468 
NATURE 
(WJPLy 4, 19%2 
EDINBURGH. 
Royal Society, June 3.—Sir William Turner, K.C.B., 
president, in the chair.—Dr. Dawson Turner; Experi- 
ments in radio-activity; the production of the thorium 
emanation and its use in therapeutics. After a brief 
account of the radio-active properties of thorium, 
especially in connection with applications to surgery, 
the author described how he had been led to try with 
success thorium emanation in the case of a patient 
suffering from an advanced excavating rodent ulcer.— 
Dorothy Court; The use of antiseptics in autolysis of 
animal and vegetable matter.—Prof. A. H. Gibson : The 
equilibrium of the circular-are bow-girder.—Dr. J. Cosmo 
Melville and R. Standen: The marine mollusca of the 
Scottish National Antarctic expedition; Part II., 
being a supplementary catalogue. Some fifty species 
not enumerated in the first part were described, one 
of them, Chaetopleura brucei, being named after the 
leader of the expedition. More than twenty of the 
species were described as new.—Prof. David Hep- 
burn: Observations on the anatomy of the Weddell 
seal (from the collection of the Scottish National Ant- 
arctic expedition). Part III., the respiratory system 
and the mechanism of respiration. The flexibility of 
the thoracic wall and the peculiarities of attachment 
of certain muscles in association with the marine 
habitat of the seal were contrasted with those of 
man. The key to the whole mechanism of inspiration 
was found to be in the contraction of the diaphragm. 
The investigation seemed to throw light on the differ- 
ences of respiration in quadrupeds and man, the 
difference in attitude leading to a form of chest move- 
ment requiring in each case the minimum muscular 
effort. In the avoidance of severe muscular effort 
when a smaller effort will serve the purpose was 
found the source of the difference between the adult 
male and female types of breathing. 
June 17.—Prof. Cossar Ewart, vice-president, in 
the chair.—Dr. Brownlee: Inheritance of hair and eye 
colour... The paper was an analysis of observations 
made by the late Dr. Beddoe. The Mendelian laws 
were obeyed in a remarkable degree. The coupling 
ratio between hair and eyes was probably 9 and not 
7, as present theories led us to expect. As regards 
the use of the correlation coefficient or the contingency 
coefficient in estimating heredity it appeared that, at 
least in certain instances, it could be taken more as 
a test of the degree of race mixture than of actual 
heredity.—Dr. Robert Campbell: The Upper Cam- 
brian Rocks at Craigeven Bay, Stonehaven; and the 
Downtonian and Old Red Sandstone Rocks of Kin- 
cardineshire. The fossils recently discovered in the 
black shales associated with typical spilitic lavas at 
Craigeven Bay, and forming part of the boundary 
fault series, clearly show that they are of Lower 
Palaeozoic age, probably Upper Cambrian. In the 
second paper it was maintained that nearly 3000 ft. 
of strata in the neighbourhood of Stonehaven formerly 
regarded as Old Red Sandstone must be assigned 
to the Downtonian (Upper Silurian). The Down- 
tonian rests unconformably on the Upper Cambrian, 
and is overlaid conformably by the Lower Old Red 
Sandstone.—Prof. C. Chilton: The Amphipoda of the 
Scottish National Antarctic expedition. The collec- 
tion contained sixty-two species, of which nine were 
described as new. There were, however, variations, 
which some naturalists might be tempted to describe 
as new, variations which were probably climatic. 
The results obtained supported the view that so-called 
bipolar species were cosmopolitan in their distribu- 
tion, being of smaller size and in much _ smaller 
numbers in the equatorial regions.—Dr. J. Rennie: 
The Cestoda of the Scottish National Antarctic ex- 
pedition. |The collection consisted of seven adult 
NO. 2227, VOL. 89] 
species and three in the bladderworm stage. Of the 
former four were new species of Dibothriocephalus, 
viz. D. scoticus and WD. coati, from Stenorynchus 
leptonyx, D. mobilis, from Weddell’s seal, and D. 
pygoscelis, from a species of penguin. One of the 
bladderworms lives in the blubber of Weddell’s seal. 
A remarkable feature of Antarctic tapeworms is the 
large number of minute and delicate forms.—W. J. 
Jackson: The Brachiopoda of the Scottish National 
Antarctic expedition. The collection added materially 
to our knowledge in regard to the geographical range 
of certain forms, those from the vicinity of Coat’s 
Land being of exceptional interest- 
DUBLIN. 
Royal Irish Academy, June 1o.—Rey. Dr. Mahaffy, 
president, in the chair.—T. Alexander and J. T. 
Jackson: New graphical construction of maximum 
bending moments, on short girders, due to a loco- 
motive with a kinematical model showing instan- 
taneous diagrams.—R. Jack: Magnetic resolution of 
the spectrum lines of niobium. Lines giving ten, 
eight, six, and fewer components were observed. The 
separators were found, in general, to satisfy the 
Runge and Ritz rules. Two short series and a 
number of equal differences were found connecting 
lines having the same Zeeman effect. A number of 
dissymmetrical separations were observed, and a prob- 
able explanation of the variation in dissymmetry 
given. It was shown that for substances with odd 
valencies an even number of components predominates 
among lines with many components, and for those 
with even valencies an odd number of components.— 
D. J. Scourfield: Fresh-water Entomostraca (Clare 
Island Survey). Ninety species were found, one of 
which is new to science and twenty new to Ireland.— 
Miss J. Stephens: (1) Coelenterata; (2) Marine Sponges 
(Clare Island Survey). (1) The majority of the 
Ceelenterata collected during the survey belong to 
species which are fairly common all round the Irish 
coast. Tubiclava cornucopiae, Corymorpha nutans, 
and Lovenella clausa are among the rarer hydroids 
that were found. Depastrum cyathiforme is recorded 
for the second time for Ireland. The Madreporaria 
are represented by Caryophyllia Smithi and Spheno- 
trochus Wrighti. Only one fresh-water species was 
found, namely Hydra vulgaris. It occurred on Clare 
Island and in lakes on the adjacent mainland. (2) 
Sixty-four species of marine sponges were collected. 
Of these, twenty are recorded for the first time for 
the Irish coast (seven of them being new to Great 
Britain), and two are described as new species. The 
sponge-fauna of Clare Island with its exposed rocky 
coasts is compared with that of the sheltered bays of 
the adjacent mainland, and the chief differences be- 
tween them are touched upon. One of the most 
striking differences noticed was the scarcity of the 
Calcarea, as regards number of species, off the lime- 
stone shores of the islands at the head of Clew Bay, as 
compared with the number of species found off Clare 
Island, where the rocks are non-calcareous. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, June 24.—M. Lippmann in the 
chair.—Armand Gautier and Paul Clausmann : Control 
of the new method of estimating fluorine. Detection 
of the smallest traces of this substance. A descrip- 
tion of analytical results obtained by the application 
of methods described in two previous papers. Quan- 
tities of fluorine of the order of 1 to 5 mgr. can be 
determined with an error of less than o't mgr.; 
amounts of o’002 to o'oor mgr. can be detected.—A. 
Chauveau : Stereoscopic inversions caused by the retina! 
images of simple points in space.—M. Gouy: Studv 
of the D line in absolute units and application to solar 
