506 



NATURE 



[March 25, 1880 



Rev. J. E. T. Woods, on the relations of the Brisbane flora ; 

 and, with the assistance of F. M. Bailey, a census of the flora 

 of Brisbane, including the plants of Moreton Island and the 

 country within twenty-five miles of the city of Brisbane ; the 

 total number of species enumerated is 1,228. — E. Meyrick, de- 

 scriptions of Australian micro-lepidoptera. Part 2. Crambites. 



James Hobson, notes on Cyprcca guttata ; gives as the habitat 



of this extremely rare shell, New Britain, but few particulars are 

 given. 



Journal de Physique, February. — On the determination of the 

 elements of a vibratory movement, by E. Mercadier. — On the 

 law of the thermal capacities of gases, by N. Slonginoff. — Atmo- 

 spheric polarisation and influence of the terrestrial rnagneti-m on 

 the atmosphere, by H. Becquerel. — On the differential equation 



-1!L = a- '' x , which leads to the theoretic expression of the 



dP dt- 



velocity of sound, by M.'Aniagat. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, March iS. — "On the Structure of he 

 Immature Ovarian Ovum in the Common Fowl and in the 

 Rabbit. To which is appended some Observations upon the 

 Mode of Formation of the Discus proligetus in the Rabbit, and 

 of the Ovarial Glands or ' EL'g-tubes ' in the Dog." By E. A. 

 Schafer, F.I .S. 



" On the Mollifications of the Spectrum of Potassium winch 

 are Effected by the Presence of Phosphoric Acid, and on the 

 Inorganic Bases and Salts which are found in combination with 

 Educts of the Brain/' By J. L. W. Thudichum, M.D., 

 F.R.C.P.L. Communicated by John Simon, C.B., F.R.S. 



" Researches into the Colouring Matters of Human Urine, 

 with an Account of the Separation of Urobilin." By C. A. 

 MacMunn, B.A., M.D. Communicated by A. Gamgee, M. 1 ., 

 F.R.S., Brackenbury Professor of Practical Physiology and 

 Histology in Owens College, Manchester. 



" On the Coalescence of Amoeboid Cells into Plasmodia, and 

 on the so-called Coagulation of Invertebrate Fluids." By P. 

 Geddes. Communicated by Prof. Burdon Sanderson, LL. D., 

 F.R.S. 



Zoological Society, March 16, Dr. A. Gunther, F.R.S., 

 vice-president, in the chair. — Mr. \V. K. Parker, F.R.S., ex- 

 hibited and made remarks on the et;gs and embryos of some 

 crocodiles (Crocodilus falustris), obtained in Ceylon by Dr. W. 

 R. Kynsey, Principal Medical Officer of Colombo. — Mr. W. A. 

 Forbes read a paper on some points in the anatomy of the 

 Suruatran rhinoceros. — Mr. Edward R. Alston exhibited and 

 made remarks on a coloured drawing of an adolescent specimen 

 of Tapirus dowi, now in the Paris Museum. — Mr. Abton also 

 exhibited a specimen of a remarkable and Utile known Australian 

 marsupial, Antechinomys lanigera (Gould). — A communication 

 was read from Mr. L. Taczanowski, giving the descriptions of a 

 collection ut birds made in Northern Peru by Mr. Stolzmann 

 during the last months of 187S and the first half of 1879. 

 Amongst the u were examples of three species believed to be 

 new to science, and proposed to be called Turdus viaranonicus. 

 Amnion nigriceps, and Colaptcs stolzmanni. — Mr. Alfred E. 

 Craven read descriptions of three new species of land and fre>h- 

 water shells, trom Nossi-Be Island, N.W. coast of Madagascar. 

 — Mr. Craven also read a paper on a collection of land and 

 fresh-water shells, made during a short expedition to the 

 U>ambara country, in Eastern Africa, with descriptions of 

 seven new species. — Mr. F. Jeffrey Bell read some remarks in 

 reference to certain statements made by Mr. A. Agassiz in a 

 paper on the >ynonymy of the echini, communicated to the 

 Society at a previous meeting. — Mr. W. K. Parker, F.R.S., 

 read a paper on the structure of the skull in the chameleons. 



Geological Society, March 10. — Robert Etheridge, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — John Ward was elected a Fellow, and 

 Prof. F. vm Hochstetter, of Vienna, and Pr >f. A. Renard, of 

 Brussels, Foreign Correspondents of the Society. — The following 

 communication was read: — On the geological relations of the 

 rocks of the south of Ireland to those of North Devon and other 

 British and Continental districts, by Prof. Edward Hull, F.R.S., 

 Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland. In this paper 

 he author, after referring to his previous paper on the geological 



age of the Glengariff beds (Quart. Journ. Ccol. Soc, vol. xxxv. 

 p. 699), in which he showed that between them and the succeed- 

 ing Old Red. Sandstone in the south of Ireland there existed a 

 very great hiatus, proceeded to compare the sections of the rocks 

 of the south of Ireland with those of North Devon, and to shovr 

 that the hiatus in question is represented in the latter locality by 

 the whole of the Middle and Lower Devonian rocks. He then 

 discussed the relations of the Devonshire rocks to those occurring 

 north of the Severn, in Scotland, and in Belgium ; and from this 

 review of the whole question he arrived at the following conclu- 

 sions: — 1. That there is only one Old Red Sandstone properly 

 so-called — repre-ented in Devonshire by the Pickwell-Down 

 Sandstone ; in Ireland by the so-called Upper Old Red Sand- 

 stone, including the Kiltorcan beds ; in Scotland by the so- 

 called Upper Old Red Sandstone ; and in Belgium by the 

 " Psammites du Condroz." 2. That the so-called Old Red 

 Sandstone of Herefordshire is the estuarine representative of the 

 Middle and Lower Devonians of Devonshire; and that the so- 

 called Lower Old Red Sandstone of Scotland, with its fish- 

 remains, is the lacustrine representative of the Upper Silurian 

 rocks. In conclusion the author discussed the physical conditions 

 under which these various formations were deposited. 



Physical Society, February 28. — Prof. W. G. Adams in 

 the chair. — A paper was read by Mr. Ridout on some effects of 

 vibratory motion in fluids. It was found by Savart and Tyndal 

 that jets of w ater were sensitive to notes or air vibrations like 

 flame, and the author conceived the idea of vibrating the jet of 

 water internally. To do this he caused an electro-magnetic 

 arrangement to pinch the tube, conveying the water 400 to 500 

 times per second, so as to communicate a vibratory motion to the 

 stream of fluid. The issuing jet spread out in two streams, 

 beautifully broken into drops, and repre-enting the fundamental 

 note. When the pinching lever vibrated irregularly harmonics 

 w ere observed. When the water was thrown into vibration in 

 two different planes, the resulting jet rotated in the tube. 

 Fronde's deduction that a liquid moving in a tortuous tube has a 

 tendency to straighten the tube was illustrated by oscillating a 

 pipette with its nozzle in a ve sel of water, and filling a coloured 

 liquid into it, which is seen to flow from the nozzle through the 

 w ater in a tortuous line. By giving the pipette also a motion 

 r iiind its axis, the line becomes a spiral. A sounding body pro- 

 duces no disturbance in the stream. The author also showed 

 that the cardb ard experiment of M. Clement Desormes can be 

 extended to water. In this experiment a cord is attracted to 

 another cord by blowing a jet of air through the latter upon the 

 surface of the former. Mr. Ridout allows a jet of water to flow 

 out of a glass tube with a cup->haped mouth upon the surface of 

 a glass ball, and when the ball is within a certain distance of the 

 mouth, it is attracted towards the latter and sticks in the mouth. 

 In explanation of this fact it was shown that the ball and cup 

 remained in such a position that the outflow of water was greater 

 than if the globe had been entirely absent. Prof. Perry explained 

 this action by the hydrodynamical fact that the pressure is less 

 at the centre of the mouth of the cup than at the edges. Prof. 

 Guthrie said that he had tried a similar experiment with a funnel- 

 shaped mouth and a glass cone, but failed. He surmised that 

 perhaps the cohesion of the water for itself, as it formed a shell 

 round the ball, might help to cause the success of the ball method. 

 Prof. Adam^ pointed out that with the cup and ball there was 

 less difference of head of water between the centre of the mouth 

 and the edge where the water escaped, than with the funnel. 

 Dr. Stone stated that he had been able recently to imitate many 

 physiological sounds, such as the murmur of the heart, by means 

 of constrictions, in tubes through which water and air were flow- 

 ing. His demonstrations w ere made before the Royal College 

 of Physicians. — Dr. C. W. Wright then read an important paper 

 on a determination of chemical affinity in terms of electromotive 

 force. Aflcr giving a history of the subject, he described his 

 original experiments. These consisted in performing electrolysis 

 of sulphuric acid and measuring the heat evolved in the process, 

 and by reconibustion of the materials. A voltameter with spade- 

 shaped platinum electrodes soldered to stout copper wires, and 

 sealed by a large plug of gutta-percha, was employed for the 

 electrolysis. An ordinary water calorimeter was used to measure 

 the heat given off, as Bunsen's was found to contain sources of 

 loss of heat. The strength of the current employed was varied 

 from 6 webers to t tj weber. The volume of gas produced was 

 measured by Joules's plan. Radiation loss was corrected for by 

 three methods. From an average of eighteen experiments the 

 value of e, the electromotive force was found to be I '5038 C.G.S. 



