34° 



NATURE 



[Feb. 5, 1880 



basic tone of the voice, a mouth w ith two lips, a tongue, and a 

 nose or proboscis made of india-rubber tubing, placed below the 

 month but curving up towards it. Fourteen distinct vocal 

 sounds' can be uttered by the instrument, but in combining 

 these, any word in any language can be played by the keys. 

 Thus' Ilerr Faber caused his machine to say such words as 

 "Mariana," "Eliza,'' "Philadelphia," " Constantinople," and 

 various sentences in French, English, and German, more or less 

 distinctly. Laughing and whispering were also produced, and 

 the voice of the instrument w-hich was ordinarily loud and clear, 

 and resembling that of a girl, was lowered in pitch and loudness 

 to a more masculine tone.— Mr. C. Boys exhibited "a liquid 

 voltaic arc " formed of a liquid bead of oxide of iron between 

 two platinum electrodes connected to the piles of twelve Grove 

 cells. The arc emitted a brilliant light, which was intensified by 

 tincturing the glow ing drop « ith glass so as to form a compound 

 silicate of iron. 



Manchester 



Literary and Philosophical Society, December 16, 1S79. — 

 J. P. Joule, LL.D., D.C.L., F.K.S., &c, president, in the 

 chair. — On a new form of marine rain gauge, by W. J. Black. 

 Communicated by J. B. Dancer, F.R.A.S.— On screu pi pul- 

 sion, Part III., by Robert Rawson, Assoc. I.N. A., Hon. 

 Member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 

 Member of the Mathematical Society. — On the anal respiration 

 of the copepoda, by Marcus H. Hartog, M.A., B.Sc, F.L.S. 



Edinburgh 

 Royal Society, January 19.— Prof. H. C. Fleeming Jenkin, 

 vice-president, in the chair.— Part of the material employed by 

 Principal Forbes in tamping the bore for his earth-thermometers 

 was exhibited in its metamorphosed state. An explanatory note 

 from Prof. Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer-Royal for Scotland, was 

 read, and the various specimens of rock and hardened "clay- 

 puddle" were committed to the care of Mr. Murray, of the 

 Challenger Expedition, who offered to prepare microscopic sec- 

 tions for the Society.— Mr. J. D. H. Dickson, M.A., Fellow ai.d 

 Tutor, Peterhou-e, Cambridge, communicated a new method of 

 investigating relations between functions of the roots of an equa- 

 tion and its coefficients. — Pro r . G. Forbes exhibited some of the 

 more striking electrical experiments with Mr. Crooke-'s high 

 vacua. The deflection by approacrrof a magnet of the mole 

 cular stream from the negative electrode formed the point of 

 greatest interest ; and in the course of the subsequent remarks 

 Prof. Chrystal mentioned that he had investigated mathematically 

 to a first approximation the curve which the otherwise straight 

 stream of charged molecules would take if projected at right 

 angles to magnetic lines of force. To the degree of approxima- 

 tion considered this curve was a circular arc, whose plane was 

 perpendicular to the lines of magnetic force. Prof. Tait com- 

 municated an additional note on Minding's theorem, which had 

 been partly suggested by Prof. Chrystal's investigation. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, January 26.— M. Edm. Becquerel in 

 the chair.— The following papers were read:— Influence of 

 temperature and of elasticity on the cables of suspension bridges, 

 by M. Resal.— On the levulo ate of lime, by M. Pelig >t. He 

 finds its composition very different from that attributed to it. 

 The products of action of alkalis on levulose are those of the 

 same substances on glucose got by saccharification of starch ; and 

 they are the more complex because of the intervention of air in 

 the successive transformations they effect. — On the acids which 

 arise when raw fatty acids are redistilled in a current of super- 

 heated steam, by MM. Cahours and Dentarcay. Acids of tire 

 fatty series, from acetic acid to caprylic acid were obtained, and 

 pro . bly much higher terms were present; acids belonging to 

 the succinic series seem also to be produced. — On variations of 

 the force of the heart, by M. Marey. He connected the bolated 

 heart of a tortoise in a tube system representing the circulation, 

 and to measure its possible force (ordinary experiments giving only 

 the heart's actual effort), he compressed the arterial tube bey nd 

 the manometer (which was near the heart), which then rbsi 

 or thrice the height corresponding to functional action. The 

 maximum effort is at commencement of systole, and it decrea- s 

 towards the end. The heart has more force the fuller it is. 

 When an obstacle increases the resistance the movements become 

 slower and the ventricle has more time to fill, and thus acquires 

 more force in systole. — Remarks on chlorophyll, by M. Prings- 



heim. A rlsumi of researches lately described to the Berlin 

 Academy. Chlorophyll is not directly related to decomposition 

 of carbonic acid, but plays rather a regulative rSle in the respira- 

 tory act of plants. — A letter from M. de Lesseps announced his 

 arrival on the American coast (December 30), and his receptions 

 en route, at Martinique, &c. — On a new voltaic condenser, by M. 

 D'Arsonval. Studying Plante's battery, he conceived the idea of 

 substituting liberation of a solid metal, zinc, for that of a gaseous 

 metal, hydrogen ; electrolysing a salt of zinc (the sulphate). To 

 present more had-surface for oxidation, he uses dust-shot, sur- 

 rounding a carbon plate. A zinc plate is also inserted, and when 

 a voltaic current passes from the carbon to the zinc the latter 

 plate has zinc deposiied on it, and the oxygen forms peroxide of 

 lead with the lead, the sulphuric acid remaining free. With a 

 small couple containing only I kg. dust-shot he worked a Deprez 

 motor four hours. A layer of mercury does still better than the 

 zinc plate. The maximum electromotive force was 2'i volts. — Use 

 of sulphide of carbon for destructionof phylloxera, by M. Boiteau. — 

 On the resistance of phylloxera tolow temperatures, byM.Girard. — 

 On functions of two variables with three or four pairs of periods, by 

 M. Appell. — On doubly periodic functions of the second species, 

 by M. Mittag-Lefller. — On the determination of numerical equa- 

 tions having a given number of imaginary roots, by M. Laguerre. 

 — On photography of the infra-red portion of the solar spectrum, 

 by Capt. Abney. — On the density of chlorine at hi^h tempera- 

 tures, by M. Crafts. Improving MM. Meyer's apparatus, he 

 finds, with them, that at the highest temperature of the I'ernot 

 furnace, iodine diminishes in density, and increases in volume in 

 the pro 1 ration of about 1 : l'5 compared with air. The pro- 

 portion for bromine is about I : V2 j but for chlorine he has not 

 found more increase of volume than a few hundredths, in place 

 of the 50 per cent, of MM. Meyer. — On some facts relative to 

 urinary secretion, by MM. Richet and Moutard-Martin. Diuretic 

 medicaments should be sought chiefly among substances found 

 normally in the urine (as urea, chlorides, phosphates, &c. ; they 

 become diuretic, whenever in excess of the normal quantity), or 

 substances which pass easily into the urine (as sugar). Distilled 

 water injected into the veins diminishes or arrests urinary secre- 

 tion.— On lesions of the kidney and the bladder in rapid poison- 

 ing by Cantharidine, by M. Cornil.— Researches on the mode of 

 formation of otocephalian monsters, by M. Dareste. — On the 

 structure, development, and pathological signification of tubercle, 

 by MM. Kiener and Poulet.— On the crateriform disposition of 

 solar faculs and granulations, by Dom Lamey. A reply to M. 

 Janssen. — On the tern perature of the subterranean waters of Paris 

 during December, 1879. The temperature of the drainage was 

 always considerably above zero ; this affected the freezing of the 

 Seine considerably, near where the sewage entered the river, and 

 the author suggests directing the waters along the quays a few- 

 days in extreme cold. Some farmers in the Gennevilliers plain 

 had the sewage applied in December to freeing their fields of 



CONTENTS Pagb 



Clerk-Maxwell's Scientific Work. By Prof. P. G. Tait . . . 3'7 



Cestui American Biology 3 21 



LaTT " oik LlinoR: — 



Visualised Numerals.— Francis Galton. F.R.S. . . . . ■ • 323 

 A Psychological Aspect of the Vortex-Atom Theory.— !>. lolvbr 



Pr» ton 3*3 



A Speculation Regarding the Senses.— M ■■_■■ ■• • ■ • 3=3 



The C.rcumference of the Circle — L. Hajnis (WM Diagram) . 324 



Su.i-Sp.ts. &c -Edward Pakpitt . . ■•• • ■ • ■ ■„• . • 3*4 

 Intellect in Brutes.— W. Thomson ; James R. Gregory ; Maj"r 



Elphinstonb Begbie • 3 2 4 



Suicide ..f the Scorpion —Wm. CuRRAN; B 3=5 



Stags' Horns.— Bolling W. Barton ? J s 



Mountain Building 3 5 



Th« Swedish North.East Passage Expedition . . ••••_• 3*> 

 An Electro-Dynamometer for Measuring Large Currents. By 



Walter N. Hill (With Illustrations) 3=7 



Note- 3 9 



Our Astronomical Column:— ,_.. „,. 



Solar Parallax from the Velocity of Light ^3' 



Faye's Comet 



Gum. .kh .;ai Notes 33 



Geological Notes:— ,„.,_, •,-, 



al Survey of the United States ■••••■ ■ ■ ■ ■ «_ 



Catalogue of .fficial Reports of American Geological Surveys . . 33= 



The Primeval Cell . . . ■ • 33 



Micr raopic Structure of Scottish Rocks |f J 



MYr„o L oc,cVu,LO-o r HY.II r.y Prof J- W.Powrl L^ . . • • ;3 



The Nature of Electricity. By William Henry Greece . 334 



U ..vk.sitv jo Educational Intelligence • • • 33° 



Scientific Serials ,,3 



Societies ano Academies 



