>76 



NA TURE 



{Mar. 12, 1874 



respecting the injury to the coffee-trees in Natal from the Longi- 

 corn battle, Anthmes leuconolKS Pascoe. — Papers were commu- 

 nicated, "On some new Specit-s of South African Zx'i'""''''> " 

 by Mr. Roland Trimen, and " Descriptions of new Species of 

 Lyccenidit" from his own collection, by Mr. W. C. HewitsoH. 



Society of Biblical Archasology, March 3.— Dr. Birch, 

 F.S.A., president, in the chair. — The following papers were 

 read : — Translation of an Egyptian fabulous romance, " The 

 Tale of the Doomed Prince," from the Harris Papyri, by 

 C. W. Goodwin. The translator drew attention to the peculiar 

 features of this ancient story, resembling in so many points the 

 romances of the mediieval period, which may have had a common 

 origin. — Translation of an historical narrative belonging to the 

 reign of Thothmes III., by C. W. Goodwin. — Observations upon 

 the Assyrian verbs Basu and Qahah, by Prof. William Wright. 

 This paper consisted of a critical analysis of the roots of the 

 above verbs, and their cognate analogues in other Semitic lan- 

 guages. 



Geologists' Association, Feb. 6. — Henry Woodward, 

 F.R.S., pre^dent, in the chair. — On the probability of finding 

 Coal in the Eastern Counties, by John Gunn, F.G.S. Mr. Gunn 

 gave the preference to a boring on the south of Essex, and pro- 

 ceeded to state the grounds on which he recommended another 

 boring at Hunstanton, or along the outcrop of the Kimmeridge 

 clay, in Norfolk. He detailed the several papers which he had 

 read af the meetings of the British Association at Nottingham, 

 Bri';hton, and Bradford, in proof of the existence of a forest 

 bed in Norfolk and Suffolk, which he called the Anglo-Belgian 

 basin, ot a succession of growth of forests, and of alternate ele- 

 vations and depressions which have taken place in that region, 

 and argued thence, by analogy, the extreme probability that such 

 existed in the carboniferous epoch. Mr. Gunn represented that if 

 the southerly dip of the Harwich slaty rocks extended in a 

 northerly direction it must have been reached at tke Norwich 

 boring, which was sunk considerably lower than that at Harwich, 

 and did not pierce through the gault. Mr. Gunn dwelt espe- 

 cially upon this as the most .serious objection to the prospect of 

 leacjing coal at Plunstanton, or rather carboniferous beds, 

 expressed so strongly by Prof, Hall at the Brit. Ass. meeting at 

 Brighton. Mr. Gunn also referred to the evidence of local sub- 

 terranean movements in proof of the proximity of disturbances 

 acting upon what he regarded as a thin envelope of tertiary or 

 secondary deposits probably not exceeding 1,000 feet, and per- 

 haps much less. He referred to the evidence of bc'ulders, 

 which he hoped to adduce on a future occasion. — On the Geo- 

 ology of Nottingham, by the Rev. A. Irving, F.G.S. Part I. 



Edinburgh 

 Geological Society, Feb. 26. — David Milne Home, F.G.S., 

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

 Notice of large striated boulder in Tynecastle Sandpit, a quarter 

 of a mile west of Dairy Cemetery, Edinburgh, by D. Milne 

 Home. — On glacial phenomena in the neighbourhood of Edin- 

 burgh— (i) the Pentland Hills; (2) Bruntsfield Links; (3) 

 Blackford Hdl ; (4) Tynecastle — by D. J. Brown. — Notice of a 

 section in the building excavations at Tynecastle, by Ralph 

 Richardson. — On glacial phenomena in the Pentland Hills and 

 neighbourhood of Edinburgh, by John Henderson. — Mr. Milne 

 Home's paper, \\hich was illustrated by diagrams, described the 

 boulder as being well rounded on the sides, and its greatest 

 length as i,\ ft., iis greatest width 4ft., its thickness about 2 ft. 

 Its upper and under surfaces were distinctly grooved, and most 

 deeply in the line of the longer axis, which lay N.E. by E. 

 There were some fainter striie oblique to that line. From a 

 crmrarison of the striations, he concluded that the superior and 

 lateral stride had been made after the stone was laid in the bed 

 where found. The stone, which was of greenstone, lay on a bed 

 of compact muddy sand, containing stones which were mostly 

 angular. Above the stone was a considerable deposit of sand, 

 and over that a series of gravels with clayey and sandy beds, all 

 stratified, above which was the soil — the whole deposit being a 

 bank fro'ii 20 to 30 ft. thick. This great bed of sand and gravel, 

 in the .-^per part and west side of which the boulder was found, 

 had been originally a submarine bank. Its height above the 

 present sea-level was about 200 ft. How much above this level 

 the sea stood when this bank was formed was, of course, only 

 matter of conjecture. The nearest rocks similar to the boulders 

 were situated to the westward ; most probably, therefore, it had 

 been rafted on ice from that quarter ; and, by reason of the ice 

 stranding on this sandbank, the boulder had been deposited 



there. The deep strize on the under side showed that the boulder 

 after being deposited on the sea bottom, had been pushed forward 

 easterly. After it had stuck fast it harl been striated on the top 

 and exposed sides, by hard and sharp rocks pushed over it, 

 probably by icebergs. The under stria; evidently indicated that 

 they were begun to be formed from the east side, whilst the 

 upper stri;x: indicated that they had been begun to be formed by 

 some agent passing over from the westward by the pressure of 

 floating ice. Mr. Milne Home stated that a boulder had been 

 recently found on Sir Thomas Hepburn's property in East 

 Lothian which also bore evidence of having been at one time 

 subject to the action of floating ice. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, March 2.— M. Eertrand in the chair. 

 — The following communications were read : — On the proper 

 nature of the principle of correspondence, by M. Chasles. — On 

 the descending motion of solar and terrestrial cyclones, and on 

 the formation of their opaque envelopes, by M. Faye. This is a 

 reply to a paper by Dr. Reye, and is a defence of the cyclone 

 theory of sun-spots. — On the acid waters which rise in the vol- 

 canoes of the Cordilleras, by M. Boussingault. The author con- 

 siders the simultaneous occurrence of chlorides and sulphates in 

 the igneous rocks the cause of the formation of hydrochloric, 

 sulphurous and sulphuric adds in voLanic emanations, thermal 

 waters, &c. — Meteorology of the month of January 1874 at 

 Tougourt, by M. Ch. Sainte-Claire Deville. — Observations on 

 solar prominences during the last quarter of the year 1873. ^^s- 

 sults furnished by the employment of diffraction gratings instead 

 of prisms in the spectroscopic observation of the prominences, by 

 P. A. Secchi. The author has observed the coincidence of spots 

 with eruptions on the sun's hmb on eighty-nine occasions. 

 Eight times only were spots seen without an eruption. A 

 remarkable case is recorded of the outburst of an eruption 

 during the course of an observation. — On the reduction of 

 bilinear forms, by M. G. Jordan. — On the refraction of 

 gases, by M. RIascart. — Organogenesis compared with 

 androgenesis in its relations to natural affinities (class Personate), 

 by M. AH. Chatin. — New species of the genus Dipterocarpus, 

 by M. J. Vesque. Twelve species are described, all from Borneo. 

 — Gnomonic projection of the terrestrial surface upon an octo- 

 hedron and upon a cube circumscribing the sphere, by M. J. 

 Thoulet. — On a new symptom of death derived from the pneu- 

 matosis of the veins of the retina, by M. E. Bouchut. — Geo- 

 metrical demonstration of some theorems, by means of the 

 consideration of an infinitely small rotation, by M. A. 

 Mannheim. — Apparent orbit and period of revolution of the 

 doulile star r; Coronte, by M. G. Flammarion. — On the mode of 

 production of certain induction currents, by M. A. Gaiffe. — On 

 the influence of albuminous substances upon electro-capillary 

 phenomena, by M. Onimus. — New researches upon the physio- 

 logical decomposition of beer-yeast, and remarks on a recent 

 communication by M. Schutzenberger, by M. A, Bechamp. — 

 On the action of chloral upon albumen, by M. H. Byasson. — Of 

 the anaesthesia produced in man by the injection of chloral into 

 the veins, by M. Ore. 



CONTENTS Page 



The Linnean Society 357 



Tai! Moon. By J Norman Lockyek, F.R.S. (With lllustrntiotis) 358 

 Letters to the Editor; — 



Natural Selection and Dysteleology.— G. J. Romanes 361 



The Action of the Heart. — J. Bell Pettigrew 362 



Lakes with two Outfalls. -G. M. Daw.son, F.R.S 363 



The Ink of the Cuttle-fish.— W. R. Hughes 363 



Trnnsmission of Light in a Squall. — J. C. Inglis 363 



Dr. Livingstone and the Cameron Expedition 363 



On the New Rhinoceros at the Zoological Gardens .... 363 



Neil Arnott, M.D, F.R.S 364 



Ozone, H. By Dr. Andrews, F.R.S. (M'j/A ///Ki/ni;K>«) . . . . 364 

 The Common Frog, XL By St. George Mivart. F.R.S. (With 



I llitstrations) 367 



The Challenger Expedition 369 



Industrial Chemistry 370 



Notes 371 



Scientific Serials 374 



Societies and Acadkmies 374 



