April 8, 1880] 



NATURE 



555 



b 6 there was a loss of ,V of a milligramme ; in b 7 a loss of i ! 5 

 of a milligramme only at the second weighing. This is an 

 absolute proof that there could be no sensible occlusion of any 

 tartaric acid or any tartrate by these precipitates, and, as stated 

 in our original paper, the same test was frequently applied, 

 although not always in our previous determinations. It is also 

 evident that these la-t experiments give us two essentially dis- 

 tinct determinations of the atomic weight, although the 

 materials employed were identical with those of b 4 and b 5. 



Wt. ..fSbBrj \Yt. of AgBr Per cent, of bromine Corresponding 



taken. determined. Ag = io3 Br=8o. value of Sb. 



b6. 3*3053 5-1782 66-665 120-ot 



t 7. 27495 4'3°76 66 667 12000 



Mean value 



66-666 



I20'CO 



lastly, it is obvious that these gravimetric determinations, 

 taken in connection with the corresponding volumetric results, 

 give us the 111 1st c inclusive evidence of the purity, both of the 

 metallic silver used, and also of the bromine in the bromide of 

 antimony, which is the basis of this atomic weight investigation. 

 By comparing b 6 and b 7 with b 4 and /' 5 respectively, we 

 obtain the follow ing data : — 



' 1. 2-9749 gram, of silver gave 5'I"S2 gram, bromide of silver. 

 2- 24745 .. .. 4"3°7° 



Hence it follows that, as shown by these experiments, the 

 proportions of the silver to the bromine were respectively : — 



1. ioS'oo Silver to "9'99 Bromine. 



2. ioSco ,, So-oi ,, 



Mean value ioS'co 



So co 



This is the ratio of the atomic weight of silver to that of 

 bromine, and corresponds to the second decimal place with the 

 determinations of Mas as well as with those of Dumas. 



In conclusion it gives us pleasure to expiess our obligations to 

 Mr, G. De N. Hough and Mr. G. M. Hyams, two students of 

 this laboratory, who have greatly aided us in the experimental 

 v otk of this investigation. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, March 11. — " Report on the Fossil Flora of 

 Alum Bay," by Baron Ettingshausen. The materials upon 

 which the report is based were stated to be in the British 

 Museum, Museum of Practical Geology, Woodw ardian Museum, 

 and in Mr. J. S. Gardner's collections. The fossil flora of Alum 

 Bay contains, according to the author, about 116 genera and 274 

 species belonging to 63 families. Of these genera 3 are said to 

 be '1 hallo phyta, 2 Filices, 5 Gymnospermae, 6 Monocotyledons, 

 2S A petals;, 15 Ganiopetalae, 54 Dialypetala;, and 2 inde- 

 terminable. A number of genera are enumerated which the 

 author supposes to be common to Alum Bay and Sheppey, and 

 hence he infers, as Heer did, that there is a close connection 

 between the two floras. The small number of ferns and palms 

 in comparison with the much greater number at Bournemouth 

 and of palms at Sheppy is remarkable. Many of the dicoty- 

 ledons are stated to show a genetic connection with miocene 

 species, and a great number of the latter are seen to have 

 originated as far back as the eocene. On the other hand some 

 of the miocene genera were not completely differentiated into 

 genera in the eocene period. Two examples are given : 

 Castanea, which although perfectly developed in the miocene, 

 is said to be only represented in the eocene by a castanea like 

 oak, uniting characters now distinctive of the two genera, and a 

 Pomaderris-like Rhamnus, also seeming to unite two genera 

 which were quite distinct from each other in the miocene. 



More than fifty of the species from Alum Bay are common to 

 Sotzka and Hairing, while a lesser number are common to 

 Sezanne, the Lignitic of America, and to other floras. The paper 

 includes a list of species. 



In the discussion Dr. Carruthers could not quite agree with 

 determinations which brought together plants from all parts of 

 the globe. Mr. Mitchell questioned the utility of giving specific 

 names to plant remains that are neither described nor figured, 

 especially when no nearer approximation to their position can be 

 made than is indicated by the terms Carp olithes and Phyllites. 

 Mr. Gardner explained the position of the leaf-bed at Alum 

 Bay, stating it to be a small vertical clay basin, similar to those 



found in a horizontal position near Bournemouth ; and hence he 

 did not con-ider it remarkable that the flora from Alum Bay 

 should ai pear restricted (as indicated by the paucity of palms 

 and ferns) by comparison with the Bournemouth flora, » hich has 

 been obtained from a series of basins extending for several 

 miles. 



Chemical Society, March 30.— Anniversary meeting.— Mr, 

 Warren De la Rue, president, in the chair. The pre-ident, in 

 his annual address, ci ntrasted the condition of the Society during 

 the past year with its po-ition in 1S69. The number of Fellows 

 has increased from 522 to 1,034, the income from i.ioo/. to 

 2,7co/. ; papers read from 31 to 75. A rapid glance was then 

 taken of the recent progress of chemistry, especial reference 

 being made to the decomposition of the elements chlorine, 

 bromine, &c, by Meyer ; the photographs of the whole of the 

 spectrum recently made by Capt. Abney ; the artificial produc- 

 tion of the diamond by Hannay ; the synthesis of ■ 

 col nring matters and alkaloids; the discovery of anew element, 

 scandium, &c. The officers for the ensuing year were then 

 balloted for; the following were elected :— President— II. E. 

 Roscoe. Vice presidents— F. A. Abel, C.B., B. C. Brodie, 

 Warren 1 'e la Rue, E. Frankland, J. H. Gladstone, A. W 

 Hofmann, \V. Odling, Lyon Playfair, A. W. Williamson, 

 J. Dewar, J. II. Gill ert, N. S. Maskelyne, V. Harconrt, 

 R. Angus Smith, J. Young. Secretaries— W. II. rerkin, 

 H. E. Armstrong. Foreign Secretary— Hugo Muller. Trea- 

 surer — W. J. Russell. Other members of council — M. Carteighe, 

 C. Graham, C. W. Heaton, H. McLeod, E. 1. Mills, 1. M. 

 Thomson, W. C. Robert-, W. A. Tilden, W." Thorp, t. E. 

 Thorpe, J. L. Thudichum, R. Warington. 



Anthropological Institute, March 23.— Edward B. Tylor, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair.— A paper by Mr. V. Ball, M.A., 

 F.G.S., on Nicobarese ideographs was read. As the Anda- 

 manese may be said to have not progressed in civilisation beyond 

 that stage which was represented by the people of the early 

 stone periods in Europe, so the Nicobarese, who are much less 

 savage and degraded than their neighbours of the Andamans, 

 may justly be compared with the inhabitants of the "bronze 

 period." The example of Nicobarese picture-writing described 

 by the author was obtained in the year 1S73 on the island of 

 Kondul, v here it was hanging in the house of a man who was 

 said to have died a short time previously; if is now in the 

 Museum of Science and Art at Dublin. The material of which 

 it is made is either the glume of a bamboo or the spathe of a 

 palm which has been flattened out and framed with split bam- 

 boos. It is about three feet long by eighteen inches broad. The 

 objects are painted with vermilion, their outlines being sur- 

 rounded with punctures which allow the light to pass through. 

 Suspended from the frame are some cocoanuts and fragments of 

 hog's flesh. The figures of the sun, moon, and stars occupy 

 prominent positions. Attention was directed to M. Maclay's 

 description of a Papuan ideograph which symbolised the various 

 guests present at a feast given in celebration of the launch of 

 two large canoes {vide Nature, vol. xxi. p. 227). — Mr. Alfred 

 Tylor read a paper on a new method of expressing the law of 

 specific changes and typical differences of species and genera in 

 the organic world, and especially the cause of the particular 

 form of man. The low er animals have no abstract ideas, and 

 therefore all they can know must be derived from objects Their 

 reproduction of specific form and decoration seems to prove that 

 they possess a mental power of appreciating the niceties of f rm 

 and colour in a very high degree The forms and decora! i ins 

 of organised beings seem to be regulated by laws which the 

 author provisionally called emphasis and symmetry. Emphasis 

 was defined as the marking out by form or decoration of the im- 

 portant parts or organs. The law of emphasis, as applied to 

 human work, was illustrated by the structure of a Greek temple, 

 in which all the parts have their functions expressed or em- 

 phasised by ornament. It is a remarkable fact, and one that enn 

 scarcely be accidental, that just as animals fall naturally into two 

 great classes, the vertebrata and invertebrata, so the emphasised 

 functional decorations group themselves into two classes, and 

 these two classes are identical with the vertebrata and the inver- 

 tebrata. In the vertebrata the emphasised ornamentation is 

 what we may call axial, being the outward expression of the 

 central axis or vertebral column with its appendages ; and in the 

 invertebrata the decoration tends to follow the outline of the 

 animal, and so develops borders. It has always excited 

 wonder that the child — a separate individual — should inherit and 



