Jan. 22, 1880] 



NATURE 



291 



mercury. — On dibromanthraquinones, by Mr. W. II. Perkin. By 

 heating bromine with anthraquinone, a dibromanthraquinone 

 is formed, melting at 245° C. ; by boiling tetrabromanthracen with 

 chromic acid, dissolved in'a large excess of glacial acetic acid, an 

 isomer $ dibromanthraquinone is obtained, melting at 275° C. 

 By the action of caustic alkalies on these bodies, alizarin is formed 

 in both cases. The author discusses the formation of this 

 substance. In the case of the o body, two other colouring 

 matters were formed with the alizarin, one dyeing mordants, the 

 other not. The author is investigating these bodies. He 

 appends a note in which he concludes on further examination 

 that Auerbach's isopurpurin is a mixture of flavopurpurin and 

 anthrapurpurin, and is not identical with anthrapurpurin. — Mr. 

 Warington contributed some notes on some practical points 

 connected with his laboratory experience. He has u ; ed with 

 great convenience the indiarubber joint covered with mercury, 

 which was proposed by Dr. Frankland as a substitute for the 

 steel blocks connecting the laboratory and measuring tubes. At 

 first the indiarubber wore out rapidly ; this was prevented by 

 tying it above the conical stopper as well as below He re 

 commends the coating of laboratory benches, &c, by heating the 

 wood and then rubbing in paraffin ; the wood is thus protected 

 from the action of acids. In the determination of nitrates by 

 Frankland's process, the author suggests the addition of a drop of 

 dilute hydrochloric acid, to ensure a complete reaction between 

 the mercury and the nitric acid. By means of a solution of 

 diphenylamine in strong sulphuric acid, the author has detected 

 by the blue coloration produced lu ^ <)11 th of a milligram of 

 hydrogen as nitric acid. — On the melting and boiling points of 

 certain inorganic substances, by T. Carnelly and W. C. Williams. 



Zoological Society, January 6.— Prof. Flower, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — Prof. Newton, M.A., F.R.S., V.P., 

 exhibited, on behalf of Mr. G. B. Corbin, a specimen of Acan- 

 thyllis (sive) CAittura caudacuta, the Needle-Tailed Swift, shot 

 near Ringwood, in Hampshire, in July, 1879, remarking that it 

 was the second example of this Siberian species which had been 

 obtained in England. — Mr. John Henry Steel, F.Z.S., read a 

 series of preliminary notes on the individual variations observed 

 in the osteological and myological structure of the Domestic Ass 

 (Equus asinus). — A communication was read from Mr. E. W. 

 White, C.M.Z.S., containing notes on the distribution and 

 habits of Chtamyphoi us truncatus, from observations made by 

 the author during a recent excursion into the western provinces 

 of the Argentine Republic, undertaken for the purpose of ob- 

 taining a better knowledge of this animal. — Dr. John Mulvany, 

 R.N., read a paper on a case which seemed to him to indicate 

 the moulting of the horny beak in a Penguin of the genus 

 Endypl/s.—Mr. O. Thomas, F.Z.S., read the description of a 

 new species of Mus, obtained from the island of Ovalau, Fiji, 

 by Baron A. von Hiigel, and proposed to be called Mus huegeli 

 after its discoverer. — A communication was read from Mr. R. 

 G. Wardlaw Ramsay, F.Z.S., containing a report on a collec- 

 tion of birds made by Herr Bock, a naturalist employed by the 

 late Lord Tweeddale, in the neighbourhood of Padane. Three 

 species were described as new and proposed to be called & i>/Vra?-«y 

 sumatranus, Turdinus marmoratus, and Myiophonau castanms. 

 — Dr. Giinther, F.R.S., read a description of two new species 

 of Antelopes, of the genus .\ T eotra°us, N. kirki, from Eastern 

 Africa, and N. molaris, from Damaraland. 



Geological Society, January 7.— Henry Clifton Sorby, 

 president, in the chair.— Edward Bagnall Poulton was elected a 

 Fellow, and Prof. A. E. Nordenskjold, Stockholm, and Prof. 

 F. Zirkel, Leipzig, Foreign Members of the Society.— The 

 following communications were read :— On the Portland rocks 

 of England, by the Rev. J. F. Blake, F.G.S. The author gave 

 a general account of the relation of the several Portland rocks 

 in the areas of their development to each other, and hence de- 

 duced the history of the Portland " episode. " The name is 

 used on the Continent in a wider sense than in England, and 

 this use was shown to be unjustifiable. After giving an account 

 of his observations on the rocks at Portland itself, and dividing 

 the limestones into the building-stone and flinty series, the author 

 showed that the so-called "Upper Portlandian " of Boulogne 

 corresponds to the latter, and the upper part of the "Middle 

 Portlandian " to the Portland sand. He then endeavoured to 

 prove, by the proportionate thicknes--, the indications of change 

 in the lithology, and the distribution of some of the fossils, that 

 the rest of the so-called "Middle" and the "Lower Port- 

 landian" are represented by integral portions of the Upper 

 Kimmeridge, which are thus the "normal" form corresponding 



to what the author calls the " Boulognian episode." The series 

 in the Vale of Wardour has been made out pretty completely. 

 The Pnrbeck is separated by a band of clay from the Portland, 

 and is not amalgamated with it. The building-stones and flinty 

 series are here seen again ; and a fine freestone occurs at the 

 base of the latter. The representatives of the Portland sand 

 wtre considered to be older than those of other districts. The 

 relations of the Purbeck to the Portland rocks at Swindon were 

 very carefully traced ; and it is shown that, while the upper 

 beds of the latter put on here some peculiar characters, the 

 former lie on their worn edges. The upper beds of the Port- 

 land, which have been referred to the sand, correspond to the 

 freestone and the base of the flinty series of the Vale of War- 

 dour ; hence the Purbecks of Swindon may be coeval « ith the 

 upper beds of the Portland to the south. At the base of the great 

 quarry and elsewhere in the neighbourhood are the " Trigonia- 

 beds," beneath which is clay, hitherto mistaken for the Kimmer- 

 idge clay ; and beneath this are the true Portland sands, with 

 an abundant fauna new to England. The limestones of Oxford- 

 shire and Bucks were considere 1 to represent the " Trigonia- 

 beds " only ; and, as the Purbecks here lie for the most part 

 conformably, it was suggested that they were formed in a lake 

 at an earlier period than those at Swindon, which are of a more 

 fluviatile character. Hence the Portland episode, considered as 

 marine, was at an end in the north before it was half completed 

 in the south.— On the correlation of the drift-deposits of the 

 north-west of England with those of the midland and eastern 

 counties, by D. Mackintosh, F.G.S. 



Anthropological Institute, Jan. 13.— John Evans, D.C.L., 

 F.K.S., vice-president, in the chair.— Dr. Hack Tuke read a 

 paper on "The Cagots." The author showed that the popular 

 etymology of the word Cagot, from " Canis Gothi," is probably 

 inaccurate, and accepted the suggestion of M. de Rochas, that 

 Cagot is derived from the Celto-Breton word caccd (leprous) ; it 

 is easy to see how readily this would assume the form of cacou 

 (ns it is in Brittany actually applied to these people), and so the 

 French Cagou or Cagot. The conclusions at which the author 

 arrived as to the origin of the Cagots were as follows: — I. The 

 Cagots are not the descendants of the Goths ; they are not a 

 distinct race, but a despised class among the people of the 

 country in which they live. 2. They are not more subject to 

 goitre or to cretinism than the inhabitants of the adjacent district 

 — in short, cagotism and cretinism are in no way allied. 3. The 

 present representatives of the Cagots are now recognised by tradi- 

 tion, and not by their features, and are not distinguished by any 

 peculiar mental or physical disorder. 4. Although nothing like 

 leprosy, or leucoderma, has for a long time affected the Cagots, 

 and no one on the spot regards them in this light, there is 

 evidence to show that they were originally either lepers labouring 

 under a particular variety of leprosy, or » ere affected with leu- 

 coderma, the form of the affection accounting for their being 

 regarded as in some respects different from ordinary lepers, 

 though shunned in the same way. 5. Many were, no doubt, 

 falsely suspected of leprosy in consequence of some slight 

 skin affection ; others, again, in later centuries, were members 

 of families in which the disease had died out. — The Director 

 read two papers by Mr. Alfred Simson, on the Jivaros 

 and the Canelos Indians. The tribe of the Jivaros is a 

 large one, and one of the most distinguished, independent, 

 and warlike in South America. They speak a language 

 of their own, Jivaro, and occupy the country generally Irom 

 the Upper Pastassa to the Santiago, both rivers included, 

 down to the Pongo de Manseriche, on the Maranon. They 

 are hospitable, and their houses are large and bu it of 

 palms. They have a most perfect method of scalping, by w hich 

 the victim's head is reduced to the size of a moderately large 

 orange, maintaining tolerably well all the features : the skin.is cut 

 round the base of the neck, and the entire covering of the skull 

 removed in one piece. This is then dried gradually b means 

 of hot stones placed inside it, until the boneless head shrink, to 

 the required size. They also wear their slain enemies' hair in 

 long plaits round the waist. Great festivities take place when a 

 child, at three or four years of age, is initiated into the art and 

 mysteries of smoking. The Jivaros of the Pintue have the 

 habit of vomiting nearly every morning by the aid of a feather, 

 arguing that all food remaining in the stomach overnight is un- 

 wholesome and undigested, and should theref>re be ejected. 

 Canelos, the once attractive Spanish settlement, but now 

 forlorn Indian village, is situated on the left bank of the Bobo- 

 naza, one of the most important, if not the largest, of the 



