July i, 1909] 



NATURE 



29 



Edinburgh. 

 Royal Society. June 7. — I'loj. Cium Brown, vice-pre-i- 

 dent, in tlie chair. — The anatomy of the Weddell seal : 

 Prof. D. Hepburn. Dr. W. S. Bruce, leader of the 

 Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, had been fortu- 

 nate to catch a young male seal only two or three days 

 old, and it was this young specimen of the Weddell seal 

 the anatomy of which was described in detail. Attention 

 was particularly directed to the abdominal cavity, and 

 especially to the peritoneal arrangements and the organs 

 of alimentation. The length of the animal was 51-5 inches, 

 ind the length of the intestine 50 feet. — Lower Palaeozoic 

 Hyolithida; from Girvan : F. R. Cowper Reid. The 

 description was based on specimens in Mrs. Gray's collec- 

 tion. Nearly all the species were new ; ten well-defined 

 species of Hyolithes were established, also three of its 

 subgenus Orthotheca. Two other forms were referred to 

 Ceratotheca, and five new species of Pterotheca were 

 recognised. The affinities of these new species were found 

 to be rather with the Scandinavian than with English 

 members of the group. The rich development of the 

 Hvolithidae in the Girvan district as compared with other 

 British areas was noticed, and a marked feature of their 

 stratigraphical distribution was the abundance of species 

 in the Blaclatchie beds. — The atomic weight of platinum ; 

 Prof. E. H. Archibald. The experimental feature of the 

 paper was the extreme care taken to ensure absolute purity 

 of the platinum salts of chloro- and bromo-platinic acids 

 used in the determination. Assuming the values given by 

 the International Committee for the atomic weights con- 

 cerned in the calculation, the author found the atomic 

 weight of platinum to be not far from I9S'2S. — Group- 

 velocity and the propagation of waves in a dispersive 

 medium : G. Green. The aim of the paper was to develop 

 the idea of group-velocity contained in Kelvin's paper 

 of 1887 on the waves produced by a single impulse in 

 water, &c., and to remove difficulties raised by Kelvin 

 in later papers as to the applicability of Osborne Reynolds's 

 and Rayleig-h's dynamical interpretation of group-velocity. 

 The idea of group-velocity used was essentially the same 

 as the principle of " stationary phase " used by Lamb in 

 his investigation of ship waves, but applied in this paper 

 to the Fourier trains which constitute any wave-disturb- 

 ance. The whole investigation was useful in directing 

 attention to the manner in which group-velocity was con- 

 cerned m the modification of an initially regular group 

 of wavt-s, or of any disturbance initially confined to a 

 finite portion of a dispersive medium, and in showing, 

 thcrcbv, that the idea of group-velocity contained the ex-' 

 planation of the modus operandi of dispersion. — The 

 theory of Jacobians in the historical order of development 

 up to i860 : Dr. T. Muir. — Ncmafonuriis h'coiiitci. a deep- 

 sea fish first discovered by the Belcica. and found again 

 by the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition : Prof. 

 I-ouis Dollo. The one specimen obtained by Dr. W. S. 

 Bruce was found in lat. 62° 10' S. and long. 41° 20' W. 

 at a deoth of 1775 fathoms, and it constitutes the first 

 macrurid found in' the Antarctic seas. The correspond- 

 ing Arctic zone has yielded eight species in six genera. 

 The results were regarded by Prof. Dollo as unfavour- 

 able to the theory of bipolarity. — .^n experiment with the 

 snark gap of an induction coil : Dr. Dawson Turner. 

 When the spark gap is just long enouah to prevent the 

 easy passage of the spark, a dielectric rod or plate brousfht 

 near the positive electrode facilitates the discharge, but 

 when brought similarly near the negative electrode it has 

 no obvious influence on the passage of the spark. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Scien-es, June 21.— M. Bouchard in the 

 chair. — Dimethrlcamphor and dimethylcampholic acid : 

 A. Haller and Ed. Bauer. Camphor forms a sodium 

 derivative when treated with sodium amide, from which 

 the monoalkyl and dialkvl derivatives are readily obtained. 

 The mixture of monoalkyl and dialkyl derivatives can be 

 separated by taking advantage of the fact that only the 

 mono-derivatives combine with hydroxylamine to form an 

 oxime. Dimethylcamphor, heated with sodium amide, 

 gives an amide, probably dimethylcampholamide, from 

 which the corresponding acid has been obtained. — The 

 strata of the island of Elba : Pierre Termier.— The new 



Daniel comet : M. Javelle. Observations of this comet 

 were made at Nice on June 16, 17, 18, and 19. The comet 

 was nearly circular, with a diameter of 15'. There was 

 a faint nucleus of magnitude 11 to 12.— Observations at 

 the Observatory of iVIarseilles of the comet igoga 

 (Borrelly) : Henry Bourget. Nucleus scarcely perceptible, 

 of about IO-5 magnitude. — Observations of the comet 1909a 

 (Borrelly-Daniel) made at the Observatory of Besan?on 

 with the bent equatorial : P. Chofardet. Observations 

 made on June 17 and ig. Diameter, i .s' ; nucleus, very 

 faint; ma6:nitude, ii to 12. — A question of minimum: S. 

 Eanielevici.— The series of Dirichlet : Marcel Riosz.— 

 Flight and the shape of the wing : L. Thouveny.— An 

 exp^erimental method for aerodynamical researches : A. 

 Rateau. The surfaces or models to be studied are placed 

 in a very homogeneous air current moving with a definite 

 velocity. The results of experiments on a thin rectangular 

 plane are shown graphically, and it is shown that there 

 is no possible angle of inclination of the plane between 

 29° and 36°. This discontinuity was quite unexpected.— 

 The heat of polonium ; William Duane. The sensitive 

 differential calorimeter used in these experiments has been 

 described in an earlier paper ; 02 gram of polonium salt 

 gave off 00117 calorie per hour. Polonium and radium 

 in quantities which give the same ionisation currents give 

 off practically the same quantities of heat. This fact is 

 favourable to the hypothesis that the heat given off by 

 these bodies is due to the kinetic energy of the a rays. — 

 The ionisation of air by high-tension electric mains : L. 

 Houllevi^ue. The observed case of a hailstorm follow- 

 ing exactly the direction of a high-tension cable has been 

 explained 'by the suggestion that the wire emits torrents 

 of ions carrying large electric charges. Direct experiment 

 fails to confirm this "hypothesis. The number of ions, posi- 

 tive and negative, existing in the neighbourhood of a 

 high-tension wire is sensibly lul. Indeed, the high-tension 

 lines appear to reduce the number of ions in the immediate 

 neighbourhood rather than increase them.— A new form of 

 the characteristic equation of gases : A. Leduc— A new 

 application of the superposition, without confusion, of small 

 electrical oscillations in the same circuit : E. Mcrcadier. 

 The original experiments were carried out with a complete 

 metallic circuit; similar experiments have now been 

 successfully carried out between Paris and Lyons, using 

 a single telegraph wire with earth return.— A galvanometer 

 for alternating currents : M. Guinchant. The galvano- 

 meter described was designed to replace the telephone in 

 Kohlrausch's method of measuring the resistance of 

 electrolytes. The accuracy of the measurements is of the 

 same order as when the telephone is used.— The action of 

 some organo-magnesium compounds on methyl-2-penta- 

 none-4 : F. Bodroux and F. Taboury. The reaction is 

 complex, as employing the reagents in molecular propor- 

 tions there is always a considerable proportion of unaltered 

 ketone in the reaction product, together with the ethylene 

 hydrocarbon corresponding to the tertiary alcohol which 

 should normally have been produced. The tertiary alcohol 

 is formed with a yield varying from 40 per cent, to 60 per 

 cent of the theoretical.— Some derivatives of thioindigo : 

 M Cechamp.— Elnteric acid : A. Berg.— Pseudo- 

 morphine : Gabriel Eertrand and V. I. Meyer. Cryo- 

 scopic methods indicate that pseudomorphine is derived 

 from two molecules of morphine with the loss of two 

 atoms of hydrogen, and its formula would thus be 

 C H N 0,.-^The crystalline schists of the Ural_: L. 

 Du'parc— The el.aboration of the nitrogenised material in 

 the leaves of living plants : G. Andre.— The influence of 

 time on the antilyirulent activity of the secretions of 

 vaccinated animals and the relative immunity of he 

 tissues: L. Camus.-The influence of a prolonged say 

 at a very hio-h altitude on the animal temperature and the 

 viscosity of the blood : Raoul Bayeux. The body tempera- 

 ture and the viscosity of the blood, under the influence of 

 hi"h altitudes, undergo modifications which are propor- 

 tio'nal to the stay at the high altitude.— Hay fever : Pierre 

 p,onnier.-The 'tectonic relations of the earthquake in 

 Provence ; Paul Lemoine.-A geological sketch of the 

 regions situated to the east and north-east of Tchad ; 

 C, Garde— The geoloay of the Peloponnesus: Ph. 

 Ne-'ris.— The position of the localities which appear to 



NO. 2070, VOL. Si] 



