a, 
~ 
Fuly 30, 1885 | 
NATURE 
311 
chiefly lavas, but some few are perhaps intrusive rocks and dykes. 
(2) Intrusive rocks of a diabase type, generally, however, con- 
taining a variety of enstatites identical with that in the ande- 
sites, These are intrusive in the Cambrian rocks, and from 
their relations appear to be most probably of post-Silurian age.— 
Note on the Zoological position of the genus MZicrocharus, 
Wood, and its apparent identity with Hyopsodus, Leidy, by R. 
Lydekker, B.A., F.G.S.—Observations on some imperfectly 
known Madreporaria from the Cretaceous formation of England, 
by R. F. Tomes, F.G.S.—Correlations of the ‘‘ Curiosity-Shop ” 
beds, Canterbury, New Zealand, by Capt. F. W. Hutton, 
F.G.S. The “Curiosity Shop” is a locality on the River 
Rakaia in the Canterbury Plains, and has been thus named on 
account of the numerous fossils found in some calcareous sand- 
stones cut through by the river. The section exposed consists 
of (1) river-gravels ; (2) loose grey quartz sands ; (3) soft 
calcareous sandstone with glauconite, passing downwards into 
tufaceous clay ; (4) calcareous sandstone without glauconite ; 
(5) loose grey or yellowish brown sands. By Mr. McKay, of 
the Geological Survey, No. 2 had been referred to the Pareora 
series (Miocene ?), No. 3 to the Upper Eocene series, and Nos. 
4and 5 to the Cretaceo-Tertiary serie-. The author, who was 
inclined to class all these beds in a single series, pointed out 
that the only difference between the fossils found in Nos 3 and 
4, the most important fossiliferous beds, consisted in the presence 
of a greater number of forms in No. 3, all found in No. 4 being 
identical with those in the overlying bed. He then gave a com- 
plete list of the species of Vertebrata, Mollusca, Brachiopoda, 
Echinodermata, Bryozoa, and Ccelenterata, from the locality, 
48 in all, and compared them with those from the Weka Pass 
stone, 26 in number, and the Ototara fossils from Oamaru, to 
show that a large proportion were identical. He gave reasons 
for not agreeing with the views of Dr. Hestor and Mr. McKay, 
who held that unconformity exists between the beds referred by 
them at the Curiosity Shop, in the Weka Pass district, and 
north of Otago, to the Upper Eocene and Cretaceo-Tertiary 
series respectively, and showed, both from palzontological and 
stratigraphical data, that all these rocks must be included in 
one system, the Oamaru system of Dr. von Haast and himself.— 
On the fossil flora of Sagor in Carniola, by Constantin, Baron 
yon Ettingshausen, F.C.G.S. The author in this paper gave 
the principal results of his examination of the fossil flora of 
Sagor, consisting of 170 genera and 387 species, of which a list 
was appended. The plants were obtained from fourteen different 
localities, some of the most important species from each of which 
were mentioned ; in one of these localities the flora underlying 
the brown coal of the district belonged to the uppermost Eocene, 
whilst the remaining stations were assigned to the lowest stage 
of the Miocene system. The great diversity of the fossil plants 
showed that the Tertiary flora of this and other localities must 
be considered the origin of all the living floras of the globe ; for 
in the fossil flora of Sagor are found plants representative of 
forms now found in Australia, North America, and Mexico, 
California, Chili, India and the East Indian Islands, Europe, 
Africa, Norfolk Island, and New Zealand. Examples of all these 
were cited. 
EDINBURGH 
Royal Society, July 6.—Sheriff Forbes Irvine, Vice-Presi- 
dent, in the chair.—Dr. R. W. Felkin, F.R.G.S., gave an 
account of the For tribe, one of the Negro races of Central 
Africa. —The Astronomer-Royal for Scotland communicated a 
paper, by Dr. Daniel Draper, on bisulphide of carbon prisms, 
and also exhibited some stereoscopic photographs.—Drs. Wood- 
head and Hare, in a paper on the vital relations of micro- 
organisms to tissue-elements, endeavoured to classify as far as 
possible the actions of micro-organisms on tissues. They pointed 
out that the reaction of the tissue-elements themselves had 
latterly been too much lost sight of, and that a more careful 
study of the normal cell-life history must in time be the means 
of throwing considerable light on the subject under discussion. 
They insisted very strongly on the digestive action of micro- 
organisms.—Thomas Andrews, F.C.S., submitted a paper on 
the resistance, during recrystallisation, of fused salts of the halo- 
gens, compared with some others and glass.—Prof. Turner gave 
an account of a specimen of Sowerby’s whale (Mesoplodon 
bidens), recently obtained from Shetland, calling special atten- 
tion to the great complexity of the stomach, the contents of 
which seemed to indicate that the animal fed upon fish.—Mr. 
W. E. Hoyle laid before the meeting the second part of the 
Preliminary Report on the Chad/enger Cephalopoda. 
Paris 
: Academy of Sciences, July 20.—M. Bouley, President, 
in the chair.—Observations of the small planets made with the 
large meridian at the Observatory of Paris during the first 
quarter of the year 1885, communicated by M. Loewy.—Note 
on the movement of rotation of the earth around its centre of 
gravity, by M. Tisserand.—On various propositions relating to 
the movement of a solid body around a fixed point, by M. G, 
Darboux.—A spectroscopic study of substances rendered phos- 
phorescent by the action of light or by electric discharges, by 
M. Edm. Becquerel.—On the metaphosphate of thorium, by 
M. L. Troost. This substance, obtained by the reaction of the 
chloride of anhydrous thorium on an excess of metaphosphoric 
acid in solution, takes the form of crystals insoluble in water 
and easily separated from metaphosphoric acid. Its analysis 
yielded metaphosphoric acid 52°45 ; thorine 47°64.—Researches 
on the duration of excitability in the excito-motor regions of 
the brain proper after death, by M. Vulpian.—Observations on 
the fauna of the island of Great Comoro, to the north-west of 
Madagascar, by MM. Milne-Edwards and E. Oustalet. From 
a careful study of the mammals and birds of this island the 
authors conclude that it is not a geographical dependence on 
Madagascar, that it never was attached to that region, and that 
its fauna has borrowed from the surrounding lands.—Note on 
the intermediary orbit of the moon, by M. Hugo Gyldén.—On 
the vaso-motor action of suggestion on hysterial subjects in a 
state of somnambulism, by M. Dumontpallier. From experi- 
ments made on two women subject to hysteria in the hospital 
de la Piti¢ it appears that, under certain conditions, suggestion 
may produce a vaso-motor modification characterised by a con- 
siderable increase of temperature in any region determined at 
pleasure. This result opens the way to a series of fresh experi- 
ments of the same order, and renders possible a physiological 
interpretation of phenomena, the reality of which science had 
hitherto regarded as somewhat doubtful.—Observations of Barn- 
ard’s new comet made at the Observatory of Nice (Gautier’s 
equatorial), by M. Charlois.—On the sixteen systems of planes 
of the regular convex icosahedral, by M. E. Heward.—On the 
capillary constants of the saline solutions, by M. A. Chervet.— 
Note on the production of the lowest temperatures, by M. K. 
Olszewski.—Experiments on the regulation of the charges and 
discharges in electric accumulators, by MM. Crova and Garbe. 
—Note on the electric resistance of alcohol, by M. G. Fousse- 
reau.—Heats of formation for some phtalates, by M. Colson.— 
Remarks on some phenomena of oxidation and reduction pro- 
duced by the microscopic organisms of the soil, by M. A. 
Miintz.—-On the variation of the physical properties in the series 
of chloro-acetic derived substances, by M. L. Henry.—On the 
existence of glycogene in the yeast of beer, by M. Léo Errera.— 
On the existence of a nervous system and of an organ of sense 
in Rhabdo-eles acales, Convoluula Schultzti, and other members 
of the same group, by M. Yves Delage.—Note on the analytical 
and comparative morphology of the mandible in the hymeno- 
ptere, by M. Joannes Chatin.—The Coregoni of the Swiss 
lakes (C. dispersus, C. baileus, &c) ; their marine origin, classi- 
fication, reproductive processes and gradual adaptation to their 
changed surroundings, by M. V. Tatis.—Note on the tertiary 
basin of Grenada, by MM. M. Bertrand and W. Kilian.—A 
contribution to the study of antiseptics ; action of the anti- 
septics on the higher organisms (continued) ; phenic acid and 
resorcine, by MM. A. Mairet, Pilatte and Combemale.—Experi- 
ments made on the body of a criminal recently guillotined at 
Troyes, by MM. P. Regnard and P. Loye. These experiments 
mainly confirm those already observed on animals, and tend to 
reasstire those who suspect the persistence of conscious life after 
decapitation. —Observations on the foregoing experiments, by 
M. Paul Bert.—On the photographic determination of the tra- 
jectory of a point in the human body during the movements of 
locomotion, by M. J. L. Soret.—Note on the theory of the 
perception of colours, by M. Aug. Charpentier.—A formal 
denial of the reports regarding the appearance of cholera in 
Herault was made by M. Colson on the authority of a letter 
from Dr. Boissier, local medical inspector. 
BERLIN 
Physical Society, June I2.—Dr. Lummer communicated 
his further observatiors on the interference-phenomena produced 
by glasses parallel to the same plane. Ifmonochromatic light fell 
from a luminous surface on a glass plate of moderate thickness, 
differences of phase arose by reflection on the anterior and 
