B. Guppy, and Stephen Vivian 

 as ordinary members. — The following papers were read and 

 discussed : — On Tyrceite, by the President. — On minerals new 

 to Britain, by the President. — Note on Gilbertite, and on tin 

 pseudomorphs from Belowda Mine, by J. 11. Collins.— On 

 Brochantite and its allies, by William L/emmous.— On a remark- 

 ably fine crystal of Euclase, by L. Guyot. — On the action of 

 organic acids on minerals, by Prof. H. C. Bolton. — Note on 

 artificial Gay-Lussite, by C. Rammelsberg. — Note on a peculiar 

 carbonaceous substance from the Maesymarchog Colliery, by 

 James S. Merry. 



Anthropological Institute, December : 14. — Edward B. 

 Tylor, F.r<.S., president, in the chair. — The election of the 

 Rev. R. A. BuUen as a member of the Institute was announced. 

 — Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen read a paper on " Hittite 

 Civilisation." 



Institution of Civil Engineers, December 21. — W. II. 

 Barlow, F. R.S., president, in the chair. — The scrutineers 

 reported that the following gentlemen had been duly ejected to 

 fill the several offices in the Council for the ensuing year : — Mr. 

 James Ab rnethy, president; Sir W. G. Armstrun', C.B., 

 F.R.S., Sir J. W. Bazalgette, C.B., Mr. F. J. Bramwell, 

 F.R.S., and Mr. J. Brunlees, vice-presidents; Mr. G. Berkley, 

 Mr. G. B. Bruce, Sir John Coode, Mr. E. A. Cowper, Mr. A. 

 Giles, Sir Charles A. Hartley, Mr. II. Ilayter, Dr. W. Pole, 

 F.R.S., Mr. R. Rawlinson, C.B., Mr. A. M. Rendel, Dr. C. 

 W. Siemens, F.R.S., Mr. D. Stevenson, Sir W. Thomson, 

 F.R.S., Sir Joseph Whitworth, Bart., F.R.S., and Mr. E. 

 Woods, other members of Council. 



Edinburgh 



Royal Society, December 20. — Sir Wyville Thomson, 

 vice-president, in the chair. — Mr. John Aitken read a paper 

 on dust, fogs, and clouds, which we give on another page. 

 — Mr. E. Sang communicated a note on the solar eclipse 

 of December 31, 1S80, which is visible in our islands. — 

 Dr. Marsden, in a paper on the preparation of adamantine 

 carbon, intimated that he had at length effected the crystal- 

 lisation of carbon in the cubical form. The crystals he 

 had obtained were however far too minute to be of any 

 commercial value. — Prof. Blyth described an electric sono- 

 meter, consisting of a wire monochord, which, traversed by 

 an interrupted electric current, was set into strong vibrations 

 between the poles of a horse-shce magnet. The notes 

 given out were loudest when they were harmonics of the 

 fundamental interrupted note which w\as sounded by a vi- 

 brating tuning-fork inserted in the circuit — Dr. Haycraft com- 

 municated an explanation of the amoeboid motions of masses 

 of protoplasm, illustrating his theory by an extremely simple 

 mechanical contrivance. An india-rubber ball perforated 

 with sever-il small apertures was filled u ith coloured white of 

 egg, and immersed in a solution of sugar of about the same 

 density as the albumen. When a gentle pressure was applied, 

 the albumen was forced out in long continuous processes ; and 

 when the pressure was relaxed the processes at once retracted 

 inside the ball again, probably in virtue of the action of the 

 viscosity and surface-tension of the gelatinous matter. Thus 

 was explained the retraction of the amoeboid processes, after 

 they had been expelled by contraction of the internal muscular 

 structure. 



CONTENTS Pace 



Peruvian Eark . .'^- i£9 



Practical Blowpipe Assaying. By Dr. C. Le Neve Foster . . igi 

 Our Book Shelf: — 



Miiller's " IJber die von den Trichopterenlarven der Provinz Santa 



Catharina verfertigen Gehause " 192 



Payne's *' Voy.ages of the Elizabethan Seamen to America " . . 11)2 

 Letteks to the Editor : — 



Black Sheep.— Charles Darwin, F.R S 193 



The Nature of the Chemical Elemenls.— Dr. Ed.mind J. Mills, 



F.R.S 19J 



Smokeless London.— W. D. Scott-Moncrieff 193 



Colliery Explosions and Coal-Dust — Hon. R. Russell .... 193 



Geological Climates. — J. Starkie Gardner 1C3 



Chalk.— S. N. Carvalho, Jun 194 



On Estimating the Height of Clouds by Photography and the 



Stereoscope. — John Harmer 194 



Correction of an Error in " Island Life." — .\lfred R. Wallace . 195 



Natural Science for Women. — Alfred W. Bennett 195 



Movements of I^eaves. — M. L. Rouse 305 



On Dust, Foes, AND Clouds. By John Aitken 195 



On the Spectru.11 of Carbon. Bv W. M. Watts (.With Diagram) 197 

 The Indo-Chinese and Oceanic Races — Types and Affinities, 



I. By A. H. Keake (With Illustrations) JS9 



Prof. Huxley on Evolution 203 



Notes 204 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Variable Stars 206 



The Comet 1873 VII 206 



PechUle's Comet 207 



Che.mical Notes 207 



Physical Notes 20S 



Gfographical Notes -' 



U.NivERSiTY AND Educational Intelligence -11 



Scientific Serials 211 



Societies AND Academies 211 



