364 
NATURE 
[JUNE 6, ‘1912 
Zoological Society, May 21.—Sir Edmund G. Loder, 
Bt., vice-president, in the chair.—Major J. Stevenson 
Hamilton: The local races of Burchell’s zebra. The 
author pointed out that it was possible to shoot in | 
one herd individuals presenting the characters of 
various subspecies as described by systematists. In 
the Transvaal, for example, he obtained skins exhibit- 
ing features claimed to be distinctive of such races — 
as E. burchelli wahlbergi, E. b. transvaalensis, and 
E. b. chapmanni; and from his experience he ex- | 
pressed the opinion that these subspecies had been 
based upon inadequate museum  material.—Dr. 
William Nicoll: Two new trematode larve found 
encysted in enormous numbers in the mesentery of 
several striped snakes (Tropidonotus ordinatus 
sirtalis)—Dr. W. T. Calman: A new genus and 
species of the crustacean order Branchiura.—G. A. 
Boulenger : Second contribution to our knowledge of 
the varieties of the wall-lizard. This paper was a 
continuation of one published in the society’s Trans- 
actions in 1905, and dealt chiefly with the variations 
of Lacerta muralis in south-eastern Europe and south- | 
western Asia. It also contained a supplement to the 
first part, thus completing an account of the varieties, 
of which about thirty were regarded as more or less 
definable, the author endeavouring to show the in- 
constancy of the characters adduced by some herpeto- 
logists in assigning specific rank to a number of 
these forms, connected by many gradations.—Sir 
Charles Eliot: The rare British nudibranch Hancockia 
eudactylota, Gosse. 
EDINBURGH. 
Royal Society, May 6.—Sir William Turner, K.C.B., 
president, in the chair.—Dr. J. G. Gray: Walking 
and climbing gyrostats and novel illustrations of 
gyrostatic action; and, in conjunction with George 
Burnside ; Motor-spun gyrostats and accessories for 
demonstration of the properties and practical appli- 
cations of the gyrostat. New models of gyrostats 
were described, and a number of curious experiments 
shown in illustration of their behaviour.—G. H. 
Gulliver : The effect of vibration upon the structure of 
alloys. The paper gave an account of the microscopic 
changes produced in certain alloys by the application 
of a few millions of light blows. The changes were 
in the direction of an increased size of crystal, and to 
a less marked degree in the direction of chemical 
homogeneity, resembling the alterations due to 
annealing.—H. Levy: The singular solutions of 
partial differential equations of the first order. 
May 13.—Dr. Horne, F.R.S., vice-president, in the 
chair.—Dr. B. N. Peach: Report on rock specimens 
dredged by the Michael Sars in i910, by H.M.S. 
Triton in 1882, and by H.M.S. Knight Errant in 
1880. The stones, which were obtained from various 
places in the North Atlantic, were for the most part 
glaciated. Those which were found in the globi- 
gerina ooze were probably deposited from floating 
ice, and came originally from the west of Scotland 
and the north and west of Ireland. Those found in 
stony clay were probably deposited by land ice. They 
probably came from the north of Scotland and from 
Orkney and Shetland.—Dr. A. A. Lawson; Chromo- 
some reductions in plants: a study of the changes 
which occurred in cells which ultimately became 
pollen cells.—Dr. F. A. Bather: Caradocian Cystidea 
from Girvan. The specimens were the property of 
Mrs. Robert Gray. Eight species were described, 
and. these fell into two limited groups. In both 
groups there was evidence of a similar gradual 
modification to accord with the same mode of life. 
This modification consisted in a change from the 
erect habit of a typical pelmatozoan attached to the 
sea floor by its stem to a free-moving habit, accom- 
NO. 2223, VOL. 89] 
panied by a superinduced bilateral symmetry. This 
mode of life appeared suited to a. littoral environ- 
ment; and the Girvan fossil bed seems to have be n 
part.of a highway skirting the Atlantic basin, along 
which forms were slowly migrating in each direction 
from east to west and from west to east, meeting on 
the way, and becoming modified as they passed. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, May 28.—M. Lippmann in the 
chair.—Paul Sabatier and M. Murat: The preparation 
of phenyleyclohexane and dicyclohexyl: the direct 
hydrogenation of diphenyl. Starting with 1: 1- 
phenyleyclohexanol, this is converted by means of 
phenylmagnesium bromide into 1: 1-phenyleyclo- 
hexene; the latter can be reduced to phenylcyclo- 
hexane without difficulty by hydrogen in the presence 
of reduced nickel. Dicyclohexyl is prepared by a 
similar method starting with 1: 1-cyclohexylcyclo- 
hexanol, and can also be obtained by the direct re- 
duction of diphenyl by the Sabatier and Senderens 
method.—Ch. Gallissot: Photometric and _ colori- 
metric observations of the new star in the Twins 
made at the Observatory of Lyons.—The secretary 
announced the death of Eduard Strasburger, corre- 
spondant for the section of botany.—M. Luizet: The 
variations in brilliancy and colour of the new star in 
the Twins proved at the Observatory. of Lyons. 
There is a general resemblance between the new star 
in the Twins and that in the constellation of Perseus; 
the changes in brilliancy and colour are less regular 
in the former than in the latter.—Costa Lobo: The 
kinematographic registration of the eclipse of 
April 17.. These results tend to show that the eclipse 
was total at the point of observation in the direction 
of motion of the moon, but. annular in a perpen- 
dicular direction. The figures can be explained by 
assuming a flattening of 12 kilometres on the moon’s 
diameter.—G. Demetresco: A new variable star. 
During the examination of a negative (taken by 
P. Henry in i900) for statistical purposes it was 
noticed that there was a star of which the three 
images were unequal. Further negatives of the same 
region have proved that this star is variable.—M. 
Rouyer: Surfaces of constant curvature.—Patrick 
Browne; Some functional equations.—Paul Lévy : 
Green’s function relative to the cylinder of revolution. 
—M. Duchéne: Concerning an apparatus, called 
Tourne-Sol, designed to facilitate the observation of 
the ground from an aéroplane.—F. Croze: Contribu- 
tion to the study of the Zeeman phenomenon in the 
spectra of hydrogen and nitrogen.—L. Riéty: The 
difference of contact potential of glass and an 
electrolyte—H. Pélabon: Selenide batteries. The 
battery is made up consisting of metal, a saturated 
solution of a salt of this metal, and a bar of an alloy 
of the metal and selenium. The electromotive forces 
of such cells were studied for the cases of silver, lead, 
copper, and tin. The resulting data confirm the con- 
clusions drawn from a study of the fusibility of the 
same series of alloys.—A. Blondel; The oscillations 
of alternators.—H.-Pecheux: An attempt at the deter- 
mination of some atomic weights. A comparison of 
the amounts of silver, lead, copper, and zinc deposited 
electrolytically by the same current.—Albert Colson : 
The necessity of revising the law of mass action and 
of homogeneous equilibria.n—Ph. A. Guye, G. Kovacs, 
and E. Wourtzel: The weight of a normal litre of 
atmospheric air at Geneva. Slight variations of 
density from day to day were observed, and corre- 
sponding with this the proportion of oxygen was also 
found. to vary, 20:93 and 21-04 per cent. being the 
limiting values found.—Jacques Duclaux: The 
mechanism of coagulation. The coagulation of 
