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SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Mar. 2, iJ 



balance. The current to be measured is then made to 

 flow through two fixed coils placed either both under the 

 movable coils or one above and the other below one of 

 the movable coils. The indications of the instrument 

 are then in simple proportion to the current, and hence 

 a long range is obtained in one instrument. 



LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY. 

 At the meeting held on Thursday, the gth ult.. Sir J. 

 Cockle, F.R.S., President, in the chair, the following com- 

 munications were made : " Further Remarks on the 

 Theory of Distributions," Capt. P. A. Macmahon, R.A. ; 

 " The Free and Forced Vibrations of an Elastic Spherical 

 Shell containing a given mass of Liquid," A. E. H. Love ; 

 " On the Volume generated by a Congruency of Lines." 

 R. A. Roberts ; " Isoscelians," R. Tucker. 



SOCIETY OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY. 

 At the meeting of the Scottish section, held in Edinburgh, 

 on the 7th ult.. Professor Crum Brown in the chair, Mr 

 W. Ivison Macadam, read a paper on " Manures, Natural 

 and Artificial." Commencing with some remarks on 

 natural manures, he passed to guanos and bones, mineral 

 phosphates, methods of grinding and composition, dis- 

 solved manures and the machinery therefor, and the 

 sources of ammoniacal materials, winding up with a 

 reference to trade marks and the valuation of manures. 

 Papers were also submitted by Mr. John Thomson on 

 "A new Antiseptic Soap," and by Mr. J. Napier Spence 

 on "The Estimation of Starch." 



GEOLOGISTS' ASSOCIATION. 

 At the meeting held on the 3rd ult., Mr. W. Topley 

 read a paper on " The History and Work of the Inter- 

 national Geological Congress." It was to meet in 

 London this year for the first time, from Monday, Sep- 

 tember 17, to Saturday 22nd, 1888. The congress 

 originated in 1876 at the Buffalo meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, which, 

 meeting as it did very near the Dominion, partook very 

 much of an international character. Professor Huxley, 

 the honorary president of this year's congress, was 

 present on that occasion. Three meetings had since 

 been held. In 1878 the congress was held in Paris, and 

 at its meetings 194 French members were present, and 

 no of other countries, making a total of 304, the num- 

 ber of countries represented being 21. In 188 1 it took 

 place at Bologna, 149 Italian members being present, 

 and 75 representatives of other countries, numbering 

 17. The total of members was 224. At Berlin in 1885, 

 163 German members attended, and 92 foreign members 

 from 18 different countries, the total being 225. Many 

 questions of importance and of general interest would 

 be discussed at the London meeting, but perhaps one of 

 its most valuable features would be the opportunity 

 afforded for personal communication with geologists of 

 eminence from all parts of the world. As the congress 

 met only once in three years a considerable time must 

 elapse before it could again assemble in England. During 

 the week following the congress excursions would be 

 arranged. The executive committees of the three pre- 

 ceding meetings, held in continental cities, received 

 assistance from their Governments, from the State rail- 

 ways, and from other official sources not available in 

 England. The expenses in this country must be met by 



private contributions. The committee would spare no 

 pains in order to make this meeting of the congress a 

 success, and it appealed with confidence for support and 

 co-operation to all interested with the study of geology 

 and the allied sciences. The officers of the congress 

 were Professor J. Prestwich, president ; the President 

 of the Geological Society, the Director General of the 

 Geological Survey, and Professor T. M. K. Hughes, vice- 

 presidents ; Mr. F. W. Rudler, treasurer ; and Mr. J. W. 

 Halke, and Mr. W. Topley, general secretaries. 



ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 

 At the meeting of the Scientific Committee of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society on the loth ult., Mr. Plowright, in a 

 communication, remarked that " the extreme tip of the 

 branches of the silver fir are often found bare of leaves 

 and variously swollen and distorted. This condition has 

 been assumed to be the result of injury from their having- 

 been bitten off by squirrels or other animals. In the 

 specimens exhibited the mischief was caused, not by 

 animals, but by a fungus, the so-called Peridermimn 

 columnare. Robert Hartig worked out the life history 

 of this fungus in 1880." 



Prof Church called attention to the fact that though 

 large percentages of aluminium are well known to exist 

 in Lycopodiacese, it was not hitherto suspected to be 

 general in flowering plants. A Japanese chemist having 

 discovered it in Rims vemix, etc., and in the gum of the 

 lacquer resin, Prof Church examined cherry-tree gums, 

 gums arable, tragacanth, etc., and found traces to be inva- 

 riably present. In the Analyst for January it is stated 

 that it is also invariably present in the gluten of wheat, 

 in this case as a phosphate of alumina. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 At the meeting held on February i, 1888, Dr. David 

 Sharp, F.Z.S., President, in the chair, 



Dr. Sharp exhibited some insects forwarded to him by 

 Mr. Kidston, of Stirling, collected by Mr. Alexander 

 Carson on Kavalla, an island in Lake Tanganyika. The 

 Coleoptera were nearly all well-known species, exempli- 

 fying the fact that many of the commoner insects ot 

 tropical Africa have wide distribution, some of these 

 species being common both to Natal and Senegal. 



Mons. A. Wailly exhibited and read notes on a 

 number of cocoons of Antheroea assamensis, A. roylei, 

 Actias selene, Attacus ricini, etc., lately received from 

 Assam ; also a number of nests of cocoons of Bombyx 

 rhadama, — the silk of which is used by the Hovas in the 

 manufacture of their stuffs called " Lambas," — from the 

 island of St. Mary, Madagascar. A remarkable feature 

 of these nests is that the silk forming the outer covering 

 is of a dark buff colour while the cocoons enclosed in it 

 are quite white. 



Captain H. J. Elwes read a paper on " The Butterflies 

 of Sikkim," the result of many years of collecting in that 

 wonderfully rich district of the Himalayas. He stated 

 the number of species occurring in this small district to 

 be about 530, which is greater than the number hitherto 

 found in any locality in the more western parts of the 

 Old World. An important feature in this paper was the 

 numerous observations taken on the habits, variation, 

 seasons of appearance, and range of altitude at which 

 the various species occur, for which Captain Elwes 

 said he was largely indebted to Herr Otto Moller, ot 

 Darjeeling. 



