May 7, 1896] 



NA 7 URE 



iip|icr parts. In discussing the question of unconformily between 

 the Inferior Oolite and Upper Lias, the rarity of exposures of 

 true junctions was noted, the junctions which have been chiefly 

 examined by other observers being obscureil by slipping ; and 

 reasons were given for inferring an absence of unconformity at 

 the horizon, both on account of the eliaracter of the true 

 junctions, and from other considerations. The author, however, 

 gave reasons for believing that a slight unccjnformity occurs in 

 the Upper Lias, so that the lower part of the jiirensis-wvx is 

 absent, and not its upper part, as has been elsewhere inferred. — 

 Contributions to the stratigraphy and paleontology of the 

 f7/<>(i/[^'<-r/;/a-limestones of the Maltese Islands, by J. H. Cooke. 

 .V biltliography of the 6^/(7^/]^'tvvV/(7-limestones, followed by some 

 remarks on the physical features and general distribution of the 

 strata. — On the geology of the neighbourhood of Carmarthen, 

 by .Miss Margaret C. Crosfield and Miss Ethel G. Skeat. The 

 area described lies approximately within a four-mile radius of 

 Carmarthen. The beds of the district have been subjected to 

 complicated foldings, amongst which an earlier set, giving rise to 

 a number of small anticlines with notth-and-south axes, and a 

 later more extensive set, due to the series of earth-movements 

 which produced the great Condrusian ridge, producing anticlines 

 and synclines having a general east-and-west trend, can be made 

 out. The rocks forming the subject of the present paper occur in 

 one limb of a complex anticline produced durini; the latter set of 

 movements. In the discussion that followed, Ihe President con- 

 gratulated the authors on the important discoveries which they had 

 made. The finding of Tremadoc rocks in the neighbourhood of 

 Carmarthen was a feet of great importance, and might lead to 

 the discovery of still older rocks in that area. The succession 

 closely resembled that found in Pembrokeshire : but it was now 

 carried further east than had previously been done, though the 

 work of the late T. Roberts and Mr. Marr had led to the 

 idea that rocks at least as old as those of Arenig age would 

 be found in this area. 



Linnean Society, April i6. — Mr. W. Percy Sladen, Vice- 

 President, in the chair. — Mr. George Massee read a paper on 

 the types of Fungi in the collection of the late Rev. M. J. 

 Berkeley, which was presented to Kew in 1879, and which 

 contains rather more than 11,000 species. Many of the species 

 were described more than fift)' years ago ; hence the diagnoses 

 are in some cases too brief, and do not embody points which at 

 the present day are considered to be of importance. In many 

 instances this has led to the same species being re-described by 

 others as new. Mr. Massee now supplied careful descriptions 

 of the types, with a view to obviate future confusion, and to 

 secure for Berkeley as the original describer the priority in 

 noinenclature which is justly his. — Mr. A. I). Michael read a 

 paper upon the internal anatomy of Bdella (the Red-snouted 

 Mite), giving the results of three years' work and of many 

 hundreds of dissections and serial sections. The material was 

 furnished chiefly from the Zoological Station at Port Erin, and 

 the subject is practically new, only one paper (describing a few 

 parts of the female) having been hitherto published. 



Zoological Society, April 21. — Sir W. M. Flower, K.C.B., 

 F. R.S., I'resident, in the chair. — Mr. Sclater exhibited and made 

 remarks on some specimens from Nyasaland, lately sent home 

 by Sir IL H. Johnston, K.C.B. .Among.st these was a fine head 

 of the sable antelope (Hippotragns niger) from the Zomba 

 plains, and an examjile of the brindled gnu (Coitnocjuetes 

 gorgoii), or of a nearly allied form, believed to be the first 

 specimen of this antelope sent home from British East Africa. — 

 Mr Sclater also exhibited, by the kind permission of Mr. Justice 

 Hopley, of Kimberley, a pair of horns of the so-called Antilope 

 Iriangti/aris, said to have been obtained somewhere on the 

 Zambesi. The.se horns were now generally supposed to be 

 abnormal horns of the cow eland. — Mr. \V. E. de Winton gave 

 an account of a small collection of mammals from Ecuador, 

 lately sent to the British Museum by Mr. L. Siiderstrom, 

 H.B.M. Consul at Quito. It contained examples of only three 

 species, but two of these appeared to be new to science. One 

 of them was a new deer, proposed to be called Piuliia 

 mephistophelis, and the other a rodent of the genus Iclliyomys, 

 which was named /. soderstronii. — Mr. F. I'. Beddard, F.R.S. , 

 read a i^aper on the anatomy of a grebe (.•Ki hiiiophortis major), 

 and added some remarks upon the classification of the 

 Charadriiform birds, to which he considered the auks to be more 

 nearly related than to the grebes. — A communication was read 

 from Messrs. F. D. Godman, F.R.S., and O. Salvin, F. R.S., 

 on the butterflies of St. Vincent, Grenada, and the adjoining 



NO. 1384, VOL. 54] 



islands, based on the collections made by Mr. Herbert H. 

 Smith. — A communication was read from Miss E. M. Sharpe 

 containing an account of the Lepidoptera obtained by Dr. 

 Donaldson Smith during his recent expedition to Lake Rudolf. 

 FZxamples of ninety-one species were obtained, of which two 

 were apparently new. These were described as Panopea 

 walensc/isis and Fapilio doualdsoiii. — A second paper by Miss 

 E. M. .Sharpe contained an account of the Lepidoptera obtained 

 by Mrs. E. Lort Phillips in Somaliland. Eighty-four species 

 were enumerated, one of which, Tcracohts ludoriciti:, appeared 

 to be undescribed. — A communication from Mr. W. F. Kirby 

 contained descriptions of some dragon-flies obtained by Mr. and 

 Mrs. Lort Phillips in Somaliland. Three of these were described 

 as new to .science. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, April 27. — M. A. Cornu in the 

 chair. — Observations of the Swift comet (April 13, 1S96) made 

 with the large equatorial of the observatory of Bordeaux, by 

 MM. G. Rayel, L. Picart, and F. Courty. — Macular or peri- 

 foveal oedema of the retina, by M. J. P. Nuel. — New divisions in 

 the rings of Saturn, by ^L Flammarion (see p. 17). — Remarks on 

 a communication of M. R. Liouville, entitled " On the rotation 

 of solids," by M. N. Joukovsky. A claim for priority for some 

 Russian mathematicians. — On the transition from the state of 

 flow through an orifice to flow over a weir, by M. Hegly. — On 

 a self-registering thermometer balance, containing either gas or 

 saturated vapour, by M^L H. Parenty and R. Bricard. The 

 two arms of a balance carry respectively a barometer and an 

 air thermometer, both dipping into the same mercury trough. 

 -At constant temperature, and with varying atmospheric pres- 

 sures, the alterations in the weights of the two arms caused by 

 the movements of the mercury are identical, and the balance 

 remains in equilibrium, but an alteration of temperature causes 

 a motion of the beam, which can easily be made self-register- 

 ing. For a small range of temperature the sensitiveness of the 

 apparatus is considerably increased by substituting a volatile 

 liquid for the gas. The device also readily acts as a tempera- 

 ture regulator. — Mode of action of the X-rays upon a photo- 

 graphic plate, by M. R. Colson. An account of some experi- 

 ments made with a view to ascertain whether the X-rays impress 

 the photographic plate directly, or whether they are transformed 

 by the glass or film into secondary radiations of a phosphorescent 

 nature, to which the photographic action may be ascribed. All 

 the results pointed to the action being direct, no trace of action 

 due to secondary rays being observable. — On the heterogeneity 

 of the radiations emitted by Crookes' tubes and on their trans- 

 formation by screens, by M. F. P. Le Roux. The namt 

 " hyperdiabatic radiations " is proposed as more suitable than 

 X-rays. — Action of the X-rays upon electrified bodies, by M>L 

 L. Benoist and D. Hurmuzescu. A study of the effect of the 

 nature of the gaseous dielectric in which the electrified sub- 

 stances are placed upon the rate of discharge by the X-rays. 

 The speed of dissipation in air was found to be approximately 

 proportional to the square root of the pressure. At the same 

 pressure the rate of loss of charge with air and carbon dioxide, 

 and air and hydrogen was roughly inversely proportional to the 

 square roots of their den.sities. — On electrified Rdntgen rays, 

 by M. A. Lafay. — Optical superposition of six asymmetric 

 carbon atoms in one active molecule, by MM. P. A. Guye and 

 C. Goudet. The rotations for four divaleryl tartrates of amyl 

 are given, the number calculated from the assumption of the 

 algebraic superposition of the optical effects of the several 

 asymmetric carbon atoms approximates to one of these experi- 

 mental values. — On a basic nitrate of magnesia, by M. G. 

 Didier. By adding magnesia to a strong solution of magnesium 

 nitrate, the nitrate Mg(N03)„.2MgO + SHjO is obtained. — 

 On crystallised sesquiphosphide of iron, by M. A. Granger. 

 Ferric chloride heated to redness in the vapour of phosphorus 

 gives the phosphide FeoPj, which is obtained in the crystalline 

 form if the reaction is carried on slowly. — Study of peridini- 

 tronaphthalene, by M. C. Gassmann. — On the tartrate of 

 phenylhydrazine and its derivatives, by M. H. Causse. — Heat 

 of combustion of some cyanogen derivatives, by M. Guinchant. 

 The introduction of the cyanogen group increases the molecular 

 heat of combustion by ninety calories. — On the distillation of 

 the first acids of the fatty series, by M. E. Sorel. — On zeolites 

 and the .substitution of the water they contain by other sub- 

 stances, by M. G. Friedel. — On the determination, by a new 

 photometric method, of the laws of luminous, sensibility to 

 blacks and greys, by M. C. Henry. — Measurement of odours 



