August 8, 1884.] 



SCIENCE. 



123 



room of the British museum, for the purpose of con- 

 ferring as to the advisability of adopting the method 

 of trinomial nomenclature now coming into use 

 among American zoologists. The meeting was held 

 on the occasion of the visit to England of Dr. Elliott 

 Coues, a prominent advocate of the system in the 

 United States. Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe read a paper 

 on a series of sub-species of goshawk, differing slight- 

 ly in character, and coining from South Africa, 

 Senegambia, Turkey, Asia Minor, India, Ceylon, 

 and Burmah. Other cases he cited were those of Co- 

 rone, in which the species differ only in size. These 

 cases inclined Mr. Sharpe to view Dr. Coues' s pro- 

 posals with favor. He was followed by Mr. Seebohm, 

 who stated his belief that the present system of bi- 

 nomial nomenclature had retarded our recognition of 

 the fact of the existence of sub-species. Selecting 

 the forms of nut-hatches, he illustrated the method 

 by which he would convert Dr. Coues' s empirical 

 into a more logical system. Dr. Coues was very heart- 

 ily received. He said he recognized that nomen- 

 clature was a necessary evil. Since the establishment 

 of the binomial system by Linne, there had been 

 an absolute revolution in our ideas of what species 

 were. "We now recognize that there are no such 

 things as species, and that forms are so intimately 

 related, that, did we know all, there would be an 

 unbroken series ; " and Dr. Coues instanced the 

 American woodpecker in proof of this. Other speak- 

 ers followed; the main objections to the new system 

 being the fear of endless introduction of new names, 

 and the temptation to those who already refined too 

 much. In summing up, Professor Flower said that 

 some fresh system of nomenclature would be inevita- 

 ble, but what system remained to be seen. 



— The distinguished mathematician, Dr. George 

 Salmon, regius professor of divinity in Trinity col- 

 lege, Dublin, has been elected a corresponding mem- 

 ber of the Academie des sciences, Institut de France, 

 to succeed Dr. William Spottiswoode, the late presi- 

 dent of the Royal society. 



— Nature announces the death of the venerable 

 Abbe Moigno at the age of eighty-one years. The 

 name of the abbe has been long known in connec- 

 tion with French science, and more especially as the 

 founder, and till quite recently the editor, of Les 

 mondes. 



— The State natural-history society of Illinois held 

 its annual meeting at Peoria, at the National hotel, 

 commencing July 7. Among the papers presented 

 were the following: The president's address, Dr. 

 Julius S. Taylor; Illinois forestry, T. J. Burrill; 

 Developments in the Streator coal-field, Edwin Evans; 

 Mastodon and other remains of the loess and drift 

 clays, and their relation to the climatology and geology 

 of the deposits, Dakota mounds, Ancient pictographic 

 records on the rocks in the vicinity of the Missouri 

 River, Experiments with a copper-head serpent, Wil- 

 liam McAdams; Marine algae, Rise of sap in trees, 

 Corn fungi, A. B. Seymour; Silk-culture, J. E. 

 Armstrong; Phytoptus galls on the leaves of Nyssa 

 multiflora, H. Garman ; Artificial production and 



propagation of insect diseases, S. A. Forbes; Loca- 

 tion of sound by the ear, J. B. Taylor; Life-history 

 of Prionyxystus robiniae Peck, Parasites of Apatura 

 clyton, Preliminary stages of Papilio cresphontes, A. 

 H. Mundt; Higher cryptogams, Mrs. Dr. Griffith; 

 Instruction in zoology, B. P. Colton; Zoology in 

 country schools, F. A. Houghton: Introduction of 

 fishes into new waters by natural means, D. B. Wier ; 

 Embryology of the buccal mucous membrane, Will 

 X. Sudduth. 



— At the March meeting of the Royal astronomical 

 society, Dr. David Gill, her majesty's astronomer 

 at the Cape, stated that he had prepared a scheme 

 for the investigation of the parallax of stars, but that 

 the carrying it out, in so far as the southern hemi- 

 sphere was concerned, depended on the generosity of 

 the lords commissioners of the admiralty in provid- 

 ing him with a heliometer necessary for the purpose. 

 On the 13th of June he had an interview with the 

 authorities of her majesty's treasury, and was per- 

 mitted to state to the society, at its meeting on the 

 evening of the same day, that they would not be 

 wanting in the necessary generosity. It will be 

 remembered that the co-operation of Dr. Elkin, work- 

 ing with the large heliometer of the Tale college 

 observatory, is included in this plan. 



— The first De Morgan memorial medal has been 

 awarded by the London mathematical society to Pro- 

 fessor Arthur Cayley, for his contributions to the mod- 

 ern higher algebra and other branches of mathematics. 

 The presentation of the medal will take place at the 

 annual meeting of the society, in November next. 



— The way of connecting electric-light circuits, 

 which is represented in fig. 1, has been introduced by 















; « H '"«.... " 











Fig. l. 



Dr. Hopkinson and Mr. Edison. Two dynamos, D. D. 

 are connected in series to the principal lines. Xo. 1 

 and No. 2; and a third conductor, called the 'com- 

 pensator,' is introduced to serve as the return circuit. 

 The lamps L and L are placed between the main 

 lines and the compensating line. It is claimed that 

 this arrangement diminishes the weight of copper 



