Feb. 5, 1874J 



NATURE 



275 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 

 Geological Society, Jan. 21. — Prof. P. Martin Duncan, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in tlie chair. — " The secondary rocks of 

 Sciilland (second paper). On the ancient volcanoes of the 

 Highlands and their relations to the Mesozoic strata," by J. W. 

 Judd, F.G. S. That the rocks formiry tlie great plateaux of the 

 Hebrides and tlie north of Ireland are really the vestiges of 

 innumerable lava-streams, is a fact which has long been recog- 

 nised by geologists. That these lavas were of snbaertal 

 and not subaqueous origin is proved by the absence of all 

 contemporaneous interbedded sedimentary rocks, by the evi- 

 dently terrestrial origin of the surfaces on which they lie, and by 

 the intercalation among them of old soils, forests, mud-streams, 

 river-gravels, lake deposits, and masses of unstratified tulfs and 

 ashes. From the analogy of existing volcanic districts, we can 

 scarcely d ubt that these great accumulations of igneous products, 

 which must originally have covered many thousands of square miles, 

 and which still often exhibit a thickness of 2,000 ft., were ejected 

 from great volcanic mountains ; and a careful study of the dis- 

 trict fully confirms this conclusion, enabling us, indeed, to deter- 

 mine the sites of these old volcanoes, to estimate their dimen- 

 sions, to investigate their internal structure, and to trace the his- 

 tory of their fuimation. The following is Mr. Judd's conclusion 

 on the subject of his paper : — It appears that during the Newer 

 Pala;nzoic and the Tertiary periods, the north-western parts of 

 the Bnlish archipelago were the scene of displays of volcanic ac- 

 tivity upon the grandest scale. During either of these, the 

 eruption of felspathic lavas, &c., preceded, as a whole, that of 

 the basaltic ; and in both the volcanic action was brought to a 

 close by the formation of "puys." The range of Newer-Pal^eo- 

 zoic volcanoes arose along a line striking N.E. and S.W. ; that 

 of the Tertiary volcanoes along one striking from N. to S. ; and 

 each appears to have been connected with a great system of sub- 

 terranean disturbance. It is an interesting circumstance that the 

 epochs cf maximum volcanic activity, the Old Red sandstone 

 and the Miocene, appear to have been coincident with those 

 which, as shown by Prof. Ramsay, were characterised by the 

 greatest extent of continental land in the area. The Secondary 

 strata were deposiied in the interval between the two epochs of 

 Volcanic activity, and the features which they present ha\'e been 

 largely influenced by this circumstance. Apart from this con- 

 sideration, however, the volcanic rocks of the Highlands are ^of 

 the highest interest to the geologist, both from their enabling 

 him to decipher to so great an extent the "geological records " 

 of the district, and from the light which they throw upon some 

 of the obscurest pioblems of physical geology. — Remarks on 

 fossils from Oberbuiv, Styria, by A. W. Waters, F. G. S. The 

 author noticed the limited occurrence of Eocene deposits in 

 Styria, and referred briefly to the researches of Prof. Reuss and 

 Prof. Stur upon them. He then indicated certain species of 

 fossils which he had detected in these beds, adding about nine 

 species to Stur's list. 



Anthropological Institute, Jan. 27. — Prof. Busk, F.R. S., 

 president, in the chair. — Aniversary Meeting. — Before pro- 

 ceeding to read his address, the president referred to the 

 financial condition of the Institute, which, although it showed 

 that the receipts were adequate for the necessary expenditure on 

 the present economical principles of management, would not 

 admit either of paying off any more of the debt or of increasing 

 the scope and usefulness of the Institute. Until the unfortunate 

 and. utterly indefensible secession of members early in 1873, 

 on a purely personal question, the Institute, since its formation, 

 had paid off the combined debts of the two old societies at the 

 rate of 100/. a year. He appealed to the loyalty of the members 

 now forming the Institute to make a united effort finally to ex- 

 tinguish the debt of 800/. A year's income would do it, and it 

 was suggested that if each member contriliuted one year's sub- 

 scription, that great result would be attained and the Institute 

 would certainly before long occupy a high position amongst the 

 scientific bodies of the kingdom. As an encouragement to the 

 body of members and as an earnest of the sincerity and vigour 

 of his colleagues in management, the president had much plea- 

 sure in announcing that nearly 250/. had been promised by 

 members present at a council-meeting held that day, provided 

 the sum of 500/. be contributed by other members of the Insti- 

 tute. — The president then delivered the .annual address, in which 

 he viewed the work done during 1873 by English and foreign 



anthropologists. Amongst a large number of topics he adverted 

 at considerable length to the important contributions to cranio- 

 metry, by Dr. H. von Jhering and Dr. Paul Brcca, criticising 

 the respective methods employed by those distinguished anthro- 

 pologists ; and concluded that part of his address with the ob- 

 servation that the study of craniology is almost futile when ap- 

 plied to highly civilised, and consequently much mixed peoples, 

 and that its results are the more certain in proportion to the 

 purity of race. That purity at the present time was rapidly dis- 

 appearing, and with it the surest data for the determination of 

 the problems involved in the antiquity and physical origin of 

 man. — The following was the list of officers and council elected 

 to serve for 1S74 :— President— Prof Geo. Busk, F.R.S. Vice- 

 presidents — John Evans, F.R.S. ; Col. A. Lane Fox, F.S.A. ; 

 A. W. Franks, M.A. ; Francis Galton, F.R.S. ; Prof. Huxley, 

 F.RS. ; Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R S. Director— E. W. 

 Brabrook, F.S.A. — Treasurer— Rev. Dunbar I Heath, M.A. 

 Council— Dr. John Beddoe, F.R.S. ; W. Blackmore ; H. G. 

 Bohn, F.R.G.S. ; Dr. A. Campbell; Hyde Clarke; Dr. J. 

 Barnard Davis, F.R.S.; W. Boyd Dawkins. F.R.S. ; Robert 

 Dunn, F. R.C.S. ; David Forbes, F.R.S. ; Sir Duncan Gibb, 

 Bart, M.D. ; George Harris, F.S.A. ; J. Park Harrison, M.A. 

 J. F. McLennan ; C. R. Markham, C.B. F. R. S. ; Frederic 

 Ouvry, F.S.A.; F. G. H. Price, F.R.G.S.; J. E. Price, 

 F.S.A. ; F. W. Rudler, F.G.S. ; C. R. Des Ruflieres, F.R.S.L. ; 

 £. Burnet Tylor, F.R.S. 



Edinburgh 

 Royal Physical Society, Jan 28. — Mr. Scot Skirving, pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — The following communications were read : 

 Note on the Crushed Boulders from the Old Red Conglo- 

 merate in Kincardineshire, by James C. Howden, M.D., 

 — On Crushed Boulders from Arbroath, and other lo- 

 calities, by Mr. Charles W. Peach. — Report of the Dredging 

 Committee for 1S73, by James Middleton, M.B., convener. 

 The meeting of the committee luad been held conjointly with 

 the Naturalists' Field Club. In all about 133 species of animals 

 had been obtained, including two new to the Firth of Forth. — 

 Note on the .Suspension of Clay in Water, by Mr. William 

 Durham. This research was undertaken in continuance of those 

 recorded in the papers on the same subject read at the last 

 meeting. As the general result of Mr. Durham's elaborate and 

 careful series of experiments, it was found that clay held in 

 suspension by water sinks more quickly if the water is slightly 

 acidulated, and more slowly if a slight amount of an alkali is 

 added, but that the conditions aie reversed if a large amount of 

 either substance is mixed with the water. 



Manchester 

 Geological Society, Jan. 27. — Mr. J. Dickenson Hill in 

 the chair. — Mr. J. Aitken exhibited some new fossil fishes from 

 the millstone grit, Yorkshire, and read a paper descriptive of 

 the bed whence they were obtained. He said that evidences of 

 fossils had been brought to the surface during the excavations 

 connected with the scheme for taking water from Widdop col- 

 liery to the borough of Halifax by a tunnel cut through Wads- 

 worth Moor, about two miles north of Hebdenbridge. After an 

 examination, by no means exhaustive, there had been discovered 

 seven specimens of Goniatites, three of Nautili, two of Orthoccra- 

 tites, two oi Afitula pcr/eu, two of Posodouia, one of Gastropod, 

 one of Mi/amia, fish remains, &c. The discovery of the most 

 remarkable character was a new species of Acroh-pis presenting 

 peculiar characteristics. The situation in which these remains 

 occurred was near but somewhat above the middle of the shells 

 which usually divided the third floors from the fourth or under- 

 most grit. 



GbTTINGEN 



Royal Academy of Sciences, Nov. i, 1873. — ^^' Sobering 

 communicated a paper on the Ilamilton-Jacobi theory for forces 

 whose measurement depends on the motion of bodies. — MM. 

 Wagner, Philippi, and Tollens described some researches on the 

 AUyl group, made with the view of establishing the constitution 

 of allyl alcohol, and of some of its compounds, especially acrylic 

 acid. They find new evidence, in opposition to Wislicenus, that 

 acrylic acid, as well as acetic acid, propionic acid, and all other 

 organic acids, contains the group COjH, and may therefore be 

 classed with them. — MM. von Grote and Tollens described an 

 acid obtained from cane sugar by means of dilute sulphuric acid ; 

 and M. Tollens gave the first results of an investigation as to 

 combinations of starch with alkali. 



