June i i, 190SJ 



NA TURE 



143 



the importance of his work upon absolute measurements, 

 and Sir Oliver Lodge pointed out that some persons 

 appeared to think that absolute measurements meant the 

 metric system, but it did not matter in the least what 

 units were employed so long as they were understandable. 



Zoological Society, May 26. — Prof. E. A. Minchin, vice- 

 president, in the chair. — Mammals collected by Mr. 

 C. H. B. Grant near Tette, Zambcsia, being the tenth and 

 last of the series of papers on Mr. C. D. Rudd's explora- 

 tion of South .'\frica : Oldfield Thomas and R. C. 

 Wroughton. The importance of this collection was due 

 to the fact that Tette was the place where Dr. Peters 

 obtained most of the specimens on whicli his " Saugethiere 

 von Mossambique " (1852) was based, and the specimens 

 now collected were therefore topotypes of his species, and 

 in consequence of great value in working out South African 

 mammals in general ; 104 specimens were referred to, 

 belonging to thirty-two species. The e.xploration had 

 lasted five years, and its results formed the largest and 

 most complete collection that the National Museum liad 

 ever received, from any one source. Besides duplicates, 

 1541 specimetis had been registered in the museum, a 

 large number of new species and subspecies had been dis- 

 covered and described, and many more old and ine.xactly 

 described species were now represented by good series of 

 well-prepared skins and skulls. The collection had, in 

 fact, revolutionised our knowledge of South African 

 mammalc ;y, and it was impossible to exaggerate the 

 benefit tl It such an exploration was to zoology in general 

 and to he National Museum in particular. — The small 

 coUectici of terrestrial Isopoda made by Dr. Cunnington 

 on the third Tanganyika expedition : Rev. T. R. R. 

 Stebbing^. The collection consisted of four species For 

 two of these the author instituted the new genus .nchi- 

 philoscia, distinguished by more penicils on the m„,_Jibles 

 and a different cleavage of the second maxillge from 

 Philoscia as founded by Latreille in 1804. The paper 

 insisted on the need of some enthusiast able and willing 

 tlioroughly to revise all the forms which had clustered 

 under and about the generic name Philoscia. — The anatomv 

 of .\ntechinomys and some other marsupials, with special 

 reference to the intestinal tract and mesenteries of these 

 and other mammals : F. E. Beddard. With the aid of 

 a series of diagrams, the author described four grades or 

 types into which he divided the modes of suspension of the 

 mammalian intestinal tract. — The dermal armour of the 

 extinct reptiles of the genus Pareiasaurus : Prof. H. G. 

 Sseley. The existence of a derinal armour in Pareisaurus 

 had been doubted by some authors, but Prof. Seeley was 

 able to exhibit some actual specimens of scutes which had 

 been obtained by Mr. J. Van Renen south of Fraserberg, 

 Cape Colony. — Prof. Seeley also exhibited the skull of an 

 extinct reptile of the genus Diademodon, on which he 

 proposed to found a new species, and gave an account of 

 the further evidence which it afforded of the structure and 

 dentition of these South .\frican reptiles. — Descriptions of 

 many new species of Siphonaptera : Hon. N. Charles 

 Rothschild. 



DfBLIN. 



Royal Dublin Society. May 19. — Prof. Young, 

 F.R.S., in <the chair. — Mendelian characters among 

 Shorthorn cattle: Prof. J. Wilson. The author showed 

 that in the matter of colour Shorthorn cattle display 

 Mendelian phenomena, and that the reds and white's 

 are the parent races, while the roans are intermediate 

 hybrids. In support of this he quoted data collected for 

 another purpose by Miss Barrington and Prof. Karl 

 Pearson, which were published in Biometrika (vol. iv.). 

 F"or the purpose of his paper the author pointed out that 

 Barrington and Pearson's data were not complete, 

 inasmuch as they left out of account several factors that 

 cause the registration of Shorthorn cattle to be inaccurate. 

 The author collected new data, in which the inaccuracies 

 are eliminated as far as possible. He also gave a short 

 account of the origin of Shorthorn cattle and of the 

 history of the three races of cattle now found in the 

 British Isles, viz. the black Celtic race, the white Roman 

 race, and the red Saxon race, — Injurious insects and other 

 animals observed in Ireland during the year 1007 : Prof. 

 Ci. H. Carpenter. The paper included records of 



NO. 2015, VOL. 7S] 



several insects feeding on tobacco, including the cater- 

 pillars of Mamestra oleracea and ill. hrassicae, and a 

 springtail — Isotoina Icnella, Reuter — new to the IJritannic 

 fauna. The storehouse beetle, Ptimis iectiis, Boield., lately 

 introduced into Great Britain, has now appeared also in 

 the suburbs of Dublin. 



P.iRIS. 

 Academy of Sciences, June i. — M. H. Becquerel in ihe 

 chair. — The fossils of Patagonia. Economy in nature : 

 -Albert Gaudry. A comparison of the remains of mammals 

 of the Patagonian region with those of this hemisphere 

 shows no reason for supposing that there were two centres 

 of creation ; but during Tertiary times evolution has taken 

 place in the two hemispheres differently, continuing in the 

 one and being arrested in the other. — New observations on 

 Etna ; A. Lacroix. The eruption has been studied from 

 the observatory, situated at an altitude of 2942 metres, and 

 at the foot of the terminal cone, i kilometre from the 

 crater. The clouds emitted are compared with those of 

 Mont Pel^e, and details are given of the field within which 

 fresh openings have been produced, and of the materials 

 projected by the explosions of the central crater. — Some 

 points relating to the pathogeny of congenital deformities 

 of the face : M. Le Dentu. A general review of the 

 theories of malformation is given, the statistics relating to 

 the influence of heredity being considered in some detail. 

 — The stability of auto-excited alternators working in 

 parallel : M. bumoulin. A study of the effect of adjust- 

 ing the brushes of the rectifier supplying the inducing 

 current. — Two different states of the iron arc : H. Buisson 

 and Ch. Fabry. The first state of the arc, which is 

 stable only when the current is intense, can be made to 

 pass over into the other by introducing a large resistance 

 into the circuit, the electromotive force being high, 220 

 to 440 volts. The phenomena observed are compared with 

 those shown by the arc between carbon poles. — The 

 hydrates of the fatty acids determined from measurements 

 of the viscosity of their solutions : D. E. Tsakalotos. 

 These measurements lead to the conclusion that there i~ 

 no combination between formic acid and water, whilst 

 acetic, propionic, and butyric acids form molecular com- 

 binations containing one molecule of water to one molecule 

 of the acid. — The action of ammonia upon phosphorus 

 chloronitride : MM. Besson and Rosset. With dry liquid 

 ammonia the product of the reaction is PN(NHj), ; gaseous 

 ammonia acting on a solution of the chloronitride in 

 carbon tetrachloride gives a different substance, 



P.NXl^CNH,), 



soluble in carbon tetrachloride. — The acid phosphoric esters 

 of guaiacol : V. Aug^er and P. Dupuis. — The mechanism 

 of cyclic formation in the geranic series ; the synthesis and 

 structure of dihydromyrcene : M. Tiffeneau. — Researches 

 on protoplasmic hydrolysis : A. Etard and A. Vila. It 

 is pointed out that the current methods of separating and 

 determining the nitrogenous products of the hydrolysis of 

 protoplasmic substances entail unavoidable losses. — The 

 relations between the microgranites and the diabases of 

 the Meuse valley : J. de Lapparent. It is concluded 

 that the eruption of the microgranites of the valley of the 

 Meuse is of a later date than that of the diabases. At 

 the moment of the eruption of the microgranites the 

 magma of the diabases had not consolidated. — A new 

 genus, Lecythodytcs paradoxus, a parasite of the Chryso- 

 monadineas : P. A. Dang^eard. — The propagation of some 

 species of mosses of the genus Barbula under certain e.x- 

 perimental conditions : Jacques Maheu. — The pallial 

 defensive glands in Scaphander Jignarhis : R^my Perrier 

 and Henri Fischer. — The most recently discovered draw- 

 ings in the Portel (Arifege) grotto : A. Breuil, L. Jammes, 

 and R. Jeannel. In a branch of the main cavern, un- 

 noticed until recently, a fresh set of paleolithic drawings 

 his been found. These include pictures of a small bison 

 and a horse, reindeer, and wild goat. Evidence of the 

 presence of small bears in this cave has also been found. 

 — The entoptoscope, an instrument for examining the 

 macula : Paul Fortin. — Radioscopy in forensic medicine : 

 F. Bordas. In determining whether an infant has 

 breathed or not, radiography cannot be substituted for 

 the methods in current use. It is, however, of service in 



