Feb. 24, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NE\VS. 



tastes of the two-winged flies. Chocolate-coloured 

 flowers with a fetid smell, like those of the japonica and 

 the whole of the arum family, attracted the last-named 

 insects, and the arum, so common in England, managed 

 to hold them prisoners until the pollen was discharged 

 from the stamens and the unwitting agents were ready 

 to carry on the work of fertilisation. 



Flowering being an act of expenditure, the next section 

 of the lecture went to show how plants, herbaceous 

 plants more especially, tried to save as much as possible. 

 Some familiar but striking examples were cited in illus- 

 tration. The marsh marigold, for instance, having a 

 brilliant calyx, dispensed with petals ; in the harebell, in 

 order not to interfere with the proper uses of the rest of 

 the flower, the calyx dwindled into a series of fine 

 threads ; in a number of other flowers some such 

 peculiarity was noted and explained. In conclusion, the 

 lecturer referred to the varied colours of flowers, showing 

 that they often afforded a kind of ancestral indication of 

 botanical genealogy, and that even in this respect there 

 was much that might be studied with pleasure and 

 profit. 



THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 

 At the meeting held on the 24th ult., Sir Bradford 

 Leslie read a paper on " The Erection of the ' Jubilee ' 

 Bridge carrying the East Indian Railway over the River 

 Hooghly." The bridge carries a double line of railway 

 over the river, which at this spot is 1,200 ft. wide and 

 86 ft. deep at high water spring-tides in the flood season. 

 The bridge has a clear headway of 33 ft. 6 in. above the 

 highest tides. Owing to the rapidity of the current, 

 strength of the tides, and danger from the unwieldly 

 country craft navigating the river, it was necessary to 

 erect the bridge with very little staging in the river, and 

 great ingenuity was shown in placing the various parts 

 of the superstructure in position. The details are too 

 technical for our columns. 



LIVERPOOL ENGINEERING SOCIETY. 

 At the meeting held on the 18th ult., Mr. A. W. Bright- 

 more read a paper entitled " Some Recent Experiments 

 on Iron and Steel and Riveted Joints." He showed how 

 the experiments made by Wohler and Bauschinger 

 pointed to the conclusion that, when the nature of the 

 stresses in the members of any structure is subject to 

 continual reversal, the maximum load consistent with 

 the permanency of that structure is not more than one- 

 third of what may with perfect safety be borne when 

 the nature and amount of the stresses remain constant. 

 He also dwelt upon the principles that guide the design 

 of riveted joints, and demonstrated the advantages of 

 machine over hand riveted joints. 



THE EDINBURGH GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 At a meeting on 19th January, a communication was 

 read from Mr. W. Pengelly, F.R.S., on recent researches 

 in a bone cave at Lower Brixham, Devon, called the 

 Bench Cavern. The cave consists of a fissure, or dyke, 

 in the limestone which gives entrance to a tunnel 

 penetrating the hill to at least 30 feet. The floor was of 

 stalagmite, 6 to 12 inches in thickness, resting on about 

 14 inches of cave red earth, lying on the limestone. The 



chief osseous relics found in the stalagmite were a few 

 bones of the cave hyaena. The rarity of bones of the 

 horse and rhinoceros was noted, as these were very 

 common in Kent's Cavern, on the opposite side of Torbay 

 A flint implement made from a flake was also found in 

 the cave earth under a finely preserved jaw of a hyaena. 

 It was 3"i inches in length, i'2 in breadth, and "35 in 

 thickness. It had no trace of polish, and there was 

 every reason to believe it was made by a man in the 

 palaeolithic era. Mr. W. Hamilton Bell read a paper on 

 the geognosy of the Cruachan district. In an ascent he 

 made of Cruachan from the falls, he stated that he came 

 upon striation on the red granite of the hill at a height 

 of 2,500 feet. This was in a corrie, and had evidently 

 been made by a local glacier. On the subject of the 

 erosion of the Pass of Brander, Mr. Bell rather inclined 

 to the belief that.it had been caused by an overflow of the 

 ice from Glen Etive, which forced its way eastward, and 

 joined the great glacier which scooped out Loch Awe 

 and went out by Ford to the Sound of Jura. 



HALIFAX LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL 

 SOCIETY. 

 Professor Watson Smith, F.C.S., F.I.C., delivered a 

 lecture on the 17th ult., on " Coal Tar : Its derivations and 

 products." He described fully the distillation of the tar 

 from coal, and showed that in the tar were many different 

 liquid and solid substances, and described the method of 

 their separation. He said that one ton of Lancashire 

 coal, distilled in gas retorts, would produce 10,000 cubic 

 feet of gas, 30 pounds of ammonia liquor, 12 gallons of 

 coal tar, and 13 cwt. of coke. Among the products of 

 the coal tar would be paraffin, benzine, naphtha, naphtha- 

 line, naphthol, creosote, pitch, anthracene, and alizarine. 

 The light oils yielded the rich dyes, known as aniline 

 colours. Various essences and perfumes were also pro- 

 duced from these oils. Soaps were scented with nitro- 

 benzine, which few people were aware was poisonous, 

 or they would not use it. The lecturer exhibited a long 

 piece of flannel dyed in various shades, from colours 

 obtained from one pound of cannel coal. A number of 

 medical uses of tar were also enumerated, and a sample 

 of saccharine was shown. A beantiful odour resem- 

 bling heliotrope was also described and experimented 

 with. 



SOCIETY OF ARTS. 

 On the 27th ult., Mr. Justice Cunningham read a paper 

 on " The Pubhc Health in India " before the Indian 

 section. The author proposes that an authority should 

 be constituted in each Presidency capable of carrying 

 out the necessary sanitary reforms. 



He also urges that the Government should afibrd 

 greater facilities for scientific sanitary research, and that 

 endeavours should be made to diffuse among the popu- 

 lace more knowledge of the laws of health. 



On the 3Tst ult., Mr. J. Starkie Gardner read a com- 

 munication on the " Monumental Uses of Bronze " before 

 the Applied Art Section. In this paper the author 

 reviews the use of bronze from the earliest records to 

 the present day. 



On the I St inst. Mr. D. F. Schloss read a paper on 

 "The Sweating System, or the Functions of the Middle- 

 men in Relation to Labour." This communication con- 

 tains nothing of scientific interest. 



