Jan. 8, 1874J 



NATURE 



195 



Aunales des Sciences Naturelles. It will well repay the study of 

 microjcopists. — Rev. E. O'Meare continues his researches on 

 the Diatomacea;, describing the Achnanl/icit:, GomphonemciT, 

 Amfthipleiircic and their allies. — Dr. Bowditch, of Harvard 

 University, gives a new method of injecting the Lymph Spaces 

 in fasciff;, by stretching fascia over the neck of a bottle ; and 

 injecting in several places a turpentine solution of alcannine with 

 the pomt of the syringe partially perforating the fascia j allowing 

 the whole to dry, during which process the fluid penetrates the 

 finest lymph spaces. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, Dec. 18, 1S73.— " On the Nervous System 

 oi Actinia," Part L, by Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S. 



After noticing the investigations of previous anatomists in the 

 histology of the chromatophores, the work of Schneider and 

 Rotteken on these supposed organs of special sense is examined 

 and criticised. 



Agreeing with Rotteken in his description, some further infor- 

 mation is given respecting the nature of the baciUary layer and 

 the minute anatomy of the elongated cells called "cones" by 

 that author. Tlie position and nature of the pigment-cells is 

 pointed out, and the pecuHarities of the tissues they environ also. 

 It is shown that the large retractile cells, which, according to 

 Rotteken, are situated between the bacilli and the cones, are not 

 invariably in that position, but that bacilli, cones, and cells are 

 often found separate. They are parts of the ectothelium, and 

 when conjoined enable light to affect the nervous system more 

 readily than when they are separate. Further information is 

 given respecting the fusiform nerve-cells and small fibres noticed 

 by Rotteken in the tissue beneath the cones, and the discovery 

 of united ganglion like cells, and a diffused plexiform arrange- 

 ment of nerve is asserted. The probability of a continuous plexus 

 round the Actinia and beneath each chromatophore is suggested, 

 and the nature of the physiology of the structures in relation to 

 light is explained. 



The nature of the minute construction of the muscular fibres 

 and their attached fibrous tissue in the base ol ^Iciinia is noticed ; 

 and the nervous system in that region is asserted to consist of a 

 plexus beneath the endothelium, in which are fusiform cells and 

 fibres like sympathetic nerve- fibrils. Moreover, between the 

 muscular layers there is a continuation of this plexus, whose ulti- 

 mate fibrils pass obliquely over the muscular fibres, and either 

 dip between or are lo^t on them. 



The other parts of the Actinia are under the examination of 

 the author, but their details are not sufficiently advanced for 

 publication. The nervous system, so far as it is examined, con- 

 sists of isolated fusilurm cells with small ends (Rotteken), and of 

 fusiform and spherical cells whicii communicate with eacti other 

 and with a diffused plexus. The plexus at the base is areolar, 

 and its ultimate fibres are swollen here and there, the whole 

 being of a pale grey colour. 



Anthropological Institute, Dec. 30, 1873. — Prof. Busk, 

 F. U.S., president, in the chair — The following paper was read : 

 — " Ethnological Data from the Annalsof the Elder Han," Part I. 

 Translated by A. Wylie, of Shanghai, with an introduction by 

 H. H. Howorth. The Imperial Chinese Annals of the various 

 liynasties which are as yet almost untouched are distinguished 

 by the extreme accuracy of their details, and in them is to be 

 found a minute account of the intercourse of China with its 

 neighbours, reaching back in contemporary annals to at least the 

 second century B.C. The series of Chinese annals begins pro- 

 perly with those of the Han dynasty which reigned from about 

 203 B.C. to about 220 A.D. That was the golden prime of 

 Chinese history, when the empire reached its furthest limits, 

 when Buddhism was introduced and when a great literature 

 flourished. During the dynasty of Cheou, the old imperial unity 

 had been invaded by the creation of various feudatories who be- 

 came almost independent. It was the aim of the immediate 

 predecessors of the Han dynasty to destroy those feudatories and 

 to restore the unity of the empire ; and to effect that purpose all 

 the ancient books and histories were ordered to be burnt. The 

 annals, in the present communication, contain an account of the 

 numerous conquests from the date of the Elder Han and embrace 

 the history .and migrations of a large portion of the peoples of 

 Central and Eastern Asia. Mr. H. H. Howorth communicated 

 the twelfth and concluding paper on the Westerly Drifting of 

 Nomades 1 the Huns. 



Edinburgh 



Royal Society, Jan. 5.— Prof. Sir William Thomson, pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — The following communications were 

 read : — A New Method of Determining the Material and 



Thermal Diffusivities of Fluids, by Sir William Thomson. 



Cominumts ; A New Special Class of Determinants, by Thomas 

 Muir, M.A. — Remarks upon the Foot-Piints of the Dinomis on 

 the Sand Rock of Poverty Bay, New Zealand, and upon its 

 recent Extinction, by T. H. Cockbum Hooi 



Dublin 

 Royal Irish Academy, Nov. 29, 1873.— Prof Jellett, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Samuel Ferguson, LL.D., read a paper on 

 ' ' The completion of the biliteral key to the valires of the 

 Letters in the South British Ogham Alphabet." — The president 

 read a paper on " The question of Chemical Equihbrium," the 

 determination of the law, according to which an acid divides itself 

 between two bases which are present in the same solution, has 

 been long known to be one of the obscure questions of chemistry, 

 it is generally admitted by chemists that there is a division, and 

 that the relative masses of the two bases exercise an important 

 influence upon the law which governs it, but the law itself 

 remains unknown, and the object of Prof Jellett's paper was to 

 give at least a partial, possibly a final, solution to the problem, 

 treating the question as one of chemical equilibrium, and defining 

 these terms as follows : — Two or more substances may be said to 

 be in chemical equilibrium if they can be brought into chemical 

 presence of each other, without the formation of any new com- 

 pound or change in the amount of any of the substances which 

 are thus brought together. If an acid be added to a mixture of 

 two bases, four substances will be present, i.e. two salts and two 

 portions of bases remaining uncombined, these four are in 

 chemical equilibrium — the question is why — and the author 

 showed that there can be but one equation of equilibrium, inas- 

 much as the quantities of the four substances which are present 

 in the solution, are functions of three independent variables, 

 namely : — the original quantities of each base (2) and the original 

 quantity of acid (I) denoting by b-^ b,. the quantities of free 

 base, and by s^ s.^ the quantities of each salt respectively, the 

 equation of equilibrium is necessarily of the form U — F 

 (b^, .tj, ^2, .fj) = o, and the object of the author's investigations 

 was to determine the form of the function f. The bases selected 

 for experiment were quinia and brucia. In quinia the rotatory 

 power of any of its salts exceeds the rotatory power of the base. 

 In quinia the reverse is the case, and as the result of careful and 

 long continued experiments, it was proved that equilibrium is 

 not troubled by dilution, lor a disturbance could not arise with- 

 out altering the rotation — there was no alteration, and the 

 equilibrium, therefore, depended only on the ratios of the four 

 substances, hence : — 



u = F (h i=, fl) 



\Si' s„ b^/ 

 By a second series of experiments it was proved — putting ?-j = 

 rotatory power of brucia, f/j = rotatory power of hydrochlorate 

 of quinia, rj = rotatory power of brucia, p.^ = rotatory power of 

 hydrochlorate of brucia, >■ = actual rotation for acidulated 

 mixture, a = total amount of acid corresponding to the unit of 

 bulk of solution, x = amount which combines with the quinia, 

 it is easily seen that 



v. a a / a 



„{«■-- 



(,-Mr^),. 



where /Sj, S^, a are the atomic weights of the two bases and the 

 acid respectively, and b^ b„ are the quantities of each base con- 

 tained in the bulk of the solution. Solving this equation for x, 

 we have 



X = A a + B {r — bii\ - /'„ r^), where 



A = 



PiiPi 



3-j ('-= - P:) 



B . 



Piipi-'-i) + e.c-'.-p^) 



If ;-„bethe actual rotation caused by the unacidulated mixture, it 

 is evident that r„ = b^ >\ + b.^ r„. The foregoing may therefore 

 be written 



.v = Aa + B(r — rJ 

 By a third scries of experiments it was seen that if a solution of 



