94 



SCIENTIFIC NE\VS. 



[June 1st, 1887. 



true ophitic character are wanting. Many of the specimens are 

 of subophitic texture, and bear a general lilteness to the subo- 

 phitic dolerites of Central England, though without having any 

 special points of resemblance ; some of the specimens, however, 

 are strikingly like the rocks of the Whin-Sill, and that too in 

 certain special points. The dolerites of trachytic texture, or 

 basalts, do not at all resemble those of the North of England, 

 but some of them are almost identical with certain Scandinavian 

 basalts. 



(3.) " On Tertiary Cyclostomatous Bryozoa from New Zea- 

 land." By Arthur W. Waters, Esq., F.G.S. The Cyclostomata 

 noticed in this paper were from the same collections as the 

 Chilostomata described in the last volume of the Quarterly 

 Jottrnal, and this part was kept back a short time, in the hope 

 that the publication of the report of the Challenger expedition 

 might throw some light upon this unsatisfactory suborder ; but 

 the results are very disappointing in this respect, as only thirty- 

 three species are recorded, and these are for the most part well 

 known and common ones. The author recorded the preservation 

 of the extremely delicate and fragile rays or " hair-like teeth " in 

 the interior of the fpssil Entalopliora intricaria. 



Out of the twenty-eight species or varieties eighteen are known 

 living, and this part of the collection agrees with the former in 

 indicating that it is comparatively recent. The number of these 

 fossil Bryozoa is now brought up to 106. 



ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



THE usual monthly meeting of this Society was held on the 

 18th May, at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Mr. W. 

 Ellis, F.R.A.S., President, in the chair. The following papers 

 were read ; — 



(i) "Brocken Spectres and the Bows that often accompany 

 them," by Mr. H. Sharpe. The author has collected all the 

 original descriptions of the Brocken Spectre, which is really the 

 shadow of the observer cast by the sun upon clouds. In some 

 cases the shadow is surrounded by a bow, which the author 

 shows is like the rainbow in colour and in the order of colours. 

 The head of a shadow is sometimes surrounded by another sort 

 of phenomenon touching the head, and which the author names 

 the "glory." 



(2) " Results of Thermometrical Observations made at 4 ft., 

 170 ft., and 260 ft. above the ground at Boston, Lincolnshire, 

 1882-6," by Mr. W. Marriott, F.R.Met.Soc. These observations 

 were made on Boston Church tower, which rises quite free 

 from any obstructions, in a very flat country, to the height of 

 273 feet. A Stevenson screen with a full set of thermometers 

 was placed four feet above the ground in the churchyard, a 

 similar screen and thermometers was fixed above the belfry at 

 170 feet above the ground, while a Siemens electrical ther- 

 mometer was placed near the top of the tower, the cable being 

 brought down inside, and attached to a galvanometer on the 

 floor of the church, where the indications were read off. The 

 results showed that the mean maximum temperature at four feet 

 exceeds that at 170 feet in every month of the year, the 

 difference in the summer months amounting to 3" ; while the 

 meau minimum 'temperature at four feet differs but little from 

 that at 170 feet, the tendency, however, being for the former to 

 be slightly higher in the winter and lower in the summer than 

 the latter. As the electrical thermometer was read usually in 

 the daytime, the results naturally showed that the temperature 

 at four feet during the day hours was considerably warmer than 

 at 260 feet. The author, however, detailed several sets of read- 

 ings which had been made during the night as well as the day, 

 the results from which were of a very interesting character. 



(3) "Snow Storm of March 14th and 15th, 1887, at Shire- 

 newton Hall, near Chepstow," by Mr. E. J. Lowe, F.R.S. 



During the evening the President made a presentation to Dr. 

 J. W. Tripe of a silver tea and coffee service, which had been 

 subscribed for by the Fellows in acknowledgment of the many 

 services which he had rendered to the Society during a. period 

 of over thirty years. 



ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 



ON April 13, Rev. Dr. Dallinger, President, in the chair, 

 Mr. T. C. White exhibited a series of photomicrographs 

 which he had recently taken, showing the result of the method 

 of cutting off some of the superfluous light by means of a sliding 

 diaphragm, so as to be able to admit just enough to bring out 



the detail and nothing more. The specimens shown were 

 printed on Eastman's bromide paper instead of silver paper, 

 which he found brought out the character of the detail very 

 much better. Mr. F. R. Cheshire called attention to some 

 specimens of bees, known as " fertile workers." It was gene- 

 rally well known that in the bee-hive all the eggs were usually 

 laid by the queen, and in her absence no ovipositing occurs 

 until they have taken some of the egg-s remaining in the hive, 

 and by a special feeding of the larvae have been able to produce 

 fresh queens. If, however, it should happen that in a hive 

 which has lost its queen there are not eggs available for this 

 purpose, it was found that some of the workers under some 

 special circumstances which could not be very clearly explained, 

 became capable of laying eggs, but that such eggs produced 

 drones only. These bees were known as fertile workers, and 

 though there could be no doubt as to their frequent existence, 

 they were very difficult to catch, owing to their being the same in 

 appearance as the ordinary workers. He now exhibited two of these 

 fertile workers, having the ovaries drawn out of the bodies and 

 attached to the stings and abdominal plates so as to show that 

 they really were workers. There was a remarkable peculiarity 

 to be observed in connection with the ovarian tubes of these 

 insects — every ordinary worker possessed an undeveloped ovary 

 which it was very difficult both to detect and dissect, but when 

 under the influence of some stimulus the worker became fertile, 

 a number of points began to appear in the tubes, which after- 

 wards became developed, and it would seem that the eggs were 

 developed in alternation, an examination of the tubes showing 

 them to contain developed eggs alternating with others in an 

 undeveloped condition, and of which some very curious instances 

 were seen in the specimens before the meeting. 



Mr. Crisp called attention to photomicrographs of animalcules 

 sent by Mr. J. B. Robinson ; and to photographs of snow-crystals 

 sent by Mr. Waters, from Davos Platz ; also to a specimen of 

 one of the earliest forms of the compound microscope by 

 Campani, of Rome, made some time prior to 1665. A new form 

 of adjustable nose-piece, by Dr. Zeiss, was exhibited, in which 

 the objective was made to slide in a groove in an inclined plane 

 which insured its not scraping along the surface of the cover- 

 glass when being changed. A paper by Mr. P. H. Gosse, on 

 twelve new species of Rotifera, was read. 



THE SOCIETY OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY. 



NEW PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING WHITE LEAD. 



A T the sixth meeting for the session of the Glasgow and 

 ■^*- Scottish Section of the Society of Chemical Industry, 

 under the presidency of Mr. J. N. Cuthbertson, Mr. J. Bennett 

 gave an account of a new process of manufacturing white lead as 

 adopted by the St. Mungo Chemical Company, Glasgow. The 

 system, he explained, was managed in such a way, by the aid of 

 automatic machinery, that from beginning to end of the manu- 

 facture the material was not handled, and thus the operatives 

 escaped the deleterious effects from which they suffered where 

 the old Dutch process was carried out. Two kinds of white lead 

 were produced at the St. Mungo works — one, the " genuine 

 white lead," and the other a "special" product. The latter, he 

 stated, had none of the disadvantages of the former. It was 

 more dense, and was better in body, covering power, and 

 opacity. It mixed to the same consistency with less oil than the 

 ordinary white lead, did not affect, nor was it affected, by the 

 other pigments used for tinting, and from its chemical nature was 

 not poisonous. 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCE- 

 MENT OF SCIENCE. 



THE thirty-sixth annual meeting of the American Association 

 is to be held in New York, during the week beginning 

 August 10. The Academy of Sciences has among the local 

 societies taken the lead in the matter of arranging for the recep- 

 tion of the national body, by appointing a committee of conference 

 to secure concerted action among the different institutions of the 

 city. The meeting last year, at Buffalo, was not a very large one, 

 and offered a contrast to the great Philadelphia meeting of 1885. 

 It is hoped that the metropolis will serve as an attraction, and 

 secure the presence, not only of representative American scientists, 

 but of European ones as well. 



