April i, 1880] 



NATURE 



53i 



He was a distinguished zoologist, and by his researches had 

 largely advanced our knowledge of the fauna of the Briti.-h 

 Isles. His labours have left their maik on the zoology of 

 Britain, and it is hard to .'-ay who can take his place in the 

 department of natural history, in which he had shown himself 

 so loving and conscientious an observtr. He was known per- 

 sonally to many here present, and by reputation to all of us, and 

 the meeting will receive with sorrow the sad announcement that 

 he has his place no longer among the Fellows. — Mr. Thos. 

 Christy exhibited a collection of dried flowers from Western 

 Australia, made by Mrs. Bunbury. She observes that the once 

 common native flowers are becoming rapidly scarce in the pas- 

 ture bind of the colony, and that it is even difficult to propagate 

 them by culture. — There was also shown for Mr. J. T. Carring- 

 ton a male and female example of the Northern Stone Crab 

 (Lithoda arctka), which had lived in the Westminster Aquarium. 

 The peculiar asymmetry of the abdominal segments in the female 

 was adverted to, and from this and other reasons an affinity 

 with the Hermit Crabs pointed out. — The Secretary read a 

 communication from Mr. II. M. Brewer, of Wanganui Accli- 

 matisation Society, on the indigenous limber and on ] lants 

 introduced into New Zealand. Among the foriier, " Manaka " 

 (Lcptospermum cricoides) is useful for spokes, tool handles, 

 &c. ; " Korohai " (Sophora tetraptera) forms admirable material 

 for carving, tS:c. ; "Totara" (Podtcarpa Mara) is most durable 

 for piles, railway sleepers, &c. ; red birch (Fagus fusca), on 

 account of its strength, is well adapted for beams and frame- 

 work ; and the "Matai" (P. spicata) is so durable that a pro- 

 strate tree found in damp bush and supposed to have lain there 

 for a couple of centuries still letained its soundness when cut up. 

 Of plants introduced quite a host thrive out of doors. An - ong 

 others the coral tree (Erytlirina caffra), with its brilliant scarlet 

 flowers. Fourcroyia gigantea, which produces a fine fibre and 

 grows well without any cultivation on the waste clay hills ; also 

 F. flavoviridis, another fibre-yielding plant. Chamcerops exctha, 

 C. humilis, A/usa texlilis, and A', sapiet.lum, equally thrive, the 

 banana ripening good fruit. Brouaonetia papyri/era, from which 

 paper is made in Japan. The pomegranate (Punka granatum) 

 and the olive (Olea europaa) hereafter are likely to become im- 

 portant as commercial pioducts. '1 he Natal plum (Arduina 

 granaHJlora), the fig (Fkus carka), custard-apple (Anona mini- 

 cata), Eriobolrya japotii-a, finger (Zingihr ■ officinalis), the tallow- 

 tree (Stillingia sebifera), cinnamon, camphor, orange, lemon, 

 and citrons, besides many other sub-tropical plants, afford suffi- 

 cient proof of the mildness of the climate and capabilities of the 

 country ultimately to depend on its own resources. Of arau- 

 carias and pines a great number of introduced species have 

 thriven well, some only requiring a little shelter at first. Oaks, 

 elrrs, poplars, &c, all take naturally to the New Zealand soil, 

 but sufficient has been said to indicate the great variety of flora 

 indigenous and introduced into this flourishing though distant 

 colony. — A paper by Prof. J. O. Westwood, on a supposed 

 polymorphic butterfly from India, was also read by the Secre- 

 tary for the author. The conclusions arrived at are: (1) of 

 Pa/'ilio Cos/or being males of a species whose females have not 

 yet been discovered ; (2) that the typical P. Pollux are females 

 of w hich the male with rounded hind wings having a diffused 

 row of markings has yet to be discovered ; and (3) that the 

 Coloured figures given by the author represent the two sexes of 

 a dimorphic form of the species. 



Physical Society, March 14. — Dr. Huggins in the" chair. — 

 New members — Prof. Minchin, Mr. Hulme, Mr. A. Stn h, 

 IV f. D. E. Hughes, Lieut. YVingfield, Mr. J. Macfarlane Gray. 

 Mr. W. Chandler Roberts, F. R.S., drew attention to an expla- 

 nation which has recently been suggested by Dr. Van Riemsdijk 

 cf Utrecht to account for the "flashing" which attends the 

 rolidification of cupelled buttons of gold and silver. He showed 

 experimentally that at the point of solidification the metals emit 

 a flash of greenish light, which Dr. Riemsdijk thinks is probably 

 due to the globules being really in what is known as the superfused 

 or surf used state; that is they fall some degrees below their 

 points of solidification without setting, and the change from the 

 liquid state is accompanied by the liberation of the latent heat of 

 fusion, which again heats the globule and renders it incan- 

 descent. In an attempt to obtain inductions as to the state of 

 certain fused metals by the aid of the induction balance, Mr. 

 Roberts was able to show that the resistance of silver in the 

 molten state is far greater than when the metal is solid, and on 

 the other hand he had confirmed De La Rue's statement that the 

 resistance of molten bismuth is less than that of the solid metal, 



and he also ol tained evidence that bismuth in cooling may be made 

 to pass through a superfused state similar to that which occurs in 

 the buttons of gold. Mr. N. Lockyer thought the greenish tint of 

 the light might be due to a solid film on the surface of the globule. 

 — The Secretary then rend a paper by Prof. W. F. Barrett, 

 announcing that he had fiiind a current of electricity to be 

 generated by the rotation of the prepared chalk cylinder in the 

 receiver of the Edison telephone. When the platinum stylus 

 which rubs on the cylinder is connected thrrugh a galvanometer 

 to the brass axle en which the cylinder is mounted, a current is 

 observed whose E.M.F. is over \ volt. This current falls 1 ff as 

 the rotation continues, owing, Prof. Barrett assuires, to the 

 electrification of the surface of the chalk. Prof. Farrett attril utcs 

 the current to friction solely, and seeks to account for the 

 receiving action of Edison's telephone by this frictional current 

 being modified by the transmitted currents, and not by the elec- 

 trolytic action to which it is usually ascribed. The e experiments 

 originated with a suggestion of Prof. Sylvanus Thompson that 

 the Edison receiver might act as a transmitter. Prof. Barrett 

 had at length succeeded in making it act in ihis capacity by 

 means of the frictional current. — Mr. Sbelford Bidwell exhibited 

 some experiments bearing on Prof. Barrett's observations, which 

 tended to show that the source of the current in the Edison receiver 

 was due to the fact that a voltaic element is foi med by the platinum 

 rubbing- point, the brass axle, and the prepared chalk. This 

 chalk is usually impregnated with phosphate of K>da, or, as in 

 the author's experiments, with cau-tic pcta-h and acetate of 

 mercury. The cylinder seems to be dry, but is probably moist ; 

 wetting it greatly increases the current. There is a very feeble 

 current when no motion of the cylinder tales place, but rotation 

 of the cylinder greatly increases it. Platinum is electro-negative 

 to brass, aid hence the positive current flows from the platinum 

 to the brass through the galvanometer. This wfs demonstrated 

 by substituting zinc for platinum, when the current was reversed 

 and flowed from the brass to the zinc, owing to the fact thr.t 

 brass is electronegative to zinc. Mr. Bidwell showed, by 

 means of a simple pile of copper and tin foil separated by a 

 moist cloth or paper, that the motion of the tin acro;s the paper 

 increased the current of the cell. In the case of a cell mae'e of 

 two tin plates separated by moist paper, the current was set up 

 by moving one plate over the other. T he plate which moved 

 relatively to the paper was always electro-negative to the 

 other. Mr. Bidwell also showed by a simple experiment 

 that the action of Edison's receiver was electrolytic. He 

 caused the mere passage of a current to lessen the fric- 

 tion of a rr.etal strap on a drum covered with moist paper, 

 and thereby released the drum by the evilulkn of hjdrogen. 

 Prof. Ayrton pointed out that the rubbing action in these experi- 

 ments assited the current by bringing up fresh electrolytic 

 matter, a fact which had been taken advantage of in the con- 

 struction of several batteries. Prof, Adams n marked that Ihis 

 action did not seem to explain how the cm rent was reversed 

 in the cell composed of two tinfoil plates. — Prof. Guthrie then 

 demonstrated by experiment a curious anomaly in frictional elec- 

 tricity. When flannel is nibbed with ebonite the flannel is 

 + electrified ; when ebonite is nibbed with glass the ebonite is 

 + electrified ; and we should therefore expect that when flannel 

 is rubied with gloss the flannel would be still more + electrified; 

 but instead of that it is really feebly negative. Peihaps 

 the fact that the heat of friction enters into one sub> ance 

 more than the other affected such results. — The Secretary hen 

 read a note from Mr. Ridout, stating that be had succeeded 

 in Dr. Guthrie's funnel experiment mentioned at last meeting, 

 and by means of a stream of water flowing out of a glass funnel 

 had attracted a glass cone towards the mouth of the funnel. 

 The arnde of the cone was greater than the angle of the funnel, 



Victoria Institute, March 11.— Prof. Hughes, f Cambridge, 

 read a paper upon the movements of elevation and depression in 

 the British Isles, in which he continued bis argument against the 

 existence of preglacial man. 



Edinburgh 



Royal Society, March 1. — Prof. GeiUe in the chair. — 

 Sir William Thomson communicated to the Society his new 

 method for measuring temperatures by means of " steam-pres- 

 sure thermometers of sulphurous acid, water, and mercury" — 

 a method which will be found fully described in the article 

 " Heat," in the forthcoming volume of the " Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica." The system here proposed is essentially a mano- 

 metric one as opposed to the ordinary volumetric one. Any given 



