December 2, 1922J 



NA TURE 



757 



is maintained in the crystal. — Dr. G. T. Prior : The 

 meteoric iron of Karee Kloof, Cape Province, and 

 the meteoric stone of Leeuwfontein, Pretoria, South 

 Africa. The meteoric iron, of which a mass of 92 

 kgm. was found at Karee Kloof, is a coarse octa- 

 hedrite containing 8-27 per cent, nickel ; the Leeuw- 

 fontein meteoric stone of 460 gm. which fell on 

 June 2i, 1912, is an intermediate chondrite. 



Zoological Society, November 7. — Prof. E. W. 

 MacBride, vice-president, in the chair. — C. S. Elton : 

 The colours of water-mitcs. — E. B. Poulton : Com- 

 mensalism among Crustacea. An account of ex- 

 periments conducted at the Laboratory of the 

 Marine Biological Association, Plymouth, in 1890, 

 showing commensa lism may be beneficial to Crustacea. 

 — G. M. Vevers : Nematode parasites of mammals 

 from the Zoological Society. — W. J. Kaye : New 

 species of Trinidad moths. — C. F. Sonntag : On the 

 myology and classification of the wombat, koala, 

 and phalangers. — E. G. Boulenger : Description of 

 a new lizard of the genus Chalcides, from the Gambia, 

 living in the Society's Gardens. 



Geological Society, November 8. — Prof. A. C. 

 Seward, president, in the chair. — R. D. Oldham : 

 The earthquake of August 7, 1895, in Northern 

 Italy. This earthquake, although nowhere more than 

 a feeble shock, was felt over an area measuring about 

 160 miles across and covering some 15,000 to 20,000 

 square miles in Lombardy and Tuscany. There is 

 no indication of a central area of greatest intensity ; 

 reports indicating an intensity of IV° (Mercalli scale) 

 are scattered over the whole area, and reports of 

 sounds and of noticeable vertical movement are 

 similarly distributed. The nature of the disturbance 

 was akin to that in the outer parts of the seismic 

 area of great earthquakes. The depth of the ultimate 

 origin of the earthquake must have been of the order 

 of 100 miles or more.— R. D. Oldham : The Pamir 

 earthquake on February 18, 1911. This earthquake 

 was felt over an area of about 250 miles in diameter ; 

 the region included by the VIII° R.F. isoseist 

 measured about 40 miles across. Over the greater 

 part of tins area destruction was extreme, and the 

 hillsides were seamed with landslips. Aftershocks 

 were recorded, providing further evidence that the 

 earthquake had its origin at a considerable depth 

 below the surface. The great landslip, though 

 determined by, and not determining the earthquake, 

 as has been thought in the past, may have influenced 

 the distant seismograms by setting up surface-waves 

 which, superimposed on those directly due to the 

 earthquake, may account for the unusual size of the 

 long (or surface-) waves, as compared with the 

 preliminary tremors. — F. Dixey : The geology of Sierra 

 Leone : About half of the Protectorate of Sierra Leone 

 is composed of potash-bearing granites and granite- 

 gneisses, while the remaining areas are occupied 

 equally by older schists and gneisses and the ancient 

 sedimentary Rokell River Series. The older schists 

 and gneisses, including a charnockitic series similar 

 to that of the Ivory Coast, represent a complex of 

 highly metamorphosed sedimentary and igneous 

 rocks. The Rokell River Series has a lower con- 

 glomeratic division that rests unconformably upon 

 the crystalline rocks. The rocks of the series are 

 usually much disturbed, and show every gradation 

 from slight deformation to intense dynamic meta- 

 morphism. The southern margin of the great series 

 of horizontal sandstones of French Guinea forms, 

 near the Anglo-French boundary of the Protectorate, 

 the Saionia Scarp, and thus the formation within the 

 Protectorate bears the name Saionia Scarp Series. 

 It rests alike with striking unconformity upon the 

 Rokell River Series and the crystalline rocks. 



NO. 2770, VOL. I IO] 



Association of Economic Biologists, November 10. 

 — E. S. Russell : The work of the Fisheries Labora- 

 tory at Lowestoft. The main task of the past two 

 years of the Laboratory and research ship George 

 Bligh has been the working out of the life-history 

 and food supply of certain economic fishes. In- 

 vestigations on plaice in the North Sea have shown 

 that there are more plaice than before and they 

 were markedly larger and older than the pre-war 

 plaice. In connexion with cod and herring in- 

 vestigations a quantitative study of the bottom 

 fauna, carried out by Petersen's method on an 

 area of the Dogger Bank, showed that the food 

 supply was very patchy. Large patches of Mactra 

 (Spicula) subtruncaia, which is a plaice food, were 

 found. The fauna belonged generally to the Venus 

 community, with a tendency to deep Venus. In- 

 vestigations of the early stages of the herring led to 

 searching for spawning areas. Useful pointers have 

 been the catches of spawn-gorged haddocks landed 

 on the East Coast. Larval and post-larval forms 

 were secured chiefly by using the Petersen young 

 fish trawl. There is a spawning ground off the 

 Lincolnshire coast, and others off the Northumberland, 

 coast, on the W. edge of the Dogger, and in the 

 Southern Bight, etc. At an early stage young 

 herring concentrate in inshore waters and go in 

 shoals, which complicates quantitative investigations. 

 The failure of last year's herring fishery on the E. 

 coast of England is thought to be related to an 

 abnormal influx of Atlantic water into the N. Sea. 

 Concomitantly, changes occurred in temperature, 

 salinity, and plankton fauna. Very young herring, 

 even before the yolk sac is absorbed, prefer Pseudo- 

 calanus as food ; a later stage takes Temora, and 

 herring of whitebait size take Eurytemora. — S. F. 

 Harmer : The present position of the whaling in- 

 dustry. 



Linnean Society, November 16. — Dr. A. Smith 

 Woodward, president, in the chair. — A. J. Wilmott : 

 Orchis latifolia, Linn, (marsh orchis) from the Island 

 of Oland, Sweden, obtained from the station in 

 which it was found by Linnasus in 1741. 0. latifolia, 

 J—> r 753. was a general name for marsh orchids, but 

 in 1755 this name was limited without varieties, and 

 separated from 0. incarnata and O. sambucina. 

 The diagnosis is general, and comes from Linnaeus's 

 article in Act. Upsal. 1740, where it applies mainly 

 to unspotted-leaved plants. Linnaeus, referring to 

 O. latifolia in 1755, says that the leaves are slightly 

 spotted. This may refer to the decay spots on the 

 plant in his herbarium, or to the hybrid forms with 

 spotted leaves which occur where O. prcstermissa 

 and 0. maculata occur together. — T. A. Sprague : 

 Twin-leaves and other abnormalities in the common 

 ash, Fraxinus excelsior. Specimens were shown with 

 fasciated stems, bud-variation, accessory leaflets, 

 confluent leaflets, twin-leaves and triplets, and other 

 abnormalities. Twinning is probably caused by 

 hypertrophy. Complete or partial suppression of 

 one leaf of' a pair does not necessarily disturb the 

 opposite-decussate phyllotaxy. 



Faraday Society, November 20. — Sir Robert 

 Robertson, president, in the chair. — T. M. Lowry : 

 Intramolecular ionisation. The introduction of elec- 

 tronic formulae based on the theory of octets has 

 made it necessary to postulate a condition of intra- 

 molecular ionisation in a large number of compounds 

 where the charges on the nuclei are not balanced by 

 the enveloping electrons. Stability in oxy-acids 

 depends on the presence of a positive charge on the 

 central atom of the ion. This also increases the 

 strength of the acid. A maximum of stability and 



