452 



NATURE 



\_March lo, 1881 



is the co-ordinating nerve-centre for movements necessary to 

 standing and walking, considered in all their forms, by M. 

 Bouillaud. — On the systems of faults or diaclases vi'hich traverse 

 the series of stratified foriiiations ; new examples furnished by 

 Cretacean strata in the environs of Etretat and Dieppe, by M. 

 Daubree. — On Fuchsian functions by M. Poincare. — A letter 

 of Ampere was presented. — On a class of Abelian integrals and 

 on certain differential equations, by M. Ticard. — On an inte- 

 o-rator, or instrument for graphic integration, by M. Abdank- 

 Abakanowicz. — On the cooling power of gases and vapours, by 

 M. Witz. He infers equality of the cooling powers of dry air 

 and air saturated w ith moisture. The cooling power of coal-gas 

 compared with that of air is equal to 3-48, that of sulphurous 

 acid does not exceed o -6 1 (the pressure being 760 mm.). The 

 velocities of cooling increase more quickly than the 1-233 power 

 of the excesses. l"or steam they increase proportionally to the 

 0'83 power. — On the surfaces of revolution limiting liquids de- 

 prived of weight, by M. Terquem.— On radiophony : third note 

 by M. Mercadier. He proves that the radiophouic effects are 

 due to vibratory motion caused by alternate heating and cooling 

 through intermittent radiations, princi]ially in the gaseous layer 

 adherent to the solid wall struck by these radiations ; the 

 anterior wall in opaque receivers, the posterior in trans- 

 parent receivers. — Magic mirrors of silvered glass, by M. 

 Laurent. He uses either pressed glass (polishing the sur- 

 face opposite to the projections), or thin glass of commerce 

 (engraving a hollow design on it).— On pyridic bases, by 

 M. de Coninck. — On the hystolysis of the muscles of larva 

 during the pos'-embryonic development of Diptera, by M. 

 Viallanes. This relates to the phenomena of disappearance of 

 muscles as the in-ect passes into the state of pupa. — On a 

 new larva of Cestoides belonging to the type of the Cysticercus 

 of Arion, by M. Villot.— On a new form of segmentary organ 

 in Treinatodes, by M. Mace. — Researches on the circulation and 

 respiration of Ophiures, by M. Apostolides. The circulatory 

 system is formed of the general cavity and the spaces connected 

 with it ; and the respiratory sacs, by their alternate contraction 

 and expan>ioD, draw the blood into the peristomachal cavity, 

 then drive it to the periphery. This explains how the san- 

 guineous liquid, bathing all the organs, respires, and is set in 

 motion. — On a method of coloration of Infusoria and ana- 

 tomical elements during life, by M. Certes.^ Placed in a 

 weak solution of chiuoline blue, or cyanine. Infusoria 

 take a pale blue colour, and may continue to live twenty- 

 four to thirty-six hours. After twenty-four hours in a moist 

 chamber, the white corpuscles of a frog's blood, coloured 

 with cyanine (in serous solution) show amceboid movements. 

 Chiuoline blue is, par excellence, the reagent of fatty matter 

 (which is quite absent in nuclei and nucleoli). — On the per- 

 manence of pi-ussic acid during a month in the bodies of animals 

 poisoned with this substance pure, by M. Brame. A rabljit and 

 a cat were poisoned with i gramme of the substance each. In 

 such dose it seems to preserve the animals perfectly at least a 

 month, remaining in the tissues (especially those of the stomach), 

 with which it seems to become intimately united. 



February 28.— M. Wurtz in the chair.— The following papers 

 were read : — On the attenuation of viras and its return to 

 virulence, by MM. Pasteur, Chamberland, and Roux. The 

 bacterium of charbon in artificial cultivation produces true germs 

 (unlike the microbe of chicken cholera, which multiplies by 

 division), whose virulence is not affected by air. This spore- 

 production can be hindered by cultivation at 16° or at 42° to 43'. 

 The mycelian product, in the latter case, becomes sterile after 

 about a month ; up to that point reproduction is easy, but the 

 virulence is gone after the first eight days, in which time it 

 passes through various stages of attenuation. The secret of 

 causing a return of virulence consists in successive cultivation in 

 the budies of certain animals. Ihe facts throw light on the 

 etiology of epidemics. ^Action of hydracids on halogen salts 

 contaimng the same element, by M. Berthelot. Compounds so 

 formed exist both in the case of alkaline salts, where they are 

 denoted by absorption of gas, liberation of heat, and special 

 reactions, and in the case of metallic salts properly so called, 

 where they are obtained crystallised. — M. de Lesseps presented 

 a fifth series of documents relating to the history of the Suez 

 Canal. — On the disinfectant and anti-putrid action of vapours 

 of nitrous ether, by M. Peyrusson. Its action is shown both from 

 laboratory and hospital observations. It has the advantage of an 

 agreeable and harmless smell. — On a new definition of the surface 

 of waves, by M. Darboux. — On the development of the infinite 

 product (l-.r), (i -.r^) (i - nfi) (I - jt') . . . by Mr. Frankhn.— 



On radiophony, by M. Mercadier. He makes thcrniophonic piles, 

 or phonic thermomultipliers (after the analogy of electric thermo- 

 multipliers), for study of radiant heat, a single element consisting 

 of a short glass tube containing a thin plate of smoked foil or 

 mica, and several such being connected by caoutchouc or metal 

 tubes. The air in these tubes vibrates longitudinally, and by 

 lengthening them he gets thermoionorous pipes, having the same 

 properties as ordinary sounding-pipes. — Application of Talbot's 

 fringes to determination of the refractive indices of liquids, by 

 M, Hurion. — On the displacement of the soda of chloride of 

 sodium by hydrate of copper, by M. Tommasi. This takes place 

 even at a low temperature (4° to 5°). With pure sodium chloride 

 the reaction is almost instantaneous. Potassium chloride gives 

 like results. — On the heats of combustion of some alcohols of 

 the allylic series and of aldehydes which are isomeric with them, 

 by M. Louguinine. — On the products of decomposition of proteic 

 matters, by M. Blennard. — On a synthetic homologue of pel- 

 letierine, by M. fitard. — On a cause of alteration of canvas, by 

 M. Balland. This relates to an observation by Dr. Tripier on 

 some rusty-coloured hammock canvas used by the Algerian army 

 in 1847. This showed dark spots after washing, and went to 

 pieces in use. The spots were probably due to iron sulphide 

 produced by alkaline sulphides in the artificial soda and by iron 

 oxide fixed by the stuff in manufacture. The sulphide passed to 

 the state of sulphate in air by a combustion involving the 

 tissue. — Contribution to the study of trichinosis, by M. 

 Chatin. — Contribution to the physiological action of urea and 

 of ammoniacal salts, by MM. Richet and Moutard-Martin, htter 

 alia, it is singular that injection of a concentrated solution of 

 urea increases the elimination of water more than of urea. In 

 uremia death cannot be attributed to non-elimination of the 

 ammoniacal salts of urine. — On the inflammatory nature of the 

 lesions produced by the poison of the Bothrops serpent, by MM. 

 Couty and De Lacerda. — On the pulmonary alterations produced 

 by long stay in the purifying chambers of gas-works, by M. 

 Poincare. Animals kept eight months in those chambers showed 

 in the lungs an accumulation of epithelial cells in some alveoli, 

 but especially a prodigious nuclear proliferation in the connective 

 tissue. This shows that it is not without danger to , subject 

 children with whooping-cough to similar treatment. — Relation 

 of the cylinder axis and the peripheral nerve-cells with organs 

 of sense in insects, by MM. Kiinckel and Gazagnaire. In insects 

 every nervous enlargement consists essentially of a bipolar cell 

 (true nerve-termination), connected on one hand with the cylin- 

 der axis of the nerve-fibre, and on the other with a nerve-rod 

 which is its prolongation ; this rod is surmounted by a hair 

 properly so called, or a transformed hair. — On the gemmation 

 of Pyrosoma, by M. Joliet. — Antiquity of Elephas primigenius 

 (Blum) in the sub-Pyrenean Valley, by M. Caraven-Cachin. It 

 seems to have appeared first after the dUuvium of the plateaux 

 on the old Pleistocene spread] in a nearly horizontal sheet over 

 Tertiary and other strata. 



CONTENTS Page 



Sir William Herschel, I. By J. R. Hind, F.R.S 429 



E.XTlNCT British Animals. By Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S. 431 

 UyK Book Shelf; — 



Ormerod's *' Notes of Observations of Injurious Insects " . . . 432 

 •• Me'moires de La SocicSt^ des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles de 



Bordeaux " 433 



LSTTEKS TO THE EDITOR : — 



Aberration of Instinct.— George J. Romanes, F.R.S 433 



Prehistoric Europe.— Dr. James Geikie, F.R.S. ; R. H. Tidde- 



MAN 433 



Les Lettres d'Outre-Mer.— Capt. S. P. Oliver 434 



Explosive Gas in a Lake.— J. Shaw 435 



Colours of British Butterflies.— J. Innes Rogers 435 



Dust, Fogs, and Smoke.— M. Chatel 436 



The German Chemical Society 436 



Irish Esparto Grass 437 



Siberian Meteorology. By Dr. A. Woeikof 437 



Sphvgmografhy {IVith Illiistratzon) 438 



Notes 439 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The Solar Parallax 441 



Swift's Comet, iSSo ..' 44' 



Physical Notes 44' 



Geographical Notes 443 



On the Viscosity of Gases at High Exhaustions, II. By W illiam 



Crookf.s, F.R.S 443 



Animal Remains IN THE Schipka Cavern •446 



Some Remarks on Peripatus Edwakdsii, Blanch. By Dr. A. 



Ernst ilVith Illustrdtions) 44* 



Acoustics IN China. By John Fryer and Dr. W. H. Stone . . 448 



Scientific Serials 449 



Societies and Academies 449 



