J ULY 29, 1909] 



NA TURE 



149 



Wedderburn. In the GuUmar Fjord, off the Skagerack, 

 PL-ttersson observed oscillations of temperature and salinity 

 with a period of fourteen days. This he attributed to the 

 action of the moon, although he admitted that he could 

 not give any reason for the effect. Mr. Wedderburn sug- 

 gested that it was due to a temperature seiche in the 

 Skagerack. When a layer of depth U and density p floats 

 on a layer of depth /i' and density p' in a land-locked bay 

 of length !, the period is given by the formula 



T = 47r/ -Jgip + p')/(p//i + p'///). 



With ( = 250 metres, h — 10 metres, ?i'=ioo or 200 metres, 

 p=i'023 and p'=i027, the calculated periods are 139 days 

 for /i' = 200 metres and 142 days for /i'=ioo metres. — K 

 Carboniferous fauna from Novaia Zemlya : Dr. G. W. 

 Lee. This was an account of a collection of fossils found 

 by Dr. W. S. Bruce during a cruise with Major Andrew 

 Coats in the yacht Blencathra. The fossils were found at 

 Cape Cherney in 71° north latitude, and proved that the 

 Carboniferous seas had extended some six hundred miles 

 further north than had hitherto been supposed. The 

 collection contained more than thirty species similar to 

 the fauna of the lower limestone of the Scottish coal- 

 fields and of the Yoredales of England. — Note on the 

 flight of Nigerian arrows : Dr. C. G. Knott. These were 

 unprovided with feathers, and rotation seemed to be given 

 to the arrow by the action of the air upon the head, the 

 asymmetrical form of which was probably originally 

 occasioned by the manner in which the wings and barbs 

 were forged. Experiments on the rotation were described. 

 — The development of the auditory ossicles in the horse, 

 with a note on their possible homologues in the lower 

 Vcrtebrata : Ray F. Coyls. The malleus, stapes, and 

 lucus were developed from an area which is originally 

 homogeneous, and lying between the proximal ends of the 

 first two visceral bars. Later the malleus and lucus are 

 5plit off, bearing a close relation to the first bar. The 

 stapes is related neither to the first or second bar nor to 

 the auditory capsule, arising as an element peculiar to the 

 Mammalia. 



July 12. — Dr. Home, F.R.S., vice-president, in the 

 chair. — A further contribution to a comparative study 

 of the dominant phanerogamic and higher cryptogamic 

 flora of aquatic habit in Scottish lakes (Scottish Lake 

 Survey) : George West. The lochs studied were those of 

 Kirkcudbrightshire, Wigtonshire, Fife, and Kinross. In 

 north-west Kirkcudbrightshire the lochs are of highland 

 character, but the flora, though resembling that of the 

 Ness district, does not thrive to so great a depth. This 

 :s due partly to the comparative shallowness of the Gallo- 

 way lochs and to the deposit of dead leaves of grasses over 

 the floor of the loch. The lochs of south-east Kirkcud- 

 brightshire are of lowland type, and have in many cases 

 J rich and luxuriant flora. In Wigtonshire both types of 

 lochs are found, those in the open moor being scanty in 

 flora, while those within the zones of active agriculture 

 are of lowland type and of rich and varied vegetation. 

 The populous mining, manufacturing, and agricultural 

 regions of Fife and Kinross are characterised by many 

 lochs of the lowland type, some of them being very 

 luxuriant in aquatic flora, because the non-peaty water 

 contains a rich supply of food-salts, due in many instances 

 to the activity of man in the surrounding district. The 

 paper enumerated about 250 species of plants found in 

 the lochs of the areas named. — Osteology of Antarctic 

 seals (Scottish National Antarctic Expedition) : Dr. R. B. 

 Thomson. The seals brought home by Dr. Bruce 

 numbered in all forty-four, and included all the Phocidas 

 except the elephant seal. The most interesting capture 

 was that of two Ross seals, the dentition of which difl'ers 

 markedly from that of other Antarctic seals. The denti- 

 tion is remarkably feeble. The chief food being soft-bodied 

 ccphalopods, the incisors and canines have developed into 

 needle-pointed re-curved hooks of great delicacy, while 

 the post-canines have been allowed to degenerate. Other 

 anatomical peculiarities were described, one interesting 

 anomaly being presented by the fifteenth dorsal or last rib- 

 be.iring vertebra. On one side there is the norma! con- 

 dition, an articular facet bearing a feeblv developed rib ; 

 on the other there is a well-marked process representing 

 the absent rib, showing that the costal processes in the 

 NO. 2074, "^"OL- 81] 



lumbar vertebrte are the homologues of the ribs. — -A. 

 negative attempt to detect fluorescence absorption : Dr. 

 R. A. Houstoun, Results which seemed to indicate 

 fluorescence absorption have been obtained by Burke, by 

 Nichols and Merritt, and by Miss Wick, but, after careful 

 experimenting and making every allowance for the un- 

 certain nature of the phenomenon studied, the author is 

 inclined to refer these positive results to systematic errors 

 in the photometric arrangement. — The effect of internal 

 friction in cases of compound stress : G. H. Gulliver. 

 The minimum resistance to deformation and the inclina- 

 tion of the surfaces of sliding were given for any system 

 of stress in a body, the internal friction being supposed 

 to be operative. The application of the formuire to experi- 

 mental data did not yield very consistent results. With 

 internal friction taken into account, the modified expression 

 for the equivalent bending moment of a shaft under com- 

 bined bending and twisting gives values intermediate 

 between those given by the formulae of Rankine and 

 Guest. — A new experimental method of investigating 

 certain systems of stress : G. H. Gulliver. The lines of 

 maximum shear in a strained solid, as indicated by surface 

 changes in the manner already described by the author, 

 were compared, by superposition, with the stream lines 

 of a viscous fluid in channels of definite shape obtained 

 by the method of Hele Shaw. The comparisons were 

 extremely satisfactory, and showed how analogous the 

 equations of strain in the one case are to the equations 

 of flow in the other. — Motion of Neptune's satellite : David 

 Gibb. The calculations were made under Prof. Dyson's 

 supervision, and were based upon the numerous observa- 

 tions which have been made in the American observatories 

 since 1892, when Struve discussed all that had until then 

 been made. From 650 equations of condition, twenty- 

 two sets of normal equations were formed and solved. 

 The results led to various corrections to be applied to 

 Struve's elements. The eccentricity of the orbit of the 

 satellite was found not to exceed o-ooi. From the changes 

 in the node and inclination, which are due to the 

 spheroidal form of Neptune, the inclination of the orbit 

 to Neptune's equator could be found — about 21°. The 

 longitude of the node of Neptune's equator on the earth's 

 equator was found to be about 205°, and the inclination of 

 the two equations 132-8°. From these it was deduced that 

 the pole of the satellite's orbit describes a small circle 

 about the pole of Neptune in about 580 years, and that 

 Neptune's equator is inclined at an angle of about 27° to 

 the plane of its orbit round the sun. — The monsoons of 

 the Chilian littoral : R. C. Mossman. The paper was a 

 general discussion of the prevailing winds in this region 

 of the southern hemisphere, showing how they are in- 

 fluenced by the circumpolar distribution. — The super- 

 adjugate determinant and skew determinants having a 

 univarial diagonal : Dr. Thomas Mulr. — The illuminating 

 power of groups of pin-hole burners : R. G. Harris. The 

 variation of the illuminating power of symmetrical groups 

 of two, three, and four burners with the distance between 

 contiguous members of the groups was found to require 

 somewhat complex equations for its expression. The 

 graphs were of the same general form, and could be 

 accounted for qualitatively on the assumption that the 

 variation of illuminating power was due, for the most 

 part, to a two-fold effect of the increase of distance 

 between the burners on the supply of oxygen. The more 

 open distribution of burners increased this suppiv, but the 

 diminished draught attending such open distribution 

 diminished it. — The life-history of Hydroliiis fiiscipcs, L. ; 

 F. Balfour Browne. A complete and detailed monograph 

 on this common and interesting form of life. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, July 19. — M. Emile Picard in 

 the chair. — Researches on the movements of the upper 

 layer of the solar atmosphere : H. Deslandres. Details 

 of the spectroheliograph at the Observatory of Meudon 

 are given, together with some of the results of a study 

 of the calcium line Kj. — The determination of the displace- 

 ments of the axis of rotation of meridian telescopes : 

 Maurice Hamy. — The reduction of plant assimilation 

 during cloudy weather : A. Miintz and H. Gaudechon. 

 During direct exposure to sunlight the quantity of carbon 

 fixed by plants is about five times as great as during 



