July 8, 1922J 



NA TURE 



63 



J country. The region consists mainly of Upper 

 Palaeozoic rocks, Devonian to Permian. The Burindi 

 Series is made up of olive-green mudstones and tuffs, 

 with occasional lenticular masses of oolitic and 

 crinoidal limestone. From these intercalations the 

 j corals, which are related to Cyathophyllum and 

 j Lithostrotion, were obtained. Both forms have 

 abnormally large columella;. The species of Litho- 

 strotion have small peculiarities of structure, which 

 distinguish them as a group from British species. 



Edinburgh. 



Royal Society, June 5. — Prof. F. O. Bower, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — A. N. Whitehead : The related- 

 ness of Nature. Hume disposed of the theory of 

 the relatedness of Nature as it existed in the current 

 philosophy of his time. We can discern in Nature 

 a ground of uniformity of which the more far-reaching 

 example is the uniformity of space-time, and the 

 I more limited example is what is usually known 

 under the title of " The Uniformity of Nature." 

 Our arguments must be based upon considerations 

 I of the utmost generality, untouched by the peculiar 

 ! i features of any particular natural science. Every 

 entity is an abstraction from the concrete, which in 

 its fullest sense means totality. The important 

 point of that doctrine is that any factor of Nature, 

 by virtue of its status as a limitation within totality, 

 j naturally refers to factors of totality other than 

 itself. Equality of limitude is the significance of 

 I, factors. The uniform significance of events becomes 

 the uniform spatio-temporal structure. In that 

 respect it is necessary to dissent from Einstein, who 

 assumes for that structure casual heterogeneity 

 arising from contingent relations. The structure is 

 uniform because of the necessity for knowledge that 

 there should be a system of uniform relatedness, in 

 terms of which the contingent relations of natural 

 factors can be expressed. Otherwise we can know 

 nothing until we know everything. It is evident 

 I that a scientific object such as an electron must 

 qualify future events, for otherwise the future 

 contingency is unaffected by it. In that, a scientific 

 object differs decisively from a sense-object. A sense- 

 object qualifies events in the present. Thus, the 

 seemingly contingent play of the senses is controlled 

 by the conditions brought about by its dependence 

 upon the qualification of events introduced by the 

 scientific object. 



Sheffield. 



Society of Glass Technology, June 21. — Prof. W. E. 

 S. Turner in the chair. — Y. Amenomiya : The de- 

 vitrification caused upon the surface of sheet glass 

 by heat. Heat causes devitrification, or crystallisa- 

 !tion of window glass. This alteration takes place 

 [between 700 and 8oo° C. — K. Kamita : The influence 

 ( of alumina in preventing the devitrification of sheet 

 glass during the drawing process. As the amount 

 of alumina in the glass increased in the samples used, 

 30 the temperature at which devitrification occurred 

 mas raised; 5 per cent, of alumina caused a rise of 

 approximately ioo° C. in the temperature at which 

 ievitrification commences. — L. E. Norton : The 

 apparent swelling of sand on the addition of water. 

 VYith three typical sands the addition of water caused 

 difficulty in packing equivalent to swelling which 

 imight be 12-15 per cent, of the total dry sand. The 

 maximum effect occurred when 5-6 percent, of water 

 was mixed with the sand. — W. E. S. Turner : The 

 mixing of batch. Taking three works samples from 

 Jatch mixed by hand, the maximum variations were 



NO. 2749, VOL. I IO] 



44"77 P er cent, sand and 4-8-8-3 per cent, lime, while 

 a similar batch mixed by different machines showed 

 variations of 69-73 per cent, sand and 4-2-6-6 per 

 cent. lime. Machine mixing, by giving a much more 

 regular batch, assisted the melting, and materially 

 reduced the time necessary for the production of good 

 glass. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, June 12. — M. Emile Bertin 

 in the chair. — Henry le Chatelier : The geometric 

 representation of saline equilibria. Remarks on a 

 question of priority raised by Prof. Jaenecke. — 

 Charles Deperet : An attempt at the general chrono- 

 logical co-ordination of quaternary time. — Maurice 

 Leblanc : The use of air as a cooling agent. A 

 theoretical and practical comparison of the use of 

 liquid ammonia and compressed air as cooling agents, 

 with a study of the best conditions for using the 

 latter. — A. Rateau : General theory of the turbo- 

 compressor for aviation motors. The compressor 

 is worked by the exhaust gases from the engine and 

 delivers the air to the cylinder at about double the 

 'atmospheric pressure. It is especially designed for 

 use at high altitudes. — M. Riquier : Singular integral 

 figures of passive systems of the first order involving 

 only a single unknown function. — Jules Andrade : 

 Three classes of non-maintained isochronal vibrations 

 and three types of timepieces. New instruments for 

 the experimental study of viscosities. — G. Friedel 

 and L. Royer : Liquids with Grandjean's equidistant 

 planes. — Torsten Carleman : Asymptotic series. — 

 G. Valiron : Hermite's method of approximation. — 

 Georges Remoundos : The general problem of the 

 thrust of earth. — M. Sudria : The elastic deformation 

 of an isotropic body. — E. Merlin : The calculation of 

 heliographic co-ordinates. — M. Dufour : The refrac- 

 tion of a luminous pencil in the general case. — A. 

 Andant : The variations of critical opalescence with 

 the filling of the tubes and the nature of the liquids 

 studied. The effects of ' the variation of critical 

 opalescence with the temperature and with the wave- 

 length of the incident light have been described in an 

 earlier paper. The ratio of liquid to vapour in the 

 tube (D) also affects the phenomenon, and the 

 temperature of reappearance of the meniscus is now 

 shown to be a parabolic function of D. A study of 

 the acetates of methyl, ethyl, butyl, and isobutyl 

 shows that the opalescence increases in intensity 

 and extent, passing from the first to the fourth of 

 these acetates. — A. Dauvillier : The exact measure- 

 ment of the energv levels of the barium atom and 

 the appearance of the L ionisation spectrum. — M. de 

 Broglie and A. Dauvillier : A new absorption pheno- 

 menon observed in the field of the X-rays. — A. 

 Damiens : The crystallisation of amorphous tel- 

 lurium. According' to Berthelot and Fabre, the 

 crystallisation of tellurium is an endothermic pheno- 

 menon, thus forming an exception to the general rule. 

 A repetition of the experiments of Berthelot and Fabre 

 has shown that the reaction used by them (bromina- 

 tion of tellurium) is not complete in the case of 

 crystallised tellurium, and by substituting bromine 

 in hvdrochloric acid for bromine and water it is 

 proved that the change from amorphous to crystal- 

 lised tellurium is accompanied by an evolution of heat. 

 Tellurium thus falls into fine with other amorphous 

 substances. — R. Locquin and Sung Wouseng : The 

 preparation of the dialkylvinryl-carbinols. A general 

 method for preparing the unsaturated alcohols of the 

 type RR'-C(OH)-C=CH has been given in an 

 earlier communication. By a suitable catalyst 

 (reduced nickel) these can be reduced by hydrogen 

 to the corresponding tertiary ethylene alcohols 



