496 



NA TURE 



{April 23, 1874 



a Lancashire pit into anthracite, and even in some parts 

 into graphite. — A paper by Mr. Payne was read, On the 

 Ooliiic coalfield of Brora, Sutherlandshire. One of the coal- 

 seams, aboul 3 feet 6 inches .hick, is being worked at a depth 

 of from 720 to 300 feet. — Mr. Taylor then read three 

 short papers on (l) An analysis of various coals and peats. 



(2) Specular iron recently discovered in New Sou'h Wales. 



(3) Shale recently discovered at Waitata, New Zealand. — • 

 Mr. Peach stated that, in the course of preparing these 

 sections, he had made a discovery which may yet prove to be of 

 some service in the Fine Arts, viz., that the pounded dust of 

 such shale as this, an enormous bed of which occurs in New 

 Zealand, yield.s a colouring material closely resembling sepia, a 

 costly substance. 



April 16. — Mr. David Milne Home, F.G.S., president, 

 in the chair. — The first paper was read by Dr. Ramsay H. 

 Traquair, Keeper of the Natural History collection in the 

 Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, On the Structure and 

 Affinities of the genus Cheirolepis. Dr. Traquair submitted the 

 following conclusions at which he had arrived on the matter :^ 

 (i) That A^assiz was correct in ascribing branchiostegal rays and 

 irregular dentition to the cheirolepis, but the larger teeth are 

 placed in a distinct row internal to the smaller ones, not in the 

 same line as Agassiz described them. (2) That the plates 

 described by Powrie as principal jugulars belong to the shoulder 

 girdle, being in fact the interclavicular plates of Parker ; and 

 that cheirolepis has no jugular plates. (3) That the osteology 

 of cheirolepis shows it to be so closely allied to Palneoniscus that 

 it ought to be included in the same family, notwithstanding the 

 minuteness and non-overlapping character of the scales. — 

 Mr. George Lyon read a paper On a Species of Griffithides 

 (Trilobite) from a limestone quarry south of Dalkeith, near 

 Edinburgh, and which belongs to a genus extremely rare. — Mr. 

 David J. Brown read a paper On a new Theory of the Formation 

 of Till, or Boulder-clay. The author submitted that till is in 

 reality formed by glaciers, after they enter the sea, tearing up the 

 rocks that form its bed, and grinding them to boulders and mud, 

 and that this mud deposited along with the boulders forms 

 boulder-clay. 



Vienna 

 Geological Institute, Jan. 7 (anniversary meeting). The 

 Director, Fr. v. Hauer, read the annual report, which states, 

 that during the last year the palace of Prince Liechtenstein has 

 been purch fed for the collections, the library, laboratory, and 

 the working rooms of the institute. The staff has been reor- 

 ganised, and now consists of the Director, Fr. v. Hauer ; Vice- 

 Director, Fr. Foetterle ; Chief Geologists, D. Stur, G. Stache, 

 and E. v. Mojsisovics ; Chief of the Chemical Laboratory, K. v. 

 Hauer ; Geologists, H. Wolf and K. Paul ; two adjuncts, O. 

 Lenz, the second at present being vacant ; two assistants, A. 

 Redtenbacher tnd K. John ; two practitioners, C. Doelter and 

 R. Homes. — After mentioning the share which the insti- 

 tute took in the general exhibition of last year, the report 

 announces that geological explorations have been carried on 

 during the last summer in the Bukovina as well as in the Tyrol, 

 whence the examination of the northern chain of the Austrian 

 Alps was finished with the Bregenzer-Wald (Vorarlberg), whilst 

 that of the central chain was continued in the environs of the 

 Oetz valley and the Ortler mountains, and that of the southern 

 chain was begun in the environs of Lienz, in the valley of the 

 Drau. Grateful allusion is also made to the liberal foundation of 

 a capital of 12,000 florins in bonds of the Southern Railway 

 Company, the gift of Albert Schloenbach, of Salzgitter, 

 Hanover, in memory of his late son, the eminent geologist, 

 Urban Schloenbach. The annual interest of this sum will be 

 given to officers or friends of the Geological Institute, to enable 

 them to travel in foreign countries to compare geological obser- 

 vations made in the Austrian dominions with those abroad. The 

 first to whom it has been granted is D. Stur, whose studies on the 

 exact geological position of the Bohemian coal-beds are likely to 

 lead to very interesting results ; results, however, which require a 

 comparative study of other coal basins, and chiefly of the rich 

 collections of fossil plants in the Museum of Dresden, for their 

 secure confirmation. — The following specimens have been newly 

 arranged in the museum of the Institute : — The silurian fauna of 

 Cializia ; the Devonian fauna of Moravia ; the carboniferous 

 flora of Ostrau-Orlau-Karwin, of Schazlar-Schwadowitz, of 

 Kladno-Schlan, of Swina, of Stradonitz, of Radnitz and its 

 environs, of the Pilsen Ijasin, of the Rossitz basin, the flora 

 and the fauna of the old red in Austria, Moravia, and Bo- 



hemia ; the cretaceous flora of Moravia and Bohemia ; the flora 

 of many tertiary deposits in Bohemia, and of Wieliczka and 

 Swaszawioe, in Galizia. In the chemical laboratory, more than 

 300 analyses and assays have been performed, the library has 

 been aui^mentcd by 661 volumes, and the collection of maps by 

 194 sheets. The progress of the publications appears very satis- 

 factory : besides the periodicals, the Ja/irlnic/i, the Mmtralo- 

 gische Rlittheiliingen and the Veyhandlungm, four sheets of the 

 "Memoirs," were edited, viz., Vol. V., No. 4, On a Fossil 

 Saurian from Lesina, with 2 plates, by Prof. A. Kornhuber ; 

 No. 5, On the Cephalopods of the Gosau beds of the north- 

 eastern Alps, with g plates, by Dr. A. Redlenbacher ; No. 6, 

 Fauna of the beds of Aspidoceras acanthicum, with 13 plates, 

 by Prof. M. Neumayr ; and Vol. VI., No. i, The Fauna of the 

 Flambach and Halstatt beds, with 32 plates, by Dr. E. v. 

 Mojsisovich. Also, a Geological Map of the Environs of Vienna, 

 on the scale of I : 28800, with explanations by Th. Fuchs, and a 

 Catalogue of the Objects" exhibited by the Institute at the 

 General Exhibition, have been published. Finally, the most 

 important work has been the completion of M. v. Hauer's large 

 geological map of the Austro-Hungarian empire, printed in 

 colours on the scale of I : 576000, the last four sheets of which 

 were published last year. Further communications were made 

 by T. Hirschwald, On the Translormation of Wood into 

 Brown Coal, in the Mine Dorothee, on the Ober-Starz ; by S. 

 Nedeljkovic, On the Sinidin-Trachytes of Syrmia ; Dr. A. 

 Redlenbacher, Remains of Ursus spchciis from a cavern near 

 Wildalpe, Upper Styria ; Dr. G. Stache, On the Fauna of the 

 lower eocene beds of Cosina, in Istria ; Dr. C. Doelter, On some 

 Eruptive Rocks in the Transylvanian Erzgebirgc. 



GoTTINGEN 



Royal Society of Sciences, Jan. 3.— M. Wielen com- 

 municated the results of an examination of Greek names of 

 makers inscribed on ancient earthenware lamps in several archceo- 

 logical collections in Athens, Corinth, and Smyrna. — M. LolUng 

 presented a paper on the Theseion and the Ilephaisteion in 

 Athens. 



Riga 



Society of Naturalists, Nov. 5, 1873. — M. Russwurm fur- 

 nished some interesting particulars as to the seal-fishing on the 

 Russian coasts. The Baltic supplies annually about 12,000 

 animals, with a value of 125,000 roubles (the rouble ~ y. i\d.) ; 

 the White Sea and neighbouring parts, 18,000 animals, worth 

 212,000 R. ; the Caspian Sea, 100,000 animals, worth 900,000 R. 

 The Russians (unlike the Finns, &c.) do not eat the flesh of 

 seals, but throw it away. The various species met with, as also 

 the mode of capture, were described. 



Nov. 19. — Dr. Gutzeit gave an account of a new ofiicial map 

 of Russia, just completed at St. Petersburg. — M. Teich com- 

 municated some observations on the power of scent in butterflies ; 

 he thinks they are greatly guided by the sense of smell, which 

 has its seat in the feelers. 



Dec. 3. — Prof. Petzholdt read a paper on structural relations 

 of ice and axes of crystals. — Prof. v. Sivers made some obser- 

 vations on driftwood collected in the Arctic regions by the recent 

 German expedition. 



CONTENTS p^cE 



Herdert Spencer's Sociology. By W. H. Brewer 477 



Fmtsch's " South African Races." By Edward B. Tvlor (With 



Ulustra'.iotis) .jQ 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Flowers of the Primrose destroyed by Birds. — Ch. Darwin. 



F.R.S .'482 



Signor D Albertis' and Ur. Meyer's Discoveries ia New Guinea. — 



LuiGi Maria D'Albertis 482 



Spontaneous Generation. — H. Charlton Bastian 482 



Earthquake in St. Thomas.— W. G. Palcrave . . Iss 



Physical Axioms.—F. W. Frankland '. V 



The Fertilisation of Fumariacese. — Alfred W. Bennett, F.L S. : 



S. Moore ; T. Comber . , .^. 



Power of Memory in Bees.— John Toiham ....!... 484 

 Pollen-grains in the Air.— Alfred W. Bennett, F.L S. . . '. ! . 48? 



Lakes with two Outfalls. -W. B. Thelwall ; A. Ckaig Christie 485 



1 he C^rt/^w^fr Expedition, IV ^85 



Funeral of the Late Dr. Livingstone 486 



The Coming Transit of Venus, II. ( With Illiistraiioris). By Prof. 



George Forbes 487 



The Lectures .tT the Zoological Society's Gardens, I. . . ', 489 



Notes 4™ 



Scientific Seriai^ 402 



Societies AND Academies .q. 



