56 



NA TURF 



\Noz 



187; 



common chord of \"enus and the limb, and liow these measures 

 are affected by the formation of a "black drop "between the 

 two images.— Lord Lindsay then showed some photographs of a 

 model of \'enus upon the limb, in which the "black drop " was 

 photographed as a remarkable feature. He pointed out that whtn 

 the exposure was longest the " black drop" was most marked ; 

 and he showed that its size might be greatly reduced by 

 using a stop which only permitted the rays from the central 

 parts of the lenses to reach the plate. Dr. De La Rue said 

 it was quite wonderful to see the amount of preparations 

 which were going forward at Greenwich. It was not right to 

 throw out such insinuations as Mr. Proctor had, done about 

 "ofiScial obstructiveness." Mr. Proctor's last paper in the 

 Monthly Notices was a disgrace to the Society. In former days such 

 papers never appeared. — A paper was read by Mr. Lassellon the 

 finding of longitude with small instruments. — Mr. Ranyard 

 then read a note upon a remarkable spot observed by Pas- 

 torff upon t^e sun's disc of May 26, 182S. In June 1S19 

 Pastorff obFc -.cd a nebulous spot with a bright nucleus upon the 

 sun, which has since been recognised as being the comet of 1819 

 projected upon the bright background of the photosphere. The 

 drawing reierred to by Mr. Ranyard contained a similar though 

 smaller nebulous marking, with a bright centre. His object in 

 bringing the drawing to the notice of the society was to inquire 

 whether any small comet or known meteoric stienm was between 

 the earth and the sun on May 26, 182S. 



Anthropological Institute, Nov. 11. — Prof. Busk, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — Mr. T. J. Hutchiuson, F.R.G. S., 

 H. M.'s consul at Callao, read a paper on " Explorations amongst 

 ancient burial grounds, chiefly on the sei-coast valleys, of 

 Peru," Part I. The object of the paper was to describe the 

 "huacas" or burial-grounds, especially those lying beweent 

 Arica and the Huatica Valley, and to expose some popular 

 errors respecting them. Every bit of old wall, every heap of 

 gravel, mound of earth, large or small cluster of ancient ruins of 

 any kind is there called a " huaca." The term huaca (Quichua) 

 is synonymous with Quilpa (Aymara) and means " sacred ; " the 

 title may therefore be considered as much applicable to the 

 burying-grounds of Ancon, Pasamayo, and other places where 

 there is no elevation above the country, as to those of Pando and 

 Ocharan, large burial mounds in the valley of Huatica The 

 author proceeded to describe in detail the mode of interment and 

 the various articles discovered. The celebrated Pacha- Camac 

 was described. Along the whole course of the Huatica 

 Valley — from Callao to Chorillos — a distance often miles direct 

 or sixteen miles round by Lima, there is no natural elevation 

 that could be made available as a sub-structure for those colossal 

 burial mounds. He gave at considerable length his reasons 

 for coiicludmg that there was no "Temple of the Sun " and 

 no " House of the Virgins " of the Inca religion, and that 

 every huaca was not a "Huaca de los Incas." — Dr. Simms, 

 of New York, gave a most interesting and instructive communi- 

 cation on a flattened skull from Mameluke Island, Columbia 

 River, and described minutely the practice of flattening the head 

 in infancy. In reply to questions put to him, he said that the 

 flattening does not seem to cause pain ; that males and females 

 are treated alike, although it had been supposed only males were 

 so treated ; that flattening is not apparently transmitted from 

 parents to children ; and that, judging from the general intelli- 

 gence of the native Indians, the practice does not seem in any 

 way to affect the brain or injure the health of the people. 



M.\NCIIESTER 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, October 7. — Ed- 

 ward Schunck, F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. W. 

 Boyd Dawkins, F.RS., exhibited a fragment of a post struck 

 by lightning on June 2, 1S73. It was completely sh.attered, 

 fragments being driven as far as the walls of the house, 

 twenty-five yards off, and the downward direction of the loose 

 splinters implied that the explosive force was exerted from 

 below upwards, instead of from above downwards. Mr. 

 Baxendell thought it was most probably due to the sudden con- 

 version of a portion of the moisture in the post into steam of 

 high tension by the heating action of the electrical discharge, and 

 mentioned instances in which condensed vapour was said to have 

 been seen rising from trees immediately after they had been struck 

 by lightning. — " On the Relative Work spent in Friction in giving 

 Rotation to shot from Guns rifled with an increasing, and a 

 uniform twist," by Osborne Reynolds, M.A., Professor of 

 Engineering, Owens College, Manchester, and Fellow of Queen's 



College, Cambridge. The object of this paper was to show that 

 the friction between the studs and the grooves necessary to give 

 rotation to the shot consumes more work with an increasing than 

 with a uniform twist ; and that in the case of grooves which 

 develop into parabolas, such as those U'ed in the Woolwich 

 guns, the waste from this cause is double what it would be if the 

 twift was uniform. The following conclusions were arrived at 

 by Prof, Reynolds : — 



1. That when the pressure of the powder is constant, 



Work spent in friction witli parabolic grooves _ 3 

 Work spent in friction with plane grooves ... 2 



2. That when the pressure diminishes rapidly the above 

 ratio = 2. 



3. That this ratio may have any values between these two, 

 but that it cannot go beyond these limits. 



P.VRIS 

 Academy of Sciences, November 10. — M. de Quatrefages, 

 president, in the chair. — The following papers were read : — 

 An examination of the law proposed by Herr Helmholtz for the 

 representation of the action uf two elements in a current, by M. 

 J. Bcrtrand. — Remarks on an historical point in relation to anim.al 

 heat, by M. Berthelot. — On the foundation of a meteorological 

 observatory at the foot of the peak Du Midi by the Ramond 

 Society, by M. Ch. Sainte-Claire Deville. — An extract from a 

 letter from M. de Lesseps to Lord Granville on the projected 

 Central Asian Railway. In the letter M. de Lesseps argued 

 against the supposed danger of a Russian invasion of India, and 

 expressed a hope that the Viceroy would permit his son and Mr. 

 Stuart to commence their surveys. — On the structure of the teeth 

 of the Hdodcrmata and OpIiiJians, by M. P. Genais. — Memoir 

 on the problem of three bodies, by M. E. Mathieu. — Note on 

 magnetism, by M. J. M. Gaugain. This formed the fifth of the 

 author's notes on this .subject. — Researches on the absorption of 

 ammonia by saline solutions, by M. Raoult. The author stated 

 that the difference between the coefficient of solubility of this 

 gas in pure water and in saline solutions of the same salt is pro- 

 portional to the weight of the salt dissolved in a given volume. 

 — On the transpiration of water by plants in air and in carbonic 

 anhydride, by M. A. Earthelemy. — New researches on the up- 

 ward transport of nourishment by the bark of plants, by M. 

 Faivre. — On the development of swellings on the rootlets of 

 the vine, by M. Max. Cornu. — On certain cases of mtermittence 

 of the electric current, by M. A. Cazin. — On a process lor finding 

 the nodes of a sonorous tube, by M. Bourbouze. — On the 

 presence and estimation of titanium and vanadium in the basalts 

 of Clermont-Ferrand, by M. G. Roussel. — A method of estimat- 

 ing sugar by means of iron, by M. E. Riffard. — Certain facts re- 

 lating to the development |of bony tissue, by M. Ranvier. — On 

 the fc-mphij;iis of Pistacia terebinihiis compared with the Phyl- 

 loxera tjiuinis, by M. Derbes. — On a new kind of fossil Lemur 

 recently found in the Quercy deposits of tricalcic phosphate, by 

 M. Filhol. — On the influence of the moon on meteorological 

 phenomena, by M. E. ^larchand. — On a method for the deter- 

 mination of the direction and force of the wind ; abolition of 

 weathercocks, by M. H, Tarry. 



CONTENTS Page 



The Arctic Expedition of 1S74 37 



Loc.\L Scientific Societies. II 38 



Hartwig's " Sea AND ITS Wonders" 40 



Our Book Shelf 41 



Letters to the Editor: — 



Transfer of South KeriMngton Museum —P. L. Sclater, F.R.S. . 41 



Deep-sea Soundings and Deep-sea Thermometers. — L. P. Casella 41 



Squalus .^ipinosus — C. Fox 42 



Zodiacal Light. — E. H. Pbingle 42 



Cold Treatment of Gases. — T. Guthrie 42 



The Relation of Ma.i to the Ice-shcct.— Rev. O. Fisher, F.G.S. . 42 



Wave Motion 43 



Elementary Biology 43 



Black Rain and Dew Ponds. — E. HiGHTON 43 



.^lbanv Hancock 43 



Fertilisation of Flowers, IV. By Dr. Hermann Muller {IWit/i 



niiatratittis) 44 



On the Science of Weighing and Measuring, .and the Standards 

 OK Weight and Measure, VIU. By H. W. Chisholm, Warden 



of the Standards (;K;V/i///>M/ra/io«) 47 



Earth-Sculpture. Wy Prof. Geikie, F.RS 50 



Astronomy at Oxford 52 



Notes 53 



Scientific Serials . 55 



Societies and .Academies 55 



