April iQ, 1 8 74 J 



NATURE 



515 



time occupied by the ventricle at the commencement of its sys- 

 tole in raising its internal pressure to that of the blood in the 

 aorta, wliich must occur before the aortic valve can open up. 

 This interval is named the syspasis. Its leng'h is found to 

 decrease ve y rapidly with increase in the pulse-rate, and to be- 

 come nil dit a pulse-rate of 1 70 a minute. An attempt is made 

 to explain these plienomena. 



If the above considerations are correct, certain independently 

 obtained measurements ought on comparison to correspond ; 

 for by reference to one of the papers in the Society's Proceed- 

 ings it is shown that the length of the there-termed second cardio- 

 arterial interval (which may be called the second cardio-radial 

 interval, as the ariery under consideration was the radial), can 

 only represent the time taken by the second or dicrotic wave of 

 the pulse in travelling from the aortic valve to the wrist. This 

 being so, tliere is every a prion reason in favour of the earlier 

 primary wave taking the same time in going the same distance ; 

 which can be expressed in other terms by saying that the length 

 of the first cardio-radial interval, from which that of the syspasis 

 has been SHl)tracted, ought to be exactly the same as that of the 

 second cardio radial interval. That such is the case is proved 

 by the two measurements, which have been arrived at inde- 

 pendently, agreeing in all cases to three places of decimals, 

 which is great evidence in favour of the accuracy of the methods 

 and arguments employed. 



The later part of the paper is occupied with the description 

 of and the results obtained by the employment of a double- 

 sphygmngraph, by means of which simultaneous tracings are 

 taken from two arteries at very different distances from the 

 heart. The arteries experimented on are the radial at the wrist 

 and the posterior tibial behind the ankle, 29 and 52! inches re- 

 spectively from the aortic valves. From the resulting traces the 

 time occupied by the pulse- wave in travelling the'differenceof dis- 

 tance — (52 '5 - 29) = 23'5 inches is given — is/ound to be o'ooi2 

 of a minute in a pulse of 75 a minute, and it is shown that this 

 varies very little with difference in pulse-ra'e, as other considera- 

 tions would lead us to expect ; it is also proved that there is a 

 niixrkeJ acceleration of the pulse-wave as it gets further from the 

 heart. 



By superposing the simultaneous trace from the wrist on that 

 from the ankle, direct verification is obtained of the earlier pro- 

 position, that the sphygmosystole at the wrist and at the ankle 

 are ol exactly similar duration. The peculiarities of the ankle 

 trace are also referred to. 



Geological Society, April 15. — John Evans, F.R.S., pre- 

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

 About Polar Glaciation, by J. F. Campbell. The author com- 

 menced by referring to a reported statement of Prof. Agassiz, to 

 the elfect that he supposed the northern hemisphere to have 

 been coveted in glacial times from the pole to the equator by a 

 solid cap of ice. He described his observations made during 

 thirty-three years, and especially those of last summer, when he 

 travelled from England past the North Cape to Archangel, and 

 thence by land to the Caucasus, Crimea, Greece, and the south 

 of Europe. His principal results were as follows : — In advanc- 

 ing southwards through Russia a range of low drift hills occurs 

 about 60° N. lat., which may perhaps form part of a circular 

 terminal moraine left by a retreating polar ice-cap ; large grooved 

 and polished stones of northern origin reach 55° N. lat. at Nijni 

 Novgorod, but further east and south no such stones could be 

 seen. The highest drift beds along the whole course of the 

 Volga seem to have been arranged by water moving southwards. 

 In America northern boulders are lost about 39°, in Germany 

 about 55°, and in Eastern Russia about 56° N. lat., where the 

 trains end and fine gravel and sand cover the solid rocks. Ice- 

 action, in the form either of glaciers or of icebergs, is necessary 

 to account for the transport of large stones over the plains, and 

 the action of moving water to account for drift carried farther 

 south. There are no indications of a continuous solid ice-cap 

 flowing southward over plains in Europe and America to, or 

 nearly to, the equator ; but a great deal was to be found on 

 shore to prove ancient ocean circulation of equatorial and polar 

 currents, like those which now move in the Atlantic, and much 

 to prove the former existence of very large local ice-systems in 

 places where no glaciers now exist. — Note regarding the Occur- 

 rence of J.ade in the Karakash Valley, on the southern borders 

 of Turkestan, by Dr. Ferdinand Stoliczka, NaturaUst attached 

 to the Yarkund Mission. In this paper the author described 

 the jade-mines on the right bank of the Karakash river formerly 

 worked by the Chinese. There are .about 120 holes in the side 



of the hill, and these at a little distance look like pigeon-holes. 

 The rocks are a thin-bedded, rather sandy syenitic gneiss, mica- 

 and hornblende-schists, traversed by veins of a white mineral, 

 apparently zeolitic, which in turn are traversed by veins of jade. 



Zoological Society, April 21. — Viscount Walden, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — The secretary read a report on the 

 additions that had been made to the Society's Menagerie during 

 the month of March 1874. Amongst these particular attention 

 was called to a scarce Parrot (Chrysotis Jinschi), of which a spe- 

 cimen had been presented by Mrs. Chivers. — A communication 

 was read from Mr. Morton AUport On the capture of a Grilse 

 in the River Derwent, in Tasmania, showing that the salmtm 

 had really been successfully introduced into the colony. — Com- 

 munications were read irom Dr. J. E. Gray, F. R. S., On the 

 very young of the Jaguar, Fclis (Lcopardns) onca ; On the short- 

 tailed Armadillo, Miilctia septemcincta ; On the young of the 

 Bosch Vark, Patotnoclmrus africanus, from Madagascar ; and 

 On the Skulls of the Leopard in the British Museum. — A com- 

 munication was read from Dr. O. Finsch, containing the descrip- 

 tion of a new species of Penguin, from New Zealand, which he 

 proposed to call Eudyptula allwiignata. — Mr. Edwin Ward ex- 

 hibited the skull and horns of a fine specimen of the Persian Stag 

 [Cervus maral) from the Crimea. — A communication was read 

 from Capt. W. H. Unwin, cimtaining an account of the breed- 

 ing of the Golden Eagle (.U/iiila chrysaetos) in North- Western 

 India. --Mr. J. E. Harting read a paper On a new species of 

 Tringa, from St. Paul's Island, Alaska, which he proposed to 

 name Tringa i^racilis. — A communication was read from Lieut. 

 R. Wardlaw Ramsay, giving the description of an apparently 

 new species of Wood))ecker, which lie had obtained in a teak- 

 forest, about six miles to the north of Tanghoo in British Burmah. 

 Mr. Ramsay proposed to name it Gecinus erythropygius. — Messrs. 

 W. T. B anford and H. E. Dresser read a monograph of the 

 genus Sa.xicola, Beechstein, being an attempt to reduce into some 

 order the excessively confused nomenclature of the species com- 

 posing this genus. 



Royal Horticultural Society, April 15. — Scientific Com- 

 mittee. — M. T. Masters, M.D., F.R.S,, in the chair. — Mr. 

 Worlhington Smitli exhibited a drawing of a very curious fasci- 

 ation ir. the aerial roots of Aerides crispiim, in which the roots 

 presented the curious flattened appearance so often met with 

 in the branches of the ash, the shoots of asparagus, &c. — Mr. W. 

 G. Smith also showed a drawing of the very rare Angracum 

 tllisii, from the collection of Mr. Day, of Tottenham. Mr. 

 Smith remarked that the flowers turn brown when bruised. — Mr. 

 Smith also showed a wood-engraving made on the wood of green 

 ebony, Brya ebenus. Mr. Smith reported that for engi-aving 

 purposes this was as good as bad box. — Prof. Thiselton Dyer 

 showed dried specimens of a variety of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 

 from Zanzibar, where it was found wild by Dr. Kirk, The petals 

 are palmately cut, as in Clarkia, ScJiizopctalum, &c. Dr. Masters 

 made some remarks on the analogy the divided petals of this plant 

 presented with the stamens of mallows, which it is now supposed 

 consist of five primary organs, subsequently dividing into nume- 

 rous anther-bearing filaments. It is doubtful whether Hibiscus 

 rosa-sinensis has been heretofore observed in a truly wild con- 

 dition. The discovery of the plant in east tropical Africa is 

 therefore particularly interesting. It is possible, however, that it 

 may prove a distiact species. — Prof. Thiselton Dyer also showed 

 an elegant white fungus, having the appearance of lace, from 

 Santarem. The Rev. M. J. Berkeley considered it probable that it 

 was the fungus published by Kunze as lihizoinorpha corynephora. 

 — Mr. Andrew Murray exhibited a fungoid production existing 

 on trees over a considerable space in the Yosemite Valley, in 

 California. Mr. Berkeley considered it near to the fungus called 

 Dothidea morbosa, but there was also a gall on the same shoot. — 

 Mr. Murray exhibited larvae of a beetle closely allied to Hamma- 

 ticlicnis hcros, a beetle very destructive to timber in Germany, 

 found feeding on the roots of fir near Enfield. Specimens of the 

 perfect living insect have from time to time been found in the 

 gun-stocks of walnut wood in the small-arms factory. It seems, 

 therefore, a fair inference that the insects had escaped thence, and 

 may perhaps have become naturalised — a most undesirable 

 thing, for the larva is very destructive to timber. Mr. Blenkins 

 rem.arked that he was familiar with the insect in the Crimea. 



General Meeting. — H. Little in the chair. -The Rev. M. 

 J. Berkeley commented on the plants exhibited. Arthropodiuin 

 cirrhatum was an interesting plant of striking habit from New 

 Zealand. When first introduced into this country, some years 

 ago, it was supposed to have come from New Tlo'lp.U'l. 



