May 14, 1885 | 
Cheshire, by Francis Nicholson, F.Z.S.—On Lagen2 crenata, 
by Dr. Alcock.—The Post-Glacial Shell-beds at Uddevalla, 
Sweden, by Mark Stirrup, F.G.S. 
PARIS 
Academy of Sciences, May 4.—M. Bouley, President, in 
the chair.—Summary of the meteorological observations made 
during the year at four stations on the Upper Rhine and in the 
Vosges district (Schlucht, Munster, Colmar, and Thann), by M. 
G. A. Hirn, Tables are given of the actinometric observa- 
tions, of the prevailing winds with their mean and greatest 
velocities, of the mean and extreme temperature, of the atmo- 
spheric pressure and rainfall for each month of the year at all 
these stations. During the period in question the most salient 
phenomena were the severe frosts of the month of April, which 
proved very destructive, especially to the vines, and the sudden 
and violent hurricane of July 16, which swept with tremendous 
rapidity over the Vosges, almost unaccompanied by rain, and 
with very little thunder.—Remarks on the influence exercised 
by seismatic disturbances on Phylloxera, by M. S. Villalongue. 
The case is mentioned of a vineyard near Malaga affected by 
this parasite and supposed to have been destroyed, which never- 
theless broke into leaf with fresh vigour after the earthquakes 
which recently devastated the southern provinces of Spain.— 
Application of the general laws of the theory of the partition 
of numbers to numerical functions, by M. N. Bougaieff.—On an 
easy method of controlling the velocity of electric motor currents 
(one illustration), by M. Marcel Deprez.—Note on the suppression 
of the nitrous vapours of the Bunsen pile, and ona new pile which 
becomes depolarised in the atmosphere, by M. A. d’Arsonval.— 
On a new variety in the anomalous group of Cyclocephalians, 
by M. A. Lavocat. This variety, for which the term ‘‘ ophthal- 
mocephalous”’ is proposed, is illustrated by the recent case of a 
still-born lamb, in which nose and eyes were entirely absent, 
and, in place of the orbits, showing in the median plane a cavity 
formed by the union of the two temporal fosses. At the same 
time the tongue, the ears, and all the parts corresponding with 
these organs were in the normal state.—On the system of canal- 
isation present in the cellules of plants, and on the continuity of 
the protoplasm in vegetation, by M. L. Olivier. In opposition 
to the generally accepted views, the author infers from his micro- 
scopic studies that in the thickness of the membranous walls of 
plants there is a highly developed network of canals, by means 
of which the continuity of the protoplasm is effected throughout 
the cellular system.—An attempt to determine the relative age 
of the Grand’-Combe Carboniferous deposits by means of their 
fossil vegetation, by M. R. Zeiller. 
RoME 
Reale Accademia dei Lincei, January 4.—On pleasur- 
able and periodic respiration. Prof. Mosso communicated 
an abstract of a memoir in which he expounds various 
observations made by him on respiration. By means of 
tracings taken from a man in a state of complete rest, 
he has recognised that in the respiratory movements periods of 
greater or less depth in breathing alternate with one another, and 
that such periods are observable in all animals, especially during 
sleep. The author has likewise ascertained that man breathes a 
greater quantity of air than is necessary, and it is that respira- 
tion that he calls pleasurable (vespivaztone di lusso). It is in 
consequence of this excess in the ordinary breathing that a man 
does not increase the extent of his respiratory movements in 
ascending a mountain or in undergoing a change of atm spheric 
pressure. Prof. Mosso has determined the limit of this pleasur- 
able respiration which is manifested in sleep when no cause 
would render it necessary. According to the pauses which the 
periodic respiration undergoes, the author divides it into remzt- 
tent (remutten'e) and intermittent (intermittente). These pauses 
do not depend on the movements of the blood-vessels nor on 
psychical factors. It is a recognised fact that respiration has 
not a single centre, but that various muscles subserve this func- 
tion independently of each other. Prof. Mosso concludes that 
not only is periodic respiration a normal physiolozical pheno- 
menon, but that it isnothing else than the respiration of Cheyne 
and Stokes, which has hitherto been looked upon as a morbid 
condition. The author closes his own paper with a critical 
review of the theories of the nature of the movements of re- 
spiration.—Other communications :—Dr. Piccini described the 
analyses and the methods of pieparation of certain fluor salts of 
titanium, corresponding to the sesquioxide, which had been 
NATURE 
47 
obtained by him.—Drs. Ciamician and Silber described the results 
of the action of nitric acid on pyril-methyl-ketone.—Drs. Cia- 
mician and Magnazui communicated a first note on the action 
of carbonyl chloride on the potassic compound of pyrrol —The 
sanction of the Academy was likewise given to the printing, in 
the Ati Academici, of a memoir by Prof. Belloni, in which the 
author describes the olfactory and olfactory-auditory apparatus 
of the teleosteans (the sled rotundi of Fritsch).—The Secre- 
tary, Signor Blaserna, read a communication by Signor Laure, 
in which the author insists on the necessity of paying great 
attention to the barometric variations in cases of earthquakes 
and volcanic eruptions. 
January 18.—Articles belonging to the Stone Age dis- 
covered in the commune of Breonio Veronese. Prof. Pigorini 
observed that of all the localities containing remains of 
the Stone Age Breonio Veronese is the most interesting 
and the richest, on account of its numerous caves in 
which primitive man has left his traces. The numerous flint 
implements found in that locality were attributed by ancient 
writers to the Cimbri. Some of these have common forms, but 
others are of very singular shape, and the use of the latter cannot 
be determined. The importance of such articles, which are 
found also in the sepulchres of the Stone Age near the caves, 
but which are there reproduced almost in miniature, consists in 
the fact that articles of the same form are found among the 
remains belonging to the prehistoric American stations, which 
leads us to surmise the existence of a bond of connection in the 
earliest times between the inhabitants of the Old World and the 
New. Prof. Pigorini, while dwelling on the great value of the 
collection of such curiously-shaped articles made by Signor S. 
de Stefani, and described by him before the Congress at Venice, 
was glad to be able to announce to the Academy that the collec- 
tion had been acquired by Prof. Landberg, whose attachment to 
Italy and whose philanthropic character were well known, and 
that it was his generous intention to present the collection to the 
Prehistoric and Ethnographical Museum at Rome. This valuable 
scientific material is thus to remain in Italy.—On the observa- 
tions on the solar maculz and facule made in the Observatory 
of the Collegio Romano in 1884. From the observations made, 
Signor Tacchini believed that he could conclude that the solar 
activity was diminishing and that it would very soon reach its 
minimum. Comparing the observations of 1883 with those of 
1884, he found that in 1884 chromospherical phenomena attained 
a considerable development. Signor Tacchini, although he has 
not yet completed his labours in reducing the observations, i sof 
opinion that 1884 will have to be remembered as a year of 
maximum frequency of hydrogenic perturbations, but he intends 
to return to the question when he has completed the calculations 
relating to it.—On an ancient vase representing Sappho.— 
Signor Comparetti read some preliminary notes regarding an 
ancient vase belonging to the collection of the Archzological 
Society of Athens. On this vase, the drawing on which is rather 
rude, Sappho is represented in the midst of her disciples, she 
herself being in the act of reading some epic lines written 
on a roll held in her hand. This vase belongs to the 
fourth century B.c., and hence to the period in which Sappho 
was most popular in the refined and gallant society of 
Athens. According to Prof. Comparetti, the two disciples who 
are listening to Sappho, must, judging from their names which 
are written on the vase, be two Athenian heterze.—Discovery 
of an ancient encyclopzedia, and the plagiarism practised on it. 
Signor Narducci announced that he had discovered in the 
Biblioteca Angelica, at Rome, a parchment MS. belonging to 
the end of the thirteenth century, containing in its first 129 pages 
an encyclopedia, hitherto unknown, compiled by Egidio Colonna, 
of Rome. After giving an account of the contents of this work, 
Signor Narducci drew attention to the shameless manner in 
which the encyclopzedia of Colonna had been plagiarised by the 
Englishman Bartholomew Glanville, commonly called Bartholo- 
meus Anglicus, who flourished about 1630. This writer acquired 
the greatest reputation by a book of his called ‘‘ Liber de pro- 
prietatibus rerum,” which is in great part copied word for word 
from the encyclopedia of Colonna.—Other communications : 
Signor Fiorelli gave an account of the excavations of antiquities 
made during the month of December.—Dr. Nasini made a com- 
munication regarding some researches he had made on the 
atomic refraction of sulphur, and on the higher value of that 
refraction.—Dr. Piccini read a note containing some general 
considerations on peroxides of the type of peroxide of hydrogen, 
and made a communication as to the continuation of his re- 
searches on a new series of titanium compounds. 
