Nov. 20, 1879] 



NATURE 



75 



islands. — Rev. W. W. Spicer, on alien plants. — Rev. J. E. T. 

 Woods, on Australian Siphonaria (describes a new species, S. 

 sonata). — M. Allport, on the present stage of the salmon experi- 

 ment (November 12, 1S77). — Baron Ferd. von Mueller, contri- 

 butions to the pbytography of Tasmania, in which he adds a few 

 more plants to his previous enumeration and effects a few 

 changes in nomenclature ; there is added a note on Phyllota 

 {Pultenaea) diffusa.- -Rev. J. E. T. Woods, on some new Tas- 

 manian marine shells (describes several new species). — The 

 meteorology of Hobart Town, January to December, 1877. In 

 January apricots and Jargonelle pears were ripe, the general 

 apple and pear crop in February. Leaves commenced to fall in 

 March ; the chrysanthemums were in flower in April ; Lachenalia 

 and Photinia in May ; crocuses and Pyrus japonica in June ; 

 almonds in full bloom in July; trees breaking into leaf in 

 August ; horse chestnut in flower in September ; mulberry and 

 lime trees in leaf in October ; cherries and strawberries ripe in 

 November ; currants and gooseberries in December. 



Morphologisches Jahrbuch, Band 5, Heft 3. — Dr. G. Born, 

 on the nasal cavity and tear passages in the amniotic vertebrates, 

 p's. 23-24. — L. Graff, on Geonemertes ehalicophora, a new land 

 Nemertine, pi. 2527. This new species was found in the earth 

 of a flower-pot in the palm-house at Frankfurt. The larger 

 specimens were 12 mm. in length and -£ mm. in breadth ; they are 

 of a milk-white colour. A list of the land nemertines now- 

 known is appended, these being the original species of the genus 

 described by Semper, G. paltensis, and Tetraslemma agricola, of 

 Willemoes-Suhm. — M. v. Davidoff, on the comparative anatomy 

 of the posterior limbs in fishes, pi. 28-31, to which is appended 

 a note by the editor, Prof. Gegenbaur, on the limb question. — 

 Notice of Schneider's " Comparative Anatomy." 



Journal of the Russian Chemical and Physical Society. — The 

 last number of this journal contains a paper by Prof. Butleroff, 

 on the present meaning of the chemical theory. — The conclusion 

 of the researches, by M. Lebavin, on the nucleine of milk. — 

 On derivates of the fumaric and maleic acids, by M. Ossipoff. — 

 On cholecamphoric acid, by M. Latchinoff. — On a new alkali 

 derived from quinine, by MM. Wischnegradsky and Prof. 

 Butleroff. — On the theory of dispersion of light, by M. 

 Cheboueff. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 

 Mathematical Society, November 13. — Mr. C. \V. Merri- 

 field, F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The treasurer's and 

 secretaries' reports were read. — The new council was elected, 

 the only changes in which were the substitution of Messrs. 

 Leudesdorf and Lloyd Tanner, in the place of Dr. Spottis- 

 woode, P.R.S., and Prof. H.J J- S. Smith, F.R.S., the 

 retiring Members. — The Chairman briefly, but in feeling terms, 

 alluded to the losses the Society had recently sustained by 

 the deaths of such accomplished mathematicians as Prof. 

 Clifford, Sir J. G. Shaw Lefevre, and Prof. J. Clerk Maxwell. 

 — The following communications were made to the Society : — 

 (I) On the binomial equation xp — 1=0, trisection and quarti- 

 section, Prof. Cayley, F.R.S. — (2) On cubic determinants and 

 other determinants of higher class, and on determinants of 

 alternate numbers, Mr. R. F. Scott. — (3) On a problem of 

 Fibonacci's, Mr. S. Roberts, F.R.S. — (4) Notes on a class 

 of definite integrals, Mr. T. R. Terry. (1) was principally 

 concerned with the presentation in a simplified form of results 

 given in Reuschle's " Tafeln complexer Primzahlen welche aus 

 \Yuizeln der Einheit gebildet sind" (4to, Berlin, 1875), and in 

 Tacobi's" " Canon Arithmeticus " (4to, Berlin, 1839). (2) was on 

 a branch of determinants which has received but little attention 

 in this country. Mr. Lloyd Tanner communicated a paper on 

 the subject to the Society at its June meeting in the present year. 

 ogst Continental papers are memoirs by Armenante, Padova, 

 and Garbieri (in the Giornale di Matematiche), Dahlander and 

 A. de Gasparis. (3) was an account and extension of work done 

 in the Diophantine Analysis by Fibonacci, and recently by 

 Genoccbi. (4) The integrals considered were 



fir cosfxdx , fir sin' Ay dx 



J 0(1 — 2a cos x + x*)" J c {l — 2acosx + a-)" + f' 



where/ is a positive integer and n any real quantity, positive cr 

 negative, integral or fractional. 



Geological Society, November 5. — Henry. Clifton Sorby, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Henry Bruce Armstrong was 

 elected a Fellow of the Society. — The following communications 

 were read : — On the probable temperature of the primordial 

 ocean of our globe, by Robert Mallet, F.R.S. According to 

 the latest hypotheses as to the quantity of water on the globe, 

 is pressure, if evenly distributed, would be equal to a barometric 

 pressure of 204-74 atmospheres. Accordingly water, when first 

 it began to condense on the surface of the globe, would condense 

 at a much higher temperature than the present boiling-point, 

 under ordinary circumstances. The first drops of water formed 

 on the cooling surface of the globe may not impossibly have been 

 at the temperature of molten iron. As the water was precipi- 

 tated, condensation of the remaining vapour took place at a 

 lower temperature. The primordial atmosphere would be more 

 oblate and less penetrable by solar heat than the present, and 

 the difference of temperature between polar and equatorial re- 

 gions would be greater ; so that, in the later geologic times, 

 ice may have formed in the one, while the other was too hot for 

 animal or vegetable life. Thus, formerly the ocean would be a 

 more powerful disintegrant and solvent of rocks, mineral changes 

 would be more rapid, and meteoric agencies would produce 

 greater effects in a given time. — On the fish-remains found in the 

 cannel coal in the middle coal-measures of the West Riding of 

 Yorkshire, with the description of some new species, by James 

 W. Davis, F.G.S. — On the skull of ArgUlornis longipcnnis, 

 Owen, by Prof. R. Owen, C.B., F.R.S. In this paper the 

 author described a fragmentary cranium from the London clay 

 of Sheppey, from which it was procured by Mr. W. II. Shrub- 

 sole, who also furnished him with the humerus described in a 

 former paper under the name of ArgUlornis longipennis. 1 In 

 the present specimen the lower jaw and the fore-part of the 

 upper jaw are deficient. The author described the characters 

 presented by the specimen in detail, and stated that, like those 

 of the humerus previously described, they seemed to approximate 

 the fossil most nearly to the albatross among existing birds, 

 although, like Odontopteryx, it differed from Diomedia and also 

 from the cormorant and the totipalmates generally, in the ab- 

 sence of the basirostral external nares and of the supraorbital 

 gland-pits. The present fossil differs from Odontopteryx in 

 having the fore-part of the frontal broader and the upper tract 

 of the bill less defined, as also in some other characters ; but no 

 comparison of the palatal structure can be made upon the exist- 

 ing specimens. In point of size, taking the albatross as a term 

 of comparison, this skull may well have belonged to a bird with 

 wings of the extent indicated by the humerus already described : 

 and the resemblance of the skull to that of the albatross would 

 also seem to be confirmatory of the specific collocation of the 

 two specimens. The presence of four small pits or perforations 

 on the only part of the alveolar border which appears to be 

 uninjured, leads the author to conjecture that the bird may have 

 been dentigerous. 



Physical Society, November 8.— Prof. W. G. Adams in 

 the chair.— The first paper read was on an analogy between the 

 conductivity for heat and the induction balance effect of copper- 

 tin alloys, by W. Chandler Roberts, F.R.S. Mr. Roberts traced 

 a remarkable resemblance between a curve representing the 

 induction balance effect of the copper-tin alloys published by 

 him in June last, and the curve of Calvert and Johnson for the 

 conductivity of heat, and on the other hand he showed that the 

 induction curve does not agree with Matthiessen's curve for the 

 electric conductivity of the same alloys. The author showed 

 that the two alloys which occupy critical points of the curve 

 (.SnCu 3 and SnCuJ are of much interest. Possibly both aie 

 chemical combinations, and the wide difference in the posit ■ 11 

 they occupy probably marks a difference of allotropic sta'c. 

 For the solution of such questions, however, Mr. Roberts con- 

 sidered that we might look w ith confidence to Prof. Hughes' 

 beautiful instrument, which, he hopes, will also help us to 

 determine whether the relation between conductivity for heat and 

 electricity is really as exact as it has hitherto been supposed to 

 be. As supplementary to this subject Dr. O. J. Lodge stated 

 that he had compared the conductivity of six bars of the tin- 

 copper alloys, as measured by the balance and by the Wheatstone- 

 bridge, and found them to agree very closely. The bridge 

 results confirmed the resemblance traced by Mr. R° berts - 

 Prof. Hu"hes expressed his opinion that existing tables ot 

 conductivity were erroneous. They disagreed among themselves 

 ■ Quart, yourn. Gal Sac., vol. xxxiv. p. 124- 



