Jan. 



1 88 1 



NA TURE 



307 



Beagle.— k paper by Mr. P. L. Sclater and Dr. G. Hartlaub was 

 read, on the birds collected in Socotra by Prof. I. B. Balfour in 

 the early part of the year 1880. The collection contained 124 

 examples referable to thirty-four species. Of these seven of the 

 P.isseres appeared to be new, and were proposed to be called 

 Cistkola incana, Drymcvca /utsilata, Lanius uncinatus, Ciniiyris 

 Biilfouri, Passer imularis, RhvncJiostnithiis Socotranu', and 

 Amydrus frater. — Mr. A. G. Butler read a paper on the lepi- 

 doptera collected in Socotra by Prof. I. B. Balf jur. The collec- 

 tion contained twenty-four specimens referable to thirteen species, 

 seven of which were stated to be new to science.— Mr. W. A. 

 Forbes read a paper on some points in the anatomy of the Koala 

 (Phased irctos ciiiereus), as observed in the specimen recently 

 living in the Society's Gardens. — A communication was read 

 from°Mr. K. Bowdler Sharpe, in which was given the descrip- 

 tion of a new firm of the family TimeludiV, from Madagascar, 

 proposed to be called iVeomixis. — A communication was read 

 from Dr. John Scully containing an account of the mammals of 

 Gitgit, a district in the extreme north-western part of Kashmir. 

 Thirty three species were enumerated, and notes on their vertical 

 ranges and habits were added. The mammals of Gilgit were 

 shown to consist of an intermixture of Central Asiatic and 

 Himalayan species, as might have been expected from the posi- 

 tion of the Country. Two species (a Bat and a Vole), apparently 

 new to science, were named respectively Harpimephalus tubinaris 

 ai.d Anncola Blanfordi. 



Meteorological Society, January 19. — Mr. G. J. Symons, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The report of the Council for 

 the year 1880, which was read by the .Secretary, refers to sub- 

 jects of considerable importance, and aff jrds substantial evidence 

 of the interest taken in meteorology by the scientific and general 

 public. Amongst these may be mentioned the great success of 

 the new climatological stations, as shown by their increased 

 number and by the regularity and care w ilh which the observa- 

 tions have been made and recorded, and the returns forwarded 

 to the Society. The Council also advert to the number of new 

 and improved instruments exhibited at the meeting held in 

 March last, to the increase in the number of Fellows, lifty-two 

 having been elected during the year, and finally the numerous 

 papers which have been sent to the Society from various parts 

 of the world, embracing records of the climate of several impor- 

 tant localities, respecting which but little has hitherto been 

 known in this country. — After a vote of thanks had been passed 

 to the Council for their services during the year, and to the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers for allowing free use of their 

 rooms, the President delivered his address, in which he traced 

 the history of English meteorological societies from 1823 to 1880. 

 The earliest English effort at forming an English meteorological 

 society, or at any rate at securing observations made with com- 

 parable instruments recorded upon a unif:irm system, was made 

 in 1723 by Dr. James Jurin, who was then secretary to the 

 Royal Society. In the Philosophical Transadions for that year 

 will be found a Latin address by Dr. Jurin, in which he antici- 

 pates nearly all the conditions which are now considered essen- 

 tial for comparable observations. This appeal did not lead to 

 much bein;^ done, and in 1744 another attemjit was made by 

 Mr. Roger Pickering, F. R.S., who read before the Royal 

 Society a paper entitled " Scheme of a Diary of the Weather, 

 together with Drafts and Descriptions of Machines subservient 

 thereunto." Ihe Meteorological Society of the Palatinate was 

 established in 1780 under the auspices of the Elector Charles 

 Theodore, who not only gave it the support of his public 

 patronage, but entered with spirit and ability into its pursuits 

 and furnished it with the means of defraying the expense of 

 instruments of the best construction, which were gratuitously 

 distributed to all parts of Europe and even to America. One 

 of the first ai;ts of the Association was to write to all the prin- 

 cipal universities, scientific academies, and colleges, soliciting 

 their co- operation and iffering to present thein with all the neces- 

 sary instrumeiits properly verified by standards and free of expense. 

 The offer was accepted by thirty societies, and the list of dis- 

 tinguished men who undertook to make the observations shows 

 the importance which was attached to the plan and the zeal with 

 which it was promoted in eveiy part of the Continent. In 1823 

 the first meeting of the Meteorological Society of London was 

 held, and was attended by Luke Howard, Thomas Forster, Dr. 

 Birkbeck, and > Ihers. After 1824 the Society languished, but it 

 was never regularly dissolved. Owing to several letters and 

 articles which appeared in Loudon's Magazine of Natural 

 History a meeting was held on November 15, 1836, at which the 



Society was revived, Mr. W. W. White appointed secretary, and 

 regular meetings resumed. Application was made to the Royal 

 Society for permission to compare the instruments of the Society 

 with the Royal Society's standards, and leave was granted on 

 March 13, 1838. A volume of Transactions was published in 

 1839, and among other articles contains one entitled " Remarks 

 on the Present State of Meteorological Science, by John Ruskin." 

 The cost of the publication of this volume exhausted the funds of 

 the Society, but in 1841 Mr. Gutch undertook personally the 

 pecuniary risk of a new publication entitled the Quarterly 

 Journal of Meteorology, but this does not appear to have been 

 very successful, owing to the high rate of postage. Shortly after 

 this the Society practically came to an end. On April 3, 1850, 

 a meeting of some friends of the science was convened by Dr. 

 Lee at Hartwell, when the British Meteorological Society was 

 established, and Mr. S. C. Whitbread elected president. The 

 first general meeting of the Members was not held till March 25, 

 1851 ; but in the meanwhile several important steps had been 

 taken by the Council. Annual Reports were published from 

 1851 to 1S61, and since then five volumes of the Proceedings 

 and six volumes of the Quarterly Journal have been published. 

 Up to 1858 absolutely nothing had been done towards forming a 

 library, but in 1862 a catalogue was published containing about 

 200 titles. In 1876 a new catalogue was issued, which extends 

 to eighty pages and contains over 1200 entries. On January 

 27, 1866, the Society obtained a Royal Charter of Incor- 

 poration, and has since been known as "the Meteorological 

 Society." On April 4, 1872, the Council resolved upon 

 taking a room for an office and for the protection of the 

 library, and appointed Mr. W. Marriott as their Assistant 

 Secretary. The work has now become so great that the Society 

 has been obliged to take an additional room and to engage three 

 computers. The subsequent eight years have been characterised 

 by great progress. A series of second order stations has been 

 organised which are systematically inspected, and at which 

 strictly comparable observations are made. On January i, 1880, 

 another and larger series of stations— called climatological— was 

 started, at which the observations are less onerous than those at 

 the second order stations, but at which they are required to be 

 equally accurate. Observations on natural periodical phenomena 

 are also made at many places, and discussed yearly by the Rev. 

 T. A. Preston. At the request of the Society a conference has 

 been appointed consisting of delegates from several other socie- 

 ties 'to prepare accurate instructions respecting the erection of 

 lightning conductors. At the conclusion of the President's 

 address the following gentlemen were elected the officers and 

 council for the ensuing year, viz. :— President — George James 

 Symons, F.R.S. Vice-presidents: Edward Ernest Dymond, 

 WUliam Ellis, F.R.A.S., Joseph HenryGilbert, F.R.S. , Charles 

 Greaves, M.Inst. C.E., F.G.S. Treasurer: Henry Perigal, 

 F.R.A.S. Trustees: Sir Antonio Brady, F.G.S. , Stephen 

 William Silver, F.R.G.S. Secretaries : Robert Henry Scott, 

 F.R.S., John William Tripe, M.D. Foreign Secretary: John 

 Knox Laughton, M.A., F.R.A.S., F.R.G.S. Council : Edmund 

 Douglas Archibald, M.A., Arthur Brewin, F.R.A.S., Henry 

 Storks Eaton, M.A., Rogers Field, B.A., M.Inst. C.E., 

 Frederic Gaster, Baldwin Latham, M.Inst.C.E., F.G.S., Robert 

 John Lecky, F.R.A.S., Edward Mawley, Hon. Francis Albert 

 RoUo Russell, M.A., Richard Strachan, George Mathews 

 Whipple, B.Sc, F.R.A.S., Charles Theodore Williams, M.A., 

 M.D. 



Entomological Society, Annual Meeting, January 19. — Sir 

 John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S., &c., president, in the chair.— 

 The President delivered his annual address, and the following 

 gentlemen were elected as officers for the ensuing year :— 

 President, H. T. Stainton, F. K.S. ; Treasurer, E. Saunders, 

 F.L.S. ; Librarian, F. Grut, F.L.S. ; Secretaries: E. A. Fitch, 

 F.L.S., and W. F. Kirby, F.L.S. ; Council: W. Cole ; W. L. 

 Distant, M A.l. ; F. du Cane Godman, F.L.S. ; Sir John 

 Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S., &c. ; R. Meldola, F.R.A.S.; O. 

 Salvin, M.A., F.R.S.; F. P. Pascoe, F.L.S.; R. Trimen, 

 F.L.S. 



I 'Victoria (Philosophical) Institute, January 17.— A paper 

 on Pliocene man in America, by Dr. Southall of Virginia, U.S., 

 was read. In it he showed that the evidence brought forward 

 as to the existence of such Avas wholly unreliable ; the same 

 ground was taken in special communications from the Duke of 

 Argyll, K.G., Principal Dawson, ;F.R.S., of Montreal, Prof. 

 Hughes (Woodwardian Professor of Geology at Cambridge), 

 and°Mr. Whitley, C.E. ; also by Mr. S. R. Pattison, F.G.S., 



