Dec, 4, 1879] 



NATURE 



12 3 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, November 27. — "A Memoir on the Single 

 and Double Theta-Functions," by A. Cayley, F.R.S., Sadlerian 

 Professor of Pure Mathematics in the University of Cambridge. 



Chemical Society, November 20. — Dr. Gilbert in the chair. 

 — The Chairman announced that a ballot for the election of 

 Fellows would take place at the next meeting, December 4. — 

 The following papers were read : — A chemical study of vegetable 

 albinism, Part II. Respiration and transpiration of albino foliage, 

 by Mr. Church. White folinge does not possess the power even in 

 sunshine of decomposing the carbonic acid in the air. Experiments 

 were made with leaves of the maple, holly, ivy, and Alocasia ; 

 1,000 sq. ctm. of the leaves of the Alocasia evolved in two hours, 

 15 - o6 and 3S'o6 parts of carbonic acid per 10,000; 1,000 sq. ctm. 

 of green leaves I 14 parts. White holly sprays placed in water, 

 gained in two hours five times as much in weight as green leaves, 

 when no water was supplied, the green lost about twenty 

 tinns as much as the white. — Contributions to the history of 

 putrefaction, Part I., by Mr. C. T. Kingzett. The author has 

 examined dilute solutions of albumen, beef, and fish as to their 

 1 xygen-absorbing power in different stages of putrefaction, by 

 titrating with permanganate. He finds that such substances require 

 less oxygen as the putrefactive process proceeds; he also discusses 

 the bearing of his remits on the permanganate method of esti- 

 mating the organic matter in potable waters. — Notes on man- 

 ganese dioxide, by C. R. A. Wright and A. E. Menke. The 

 authors have made an exhaustive study of the various methods 

 for preparing manganese dioxide ; in most cases the product 

 contains potash and is deficient in oxygen ; the methods which 

 yielded the purest manganese dioxide were, heating manganese 

 nitrate to 160° C, mixing a hot solution of a manganese salt with 

 an excess of permanganate, or in the cold with the addition of zinc 

 sulphate or ferric chloride. The volumetric processes of 

 Kessler and Pattinson gave good results; the authors suggest 

 some convenient modifications of these methods ; they have 

 verified the statements of Gorgeu, Guyard, and Pickering, but 

 have disproved those of Morawski and Stingl. — On the reaction 

 between sodium thiosulphate and iodine ; estimation of man- 

 ganese oxides and potassium dicliromate, by S. Pickering. The 

 author has carefully worked out the influence of dilution, excess 

 of potassium iodide, heat, and other conditions, on the results 

 obtained by Bunsen's volumetric method of estimating manganese 

 oxide. lie suggests a simplified method of procedure and com- 

 pares results obtained by the two processes. 



Linnean Society, November 2S.— Prof. Allman, president, 

 in the chair. — Messrs. Winslow, Jones, and Wm. Wickham were 

 elected Fellows. — Sir J. D. Hooker exhibited a specimen and read 

 a paper on the discovery of a variety of the cedar of Lebanon 

 on the mountains of Cyprus (see Science Notes). — The president 

 also laid on the table examples of a cone-bearing Ccdrus deodora, 

 grown by Mrs. C. St. Clair at Parkstone, Dorset. — Mr. E. 

 M. Holmes exhibited and made remarks on a series of rare 

 British lichens, Hepaticrc, and freshwater alga:. He noted 

 that the so-called Echimlla articulata which now chokes the 

 filter beds of the reservoir at Bradgate, Leicester, was in 

 reality an undescribed form, but bearing resemblances to 

 Zooglcea. Mr. Holmes likewise exhibited, and for the first 

 time in England, the leaves, flowers and portion of the trunk of 

 the tree (Audita araroba) yielding the so-called Goa powder. 

 This vegetable secretion appears to destroy and replace the 

 wo idy tissue of the heart-wood. The source of the ponder was 

 long enveloped in mystery, but from its containing chrysophanic 

 acid it was believed to be the product of a fungus. Recently it has 

 been found that the cane grows in Bahia, is sent to Lisbon, thence 

 exported to the Portuguese colonics in the East where it is used 

 as a specific for ringworm. — Mr. T. Christy showed two aboriginal 

 Australian skulls with occipital thickening (forwarded by Dr. 

 Bancroft), and supposed to have been induced by the blows of 

 knobkerries. — Mr. Marshall Ward read a contribution to ourknow- 

 ledge of the embryo sac of phanerograms. In this paper, stages 

 in the development of the ovule in Butomus umbellavus, Alisma 

 plantago, Anemone japonica and other forms have been carefully 

 observed and delineated from microscopic section. The views of 

 Strasburger, Vesque and Warming are severally compared and 

 reviewed, the author holding intermediate opinions. Mr. Ward 

 advances the following : — The ovule so far as its nucleus is con- 

 cerned arises as a group of cells which divide and become 

 arranged in groups of sister cells symmetrically related to the 

 shape of the whole organ. One cell group leads in growth and 



fulfilling a special purpose, becomes the embryo sac. Further 

 feeble division of this latter produces a watery cell with two 

 nuclei. Each nucleus again produces four nuclei by bipartite 

 division followed by grouping, and a nucleus from the top group 

 moves towards the middle sap cavity. Each group of four cells 

 is a prothallus, and the cell producing this a macrospore. The 

 two nio.-t successful macrospores behave similarly to those of 

 some- vascular cryptograms, and finally terminate, producing a 

 ruddy prothallus of four naked nuclei. The egg-cell is an oospheie, 

 all that is left of the lower part of the rudimentary archegonium, 

 its upper part probably being represented by the two " synergidx" 

 wliich are to be looked upon as having acquired a secondary 

 function from being merely 1 rotective and guiding neck -cells of 

 an archegonium.— Mr. Alfred Haddon read a paper on the 

 extinct land tortoises of Mauritius and Rodriguez. Examination 

 of a large store of material obtained by Mr. Edward Newton, 

 corroborates the two Mauritian species Testudo triserrata and 

 T. inepta described by Dr. Giinther ; but it adds no fresh 

 example to that apparently unsatisfactory species T. leptcencmis. 

 Of remains from the Island of Rodriguez the species 

 T. Vosmari can alone be distinguished. The free coracoid of 

 T. inefta is now for the first time recorded, while that of 

 T. Vosmari is wonderfully irregular in character. Great variation 

 in the ankylosis of the coracoid with the shoulder girdle pertains in 

 this extensive series in the Cambridge Museum. — The secretary 

 read in abstract a communication by Mr. Edward J. Miers, viz.': 

 On a small collection of Crustacea made by Mr. Edward 

 Whymper, chiefly in the N. Greenland Seas with an appendix 

 on additional species collected by the late British Arctic 

 Expedition. 



Entomological Society, . November 5.— H. W. Bates, 

 F.L.S., F.Z.S., vice-president, in the chair.— Mr. T. R. Billups, 

 of Peckham, was elected an Ordinary Member of the Society. — 

 Mr. W. C. Boyd exhibited a remarkable variety of Aspilatcs 

 citraria, a specimen of Cidaria testa/a in which the hind wings 

 were apparentlyjabsent, and a Noctua resembling Hadena dentina, 

 but differing from that species in the form of the body. Mr. 

 McLachlan read some remarks he had received from Prof. Forel 

 relative to the sculptured stones on the shores of Lake Leman. 

 Three principal types of markings were described, the first of 

 w hich was ascribed to the agency of Tinodcs. — Prof. Westwood 

 exhibited a series of drawings illustrating the economyand trans- 

 formations of several species of trichopterous and other neu- 

 ropterous insects, also drawings of some undescribed species of 

 exotic heteropterous-hemiptera contained in the Hopeian collec- 

 tion ; he likewise drew attention to a modification of the 

 professorship which had been proposed by the Oxford Com- 

 missioners, whereby the science of entomology would probably 

 be neglected, and which would to a certain extent render 

 nugatory the intentions of the founder of the professorship and 

 donor of the collections. Prof. Westwood also referred to the 

 affinity of the genus Poly dents. — Mr. J. Jenner Weir exhibited 

 some ants, apparently a species oiAtta, w hich he had found in large 

 quantities at Pisa, and which were peculiar in having collected 

 around their nests, large quantities of small empty shells of 

 Helix capuata and H. virgata ; Mr. Weir also exhibited a 

 specimen of an Orgyia, stated on the authority of Mr. Gates to 

 have emerged from the larval skin, without passing through the 

 pupal state. — Mr. W. L. Distant communicated a note relative to 

 some Indian hemiptera which he had received from India through 

 Mr. F. Moore for examination, with the names of the plants on 

 which they were found. — The Secretary read a note and exhibited 

 a photograph which he had received from Dr. Fritz Midler.— 

 The following papers were also communicated: — " List of tie 

 Hemiptera collected on the Amazons by Prof. Trail," Pt. 1. 

 by Dr. F. Buchanan White. — " Descriptions of new Genera and 

 Species of Tenebrionida; from Madagascar," by Mr. F. Bates ; — 

 and " Descri, tions of new Coleoptera from East Africa and 

 Madagascar," by Mr. C. O. Waterhouse. — Mr. Butler com- 

 municated a paper on the natural affinities of the lepidoptera 

 hitherto referred to the genus Acronycta of authors. — From an 

 examination, chiefly of the larval characters, the author proposed 

 to distribute the British species of the genus among the 

 Arctiidse, Liparidse, Notodontida:, and Noctuites. 



Meteorological Society, November 19. — Mr. C. Greaves, 

 F.G.S., president, in the chair. — The following gentlemen were 

 elected Fellows :— Capt. C. K. Brooke, Rev. E. Carr, M.A., Capt. 

 R. A. Edwin, R.N., W. B. Fawcett, C. J. Harland, J. Lucas, 

 F.G.S., H. Mellish, G. B. Nichols, the Earl of Northesk, 

 Dr. J. Robb, T. H. Walker, andC. L. Wragge, F.R.G.S.— The 



