March ly, 1881] 



JVA TURE 



475 



mercury was inverted in mercury. The gas was then passed up. 

 In the case of atmospheric air a large absorption of oxygen was 

 observed. The other gases experimented with were hydrogen, 

 oxygen, carbon monoxide, cyanogen, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen, 

 nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, carbon dioxide, and coal-gas ; in all 

 cases the Bacteria remained alive and (except with cyanogen) 

 flouri-ihed well. Acetylene, salicylic acid, strychnia (lo per 

 cent ), morphine, narcotin, and brncin were equally without 

 effect on the Bacteria. Spongy iron, phenol, and alcohol were 

 very destructive to these organisms. — On the influence of inter- 

 mittent filtration through sand and spongy iron on animal and 

 vegetable matters dissolved in water, and on the reduction of 

 nitrates by sewage, by Mr. F. Hatton. In the case of peaty 

 water some diminution was observed in the organic carbon, but 

 none in the organic nitrogen. Sewage promotes the reduction 

 of nitrates. Spongy iron converts nitrates into ammonia and 

 free nitrogen. — Prof. Tidy then read a lengthy paper on river- 

 water. This is a reply to the criticisms of Dr. Frankland and 

 Miss Lucy Halcrow on a former paper by the author. In the 

 present paper the author restates.- his firm conviction that a fairly 

 ■ rapid river, having received sewage in quantity not exceeding one- 

 twentieth of its volume, regains its purity after the run of a few 

 miles, and becomes wholesome and good for dri.iking. — On 3 

 diquinoline, by F. Japp, Ph.D., and C. Colborne Graham. 

 This substance was obtained by heating qui noline and benzoyl 

 chloride in sealed tubes to 240°-25o° C. ; it gave on analysis the 

 formula CigHj.Nj ; it crystallises in colourless satiny laminie, 

 and fuses at iqi" C. 



Anthropological Institute, February 22.— F. W. Rudler, 

 F.G.S., vide-president, in the chair, — The election of F. E. 

 Robinson was announced. — A paper on arrow-poisons prepared 

 by some North American Indians, by W. J. Hofiraan, M.D., was 

 read. The information was obtained from prominent Indian 

 chiefs who visited Washington in iSSo, and the tribes alluded to 

 in the paper were the Sho^honi and Banak, Paiute, Comanche, 

 Lipan Apache, and Sisseton Dakota; this last tribe have a 

 method of poisoning bullets by drilling four small holes at equal 

 distances around the horizontal circumference and filhng the 

 cavities with the cuticle scraped from a branch of cactus {Oputitia 

 missouriense), the projecting rim of metal caused by the drilling 

 is then pressed over the scrapings to prevent their being rubbed 

 off or lost. As the opuntia is a harmless phnt, the idea of 

 poison is evidently suggested by the pain experienced when 

 carelessly handling the plant, which is covered with barbed 

 spines.— A paper by David Christison, M.D., on the Gauchos of 

 San Jorge, Cenlral Uruguay, was read. Having given a 

 description of the country and a history of the people, the 

 author remarked that it had often been a matter for surprise that 

 Englishmen should be able to live safely among a turbulent race 

 of people such as the Gauchos, but our countrymen, when 

 placed in a higher sphere and indeijendent of their political or 

 private feuds, ran little risk in ordinary times ; moreover here, 

 as elsewhei-e, the innate capacity of the British for managing 

 semi-barbarous races by a combination of fair-dealing and kind- 

 ness was conspicuously manifested. The Englishman had 

 acquired a certain liking for the Gauchos which grew rather 

 than diminished with time. The Gaucho could not be a per- 

 manent type, and in the Banda Oriental was rapidly being 

 modified. The more strict definition and sub-division of 

 property, tlie increase of sheep-farming and change in the 

 management of cattle to the tame system, the rapid extension 

 of \vire fenciig, and the introduction of agriculture, conspired 

 to cramp his moi^ements and to do away with the necessity for 

 his peculiar accomplishments. It was even to be feared that he 

 himself would pass away, and that the race which ultimately 

 possesses the Campos will show but slight traces of his blood or 

 of the aboriginal Indian race which he represents. The great 

 mortality from murder and homicide which the place was noted 

 for was increased by the numbers who perished under quack 

 doctors. The Gauchos had been badly governed, and much of 

 the evil in them was due to this cause. 



EntomologicalfSociety, March 2. —H. T. Stainton, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair.— Mr. E. A. Fitch exhibited a specimen 

 of Strangalia n-fasciaia, taken at West Wickham by Mr. A. S. 

 OlUff last August.— Mr. W. C. Boyd exhibited a specimen of 

 Nonagna lutosa, taken outside the Great Eastern terminus at 

 Liverpool Street, and a curious variety of Enmmos tiliaria from 

 Cheshunt.— Mr. W. F. Kirby called attention toa general illustrated 

 work on insects on which Herr Buckecherof Munich is engaged, 

 and laid specimens before the meeting. —The following papers 



were then read :— Mr. F. P. Pascoe, Oti the genu< Hilitus and its 

 neotropical allies.— Mr. W. L. Distant, Descriptions of new 

 genera and species oi Rhynchota from Madagascar.— Prof. J. O. 

 Westwood, Observations on the hymenopterous genus Sderodenna 

 and some other allied groups.— Mr. McLachlan then called the 

 attention of members to an important paper by Dr. Adler on the 

 dimorphism of oak-gall flies (Cynipida), which has just been 

 published in Siebold and Kblliker's Zeitschrift filr loisseiischaft- 

 liche Zoohgie, vol. xxxv.— Mr. E. A. Fitch read a report from 

 the IVestc-n Daily Mercury of the trial which has lately taken 

 place at Veahampton (South Devon) in reference to the posses- 

 sion of living specimens of the Colorado potato-beetle by a 

 farmer who had brought them from Canada. 



Institution of Civil Engineers, March i.^Mr. Abernetliy, 

 F.R.S.E., president, in the chair. — The paper read was on the 

 tide-gauge, tidal harmonic analyser, and tide-predicter, by Sir 

 William Thomson, LL.D., F.R.SS. L. andE. 



Edinburgh 

 Royal Society, February 21.— Prof. Fleeming Jenkin in the 

 chair. — Sir William Thomson communicated a paper by Mr. 

 Witkowski on the effect of strain on electric conductivity. A 

 cylindrical brass tube, with a magnet and attached mirror suspended 

 horizontally in the centre at riglit angles to the axis, was traversed 

 from end to end by an electric current. In its original unstrained 

 isotropic condition the cylinder so conducted the current that the 

 inclosed magnet was unaffected. A couple was then applied in 

 a plane at right angles to the axis, so as to distort the metal tube 

 by a definite twist, thus rendering it a;olotropic as regards its 

 electrical conductivity, and giving to the current a spiral set, 

 which was evidenced by the deflection of the suspended magnet. 

 The lines of flow set spirally round in a direction contrary to 

 that of the ap;.lied couple — a result in complete accordance 

 with the theory of twists, which requires a lengthening (and 

 therefore an increase of resistance) along spiral lines that 

 set round with the couple and a simultaneous compression 

 (and corresponding decrease of resistance) along lines at right 

 angles to these. Quantitative results were obtained by balancing 

 the electro-magnetic action of the current in the strained tube by 

 means of an external circular movable conductor traversed by a 

 steady cm-rent. — Sir \Villiam Thomson described certain experi- 

 ments which lie had lately made on the effect of moistening the 

 opposing surfaces in a Volta- condenser, and of substituting a 

 water-arc for a metallic arc in the determining contact. The 

 main features of ilie paper were, the non-existence of any 

 measurable difference of potential when contact was made by 

 means of a drop of clean water between opposed polished 

 surfaces of zinc and copjier, the effect of oxidising the surfaces 

 in the pure metallic contact experiment, and the exact similarity 

 in the action of dry polished zinc and wet oxidised zinc when 

 oppesed to dry copper and brought into contact by a metallic 

 arc. Sir William also described the "vortex sponge." A 

 vortex column spinning at the heart of a mass of fluid revolving 

 irrotationally inside an imperfectly elastic cylindrical case fomas 

 a .system in a position of maximum energy ; and any slight dis- 

 turbance fi'om the truly circular rotation of the vortex core results 

 in a gradual drawing off of energy, in virtue of the imperfectly 

 elastic chancier of the bounding material, until the system 

 assumes its position of minimum energy with the rotationally- 

 revolving fluid on the immediate inner surface of the inclosing 

 case and altogether surrounding the irrotational fluid, which is 

 now in a state of quiescence. The intermediate stages between 

 these first and last conditions are what Sir Wdliam Thomson 

 characterises by the name of vortex sponge. — Mr. T. Muir pre- 

 sented a paper on continuants, to which special form of deter- 

 minant he could, by suitable transformations, reduce any given 

 determinant of ordinary type, and so was able to express a deter- 

 minant as a continued fraction. — Prof. Chrystal added a note on 

 this paper showing how in the most general case n equations 

 between n unknown quantities can be made to yield by suitable 

 elimination >t other equations, in no one of which more than 

 three terms appear, so that a continuant form of determinant is 

 got which bears a simple relation to the determinant formed by 

 the coefficients of the original equations. 



Manchester 



Literary and Philosophial Society, November 9, 1880. — 

 E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., president, in the chair.— 

 On gravitation, by the Rev. Thomas Mackereth, F.R.A.S. 



December 28, 1880.— E. W\ Binney, F.R.S., president, in 



