3 88 



NATURE 



{Feb. 19, 1880 



Temperature. 



o°C. 



15-85 

 33'° 

 47-8 



Density. 

 •908 

 •835 

 •748 

 •619 



It has therefore not quite such a high density as liquid carbonic 

 acid which is 0*95 at o C, and is about twice as high as acety- 

 lene, which is CV450 at the same temperature. It is interesting 

 to note that acetylene is the lightest known fluid substance. 

 Unfortunately Faraday does not seem to have determined its 

 density. 



Mathematical Society, February 12. — C. W. Merrifield, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Mr. D. Edwardes was elected 

 a Member, and subsequently admitted into the Society. —The 

 following communications were made : — Geometrical notes, by 

 Prof. II. J. S. Smith, F.R.S. — On the reflection of vibrations at 

 the confines of two media between which the transition is gradual ; 

 and on the stability or instability of certain fluid motions, by 

 Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S. — The calculus of equivalent statements 

 further communication), by Mr. H. McColl. 



Geological Society, February 4. — Henry Clifton Sorby, 

 F.R.S.. president, in the chair. — Francis Bond, Charles Herbert 

 Cobbokl, Frank Crisp, William Henry Dover, Mirza Mehdy 

 Khan, John Notman, and John Evelyn Williams, were elected 

 Fellows of the Society.— The President announced that, accord- 

 ing to a circular, copies of which had been sent to the Society, 

 certain old students of Freiberg were endeavouring to collect the 

 means for erecting a monument in Freiberg to the memory of the 

 late Prof. Bernhard von Cotta, and, further, of establishing a 

 fund fur the assistance of needy students at the Mining Academy 

 of that place. — The following communications were read : — On 

 the oligocene strata of the Hampshire Basin, by Prof. John W. 

 Judd, F.R.S. The study of the succes ? ion of strata in the fluvio- 

 marine series of the Isle of Wight and the New Forest is 

 attended with considerable difficulties, partly on account of the 

 inconstant character of the beds composing estuarine formations, 

 and partly because of the thick superficial deposits which every- 

 where cover them. By Webster a lower freshwater series, a 

 middle marine, and an upper freshwater series were recognised ; 

 but Mr. Prestwich showed, in the year 1S46, that at Hamstead 

 Cliff we have both freshwater and marine strata lying above all 

 these ; and in 1853 Edward Forbes proved that the marine and 

 freshwater strata seen at Bembridge Ledge were not, as had 

 previously been supposed, the equivalent of those of Headon 

 Hill, but occupy a distinct and higher horizon. Hitherto, how- 

 ever (in spite of some suggestions to the contrary which were 

 made by Dr. Wright and Prof. Hebert), the strata exposed at 

 the base of Headon Hill have been believed to be a repetition, 

 through an anticlinal fold, of those seen at Colwell and Totland 

 Bays. In the memoir it is shown, both by stratigraphical and 

 palceontological evidence, that the Colwell and Totland Bay 

 beds are distinct from and overlie those at the base of Headon 

 Hill. The distinctness and importance of the purely marine 

 series exposed at Whitecliff Bay, Colwell Bay, and several 

 localities in the New Forest is pointed out ; and it is shown that, 

 among the 200 forms of mollusca which they contain, only one- 

 fifth are found in the Barton clay below. For this important 

 division of the strata the name of the Brockenliurst Series is pro- 

 posed . In consequence of the detection of an error in the 

 accepted order of succession of the strata, a rectification of the 

 classification of the fluvio-marine series is rendered necessary, and 

 it is proposed to divide them as follows: — I. The Hempstead 

 Scries (marine and estuarine), 100 feet. 2. The Bembridge Group 

 (estuarine), 300 feet. 3. The Brockenhurst Series (marine), 25 to 

 100 feet. 4. The Headon Group (estuarine), 400 feet. By this 

 new grouping the_strata of the Hampshire Basin are brought into 

 exact correlation with those of France, Belgium, North Ger- 

 many, and Switzerland ; and the whole series of fluvio-marine 

 beds in the Isle of Wight, which are shown to have a thickness 

 of between 800 and 900 feet, are proved to be the representatives 

 of the lower and middle oligocene of those countries. The use 

 of the term oligocene in this country is advocated on the ground 

 that by its adoption only can we avoid the inconvenient course 

 of dividing the fluvio-marine series between the eocene and the 

 miocene. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, February 9. — M. Edm. Becquerel in 

 the chair. — The death of General Morin was announced. (M. 

 Tresca's funeral discourse appears in Comptes Rendus.) — On 

 virulent maladies, and particularly on the malady commonly 

 called the cholera of fowls, by M. Pasteur. The small organism 



(or microbe) which causes this malady can be well cultivated in 

 bouillon of fowl's muscles neutralised by potash, and sterilised 

 by a temperature of uo°to 115°. Inoculation of guinea pigs 

 with it causes only abscess, but fowls inoculated with contents of 

 the abscess die. Fowls or rabbits living in company with the 

 guinea-pigs having abscess become ill and die. The microbe 

 multiplies in the intestines of fowls that have taken it with food, 

 and the infected excrement is fatal to fowls inoculated with it. 

 Repeated culture of the microbe by transference of minute drops 

 from liquid to liquid, does not weaken the virulence, but by a 

 certain mode of culture M. Pasteur can weaken it. If twenty 

 out of forty fowls be inoculated with the very virulent virus, they 

 nearly all die; but if the other twenty be inoculated with the 

 attenuated virus, they all become ill, but very few die ; inocula- 

 tion of those that recover with the very infectious virus does not 

 kill them. The novelty here is the preservative effect of inocula- 

 tion in a disease caused by a living organism (in the virus of 

 small-pox, &c, no life has been proved). The cholera of fowls 

 may be prevented from becoming fatal, and the author describes 

 the return to health of a fowd inoculated in the large pectoral 

 muscles. He expresses the hope of obtaining artificial culture; 

 of all kinds of virus, and notes the encouragement obtained for 

 the search of vaccine virus of virulent maladies. — Epidemic 

 caused in Diptera of the genus Syrphus by an Entomophthora 

 fungus, by MM. Brongniart and Cornu. The Secretary, refer- 

 ring to this vast destruction of insects, recalled M. Pasteur's 

 suggestion to seek the destruction of phylloxera by inoculation 

 with some microscopic fungus, and invited the attention of natu- 

 ralists to the subject. — Spectrometric measurement of high tem- 

 peratures, by M. Crova. He describes an apparatus called a 

 spectro-pyrometer. The optic zero corresponds to about 580° C, 

 1,000 optic degrees, to 1,900° C. Temperatures can be mea- 

 sured up to nearly 2,000° C. — Statistics of solar spots of the year 

 1879, by M. Wolf. The Zurich observations, completed by similar 

 series at Palermo, Rome, Athens, Madrid, &c., gave, for mean 

 relative number for 1879, r = 6'0 in place of 3-4 for 1S78. 

 Thus the epoch of minimum is distinctly passed. The series of 

 observations of magnetic declination at Milan, Vienna, Prague, 

 Munich, and Gbristiania, agree in giving 1878-5 as the epoch of 

 minimum. Comparing with the preceding epochs of minimum 

 and maximum, the two periods (spots and magnetic, variations) 

 are found in remarkable harmony, both as to total length, 117 

 years, and as to the two parts of the period (which is slightly 

 longer than the average of il| years). 



CONTENTS Page 



Madagascar ' 3 6 5 



Clausius's "Mechanical Theory op Heat " 367 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Thomas's ''Noxious and Beneficial Insects of the State of 



Illinois'* 



Neumayer's "Kenntniss der Fauna des untcrsten Lias in den 



Nordalpen " 



" Africa Past and Present '' 



Letters to the Editor :— 



Ice-Crystals.— The Duke of Argyll 



Kcenig's Collection at the Philadelphia Exhibition.— Henry 



Morton 



" Scientific Jokes.'' — J. Fletcher Moulton . _ . . . . . I . 

 On the Mode of the Transverse Propagation of Light. — S. 



Tolver Preston 



The Transverse Vibrations of Light.— Lewis Wright [With 



Dint-rams) 



Diffusion of Copper in the Animal Kingdom.— Prof. LlioN 



Fredericq 



Lines of Force due to a Small Magnet.— John Buchanan (With 



Diagrams) 



Prehistoric Man in Japan.— S. SuciURA 



Monkeys in the West Indies.— John I.mray 



Intellect in Brutes.— T. E. Wilcox 



Stags' Horns.— G. J. R • • ■ 



The Volcanic Eruption in Dominica. Bt H. A. Alford 



Nicwolls. M.D 



Jungle Life in India (With Illustration) ■ . 



On the Construction of a New Glycerine Barometer [If il/i 



Illustration) 



The History of Writing. By Prof. A. H. Sayce . . . . . . 



Recent Progress in Anthropology. By Dr. B. Tylor, F.R.S. . 



Notes 3°» 



Our Astronomical Column :— 



The Comet of 1577 3*3 



The Southern Comet 3=4 



Meteorological Notes 3 ^+ 



Physical Notes 3»5 



Geographical Notes 3°S 



University and Educational Intelligence 300 



Societies and Academies 3«7 



