ii8 



NA TURE 



[June ^, 1908 



evidence of vanished heights. At the mouths of the dry 

 valleys issue streams impregnated with carbonate of lime. 

 It is suggested that percolating water, forming an under- 

 ground course along joint-lines, removes enough material 

 in solution to weaken a long, winding area over which 

 the surface subsides. Solution widens the stream banks 

 into bowls of soakagc, and leaves insoluble material to 

 build up a level valley floor, which rises above and obscures 

 the valley outlet streams, these then forming marshes. — 

 The stratigraphy and structure of the Tarnthal mass 

 (Tyrol) : Dr. A. P. Young; ; with a note on two cephalo- 

 pods collected on the Tarnthal Kopfe (Tyrol) : G. C. Crick. 

 The occasion for this paper is the discoverv of fossils 

 which appear to throw new light on the relations of the 

 rocks of this mountain. The rock series is divided into 

 three parts, and the succession summarised. .An explana- 

 tion of the structure is then suggested. -A petrographical 

 note is furnished on the amphibolite of Gufidann. 



Physical Society, May S— Dr. C. Chree, F.R.S., presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — \ modified theory of gravitation : Dr. 

 C. \'. Burton. If we are to regard gravitational attrac- 

 tion as e.xerted through the medium of the fether, it 

 appears to the author difficult to avoid the conclusion that 

 the very great (or possibly infinite) velocity with which 

 such attractions are propagated is due to the verv great 

 (or complete) incomprcssibility of the jether. This con- 

 ception is embodied in the pulsatory theories of Hicks and 

 of^ subsequent writers ; the chief outstanding difficultv has 

 lain in providing for that agreement of phase which must 

 be assumed to subsist amongst the centres of pulsatorv 

 disturbance associated with the mutually attracting masses. 

 This difficulty is avoided if we suppose that primary waves 

 of compressional-rarefactional type are being propagated 

 through the aether with a velocity enormously transcending 

 that of light. ^ These primary waves may be travelling in 

 directions indifferently distributed, or predominantiv or 

 exclusively in one direction ; but an essential point is' that 

 all effective wave-lengths should be very great, measured 

 even by astronomical standards. Thus the pressure 

 changes will be sensibly in the same phase over consider- 

 ,able regions, and if the actherial compressibilitv is locallv 

 increased (or diminished) by the presence of electrically 

 neutral matter, every particle of such matter will act as a 

 centre of pulsatory motion. For the electron, so far as 

 concerns _ this modification of fetherial compressibilitv, a 

 specification is assumed which involves no restraint on the 

 free mobility of the electron through the aether. Incident- 

 ally, the dynamics of the problem assumes a relatively 

 simple form, and a value Which could be quite insignificant 

 attaches to a " gravitational (or non-electromagnetic) 

 term " appearing in the expression for the total inertia 

 of an electron. — An examination of the formulje for the 

 grading of cables : C. S. Whitehead.— Illustrations of 

 geometrical optics : R. M. Archer. Light from a narrow 

 rectilinear source is allowed to pass through a slit and fall 

 upon a flat white surface at almost grazing incidence. It 

 is easy to obtain upon the surface a long narrow streak 

 of light with sharp edges, and if a mirror be placed with 

 its plane approximately normal to the surface another 

 streak corresponding to the reflected ray can be seen. 

 Similarly, the path of the beam after its 'emergence from 

 a glass block or prism may be traced. Interesting effects 

 ran be obtained by using many slits and casting the beam 

 from a distant optical lantern upon them. This mode of 

 illumination is useful in demonstrating the formation of 

 caustics. Quantitative results can be obtained comparable 

 in accuracy with those given by an ordinary optical bench. 



Zoological Society, iVIavi?.— Dr. F. DuCane Gndman, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — Exhibits. — Prepara- 

 tions of a new gland found in certain teleostean fishes : 

 W. Woodland. This new gland is quite distinct from 

 the_ gas-gland, and consists of rows of huge columnar cells, 

 which are situated in close connection' with the blood- 

 vessels, wliich possess large nuclei and nucleoli, and are 

 packed with numerous large spherical granules derived 

 from the rrd-corpuscle disintegration concerned in the 

 generation of the oxygen contained in the swim-bladder. 

 These granules, thus abstracted by the gland-cells from the 

 blood, are" carried away by special ducts appertaining to 

 the gland. The discovery 'of this gland confirms J.-eger's 



N'O. 2014, VOL. 7SI 



view as to the mode of generation of the bladder oxvgen. 

 This gland exists in Gobius, Syngnathus, Peristedion, 'Box, 

 and some other genera. — Specimen of a petrel, CEstrclata 

 ncglccta, Schleg., picked up dead, yet in a quite fresh con- 

 rlition, at Tarporley, in Cheshire, on .^pril i, 190S : T. A. 

 Coward. This bird is a native of the southern Pacific, 

 and has almost certainly never been recorded from the 

 northern hemisphere, and certainly never from Europe 

 before. — The tanned skin of a wild cat, obtained bv the- 

 Hon. Mason Mitchell, of the .American Consular Service, 

 in Sze-chuen : R. Lydelcker. Mr. Lydekker had com- 

 pared the skin with a light-coloured skin of Felis 

 tcmmincki from Sikkim, and described it as a new local 

 race of that species. — Specimen of chert from the Middle 

 Culm-measures (Carboniferous) of Christon Down, near 

 Doddiscombe Leigh, Devonshire, showing numerous large 

 and well-preserved Radiolaria : C. Davies Sherborn. — 

 Papers. — The Cyril Crossland collection of Calcarea from 

 Zanzibar and Wasin (British East -Africa) : C. F. Jenkin.. 

 Notes on the .Australian fossorial wasps of the family 

 Sphegidas, with descriptions of new species : R. E. 

 Turner. Eighty species were described as new, and the- 

 absence of the genera Oxybelus and Philanthus, otherwise 

 of world-wide range, from Australia was commented on. 

 — The heredity of secondary se.xual characters in relation 

 to hormones : a contribution to the theory of heredity : 

 J. T. Cunningfham. The paper contained an examination 

 and criticism of the most important recent investigations^ 

 and theories on the subject by evolutionists of various 

 schools, namely, the theory which attributes such characters 

 to constitutional causes, such as male katabolism, Prof. 

 Karl Pearson's biometrical investigation of sexual selection 

 in man. Castle's Mendelian theory of the heredity of se.x, 

 and Geoffrey Smith's views on dimorphism of males and' 

 parasitic castration in Crustacea. The author maintained 

 that all these contributions were more or less inconsistent 

 with the known facts concerning the connection between 

 the development of secondary sexual characters and the 

 functional activity of the primary gonads. He directed 

 attention to the recent discovery and experimental proof 

 on the part of physiologists that the development of the 

 characters was due to the stimulus of a chemical substance 

 or hormone produced by the testis or ovary, and passed 

 into the blood, and suggested that conversely hormones 

 from parts of the soma might affect the gamete* in the 

 gonads. In this way the hypertrophy of a part of the body 

 due to external stimulation might modify the corresponding 

 determinants in the gametes so as to produce some 

 hereditary effect in succeeding generations. Mr. Cunning- 

 ham added that his theory was an interpretation in terms 

 •)f modern physiology of Darwin's theory of pangenesis. 



Chemical Society, May 21. — Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Hydro-aromatic ketones, 

 preliminary note : A. W. Crossiey and C. Giiling:. A 



description of the condensation products obtained from 

 5-chloro-i : i-dimethyl-A'-i:yc/ohexenone-3, with ketonic 

 esters. — The sulphides and oxysulphides of silicon : I. G. 

 Rankin and S. M. Reving;ton. Berzelius's sulphide is 

 shown to be SiS,, and the compositions of the mono- 

 sulphide and the oxysulphides, SiSO and SiSO,, have been 

 definitely established. — .Apparatus for experiments at high- 

 temperatures and pressures, and its application to the 

 study of carbon : R. Threifali. -A simple and com- 

 paratively inexpensive steel apparatus for the investigation 

 of reactions at high temperatures and pressures was 

 described, and the results obtained by melting carbon 

 under a pressure of about 100 tons per square inch were 

 detailed. In every case soft, crystalline graphite was 

 obtained, and the view is taken that for the formation 

 of diamond under these conditions other substances must 

 be present, and the nature of these will probably be deter- 

 mined by the constituents of diamond ash. — .\cids as 

 accelerators in the acetylation of amino-groups : Miss .\. J. 

 Smith and K. J. P. brton. It was shown that minute 

 quantities of sulphuric and other mineral acids greatly 

 accelerate the acetylation of such substances as anilines 

 with two negative groups in the ortho-positions with 

 respect to the amino-group. — The chemical action of 

 radium .emanation, part iii., on water and certain gases : 

 .\. T. Cameron and Sir W. Ramsay. The decom- 



