May 7, 1874] 



NATURE 



19 



: oino leii dilTcreiit substances. The curves are very regular and 

 characteristic, and he considers that with those spectra, in which 

 the absorption continuously increases from one end to the other, 

 a measurement of the light intensity at six or eight parts of the 

 spectrum is quite sufficient, in order to construction of the whole 

 absorption curve, and determining the relation of absorption 

 to the wave-length of the light. — Attention is directed to some 

 new physical pnenomena : thus M. Kundt has observed a well- 

 marked dichroism in certam substances (such as caoutchouc and 

 gutta-percha) on stretching. Examined with a dichroscopic lens 

 a thin strip gave two images, one dark brown, the other nearly 

 straw-yellow ; tlie ray whose vibrations are in the direction of 

 stretching is the most absorbed. — M. Antohk studies what he 

 calls the "gliding " of electric sparks ; a phenomenon which is 

 Iiad, if e.g. a spark be made to strike a soot -smeared glass ball. 

 The path-trace left by the spark shows two light parallel lines, 

 and a dark one between ; the former are due to thrusting aside 

 of the soot, and, in the dark band, the soot seems compressed, 

 for, on washing the globe, the soot remains there after the rest 

 has gone. The outer edge of the light ban .1 shows, in the micro- 

 scope, a number of dark and light tiiang'.-/, apparently produced 

 by (induction. — M. Obermayer describe; phenomena presented 

 by the dispersion of some solutions of aniline colours in water. — • 

 M. Edlund rejects, as inadequate, a recct experimental investi- 

 gation, by Prof. Roiii, of the question : Is the galvanic current 

 an ether current? and M. Reye replies to M. ZoUner on the 

 subject of sun-spots and protuberances. — A Japanese toy-bird is 

 the topic of a note by i\l. £rdmann. The bird is placed with 

 its back on a board, by means of which it is thrown forward ; 

 and after rising 8 ft. or 9 ft. in a parabolic curve, it returns, head 

 foremost, to the thrower. — M. Nordenskjold furnishes some 

 particulars as to the nature of cosmic dust which had been ob- 

 served to fall, with atmospheric precipitates, in the neighbourhood 

 of Stockholm. — Among the matter selected from other serials we 

 may note an account of JM. Wiedemann's researches on the ellip- 

 tical polarisation of light, and its relation to the surface colours 

 ol substances ; and remarks on the arrangement of a dis^crsio- 

 meter, by M. Mousson. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 



Royal Society, April 23. — Note On the minute anatomy of 

 the alimentary canal, by Herbert Watney, M.A. , Cantab. 

 Communicated by Dr. .Sanderson, F. R.S., Professor of Practical 

 Physiology, University College. 



Zoological Society (anniversary), April 29. — Viscount 

 WaUlen, F.K.S., president, in the chair. — The report of the 

 council, which was read by the secret.iry, Mr. P. L. Sclater, 

 r. R. S., stated that the number of ordinary members of 

 the Society on January I last was o.'73> o' foreign members 25, 

 and of corresponding members 196. — The total income of the 

 Society in 1S73 was 28,099/., being 1,371/. more than that of 

 1872, and exceeding the income of any previous year, even those 

 of the years 1851 and 1862, when the Great and International 

 Exhibitions were held, which have hitherto been regarded as ex- 

 ceptional years. The toal ordinary expenditure of 1873 had 

 been 22,721/., and 4,945/. had been likewise devoted to extra- 

 ordinary expenditure, leaving a balance of 1,384/. to be carried 

 forward for the benefit of the current year. The assets of the 

 Society on December 31, 1873, were calculated at 10,530/., while 

 the liabilities were reckoned at 5,490/. The reserve fund con- 

 sisted at the close of the year of a sum of 8,000/. reduced three 

 per cents., but it had been resolved to increase this fund by in- 

 vesting the interest of it from time to time, and by purchasing a 

 further sum of like stock to the amount of 500/. every year. 

 The scientific publications of the Society for 1873 had consisted 

 of the usual cctavo volume of " Proceedings," and of three 

 parts of quarto " Transactions." The most important work un- 

 dertaken in the Society's gaidens in iS73hadlbeen the rebuilding 

 of the main refrcshment-room in the South Gardens at a total 

 cost of 2,096/. The total number of visitors to the Society's 

 Gardens in 1873 had been 713,046, being 64,958 more than the 

 corresponding number in 1S72, and exceeding that of any 

 previous year since the Gardens had been open to the public. 

 The number of animals in the inenageiie on December 31, 1S73, 

 was 2,187. Many of the accessions during the year had con- 

 sisted of specimens of rare or little known animals, of which full 

 particulars were given. The report concluded with along list of 

 donors and their several donations to the menagerie. The adoption 



ofthereport wasmovedby Mr. J. Stewart Hardy, M.P., seconded 

 by Prof. Tennant, and carried unanimously. The meeting then 

 proceeded to elect the new members of council and the officers 

 for the ensuing year, and, a ballot having been taken, it was 

 found that Viscount Waldeu, K.R.S., had been elected president, 

 Mr. Robert Drummond, treasurer, and Mr. P. L. Sclater, 

 F.R.S., secretary to the Society. The new members of councU 

 elected were Robert Hudson, F.R.S., the iMarquis of Ripon, 

 K.G., Lord Arthur Russell, Osbert Salvin, F.R.S., and Lord 

 Walsingham. 



Anthropological Institute, April 28.— Prof. Busk, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair.— Mr. PI, H. Howorth read 

 a paper, entitled Strictures on Darwinism ; part 3, on Gradual 

 Variation, The paper was in continuation of a series in 

 which the author endeavoured to show that Mr. Darwin's 

 main conclusion is not supported by the evidence of the 

 changes of type tliat can be examined. Mr. Darwin differed 

 froin the older naturalists in assigning, as the cause of 

 variation, a struggle between the individuals of a class 

 for existence by which a favoured individual and its progeny 

 eventually survive. They, on the contrary, argued that variation 

 is induced by a change in the external conditions of climate, 

 food, &c., which operate upon the whole class together and 

 make it change, as a whole, in a certain definite manner and 

 direction, that is in one which can be actually predicted. So 

 that if any individual of a class or any number of in- 

 dividuals of a class be subjected to a certain alteration 

 of conditions, a certain definite and uniform change will be 

 produced in the individual or the class. Again if the new 

 conditions were annihilated, the object of the experiment is 

 reverted to its original surroundings. The author supported that 

 argument by a large number of facts, and in doing so was con- 

 strained to conclude that the operating cause of variation in 

 man, as in the case of plants and animals, is the working of 

 external causes ; and that an individual with its progeny is not so 

 much better fitted for enduring the new conditions that it even- 

 tually supplants the rest, but rather that the whole class is 

 moulded together into a new shape, which is called a new variety. 

 Some facts were drawn from the experience of history showing 

 that where the conditions have been uniform, as in Egypr, 

 although there has been a considerable mutual pressure among 

 the individuals of a class for food, &c., yet there has been no 

 variation, while a transplanting of similar individuals, as in the 

 case of European emigration to America, has been followed by 

 almost immediate change. Tiie illustrations that might be drawn 

 from the cases of man, as in the changes that have ensued in 

 both the Aryan and the black emigrants to North America, of 

 the Dutch to the Cape, of the Portuguese to South America, &c., 

 were notable and telling instances of the operation of the law 

 argued for by the author, inasmuch as changes of type of a 

 marked character have occuired where there has been neither 

 time nor opportuni'y for the creation of a fresh type by the 

 successive amelioration or change in the idiosyncrasies of the 

 descendants of a common ancestor, but where the change has 

 undoubtedly occurred in the whole class together over a very 

 wide aiea. 



DuiiLIN 



Royal Irish Academy, March 16. — Rev. J. H. Jellett, 

 B.D., president, in the chair. — The minutes of the previous 

 meeting having been read and confirmed, Dr. Ingram, secretary 

 to the council, read the annual report, which referred to the 

 work done by the Academy during the previous session, the 

 state of the museum, &c. Seven members were lost by death 

 during the year. — At the conclusion of the report, a ballot took 

 place for the election of president and council. Dr. Stokes, 

 F.R. S., was declared duly elected president, and the following 

 officers were elected: — j. R. Garstin, LL. B. , treasurer; E. 

 Perceval Wright, M.D, secretary ; J. T. Gilbert, librarian, and 

 Dr. R. M'Donnell, F.R.S., secretary of foreign correspondence. 



April 13. — Dr. Stokes, president, in the chair. — A paper was 

 read by M. Donovan On some Improvements of a Comparable 

 Self-acting Hygrometer. — John Casey LL.D., read a paper On 

 a new method of finding the Equation of the Squares of the 

 differences of the roots of a Biquadratic, given by its general 

 equation. — Mr. H. W. Mackintosh read a paper On the Anatomy 

 of the Coatimondis and Marten. During the summer of last 

 year two species of the coatimondi {Nasna narica and N'.Jitsca)^ 

 and two specimens of tue common species of marten (Muiies 

 foyiin), which formed part of the collection in the Dublin Zoolo- 

 gical Gardens, having died, were obtained for the Dublin PTni- 



