5^ 



NA TURE 



\May 21, 1874 



to enable him to establish with certainty the law of 

 growth of the English boys of the present date who are sons 

 of professional men and clergymen and who are educated 

 in the country and reareil on the pre.-ent system of diet and 

 physical and mental work. The result so obtained would serve 

 as a standard of comparison for future periods and for other 

 countries and conditions of life. — A paper, also by Mr. Gallon, 

 •was read, On the excess of female poptdation in the West Indies. 

 — A paper was read On the probability of the extinction 

 of families, by Rev. II. W. Watson, with prefatory remarks by 

 Mr. Francis Gallon. The author remarked that it is not only 

 the families of eminent men, or of the aristocracy, who tend to 

 perish, but also those of municipal notabilities and others. The 

 conclusion that was drawn was that an element of degradation 

 must be inseparably connected with one of amelioration, and 

 that our race is necessarily maintained chiefly through the 

 "proletariat." The problem, which was one purely for the 

 mathematician, was to ascertain what proportion of specified 

 families will necessarily become extinct after a few generations. 

 It would be easy then to measure the diminution of fertility by 

 the frequency of extinction. — Major Godwin-Aussten contri- 

 buted a paper On the rude stone monuments of the Ndgas. 



Geologists' Association, May i. — Prof. Morris, vice-presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — On some Carboniferous Polyzoa, by Robert 

 Etheridge, jun. The author showed that, until recently, Syiio- 

 dadia was known in this country only from rocks of Permian 

 age, being one of the characteristic corallines of the magnesian 

 limestone. From the Carboniferous series of America, however, 

 a species had been described under the name of .S. hisciialis, 

 agreeing in general habit witli the tyjiical .?. virgiilacca, but in 

 some essential characters diflfering widely. l"rom the Scottish 

 Carljoniferous series the author had recently describ;d a species 

 of Syiwcladia, which he termed Carbonaria, but which he now 

 believes to be only a well-marked variety of the American Per- 

 mio-carboniferous J)', biscrialis. The author then proceeded to 

 notice the occurrence of /'<'/);/>i'/a and T/tamiiisciis in the .Scottish 

 Carboniferous rocks, and concluded by drawing attention to the 

 increasing number of forms, which are gradually becoming recog- 

 nised as common, in our own country, to the Carboniferous and 

 Permian formations. — On some geological puzzles, by Ed. 

 Charlesworth, E.G. S. Out of many hundreds of teeth of terres- 

 trial mammals, as Stis, Castoi; 'I'apirus, I'dis, Ilipparion, Cerviis, 

 Bos, &c., which have been discovered in the red crag of Suffolk 

 and Essex, all, with three or four exceptions, are molars. No 

 bones are found along with the teeth of these land animals. Tnis 

 we can understand, as teeth are so much the hardest parts of the 

 animal frame. There is, however, one curious exception. The 

 Astragalus of one or more species of deer is far from uncommon 

 in the red crag. The teeth most abundant in the red crag are 

 those of various kinds of sharks ; some of these have a circular 

 perforation, not unlike that made by South Sea islanders in the 

 teeth of sharks at the present day. The occurrence in the red 

 crag of certain stones of a cylindrical form, generally abruptly 

 truncate at one extremity, and having a central cylindrical canal 

 passing through the long axis. Though exhibiting transverse 

 segmental division, if struck with a hammer, they do not separate 

 at the segmental lines. That lliey did so once may be inferred, 

 from the occurrence of detached segments throughout the crag. 

 The phragmocone of the Belemnite is never found in chalk, or 

 chalk flint, though the guard is extremely abundant. The nature 

 of the cylindrical body, which is occasionally observed to pass in 

 a spiral direction through the body of the Choanite. When a 

 chalk Echinite is filled with flint, but not enveloped more or 

 less in that substance, it is found that the calcite of the shell is 

 partially replaced by silica. This does not occur in those parts 

 of the shell wdiich have flint on the outside, 



Glasgow 

 Geological Society, April 16. — Mr. E. A. Wiincsh, vice- 

 president, in the chair. — Dr. Robert Brown.l F.L. S., read a 

 paper On the Noursoak Peninsula and Disco Island, North 

 Greenland. — Mr. David Robertson, F.G.S., then read a paper 

 On the Recent Ostracoda and Foraminifera of the Firth of 

 Clyde, with some notes on the distribution of the MoUusca. 

 The author said there appeared to be too much readiness to 

 adduce climatal change as a cause of varieties in the fauna, 

 which might only be the consequence of local circumstances. 

 For example, Tercbraliila (apiit-serpcntis, an arctic species, is 

 well-grown and abundant in Loch Fyne, but dwarfed and rare at 

 Cumbrae, in the same depth of water and on similar bottoms, 



which must be attributable to conditions of habitat and not of 

 climate. With regard to the minuter organisms, Mr. Robertson 

 mentioned a remarkable fact, that they are found in greater 

 abundance in many places exposed to the tossings of the sea than 

 in more sheltered bays and lochs. There can be no doubt that 

 such circumstances as the depth of water, the force of currents, 

 and the condition of the sea-bottom, whether it afforded a suit- 

 able habitat for certain species, supplying the food best fitted for 

 their healthy development, as well as furnishing them with a 

 degree of immunity from their enemies, such circumstances, often 

 not easily cognisable, would affect the distribution of animal life 

 in the .seas of any given period, and account in a great measure 

 for the absence or sparseness of certain species in one locality and 

 their abundance in another. 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, May 11. — M. Bertrand in the chair. 

 — M. J. A.Serret communicated some remarks on the note by M. 

 I'Abbe Aoust, inserted in the Com fie rendtis of the last meeting. 

 — M. Jamin presented a paper On the internal distribution of 

 magnetism in a bundle composed of several laminoe. — On the 

 carpellaiy theory according to the (order) Hippocastanx, by M. 

 A. Trecul. — General ideas on the mechanical interpretation of the 

 physical and chemical properties of bodies, by M. A. Ledieu. — 

 On the permanence of the intensity of the calorific radiation of 

 the sun, by M. A. Duponchcl, a defence of a previous memoir 

 criticised by M. Faye. — Memoir on the determination of the 

 true simple bodies by the actions of electric currents in the vol- 

 tameter, byM. E. Martin. The author considers the two elec- 

 tricities as imponderable bodies endowed with powerful and 

 opposite chemical affinities, and states views concerning the com- 

 pound nature of the gases obtained from water by electrolysis, 

 which differ but little in principle from the old theoiy of phlo- 

 giston. — On the mechanical employment of heat, by M. G. 

 West. The author held out hopes of the possibility of utilising 

 the waste heat of engines. — On albuminoid matters, by M. A. 

 Commaille. The author restated the results of his researches 

 on these bodies apropos of M. Bechanip's recent note on the 

 subject. The bodies in question are represenlable as amides of 

 capronamic acid and of tyrosine, which is the amide of aceto- 

 benzoic acid (CigHiiOiiN).— M. F. A. Abel presented the con- 

 tinuation of his third memoir on the properties of explosive 

 bodies. — Researches on coniferine. Artificial formation of the 

 aromatic principle of vanilla, by MM. F. Tiemann, and W. 

 Haarmann. The formula assigned to coniferine is CjnHjjOg -f 

 2 Aq. The substance is a glucoside decomposing in the fol- 

 lowing manner : — 



C^Ho^O, + HoO = CeHi^Os -f C^^Yi.^^0.,. 

 This last product of fermentation (CjoHjoOj) when oxidised by 

 a mixture of sulphuric acid and potassic dichromate gives alde- 

 hyde and a crystalline substance identical with the aromatic prin- 

 ciple of vanilla having the formula C8Hg03. The reaction was 

 thus represented : — 



Ci„Hi.p3 -h O ^ C.H^O + CsHgOa 

 — On the absolute magnetic declinations observed on the Adriatic 

 coast, by M. Diamilla-Miiller. — Observations relating to the 

 memoir by MM. Croce-Spinelli and Sivel on their (balloon) 

 ascent of March 22, by MM. Lartigue. The facts observed by 

 tile aeronauts mentioned, confirm the author's view of the origin 

 of the wind known as the " mistral " which may be generally 

 explained by the great difference of temperature existing between 

 the torrid zone and the temperate and glacial zones. 



CONTENTS Pace 



On the Action of the Horse. By A. H. Garrod 3 j 



Carpenter's "Mental Physiology" t' 



Andre AND Rayet's "Practical Astronomy" 4J 



Letters to the Editor; — 



Oaantitative Relations of Cause and Effect. — James Collier . . .\\ 



The Glacial Period —T. G. Bonney 44 



Lalces with two Outfalls.— W. B. Thelwall 44 



Glass Cells with Parallel Sides.— Frank Clowes 44 



Brilliant Meteor.— Wm. W. Kiddle 44 



The U.S. Academy of Science 45 



The Long Peruvian Skull. By Prof. Daniel Wilson (With lltus- 



tralioHs.) 48 



The Coming Transit of Venus, V. {lyith Illustrations ) By Prof. 



George Fohues 49 



Ocean Currents. By James Croll 52 



Biology at Cambridge. By G. T. Bettany 53 



Notes 53 



The Meteorological Congress at Vienna 55 



M. Coggia's Comet 56 



Societies and Academies . • . • 56 



