Nov. 13, 1879] 



NATURE 



5i 



Lastctt.) Timber yields, under all forms of stress, to an extent 

 about proportional to the load. — Mr. James Smith sketches a 

 plan for water-supply of Philadelphia, viz., a gravity-supply by 

 aqueduct from Perkiomen. — A modification of Tisley's com- 

 pound pendulum, by Mr. Queen, of Philadelphia, whereby the 

 motions and figures may be exhibited on a screen to large 

 audiences, is described, and there is an account of the zinc veins 

 and works of Lehigh Valley. 



Bulletin of the Unite J Stales Geological and Geographical Sur- 

 vey 0/ the Territories, vol. v. No. 2, September.— J. A. Allen, 

 on the Coatis (genus Nasua, Storr). — Dr. Coues, on the present 

 status of Passer domesticus in America. — Dr. Peale, on the 

 Laramie group of Western Wyoming and adjacent regions. — A . R. 

 Grote, on Lithophane and some new Noctuidoe (describes many 

 new species).— Dr. A. White, Palaeontological Papers, No. II., 

 on carboniferous fossils from Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and 

 Wyoming, and on cretaceous corals from Colorado (describes 

 several new species).— F. V. Hayden, the so-called Two-Ocean 

 Pass. — E. D. Cope, on the extinct species of Rhinoceridae of 

 North America, and their allies.— Dr. Coues, second instalment 

 of American ornithological bibliography. 



Bulletin de VAcademie Royale des Sciences de Belgique, 

 No. 8. — M. Plateau here defends, at some length, his theory of 

 the superficial viscosity of liquids in opposition to the theory of 

 Signor Marangoni, who, without denying a viscosity proper to 

 the surface and different from that of the interior, thinks its 

 influence [e.g., in retarding the movement of a needle on the 

 surface) very small in comparison with that of other causes, 

 especially, in liquids which can be inflated in large bubbles, the 

 elasticity of a layer of impurity (imbrattamento) arising from ex- 

 posure in the air, while in liquids like water and most saline 

 solutions, changes in tension, through alteration of the surface 

 and changes in curvature of the menisci at the sides of the needle, 

 &c, are operative.— M. Petermann writes on the presence of grains 

 of Lychnis githago in alimentary flour, and indicates a method 

 of detecting it.— There is also a paper on the quartziferous 

 ■diorite of Champ-Saint- Veron (Lembecq), by MM. Poussin and 

 Renard. 



Journal de Physique, October.— On the inscription of meteoro- 

 logical phenomena, particularly electricity and pressure, by M. 

 Mascart.— On the rectifying apparatus of M. Duboscq, by M. 

 Bertin. — On a phenomenon similar to Peltier's phenomenon, by 

 M. Bouty. — A regulator of temperature, by M. Benoit. 



Cosmos, 5 Heft, August.— Prof. Dr. Schultze, history of the 

 origin of the "Despising" of Nature.— Ernst Haeckel, on the 

 common relationship between the ctenophora and the medusce, 

 with an account of a form connecting the two groups. This 

 extraordinary form is beautifully figured.— Dr. Mehlis, the 

 barrowfield near Hagenau and its probable epoch.— Henry 

 Potonie, Alexander Braun's attitude towards the theory of 

 descent.— Short notices and criticisms. 



The Nyt Magazin for Naturvidenskaberne (Christiania, vol. 24, 

 pt. 4, and vol. 25, pt. 1).— From these parts we note the follow- 

 ing papers :— On the geology of the Folge Fon peninsula, by T. 

 Ch. Thomassen.— On the ornithology of Madagascar, by 

 Leonhard Stejneger.— On microline, a new species of triclinic 

 potash • feldspar ; its optical, crystaUographical, and chemical 

 characters, by A. Des Cloizeaux.— On the insect fauna of 

 Dovrefjeld and the Gudbrands valley, by W. M. Schoyen.— On 

 tee changes which some plants undergo in northern latitudes by 

 Prof F. C. Schubeler.— On the occurrence of iridium in 

 northern minerals, by S. Wleugel.— On dislocation lines in the 

 so-called Sknmfjeld, by O. E. Corneliussen.— Diary of a journey 

 in the Trysil district, by L. Meinich.— Account of a botanical 

 tour in Hardangervidden, by N. Wille.-On some contact rocks 

 of the Christiania Silurian basin, by A. Penck. 



The Verhandlungen der k.k. geologischen Keichsanstalt 



No. 12, Vienna) contains the following papers :— On the 

 miocene deposits at the south-western margin of the Galicio- 

 Todolian Plateau, by J. Niedzwiedzki.— On the tertiary forma- 



lon at the eastern slope of the Vogelsberg, by H. Biickinc.— 



On the pliocene mammal-fauna of Hungary, by Th. Fuchs! 



On the Flysch question, by the same.— On the geological objects 

 exhibited at Teplitz and relating to the Teplitz basin, by R. 

 Raffelt. — On the marginal mountains of the Vienna bay, by 

 Franz Toula. — The number further contains the following 



eports of geological excursions undertaken by different members 



f the Reichsanstalt, viz. : by Dr.'O. Lenz from Eastern Galicia, 



by Dr. Edmund von Mojsisovics from Bosnia, by E. Tietze from 

 Eastern Bosnia, and by Dr. A. Bittner from the Herzegowina. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Linnean Society, November 6.— Prof. Allman, president 

 in the chair.— Mr. W. H. Twelvetrees (of Orenburg, Russia) was 

 elected a Fellow of the Society.— The President, in opening the 

 session, briefly alluded to the demise of Mr. W. Wilson Saunders 

 and Mr. John Miers, whose scientific and official labours in con- 

 nection with the Society have been well appreciated. — Mr. W. 

 T. Thiselton Dyer exhibited and made remarks on some photo- 

 graphs of vegetation, including Cinchona Lcdgcriana, in the 

 Botanic Garden of Buitenzorg, Java. — Mr. D. Morris, recently 

 returned from investigating the coffee-leaf disease of Ceylon 

 and South India, read a paper on the structure and habit of 

 Hemileia vastatrix. He supports the Rev. R. Abbay's state- 

 ments as to the destructive character of the fungus and its 

 evident gradual extension over the coffee-producing regions of 

 the Eat : he even expresses fears of its ultimately being carried 

 to the West Indies and Brazil ; — 2,000,000/., the estimated 

 annual deficiency in Ceylon alone, is no mean sum to be debited 

 from the revenue and interests of the planters. Mr. Abbay has 

 described the spores as attached to the inner surface of the 

 orange yellow sporanges (a notion opposed to received ideas 

 respecting free cell formation) ; but Mr. Morris's observations 

 are opposed to those of the former. The author explains the 

 hitherto puzzling dark brown bodies beneath the sporanges as 

 composed of closely interwoven threads of mycelium. During 

 February, March, and April, both bark and leaves are every* 

 where covered exteriorly by mycelial filamentous threads which 

 reproduce by germinating spores. In the wet weather these do 

 not enter the stomata. It is in this stage that conidial growth 

 supervenes according to Abbay (secondary spores of Th\\ aites), 

 but the author has failed to substantiate this phase, though 

 starved plants on glass slides raised conidia. It is during the fila- 

 mentous stage before penetration that remedial agents — dusting 

 with sulphur and lime, &c. — have a chance of being effective ; but 

 a serious disturbing element offers in the large area of aban- 

 doned crop still continuing to propagate the fungus. — Dr. F. 

 Day read a paper on the instincts and emotions of fish. Biologists 

 of late have been less attracted by the faculties of fish than of 

 other animals, and even Cuvier's estimate of their total want of 

 intelligence has been quite recently quoted as authentic. The author 

 combats this notion, and, from his own experience and data 

 afforded by other writers, claims evidence of emotions and affec- 

 tions. He shows they construct nests, transport their eggs, protect 

 and defend their young, exhibit affection for each other, recog- 

 nise human beings, can be tamed, manifest fear, anger, hatred, 

 and revenge, utter sounds, hide from danger, betake them- 

 selves for protection to the bodies of other animals, and have 

 other peculiar modes of defence, leave the water for food, and 

 even different families combine for attack and defence. Their 

 faculties, notwithstanding, are greatly subordinated and modified 

 compared with those of higher races of the vertebrata.- — The Rev. 

 G. Henslow read a paper on the origin of the (so-called) scorpioid 

 cyme. He pointed out some errors in deducing this from the 

 dichotomous cyme : 1. Opposite pairs of bracts, being succes- 

 sively in planes at right angles, the resulting sympode would be 

 a volute, and not a helix. 2. The position of the bracts (when 

 present, as in Borago) are not opposite the flowers. 3. There 

 are always two rows of flowers, not a single one. 4. ^The 

 appearance of a flower in the fork between the two branches 1 f 

 the inflorescence (as in Myosotis) is not usual, and is due to the 

 adhesion between the terminal and the highest axillary raceme. 

 This has given rise to a false impression of dichotomy. 5. 

 Authors have hitherto confounded the " true scorpioid raceme " 

 (Henslow) with spicate degradations of sympodial inflorescence. 

 He refers it to the indefinite system, and explains its origin by 

 a new principle of phyllotaxis, which he first discovered in 

 Lager stromia, viz., in resolving opposite and decussate leaves into 

 alternate, instead of their lying on a continuous spiral line, the 

 line oscillates through three-fourths of a circle, and if a line be 

 drawn from flower to bract, it will represent the so-called 

 scorpioid cyme of Boraginece. 



Chemical Society, Nov. 6. — Mr. Warren De la Rue, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair. — The following papers were read : — On 

 the transformation products of starch, by C. O'Sullivan. In 

 this paper, which was originally presented to the Societe Chi- 



