24 
NATURE 
[MarcH 7, 1912 
deals with the descendants of some of the moths of 
this species reared by Messrs. Prout and Bacot, who 
read a paper on their results to the Royal Society on 
February 25, 1909. They did not arrive at any definite 
conclusions in regard to the process of heredity fol- 
lowed. The author agrees with them in finding that 
Acidalia virgularia and its variety canteneraria are 
not two Mendelian forms of the species, though he 
finds that one of the differences between the two 
forms, namely, the presence of black speckling on the 
wings of A. virgularia, is inherited according to 
Mendel’s law.—F. H. A. Marshall: The effects of 
castration and ovariotomy upon sheep. (1) The de- 
velopment of horns in the males of a breed of sheep 
in which well-marked secondary sexual differentiation 
occurs (as manifested especially by presence or absence 
of horns) depends upon a stimulus arising in the 
testes, and this stimulus is essential not merely for 
the initiation of the horn-growth, but for its continu- 
ance, the horns ceasing to grow whenever the testes 
are removed. (2) The removal of the ovaries from 
young ewes belonging to such a breed does not lead 
to the development of horns or definitely male char- 
acters, except possibly in a very minor degree.—Dr. 
T. L. Lewellyn: The causes and prevention of miners’ 
nystagmus. Miners’ nystagmus is an occupational 
neurosis confined to coal miners. It is characterised 
by a rotatory oscillation of the eyes, and produces a 
disability which is marked and prolonged in severe 
cases. One thousand six hundred and eighteen cases 
received compensation in the United Kingdom in rgrr. 
Pathologically the complaint appears to be a condi- 
tion of imperfect centripetal impulses (imperfect fixa- 
tion, disturbance of equilibrium, &c.), the intimate 
connection between the centres governing the asso- 
ciated movements of the eyes being lost, and inco- 
ordinate movements ensuing. The principal preven- 
tive measures indicated are improvement of illumina- 
tion, elimination of unfit workers by medical 
examination, and employment of coal-cutters in thin 
seams.—W. Lawrence Balls: The stomatograph. The 
stomatograph is a self-recording instrument adapted 
from Mr. Francis Darwin’s porometer (see NaTuRE, 
August 10, 1911). A five days’ record of the opening 
and closing of the stomata of the cotton plant in 
Egypt is given, showing the stomata wide open 
during bright sunshine. The author has elsewhere 
shown that during this part of the day no growth 
occurs, and there is evidence that the apparent waste 
of water then occurring is of importance as keeping 
the leaves cool, since when transpiration is artificially 
checked the leaves are rapidly injured or even killed 
by the high temperature.—G. A, Buckmaster and J. A. 
Gardner: The composition of the blood gases during 
the respiration of oxygen. A number of analyses 
were made of the blood of cats respiring (1) air, (2) 
oxygen for periods of one to two hours. The average 
composition in c.c. per 100 c.c. of arterial blood for 
cats breathing air was as follows (mean of thirteen 
experiments) :—Total gas, 53776; CO,, 3843; O., 
1422; N, r12. The percentage saturation of hamo- 
globin with oxygen was 83. For cats breathing 
oxygen the mean values by thirteen experiments were 
as follows :—Total gas, 53°79; CO,, 38°65; O.. 14°93; 
N, o 16. The average percentage saturation of 
hemoglobin with oxygen was 896. From their 
experiments the authors conclude that the inhalation 
of oxygen does not materially augment cither the 
quantity of this gas or the quantity of carbon-dioxide 
in the blood. 
February 22.—Sir Archibald  Geilie, K.C.B., 
president, in the chair.—Prof. H. L. Callendar : 
Pakerian lecture on the variation of the specific 
heat of water, investigated by the continuous 
NO. 2210, VOL. 89] 
} 
mixture method. A single formula has been found 
to represent the variation of the specific heat s accord- 
ing to the continuous electric and mixture methods 
over the range o° to 100° C. The formula is as 
follows :— 
$=0'98536+ 0°504/(t + 20) + 0'0084(1/ 100) + 0’0090(t/ 100)", 
in terms of the specific heat at 20° C. taken as unity, 
and in terms of the scale of the temperature 1 deduced 
from the platinum scale pt by means of the standard 
difference-formula, 
t—pt= 1 5ot(t— 100) x 10-*. 
The same formula for the specific heat also repre- 
sents the most probable reduction of Regnault’s ex- 
periments over the range 110° to 190° C.—Dr. C. 
Chree : Short index to reports of physical observations 
—electric, magnetic, meteorological, seismological— 
made at Kew Observatory.—R. T. Lattey and H. T. 
Tizard: The velocities of ions in dried gases. The 
authors have determined the velocities of positive and 
pegeive ions in dried hydrogen and carbon dioxide. 
—Prof. T. H. Laby and P. W. Burbidge : The obs--va- 
tion by means of a string electrometer of fluctuations 
in the ionisation produced by y-rays.—F. B. Pidduck : 
The wave-prcblem of Cauchy and Poisson for finite 
depth and slightly compressible fluid. The paper is 
in some respects a completion of a former one on 
the propagation of a disturbance in a fluid under 
gravity. The solution of the two-dimensional 
Cauchy-Poisson problem for finite depth is worked out 
numerically, the effect of limiting the depth being 
very considerable. 
Royal Meteorological Society, February 21.—Dr. H. N. 
Dickson, president, in the chair.—J. Fairgrieve: The 
thunderstorms of May 31, 1911. The author dealt 
with the thunderstorm which visited the London 
district on Derby Day, and especially with the 
movement of the rain which accompanied the storm. 
Having obtained information from nearly 700 observers 
as to the time of rainfall or absence of rain, he has 
been able to prepare an interesting series of maps 
for each quarter of an hour from 12.30 to 8.45 p.m., 
showing the areas over which rain was actually 
falling.--R. G. K. Lempfert: The thunderstorm of 
July 29, 1911. This storm was of the line-squall 
type. The author has been able to trace the spread 
of the phenomenon across the British Isles, and he 
showed by a map of isochronous lines that it first 
struck the extreme end of Cornwall about 2 p.m. on 
July 29, and passed across Shetland at 3 p.m. next 
day. He pointed out that the disturbance may be 
regarded as the displacement of an easterly by a 
southerly current, but the process of displacement was 
an unusually complicated one. The general sequence 
of events seems to have been somewhat as follows : 
a moderate east wind is interrupted suddenly by a 
squall from the south. After the squall has passed 
the wind returns temporarily to an easterly direction, 
to be again interrupted by another squall from the 
south. This process may repeat itself several times. 
A period of several hours of light and variable wind, 
during which easterly directions predominate, super- 
venes, and finally the wind settles down to a steady 
southerly or south-westerly wind of moderate force. 
In many cases the squalls were not accompanied by 
rainfall. What appears to have struck observers most 
forcibly was the way in which huge quantities of 
dust were whirled up by the wind. Accounts from 
Cardiff state that dust was brought from the south 
side of the Bristol Channel by the squall winds, which 
did much structural damage.—S. Skinner: The 
“Drosometer,” an instrument for measuring the 
{| amount of dew. 
