Dec. 1 8, 1879] 



NATURE 



171 



bottom, as A. Agassiz has stated to be the case. — Dr. Maxwell 

 Masters gave a communication on certain relations between the 

 morphology and the functions in the leaves of conifers (see Science 

 Notes). — Prof. P. M. Duncan next read a paper on a synthetic type 

 of Ophiurid. This specimen was dredged by Dr. Wallich in the 

 Bulldog expedition, i860, fifty miles north of Cape Valloe, East 

 Greenland, and from a depth of 22S fathoms. On casual in- 

 spection this brittle-star might be regarded as an Amphiuran, but 

 the spinulose disk and hooked side-arms oppose this notion. 

 Again, resemblances to species of Ophiothrix suggest themselves, 

 but the large scaling of the disk, absence of tooth papillx, and 

 the presence of accessory pieces around the aboral edge of the 

 upper arm-plates, are distinctive characters, and which to a 

 certain extent are indicative of Ophiolepian affinities, but the 

 dental apparatus does not conform. Thus in shape and dental 

 characters it (Polyopholis echinata) approaches Amphiura ; spi- 

 nu'es and arm-hooks are those of Ophiothrix ; and the accessory 

 plates re emble those of Ophiolepis. Provisionally the author 

 places it among the family Amphiaridx, and he remarks that, 

 though rare, such forms cast doubts on the value of the charac- 

 ters employed in the classification of the Ophiuridse. — Mr. C. 

 B. Clarke followed with a paper on Indian Begonias. This is 

 supplementary to the author's account of the group in Sir J. D. 

 Hooker's "Flora of British India." It treats of the classifica- 

 tion of the whole genus (»".*., order) except Hi'lebianJtia and 

 Bt^oniella, and it is maintained that it (the group) can be natu- 

 rally divided into the six subgenera employed in the "Flora of 

 British India." The author discards the differences in the sta- 

 mens and styles for subgeneric characters, and employs exclu- 

 sively the structure and dehiscence of the fruit. — The following 

 gentlemen were elected Fellows of the Society : — Messrs. Samuel 

 Wright (St. Neots, Huntingdon), George Malcolm Thomson 

 (Dunedin, N.Z.), J. Otto Tepper (Adelaide), Henry B. Spotton, 

 (Ontario), John Cameron (Bot. Gard., Bangalore), Major Collet 

 (Kurrum Field Force), and Sir Samuel Wilson (Victoria). 



Chemical Society, December 4.— Mr. Warren De La Rue, 

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

 the comparative value of different methods of fractional distilla- 

 tion, by F. D. Brown. When fractional distillation is carried 

 out on a large scale, either or both of two well-defined processes 

 can be used: in the first "washing" the mixed vapours are 

 passed through several layers of liquid obtained by .their own 

 partial condensation; in the second "cooling" the mixed 

 vapours are partially condensed by allowing radiation to take 

 place or by passing them through a coil kept at a given tempera- 

 ture ; in both processes the liquids of highest boiling point are 

 kept back, and a better distillate is accordingly obtained. The 

 author concludes that there is an essential difference between 

 washing and cooling. The best distillate is obtained by keeping 

 the still-head at the lowest possible temperature compatible with 

 the passage of vapour into the condenser ; he has contrived an 

 apparatus to carry out this principle, and has obtained with it 

 very satisfactory results.— On the influence exerted upon the 

 course of certain chemical changes by variations in the amount 

 of water of dilution, by M. M. P. Muir and C. Slater. The 

 authors find that the amount of chemical change which ensues 

 when solutions of calcium-chloride and sodium-carbonate are 

 mixed decreases as the dilution increases, but when solutions of 

 strontium-chloride and sulphuric acid, or barium chloride and 

 potassium oxalate are mixed, various irregularities in the amount 

 of chemical change are noticed as the dilution increases. These 

 irregularities the authors have studied in detail ; they conclude 

 that they are due to the entire system being brought into a state 

 of strain, the principal forces of which this stress is compounded 

 being the force tending to produce cryohydrates and other 

 hydrated molecules, the force tending to split up these mole- 

 cules and the force tending to separate, and so to impart greater 

 mobility to the chemically active molecules of the system. — On 

 the influence of temperature upon the decomposition of barium 

 chloride by potassium oxalate in aqueous solution, by M. M. P. 

 Muir. — On o and phenanthrene carbonic acids, by Dr. F. R. 

 Japp. The author, since preparing the alpha acid with Dr. 

 Schultz, has obtained a purer specimen melting at 266° ; from a 

 syrupy liquor' left in the preparation of the calcic phenanthrene 

 sulphonate, the author obtained the beta acid melting at 250 - 

 252 ; he also prepared the sodium and barium salts and studied 

 the oxidation products of the acid. He discusses the constitu- 

 tional formula of phenanthrene, and concludes that this sub- 

 stance consists of three benzene nuclei, one of which shares four 

 adjacent carbon atoms with the two others. — On some deriva- 



tives of phenylacetic acid, by P. Philipps Bedson. The author 

 has separated para- and ortho-nitro-phenylacetic acids, their 

 bromo derivatives, a dibromo body, and a bromonitro-phenyl- 

 acetic acid, with its amido derivative. 



Geological Society, November 19.— Henry Clifton Sorby, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Edmund Knowles Binns, and 

 John Dawson, were elected Fellows of the Society.— The follow- 

 ing communications were read : — Supplementary note on the 

 vertebra of Ornithopsis, Seeley ( = Eucamerotus, Hulke), by J. 

 \V. Hulke, F.R.S., F.G.S. — -The author in this communication 

 describes several cervical and trunk vertebra; of this remarkable 

 Dinosaur. The former are characterised by great length ; the 

 anterior articular surface is strongly convex, and the posterior 

 correspondingly hollow. In place of the side chamber cliarac- 

 terising the trunk vertebral centra, is a long shallow pit. An 

 upper and a lower transverse process are given off from an upper 

 and a lower plate, which project from the side of the centrum 

 above the pit, and these are connected by a short, forked cervical 

 riblet. The neural arch is dwarfed, and there is no spinous 

 process, and no zygosphenal and zyganteal mechanism. The 

 structure of these vertebrae indicates a long, mobile, and light 

 neck. In the trunk the convexity of the anterior articular 

 surface lessens in passing from the neck to the loins, the anterior 

 ball gradually subsiding till the great articular surface becomes 

 plane, the posterior surface retaining, however, a slight hollow- 

 ness. The trunk vertebras have superadded to the ordinary 

 articular processes a mechanism comparable to zygosphene and 

 zygantrum, which must have given great fixity to this part of the 

 vertebral column, contrasting strongly with the flexibibility of 

 the neck. The longitudinal side chambers reach their greatest 

 development in the vertebrae referable to the fore part of the 

 trunk ; they lessen toward the loins, and are absent from the 

 neck, which is regarded as conclusive of their pneumaticity, and 

 against their having been occupied by cartilaginous and fatty 

 tissues, which might have equally occurred through the whole 

 length of the vertebral column, and not been limited to a parti- 

 cular region in close vicinity to the lungs. The whole construc- 

 tion affords a notable illustration of immense bulk attained with 

 the use of the smallest quantity of bony tissue, which occurs in 

 the form of very thin sheets or plates. The transverse and 

 spinous processes are strengthened by flying buttresses. The 

 vault of the neural canal is beautifully groined, whence the 

 original name Eucamerotus. The author then pointed out the 

 family resemblances between the Isle 01 Wight Wealden form 

 and the new Colorado Dinosaurs, which have many points in 

 common, but are both generically and specifically distinct from 

 Ornithopsis. — On the concretionary patches and fragments 

 of other rocks sometimes contained in granite, by J. Arthur 

 Phillips, F.G.S. There are two classes of inclusions, (1) the 

 result of the abnormal aggregation of the minerals constituting 

 the granite itself, containing generally more plagioclastic felspar, 

 mica, or hornblende than it, with some other distinctions : most 

 probably concretions formed contemporaneously with the solidi- 

 fication of the mass ; (2) fragments of included schistose or slaty 

 rock, often not very highly altered, caught up from the rock- 

 masses through which the granite has forced its way. — Cer- 

 tain geological facts witnessed in Natal and the border countries 

 during nineteen years' residence, by the Rev. George Blencowe. 

 Communicated by the Rev. H. Griffith, F.G.S. Shales and 

 sandstones are the prevalent rocks from the coast for about 

 twenty-four miles inland. Here is a protrusion of granite ; 

 beyond the sandstones come ferruginous shales, with scattered 

 boulders of trap on the surface. The northern third of Natal is 

 white sandstone, formed into hills and ridges by denudation, 

 with a long trap-capped plateau near Helpmakaar. Coal-seams 

 occur in the sandstones. There are frequent vertical pipes in 

 these sandstones which, the author thinks, mark the site of trunks 

 of trees, round which the sand-beds had accumulated. Rorke's 

 House and Isandhlwana are near the above plateau. Near the 

 former is an extinct mud volcano. A remarkable "vitreous 

 shale " is found near the Buffalo ; isolated pinnacles of it occur 

 at the spot where the few survivors of the fight crossed that 

 river. A range of mountains, with mural escarpments, remnants 

 of an ancient plateau, rising to a height of some 2,000 feet above 

 another plateau which is 5,000 to 6,000 feet above the sea, extends 

 for about 500 miles from the north of Natal to near Cradock in 

 the Cape Colony ; they are sandstone horizontally stratified, 

 capped by trap. Some other geological features are described. 

 The Transvaal consists of undulating hills of soft limestone, a 



