334 
NATURE 
| May 30, 1912 
loud-sounding efforts of Chanticleer, and observe the 
characteristic movements that accompany his vocalisa- 
tion. (2) A den of lions with their trainer. |The 
growling of the animals, the dull thud of the iron 
bar on the floor of the cage, are reproduced with 
startling realism. (3) The reproduction of speech and 
accompanying gestures by a person who is seen speak- 
ing through a telephone. (4) A musician playing on 
a banjo, exhibiting the movements of the fingers 
over the strings, and the fidelity with which musical 
sounds elicited by the vibrations of strings can be 
reproduced. (5) A festive gathering of Frenchmen, 
one of whom gives the toast of ‘‘The King,” and 
the company unite in singing ‘‘God Save the King.” 
(6) A sailor reproduces in stentorian tones Kipling’s 
~ Ballad of the Clampherdown.” 
THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL 
SOCIETY. 
ae HE annual general meeting of the American 
Philosophical Society was held in Philadelphia 
on April 18-21 inclusive, when numerous papers 
embodying the results of original investigations were 
presented. 
The evening of April 18 was devoted to a celebra- 
tion of the centenary of the introduction of gas as 
an illuminant, under the auspices of the American 
Philosophical Society, the Franklin Institute, the 
American Chemical Society, and the American Gas 
Institute. Dr. William W. Keen, the president, was 
in the chair, and a paper on by-products in gas 
manufacture was read by Prof. C. E. Munroe, of 
George Washington University, Washington. 
The total number of papers read and discussed at 
the various sessions was very large, and it is possible 
here to refer only to a few of wide interest or import- 
ance. In a paper entitled ‘Illustrations of Remark- 
able Cambrian Fossils from British Columbia,” Dr. 
Charles D. Walcott, secretary of the Smithsonian 
Institution, described a remarkable and ancient fauna 
that he found in connection with geological explora- 
tions- in the higher Rocky Mountains of British 
Columbia. From a camp at 7ooo ft.. elevation, he 
climbed a thousand feet to a ledge of rocks where 
the ancient Cambrian fossils are so perfectly pre- 
served that the internal anatomy of many of the forms 
may now be reproduced by photography. The bay 
in which the mud was deposited which now forms 
the rocks containing the fossils was connected with 
the open ocean, and at the spot where the fossils 
were found the waters must have swarmed with the 
‘invertebrate life of the time. No fishes or other 
vertebrates were found to ‘have existed at this 
ancient epoch. The marine worms are so perfectly 
preserved that they show not only the exterior form, 
but the interior intestine and the long proboscis 
which the worms thrust out through the mouth to 
secure food and to aid in drawing themselves through 
the mud. The crabs show the intestinal canal, liver, 
and a beautiful series of legs, gills, and claws con- 
nected with the appendages about the mouth. Speci- 
mens of Medusz, or jelly-fish, are beautifully pre- 
served, even to the details of the thread-like 
swimming muscles. 
During the evening of April 19 Prof. R. W. Wood, 
of Johns Hopkins University, delivered a_ lecture 
before the society and guests at the College of 
Physicians on ‘The’ Study of Nature’ by Invisible 
Light, with especial Reference to Astronomy and 
Physics." The following morning an executive 
session was held in the hall of the society, at which 
candidates for membership were balloted for, when 
the following foreign men’ of science were elected’ 
NO. 2222, VOL. 89] 
' 
members :—Dr. George F. J. A. Auwers, of Berlin; 
Dr. Wilhelm Ostwald, of Leipzig; and Prof. Magnus 
G. Retzius, of Stockholm. 
Afterwards Dr. Frank W. Clarke, of the U.S. 
Geological Survey, contributed a paper on some geo- 
chemical statistics. He first treated of the average 
composition of the igneous rocks, and then compared 
them with the rocks of sedimentary origin. From 
the amount of soda lost by the decomposition of the 
igneous rocks, and the amounts retained by the sedi- 
mentaries or transferred to the ocean, he showed that 
about 78,000,000 cubic miles of the primitive crust 
of the earth had been decomposed, forming a mass 
of rock consisting of about 80 per cent. shales, 
I5 per cent. sandstones, and 5 per cent. limestones. 
He next compared the rate at which river waters 
transport dissolved salts to the ocean, with the com- 
position of the ocean itself, and from these data 
computed the probable age of the earth since the 
continents assumed their present form at something 
near 83,000,000 years. The saline matter of the 
ocean alone amounts to about 5,000,000 cubic miles, 
or enough to cover the entire surface of the United 
States with a solid mass a mile and three-quarters 
thick. The rate at which sediments are being de- 
posited in the ocean was also determined, and found 
to be about 0:000027 of an inch annually. 4 
Prof. H. C. Jones, of Johns Hopkins University, 
read a communication on absorption spectra and the 
solvate theory of solution. A large number of lines 
of evidence have been brought to light, he said, in 
the laboratory of Johns Hopkins University all point- 
ing to the conclusion that a dissolved substance com- 
bines with more or less of the solvent in which it 
dissolves; about 7000 solutions have now been studied 
with respect to their power to absorb light. It has 
been found that a given coloured compound dissolved 
in different colourless solvents absorbs light very 
differently in the different solvents. This is inter- 
preted as being due to a combination of the different 
solvents with the dissolved substance, forming the 
different compounds which absorb light differently. 
The bearing of this work on the nature of solution 
is important. Matter in the pure homogeneous con- 
dition does not enter into chemical reaction. It 
becomes active chemically only when dissolved. 
Chemistry, biology, and geology owe their existence 
to matter in the dissolved state, and any light thrown 
on the nature of solution is of importance for the 
natural sciences in general. The theory of solution 
hitherto held has been found to be insufficient. In 
dealing with solutions we must always take into 
account the part of the solvent combined with the 
dissolved substance. 
In a paper on the thermal relations of solutions. 
Prof. W. F. Magie, of Princeton University, pointed 
out that the heat capacity of electrolytes dissolved in 
water is related to the temperature change of the 
heat of dilution. Experiments to demonstrate this 
were described, and it was pointed out that the heat 
of dilution is a difference between two quantities of 
heat, one evolved in an amount proportional to the 
absolute temperature, the other absorbed in an 
amount independent of the temperature. One of 
these quantities is proportional to the dissociation 
which occurs on dilution, and measures the energy 
lost .by the solute as its ions combine with water. 
The other involves as a part of its value the heat 
absorbed by the dissociation. The special signifi- 
cance of these relations lies in the strong support 
which they give to the theory that the molecules and 
ions of a salt in solution are associated or combined 
with the molecules of water. 
The results of an important research on an exact 
