xxvi Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa. 
Business : 
The minutes of the previous meeting were confirmed. 
Dr. E. E. Montgomery and Mr. W. F. Schlupp were elected Members. 
Dr. W. E. DE KoRTE and Prof. G. H. Stanley were nominated for 
Membership. 
Communications : 
" On the Velocities of two Distinct Groups of Secondary Corpuscular 
Rays Produced by a Homogeneous Rontgen Radiation and their Absorption 
Co-efiicients in Gases." By Lewis Simons. 
The absorption co-efficients in gases of the secondary corpuscular rays 
produced by the incidence of silver X-rays on a single gold leaf were found 
by calculation from the pressure at which the cathode ionisation falls to half 
its maximum value. They are probably too high for the fastest corpuscles 
produced. 
The log. cathode ionisation curves could be analysed into two distinct 
portions when the particles emerge from a very thin screen, giving two 
absorption co-efficients in a gas, their ratio being 1 : 4' 76. 
The maximum velocity of emergence of the slower corpuscle was cal- 
culated from 
^mv2 = aohi/^ — (auhi-,, + hi\, + etc.), 
which gives a value 65 x 10*^ cm./sec, and therefore since Av^ = const., the 
velocity of the faster corpuscle = 96 x 10^ cm./sec. The mean value of the 
velocity of the parent cathode particle producing silver X-rays calculated 
from the results of Rutherford, Barnes and Richardson and from Duane and 
Hunt and from |mv^ = aghi'^ is 96'5 x 10^ cm./sec. 
" On a New Lizard of the Genus Latastia from Southern Rhodesia." By 
G. A. BOULENGEE. 
" On Rana ornatissima and JRcmi ruddi.'' By G. A. Boulenger. 
" On a Nematode of Fowls having a Termite as an Intermediate Host." 
By Sir A. Theiler. 
Some time ago a farmer forwarded a species of Termites infected with a 
nematode, inquiring whether these worms were a stage in the life-cycle of 
the wire-worm of sheep {Haemonchus contovtus) . This possibility, of course, 
had to be excluded, but since they were larvae, it was concluded that they 
represented a stage in the life-cycle of a nematode, which had its habitat in 
a host that would consume termites. Many birds are known to eat termites ; 
fowls are particularly fond of them. It was decided to feed infected ter- 
mites as well as the larvae extracted from them. For this purpose eggs were 
hatched in an incubator and the chickens reared under conditions excluding 
accidental infection. Infected termites were found on red soil in the neigh- 
bourhood of a kaffir kraal. A series of experiments were carried out, and in 
every instance an imago was so obtained in the small intestines of the fowls. 
