414 



NA rURE 



{Sept. 17, 1874 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Geologkal Magazine, September. — This number contains four 

 original articles : — (i) The grouping of the Permian and Triassic 

 rocks, by 11. B. Woodward, F.G.S. Tlie object is to show that 

 the supposed break between the subdivisions of the Triassic rocks 

 in England rests on unsatisfactory evidence ; that in the Permian 

 beds there are evidences of unconformity ; and that probably 

 future researches will lead to the resumption of the term 

 " Poikilitic " to embrace both the Permian and Trias. — (2) On 

 the Pleistocene deposits yielding Mammalian remains in the 

 vicinity of Ilford, Essex, by Messrs. Woodward and Davis. 

 This article consists partly of references to previous numbers of 

 the magazine, the chief feature of interest in it being a letter by 

 Mr. Searles Wood. He formerly beheved the Ilford brick 

 earths were older than the main sheet of the Thames gravel ; a 

 view which he now corrects. — {3) On the remains of RJiiiioccra 

 Icptorhintis, Owen, from the Pleistocene of Ilford, by the editor. 

 This is a reprint of Mr. Davis's description of the skull, as given 

 in Sir Antonio Brady's catalogue (privately printed), together 

 with an extract from Dr. P'alconer's palxontological memoirs. — 

 (4) On West Indian Tertiary Fossils, by K. J. Lechmere Guppy ; 

 a first instalment of descriptions which are to be continued. — 

 Mr. J. W. Barkas, in a letter, announces that he has found a jaw 

 of Amphicentriiin, in sub-carboniferous limestone near Richmond, 

 and suggests that it must have lived both in fresh and salt waters, 

 like some modem fishes. 



Astronoinisclu- Nachruhtcn, No. 2,005. — L. Seidel contributes 

 a paper on the estimation of the most probable value of a number 

 of varying observations of tile same phenomenon, as the value of a 

 number of observations of the position of a double star. There 

 are also a quantity of position observations on Coggia's comet, 

 by C. H. Davis, Ant. Aguilar, and Alexander Gromadzki, and 

 the following elements of this comet are found by W. Fabritius : — 



T = July 8-90006 

 Log. (/ = 9 829699 



a = 118° 44' 9" -6 



i -- 66° 23' i"-o 



a. = IS2°2l'42"-4 

 The opposition ephenieris of the planet Hecate (100) is contri- 

 buted by Dr. J. E. Stark for each day from Sept. 17 to Oct. 27. 

 — Prof. Spoerer sends a table of his observations on solar spots 

 and protuberances for June. Capt. Herschel writes to ask for 

 letters of Sir J. Herschel, stating that a collection is being 

 made. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, Sept. 7. — M. Fremy in the chair. — 

 M. Resal presented the Academy with the second volume of his 

 *' Traite de Mecanique Generale," and made some remarks 

 thereon. — M. P. Volpicelli addressed a letter to the president, 

 staling that in 1S54 Melloni had communicated a note to the 

 Academy, entitled " Researches on Electrostatic Induction." 

 Filtten days aflerv\ards the Italian physicist died of cholera at 

 Naples, and since that time the author (M. Volpicelli) had sub- 

 mitted fifteen communications to the Academy on the same sub- 

 ject, all of which confirmed Melloni's theory of electrostatic 

 induction. M. Volpicelli now begs the Academy to appoint a 

 commission to report on these experiments, and expresses a hope 

 of being permitted to repeat them before it. MM. Becquerel, 

 Faye, P'riimy, Edm. Becquerel, and Jamin were named commis- 

 sioners. — Sixth note on the electric conductivity of ligneous 

 bodies, by M. Th. du Moncel. — Presence of zircosyenite in the 

 Canary Isles, by M. Stan. Meunier. The mineial was found in 

 a collection maue by M. Wcljb on the Peua Mountains. — On 

 some laboratory experiments concerning tlie action of toxic gases 

 on P/iy/lo.xera ; aciual state of the malady in the Charente pro- 

 vinces ; extract from a letter from M. Maurice Guard to M. 

 Dumas. The gas tried was that liberated from a sulpho- 

 carboiiate. Pieces of biick saturated with the solution of the 

 salt were jjlaced in the bottoms of flasks ; above the solution and 

 saturated Ijrick some strong paper was supported on which were 

 placed pliylloKeristd roots. The roots thus escaped direct 

 contact with the solution and received only the gases evolved 

 (C.'->2 and Il.^S). A I llie end of twenty-four hours nearly 

 all lie i lic ts were dead, mjiIi the exception of some small 



larvK and some eggs ; at the end of two days all the 

 insects and the greater part of the eggs were dead ; while at 

 the end of four days complete death of the eggs took place. 

 During the experiment the flasks were kept in the dark, and 

 some control flasks containing phylloxerised roots only placed 

 with the others : nearly all the msects and eggs survived in these 

 last flasks. — On some new points in the natural history of 

 Phylloxera vastalrix; a letter Irom M. Lichtenstein to M. Dumas. 

 The author thus sums up the life history of the insect so far as at 

 present known : — ( I) Colonising females appearing probably in 

 August and Septemljer ; (2) small uniform progeny hybeinating ; 

 (3) Oval, pyriforni, testudiniform types, reproducing by partheno- 

 genesis all the summer ; (4) Pupse of two forms, oval and narrow 

 at the waist, specially found on the nodosities of the rootlets in 

 June and July ; (5) Swarming takes place in August : the insects 

 emerge from the earth in myriads exactly as in a formicary when 

 the winged insects escape ; (6) Laying of eggs on the leaves of 

 Quercus cocci/ira, end of -August ; (7) Birth of sexual apterous 

 individuals. Copulation and production of colonising females. — 

 On some processses for destroying OiJiutii and Phylloxera ; 

 extract from a letter from M. Deslbrges to M. Damas. — Em- 

 ployment of the lime from gas purifiers to check Phylloxera ; 

 extract from a letter from M. L. Petit to M. Dumas. — Ob.serva- 

 tion of an extraordinary passage of corpuscles across the sun ; a 

 telegranr from M. Gruey, of the Toulouse Observatory, to the 

 president. The passage took place on the 5th, 6th, and 7th of the 

 present month. — On some applications of Abel's theorem relating 

 to eUiptic functions to curves of the second degree, by M. 

 H. Leautc. — Note on magnetism, byM. F. M. Gaugain ; a con- 

 tinuation of former r-esearches. — Note on the nature of the 

 sulphurising compound mineralising the thermal waters of the 

 I'yrenees, by M. E. Filhol. — Note on cliloroplryll, by M. E. 

 Filhol. Tire chlorophyll of nronocotyledons (Gramina.', Cypera- 

 cex, Liliaceje, &c. ) treated with a small quantity of hydrochloric 

 acid becomes turbid, and the solution, on filtration, leaves a 

 black crystalline compound on the filter. This substance has 

 been examined in some detail. It is reirrarkable that a solution 

 of chlorophyll from dicotyledons yields, under the same treat- 

 ment, a dark compound which is amorphous. — On some phe- 

 nomena of localisation of mineral and organic substances in 

 Mollusca, Gasteropoda, and Cephalopoda, by M. E. Ileckel. 

 Specimens of Helix aspersa and Zoiiiies algirus were fed with 

 white lead, or with acetate of lead mixed with wheat flour. An 

 accumulation of metal was found in the liver and also in the 

 cerebral ganglia Loligo '■/ilgaris, Sepia ojfieinalis, and Oeto- 

 piis vulgaris were fed during two months with garanciire (mixed 

 with meat). In no case was the internal shell coloured, but the 

 cephalic cartilage and all the cartilaginous portions of the 

 skeleton of these Mollusca were coloured after an experiment of 

 three months' duration. The author points out the necessity of 

 distinguishing clearly the hard parts belonging to the skeleton 

 fronr those belonging to the shell. — On tire stornr of the night of 

 1st to the 2nd of Sept. 1S74, observed at Versailles ; a note by 

 M. Ad. Berigny. 17 59 mm. [of rain fell during the storm, and 

 the lightning struck four points in Versailles. 



CONTENTS 



Pagb 



The EuncATioN OF Women 395 



De lio.suAr.uRAN ON •• Si'ECTKES LuMlNE.ix." By frof. Anurews 



F.R.S 396 



OuK Book Shklf 397 



Letthks to the Editor : — 



Pollen-gr.^ins in the Air.— Alfred W. Bennett, F.L.S 398 



Fos.sils in Tr.ip.— D. Honevman ,n8 



Curious Rainbow.— R. P. A SwETTENHAM 508 



foUrisationof the Aurora.— J. A. Fleming 398 



Francis Edmund Anstie, M.D., F.R.C.P 398 



HlFKOCLVl'HlC J'aHLETS AND ScULl'TURK IN EaSTER IsLAND. Bv J. 



t^ARK HaKKISON 399 



On the DlS'lKIBlITlON OF THE HeaT DEVELOPED BV COLLISION. By 



M. Tkesca 400 



SuBjiicTs 1-OR Prizes proposbd by the Haarlem Society of 



Sciences 401 



Common Wild I'Yowers considered in Relation to Insects. By 



Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.K S. {IVilh Jliuilralions) .... 401 



Notes 406 



Notes on the New Edition of Mr. Darwin's Work on the 



bTKUCTURE AND DlSTRIBUllON OF CoRAL ReKFS (1874.) By Pfof. 



James U. Dana 40S 



The liKiTisH Association. REroars and Pkuceedinus .... 410 



Scientific Serials 414 



Societies and Academies .14 



Erratum. — P. 370, col. 2, line 8 from bottom, for or read c 



