Principal Griffiths, vice-chancellor of the University of Wales, presided, and in his opening address submitted the points which it was most important that the conference should decide. Briefly they were these: What were the real demands of the Principality, and how far were they met by existing institutions? Was Wales to import the shortage of teachers, or to increase her own production? In what manner could the schools be best utilised as training grounds without injuring the schools? and should local education authorities undertake the training of seundary teachers? To these questions no uncertain answer was suggested, although the conference abstained from passing formal resolutions until an opportunity had been accorded the members to consider the verbatim report, which it was decided to publish at an early date.

A: the second session Mr. Lloyd George, M.P., presided, and a paper was read by Lord Stanley of Alderley, chairman of the Anglesea Education Committee, and late chairman of the London School Board, on "The Point of View of the Local Authorities." The debate was opened by Mr. SJ Hughes, county alderman of Glamorganshire. Both Lord Stanley and Alderman Hughes emphasised the paramount importance of training for the elementary school teacher. In summing up the debate, Mr. Lloyd George replaced the sword by the trowel, and emphasised the need for additional accommodation and for subsidising the buildings and the staffs. Enthusiasm was required, he said, to meet the increased burden on the rates, but he believed that the enthusiasm would be forthcoming. At this stage the only resolution of the conference was passed. This was moved by Principal Griffiths, and asserted "That it is the duty of the Principality to undertake the training and supply of teachers sufficient to meet the requirements of the Principality."

At the third session, which was presided over by Sir John Gorst, "The Special Aspects of the Problem of the Training of Elementary Teachers" was considered, a paper being read by Mr. T. John, vice-president of the National Union of Teachers. The experiments already being tried in the utilisation of the intermediate schools of Wales for the traming of pupil teachers were described in detail, but the general opinion of the conference was unmistakable-that iny half-time system should be a temporary expedient only. As regards the question of the concurrent instruction of primary and secondary teachers, it was agreed that it is necessary for the separation of the primary teacher's professional training from his general education, and that under certain conditions it is possible and desirable that primary and secondary students should be trained together. The important question of the further training of those ating teachers whose qualifications are incomplete was introduced by Mr. Badger, director of higher education for Monmouthshire.

The relations between the various qualifying examinations were considered, and there was practical unanimity that matriculation should be a condition of entering the primary training departments of the three university colleges of Wales.

46

Mr. Humphreys Owen, M.P., chairman of the Central Welsh Board, presided over the fourth session, which was devoted to the Special Aspects of the Problem of Secondary Training." Two papers were read, by Miss E. P. Hughes, late principal of the Cambridge Training College for Secondary Teachers, and Mr. Trevor Owen, Swansea, who acted as the official spokesman of the Association of Welsh County Schoolmasters. The conference was decidedly of opinion that secondary training should be post-graduate and completely differentiated from the degree course, but that the training college should be essentially attached to the university college. Representatives of the Association of Assistant Masters also addressed the conference and endorsed the views expressed by the readers of the papers. There can be no doubt that the ultimate result of the Conference will be far-reaching and beneficial. The interchange of ideas always makes for good, and it is not too much to hope that from the deliberations there may be devised a scheme which will be workable for all parts of the Principality, and will in time produce a supply of fully trained teachers of all grades, which, like her system of secondary education already established, will be a lasting and tangible proof of the enthusiasm of the Welsh people for education.

THERAPEUTIC BACTERIAL INOCULATION.1

ALTHOUGH the majority of diseases are produced directly or indirectly by the invasion of microbes, it has come to be generally recognised that the soil in which they grow plays a cardinal part in determining the ultimate effect or fate of the microbe. The finding of a pathogenic microbe, and even the accessory disposing factors of a disease, are, however, after all only the beginnings of the greater problem which is the end and aim of all medical science, viz. the cure of the disease.

To attack the causal agent is manifestly a solution of the problem, and this was the method originally advocated by Lister, who may be regarded as the founder of the doctrine of the aetiological curative principle. Experience has, however, shown that the attempt to destroy by means of ordinary chemical poisons the microbes in the living body is fraught with danger, for long before the protoplasm of the microbe is destroyed the cells of the body are irreparably damaged. Internal antiseptic therapy is a thing of the past. To-day we must rely on the stimulus produced by bacteria in the body whereby the cells of the latter elaborate substances which are antagonistic to these same bacteria. These substances-germicidal in the widest sense of the word-differ considerably in their mode of action. Some neutralise the bacterial poisons, others produce a solution -alysis of the bacteria. In other cases, again, Metchnikoff claims that the destruction takes place by a kind of digestion in the interior of certain cells of which the chief representatives are the wandering corpuscles of the blood.

The inoculation of a living microbe for the purposes of prophylaxis dates from the time of Edward Jenner, whose work was widely extended by Pasteur. It is not even necessary to use living bacteria, dead bacteria being likewise capable of conferring immunity. In any case, with the exception of diphtheria antitoxin, previous attempts have aimed at prevention rather than cure. The authors of the papers before us are the first who have utilised bacterial inoculations as a curative agent. Dr. A. E. Wright, late professor in the Army Medical School, is already widely known for his method of the preventive inoculation against typhoid fever a method which is admitted to have led to a marked diminution of this disease in the British Army. His most important work, however, has been the discovery of therapeutic inoculation. To introduce bacteria into an individual already infected with the same bacteria would at first sight appear to be a paradox, but the results obtained By the invention of accurate methods of justify the means. testing the effects produced in the body by the inoculations, Dr. Wright has been able to demonstrate that the elaboration of protective substances follows a general law, characterised at first by a negative phase and followed by a positive phase in which the protective substances in the blood are increased in quantity.

In a series of papers he has likewise shown that in socalled phagocytosis there is really a cooperation of the cells and fluids of the body, and that in the latter there are substances opsonins-which in some way or other act upon the microbes and prepare them for subsequent destruction by the leucocytes. This opsonic type of immunity is applicable to a number of diseases, but the present researches show that the mere presence of these opsonins is not sufficient to induce immunity. They must be in the proper place and at the required time if they are to exert their action, and a great deal of art is required on the part of the inoculator to create the most advantageous conditions for his patient. The methods advocated by Prof. Wright are so new that it is difficult to foresee how far they may go, but the striking curative results obtained justify one in prophesying that the time is not so very far distant when the abilities of the physician will be judged by his successes as an immunisator, for it must not be imagined that

1 "On the Action exerted upon the Staphylococcus pyogenes by the Human Blood Fluids, and on the Elaboration of Protective Elements in the Human Organism in response to Inoculations of a Staphylococcus Vaccine." By Dr. A. E. Wright and Capt. Stewart R. Douglas, I.M.S. (Proc. Roy. Soc., September, 1904).

"On the Action exerted upon the Tubercle Bacillus by the Human Blood Fluids, and on the Elaboration of Protective Elements in the Human

Organism in response to Inoculations of a Tubercle Vaccine." By th same Authors (Proc. Roy. Soc., September, 1904).

IT may be doubted if those who are not directly concerned with the study of the vegetable kingdom appreciate the full significance of the distinction which the botanist maintains between plants of seed-bearing and spore-bearing habit. For this reason the recent and important discoveries proving that the seed-bearing habit existed among more than one group of Palæozoic vegetation, discoveries which will form a historical landmark in the study of fossil plants, may not attract the attention which is their due outside the circle of workers on recent and fossil botany.

The seed-bearing habit is, from many points of view, regarded as a far higher stage in plant evolution than that attained by any known member of the vegetable kingdom in which the fertilised megasporangium remains without any integument of the nature of a seed-coat. So far, the botanist has associated the seed habit with two classes of plants, the gymnosperms (Coniferæ, Cycadeæ, &c.) and the angiosperms or flowering plants, and with these alone. It has not been suspected that members assigned to other groups, including the great race of vascular cryptogams (Pteridophyta), had at any period in their evolution attained to this high status. Yet such has recently been shown to be the case.

It is interesting to notice that these discoveries have been mainly due to the British school of palæobotany. Although it has been known for a long period that remains, obviously of the nature of seeds, occur here and there in the sandstones and shales of the Carboniferous period, Carruthers was the first to suggest, in 1872, that some of these fossil seeds may be attributed to the genus Cordaites, an extinct race, of gymnospermous affinities. This conclusion was subsequently confirmed by Geinitz, Grand'Eury, Renault, and other Continental botanists, who have greatly extended our knowledge of this Palæozoic type.

Until recently Cordaites has remained the solitary Palæozoic genus which was known to have attained the seed-bearing habit.

In 1901, however, Dr. Scott published a full description of a Carboniferous cone, Lepidocarpon, of undoubted lycopodian affinities, where integumented megasporangia are found when fully mature, and in which each sporangium contains a single embryo-sac. It has thus become clear that in the history of the lycopodian stock the evolution of seed-bearing members had taken place. More recently other evidence has accumulated which not only confirms this conclusion, but tends to show that Lepidocarpon did not stand alone among lycopods in this respect.

It is to discoveries still more recent of a similar nature, but affecting other lines of descent, that special attention may be directed. They are concerned with a synthetic type of Upper Palæozoic vegetation of great interest, which has become widely known under the name Cycadofilices. More than one genus of this group has now been shown to have reached the seed-bearing status.

The credit of the first discovery of this nature is due to Prof. Oliver and Dr. Scott, who recently published a full account of the seed and the evidence for its attribution in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. The more important conclusion of these authors may be briefly summarised as follows. It has been found that a seed, already recorded by Williamson as Lagenostoma Lomaxi, was borne by the fossil plant known as Lyginodendron. The two have not been found in continuity, but the evidence for this conclusion, although in the main indirect, is none the less conclusive. The chief point lies in the identity of the glandular structures found on an organ termed the " cupule," which envelops the seed, with those already known to occur on the stems, petioles and pinnules of Lyginodendron, which are peculiar to this genus among Carboniferous plants.

Within a few months of the earlier record of this re

markable research by Prof. Oliver and Dr. Scott, their main conclusion was confirmed in an unexpected manner by the discovery, on the part of Mr. Kidston, of the seed of another genus of the same group, Medullosa, of which an account has also appeared in the Philosophical Transactions. In this case the pedicel of a large seed, of the type known as Rhabdocarpus, was found to bear pinnules identical with those of the frond Neuropteris heterophylla the foliage of a Medullosa.

Here absolute continuity, an extremely rare circumstance among fossil plants, exists between a foliar and a reproductive organ.

Further evidence, but more inconclusive and indirect, also exists, but space forbids any notice here. Attention may, however, be directed to an interesting and suggestive communication published by M. Grand'Eury in the Comptes rendus during the present year on the same subject.

The discoveries under discussion have made it clear that at least two genera of the Cycadofilices possessed the seedbearing habit, and evidence is also available which suggests that Lyginodendron and Medullosa did not stand alone in this respect.

Prof. Oliver and Dr. Scott have concluded that "the presence in the Palæozoic flora of these primitive, Fernlike Spermophytes, so important as a phase in the history of evolution, may best be recognised by the foundation of a distinct class which may suitably be named Pteridospermeæ." This suggestion would seem to be a happy one, even though it may eventually involve the absorption of the whole group now familiar as the Cycadofilices.

In connection with these researches of Prof. Oliver, Dr. Scott, and Mr. Kidston, many further points of interest, and in some cases of criticism, might be discussed, but it must suffice here to direct attention to one or two valuable clues which these discoveries afford. The phylogeny of the cycads, a race with a great past, and still existing though in greatly diminished numbers, is in its main outlines now clear. There can be little doubt that the cycads are sprung from this same pteridospermous stock, which in its turn originated from a truly fern-like ancestor.

In the investing envelope of the young seed of Lagenostoma, which Prof. Oliver and Dr. Scott have spoken of as the cupule," it is not improbable that homologies may eventually be recognised with protective structures existing among members belonging to other lines of descent, which may have great value as a contribution to other phylogenetic problems.

among certain members of three out of the six great groups In conclusion, the existence of the seed-bearing habit of Upper Palæozoic times raises the interesting speculation whether other groups may not eventually be found to have attained to the same status. The Calamites, the representatives of the Equisetales, are at present above any real suspicion in this respect, yet it would now be hardly surprising if further discoveries revealed the existence of seedbearing members in this group, although it is by no means safe to assume that the seed-bearing habit must necessarily have existed in any group. E. A. N. ARBER.

Dr.

All who are interested in primitive technology will welcome the new instalment of Dr. Walter E. Roth's monograph on North Queensland ethnography. Bulletin No. 7 deals with domestic implements, arts, and manufactures, and is illustrated by twenty-six plates containing 250 figures. Roth not only describes the objects in daily use of the Queensland blacks, but, what is of very much greater importance, he usually describes how and of what they are made. Of especial interest and importance is his description of the manufacture of stone implements. He says:

"I am afraid that too much importance has been hitherto attached to the differentiation of stone-celts into axes, adzes, wedges, scrapers, &c.: the savage certainly does not recognise the fine distinctions embodied on the labels attached to these articles in an ethnological museum. The actual manufacture of a celt is now a lost art in Queensland. . . . The original celt in its simplest form is a waterworn pebble or boulder, an adaptation of a natural form; otherwise, it is a portion removed from a rock, &c., in situ, either by fire, indiscriminate breakage or flaking."

A record of a careful excavation of Jacob's Cavern, McDonald County, Missouri, by Messrs. Charles Peabody and W. K. Moorehead, is given in Bulletin i., department of archeology, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. The implements are of well known types, and nothing suggestive of Paleolithic culture was discovered; it is possible that the cave-dwellers were different from the Osages and from the lower Mississippi tribes. The paper is illustrated by eleven plates. The Phillips Academy is to be congratulated on its activity.

An interesting and well illustrated résumé of the recent archæological discoveries in Crete is given by M. S. Reinach in l'Anthropologie (Tome xv., Nos. 3-4, p. 257). The author tentatively proposes the following chronology of the development of the Cretan civilisation :-(1) 4500 (at least) to 2800, Neolithic period. Black pottery, with angular designs and no spirals; numerous stone vessels; no metal; rudimentary figurines of burnt clay. (2) 2800 to 2200, period of Kamares or Minoan I. About 2800 first certain contact with Egypt (twelfth dynasty); introduction of copper and bronze into Crete; painted pottery derived from Neolithic pottery (3) 2200 to 1900, period of transition or Minoan II. Building of first palace. Continuation of relations with Egypt and commercial dealings with the islands of the Archipelago, notably with Melos. (4) 1900 to 1500, culmination of the period of Kamares or Minoan III. Building of the second palace; great development of ceramics, glipties, and painting. An artist of Knossos went Phylakopi, in Melos, and executed the “flying-fish fresco "; the linear Cretan writing occurs on Melian pottery. An insular confederation (?) took possession of Knossos and there established a new dynasty (?). (5) 1500 to 1200, Mycenaæan period. Ceramics with zoomorphic and curvilinear designs. The centre of civilisation passed to the Peloponnesos; decadence and abandonment of the palace. The last king of the Minoan dynasty, Idomeneus, left Crete about 1200 for Italy, and founded Salentium; shortly afterwards the Dorians conquered Crete, and the island entirely retrogressed into barbarity.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL

INTELLIGENCE.

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CAMBRIDGE.-The report of the studies and examinations syndicate on the previous examination, in which it is proposed that a modern language may be substituted for Greek or Latin, will be discussed in the Senate House on December I.

Dr. H. F. Baker, F.R.S., St. John's, and Mr. F. H. Neville, F.R.S., Sidney, have been appointed members of the general board of studies. Prof. J. J. Thomson, F.R.S., has been appointed a manager of the Gerstenberg studentship in moral philosophy for students of natural science.

Dr. Myers has been appointed demonstrator of experimental psychology.

The Isaac Newton studentship in astronomical physics and optics, value 200l. a year for three years, will be vacant next term. Candidates must be B...'s of the university, and under twenty-five years of age on January 1, 1905. Application is to be made to the Vice-Chancellor before January 26,

Add tional benefactions to the university, amounting to some 3500l., have been paid or promised since February of the present year. A considerable number are ear-marked for the endowment of a Huddersfield lectureship in special pathology.

Two Walsingham medals in biology have been awarded this year, one to Mr. R. P. Gregory, fellow of St. John's College (for botany), and one to Mr. K. Lucas, fellow of Trinity College (for physiology).

NEW buildings of the Borough Polytechnic Institute, including buildings for engineering, building trades, domestic economy, &c., are to be opened as we go to press by Mr. J. W. Benn, M.P., chairman of the London County Council.

LORD REAY will deliver the prizes at the Northampton Institute for the session 1903-4 on Friday, December 9, at 8 o'clock. The prize distribution will be followed by a conversazione, which will be continued on Saturday, December 10.

DR. FREDERIC ROSE, His Majesty's Consul at Stuttgart, and the author of a series of diplomatic and consular reports on technical instruction in Germany, has been elected assistant educational adviser to the Education Committee of the London County Council.

THE Committee in charge of the fund for the development and better equipment of the science schools in Trinity College, Dublin, has announced that 15,8861. has now been subscribed towards the 78,00ol, necessary for the annual up-keep of the new schools. It will be remembered that Lord Iveagh offered to provide the sum of 34,000l. required to erect the new buildings if the amount required for upkeep were obtained by public subscription. The committee, in making an earnest appeal for further subscriptions, points out that the next most urgent need of the university is the development of the school of botany and plant physiology.

Ir may be taken as indicative of the widespread interest in higher education among the Welsh people that large sums of money are contributed in a great number of small amounts For towards the expenses of the university colleges. instance, in the preliminary list of subscriptions, paid or unpaid, towards the permanent buildings fund, published in the calendar of the University College of North Wales for the session 1904-5, we notice that more than 6500l. is made up of amounts under five pounds, and, in addition to this, there are more than two hundred gifts of five guineas or five pounds. The total amount of subscriptions up to the present towards the permanent buildings fund reaches 27, 190l.

THE Education Committee of the County Council of the West Riding of Yorkshire arranged last summer for the attendance of a group of art-masters from the schools in their administrative area to attend for six weeks at the School of Industrial Arts, Geneva. The committee has now published extracts from the report received from the administrator of the Geneva school on the work of the Yorkshire teachers, and a summary of the reports submitted by the art-masters who studied at Geneva. The teachers seem to have benefited greatly by their visit, and there can be little doubt that a first-hand acquaintance with Continental methods is of great value to English teachers. One interesting way in which scientific observation may be rendered useful in art instruction comes out in the report of one of the visiting masters, who writes of the Geneva School of Industrial Arts that: "Another very useful adjunct is a garden where Nature is allowed to have very much of her own way. Here the form and colour of plants and flowers and their growth at various stages can be carefully and leisurely studied.

on

SPEAKING at the Birmingham Municipal School Tuesday, Mr. Alfred Mosely referred to some lessons taught by the American educational system. He remarked that America differs from us in an intense belief in education, and the realisation by manufacturers of the value of the thoroughly trained college student in their factories. We are face to face with a condition of things which is somewhat alarming. A scientific education has become an absolute necessity if we are to hold our place industrially. We have an Empire such as those who have not travelled do not realise, an Empire teeming with natural resources in every direction, merely awaiting the skilled hands of the mechanic and farmer to develop them. What we have in Canada and our other colonies makes the United States pale by comparison, but the United States have learnt to develop their resources, while we have been quarrelling over the village pump. It is Mr. Mosely's intention at an early date to approach some of the steamship companies to see whether facilities can be arranged for some school teachers to visit the United States and observe what is done there.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

LONDON.

Chemical Society, November 3.-Prof. W. A. Tilden, F.R.S., in the chair.-The following papers were read :Studies on the dynamic isomerism of a- and B-crotonic acids, part i. R. S. Morrell and E. K. Hanson. Preliminary experiments on the freezing points of mixtures of the two acids furnish no evidence as to the existence of a compound of a- and B-crotonic acids between 100° and 168°, and between 15° and 71°.9.-The constitution of nitrogen iodide: O. Silberrad. In the interaction of zinc ethyl with nitrogen iodide it was found that trimethylamine was produced. This confirms Chattaway's view that the iodide has the constitution NH, N1,.-The available plant food in soils : H. Ingle. Extraction with a 1 per cent. solution of citric acid for seven days renders a soil much less fertile, especially at first, but chemical changes in such soil, during the growth of the plants, gradually render it again capable of supplying plant food. The basic properties of oxygen: compounds of the ethers with nitric acid: J. B. Cohen and J. Gatecliff. It is shown that with aliphatic ethers unstable compounds of the type X,O,HNO, are formed.-Note on the influence of potassium persulphate on the estimation of hydrogen peroxide: J. A. N. Friend. It is shown that a secondary reaction, represented by the following equation,

H2O,+K,S,O,K2SO1+H2SO,+O2

probably takes place in addition to the main reaction.-The influence of sunlight on the dissolution of gold in aqueous potassium cyanide: W. A. Caldecott. The fractional hydrolysis of amygdalinic acid, iso-amygdalin: H. D. Dakin. The effect of anhydrides on organo-magnesium bromides, part i., the action of phthalic anhydride on magnesium a-naphthyl bromide: S. S. Pickles and C. Weizmann.-The combustion of ethylene: W. A. Bone and R. V. Wheeler. The principal results of these experiments are as follows: (1) there is no preferential combustion of either carbon or hydrogen; (2) formaldehyde is the most prominent intermediate oxidation product; (3) there is no separation of carbon or liberation of acetylene. -The decomposition of methylcarbamide: C. E. Fawsitt. The decomposition of methylcarbamide by acids is due to a transformation of the methylcarbamide into methylamine cyanate, which is subsequently decomposed by the acid.Position isomerism and optical activity; the methyl and ethyl esters of di-o-, -m-, and -p-nitrobenzoyltartaric acids: P. F. Frankland and J. Harger. The authors describe the preparation and properties of the six esters in question. --The action of nitrogen sulphide on organic substances, part ii. F. E. Francis and O. C. M. Davis. Reduction products of aß-dimethylanhydracet nebenzil, and condensation products of benzaldehydes with ketones: F. R. Japp and W. Maitland.-Interaction of sodium phenylglycidate with phenylhydrazine: F. R. Japp and W. Maitland.a-Benzoyl-B-trimethacetylstyrene: F. R. Japp and W. Maitland. Olefinic ketonic compounds: S. Ruhemann. -▲-Oleic acid: H. R. Le Sueur.-Action of magnesium alkyl halides on derivatives of camphor: M. O. Forster. -Sulphonchloroalkylamides: F. D. Chattaway.

:

Linnean Society, November 3.-Prof. W. A. Herdman, F.R.S., president, in the chair.-Mr. G. Claridge Druce showed specimens of a new British grass, Koeleria valesiaca, Gaud., which he had found in the herbarium of Dillenius at Oxford, and recently re-found in the original locality at Brent Down, Somersetshire.-The Rev. John Gerard, S.J., brought specimens of a proliferous plantain (Plantago major) from the neighbourhood of Clitheroe, Lancashire. Mr. Frank Crisp brought for exhibition a flower of Schubertia graveolens, Lindl., an asclepiad, which, deprived of its corolla and with a portion of its calyx cut away, viewed from the side, presented the genitalia in the shape of a skull.-A note on some points in the structure of the gill of the Ceylon pearl-oyster the President.-Notes on the sudd formation of the Upper Nile: A. F. Broun. The author gives a list of the plants forming the mass of vegetation, which, favoured by the silt brought down by the White Nile, helps to block the shallow channels.-Bryozoa from near Cape Horn: A. W. Waters. The paper deals with specimens which were

collected by the French "Mission scientifique du Cap Horn," but were not mentioned by Jullien in his report on the " Bryozoaires "of that expedition, published in 1888. From this material, which Jullien had presumably not handled, Mr. Waters adds twenty-eight species to the original list of fifty-six. He gives further particulars in regard to some of those named by his predecessor, and points out that eight species established by Jullien had been already described under other names. He rectifies two erroneous identifications, enlarges the range of distribution for several species, and for six of them calls to mind that they were first discovered by the Challenger.

Mathematical Society, November 10.-Prof. H. Lamb, president, in the chair.-The council and officers for the ensuing session were elected. They are as follows:president, Prof. Forsyth; vice-presidents, Prof. Burnside, Prof. Elliott, Prof. Lamb; treasurer, Prof. Larmor; secretaries, Prof. Love and Mr. Grace; other members of council, Mr. Berry, Mr. Campbell, Dr. Glaisher, Dr. Hobson, Major MacMahon, Mr. Mathews, Mr. Western, Mr. Whittaker, Mr. A. Young.-Prof. Forsyth having taken the chair, Prof. Lamb delivered an address on deep-water waves. He reviewed the theory of the waves produced on deep water by a local disturbance of the surface. The theory developed independently by Poisson and Cauchy had often been regarded as obscure, and it had never been interpreted completely. The problem has a deeper significance in that it offers perhaps the simplest example of the propagation of waves in a dispersive medium, and was the origin of the theory of group velocity, which has so many applications in various branches of physics. After tracing the history of the problem, the author proceeded to disengage the essential results of the theory from the clouds of analysis in which they had been involved; he pointed out the connection of the analytical results with the analysis which was used at a later date for the investigation of the phenomena of diffraction; he traced the forms of the waves due to a local initial elevation both at considerable and at small distances from the source of disturbance; and he pointed out the significance of the results when interpreted by means of modern notions concerning waves of approximately simple harmonic type and the propagation of groups of such waves. Finally, he discussed the solution of the problem of waves generated by a local and periodic variation of pressure.-The following papers were communicated:-Note on the application of the method of images to problems of vibrations: Prof. Volterra. It is shown how to obtain by means of the method of images a complete solution of the problem of vibrations of a membrane, and it is pointed out that although the train of images may be infinite, yet the number of terms in the solution is finite. The zeros of certain classes of integral Taylor's series, two papers: G. H. Hardy. The nature of the zeros of some particular classes of functions, allied to the exponential function, is determined with much greater precision than can be attained by any of the known general theorems. If (n) is an integer when n is an integer, and the increase of (n) is regular and sufficiently rapid, there X(n) are exactly (n) zeros of Σ- within the circle x = (n). p(n)! and their positions can be determined very precisely. In the second paper similar investigations are given for other is an example.-On the refunctions of which 2, (np + 1)an! ducibility of covariants of binary quantics of infinite order: P. W. Wood. The paper contains the conditions that any covariant linear in the coefficients of each of 8 binary quantics of infinite order should be expressible in terms of products of covariants of lower total degrees. The reducibility of covariants of degree 4 is determined completely, and certain classes of reducible covariants of degree 8 and weight > (28-1-1) are discussed.-The linear difference equation of the first order: Rev. E. W. Barnes. The questions to be considered relate to the existence of solutions, their analytical expression, and their place among transcendental functions. These questions are discussed from the point of view of the theory of functions of complex variables, the arguments of the functions which occur in the difference equations being assumed to be complex.-Curves on a conicoid H. Hilton.-Remarks on alternants and continuous groups: Dr. H. F. Baker. Expansions of the

x"

elliptic and Zeta functions of K in powers of q: Dr. J. W. L. Glaisher.—Examples of perpetuants: J. E. Wright. Two simple results in the attraction of uniform wires obtained by quaternions: Prof. Genese.-A theorem relating to quotient groups: Prof. Miller. On certain classes of syzygies: A. Young.

CAMBRIDGE.

It

Philosophical Society, October 31.-Annual general meeting, Dr. Baker, president, in the chair.-Prof. Marshall Ward, F.R.S., was elected president for the session 1904-5. -On the dimorphism of the English species of Nummulites: J. J. Lister, F.R.S. The author gave an account of his examination of the characters of three English species of Nummulites, N. laevigata (Brug.), N. variolaria (Lam.), and N. elegans (Sow.), with respect to dimorphism. appears that these species, far from invalidating the conclusion that the species of Nummulites are dimorphic, are in complete accord with it.-A problem concerning wood and lignified cell-walls: Prof. Marshall Ward, F.R.S. Dr. W. J. Russell some time ago showed that if a block of wood is laid on a photographic plate, and kept in the dark for some time, a photographic image will be found on the plate after ordinary development, although no light has had access; and he has summarised his numerous and important observations in a recent paper in the Philosophical Transactions. Since resinous woods were found especially active, Russell suggested that some active body of resin-like nature was the agent concerned, and that hydrogen peroxide was developed. Prof. Marshall Ward's paper describes experiments which were directed to the questions, (1) can this photographic contact-method be utilised to obtain images of thin and microscopic sections of wood? and (2) what other substances, e.g. in woods devoid of resin, are active? The author showed photographs, obtained without light, of thin sections of many different kinds of wood, and demonstrated that in most cases resin and allied bodies cannot be the active agents. He also showed that a thin section which gives a very faint image, or even no recognisable image at all, if used dry and untouched, may give a very deep one if soaked in a weak solution of tannin, gallic acid, pyrogallol, &c., and then dried before being placed on the plate. A striking result is obtained if such solution is streaked across the section; the treated streak or figure comes out deep black on a pale ground-work of the part untreated. Xylol, clove oil, tannic acid, and some other bodies are also active. The author thinks that a careful comparative investigation of all kinds of woods might lead to important results regarding that very difficult question, the constitution of lignified cell-walls.-The pine-apple gall of the spruce. note on the early stages of its development: E. R. Burdon. The galls are caused by certain Aphidæ belonging to the genus Chermes. The insect drives its proboscis into the bud, and sets up an irritation which results in the young shoot becoming modified into a gall. The early stages of the gall take place whilst the shoot is still enclosed in the winter bud scales. The cells are forced into precocious growth, and a parenchymatous tissue, consisting of swollen cells with vacuolated protoplasm and enlarged nuclei, is formed. The chlorophyll, tannin, resin, resin canals, and secretory cells all disappear, but an abundant supply of starch is laid down which may possibly arise as the ultimate product of the disintegration of the tannin. The chromatin network of the nuclei becomes aggregated into wart-like nucleoli. The mitotic figures appear to be of the usual somatic type, and no indication of heterotypical mitoses has yet been found. There is reason for believing that the ultimate cause is an injection by the insect, and that this injection will cause a gall growth only when it acts on embryonic tissues which are not confined by other lignified or cuticularised tissues.-On certain quintic surfaces which admit of integrals of the first kind of total differentials: A. Berry.

MANCHESTER.

Literary and Philosophical Society, November 1.-Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., president, in the chair.-On alkaline borates: C. H. Burgess and A. Holt, jun. The authors found that nearly all the glasses obtained by fusing boric anhydride with varying quantities of sodium carbonate could be transformed, wholly or in part, into stable, crystal

line forms, which invariably melt at a higher temperature than the glasses from which they were derived. The study of the melting points of these mixtures, and the analyses of the crystals and glasses, point to the probable existence of both sodium metaborate and a further compound containing only a quarter equivalent of sodium. Anhydrous borax itself does not appear to be a definite compound; it is almost a eutectic mixture of the solid solution of the two above mentioned compounds. The glasses appear to be a superfused state of the crystals. The familiar colours of borax beads seem to be due to the formation of a complex sodium ion, and can be changed in tint by increasing or decreasing the amount of alkali present.-Note on the electrolytic preparation of titanous sulphate: W. H. Evans. The results show that a low current density, high concentration, and a temperature of about 70° C. are the most favourable for obtaining an efficient yield in this reduction process. Moreover, the author has found that the preparation can be carried out without the use of any diaphragm to separate the anode from kathode chambers of the cell.

DUBLIN.

Royal Irish Academy, November 14.-Prof. R. Atkinson, president, in the chair.-On the discovery of hyæna, mammoth, and other extinct Mammalia in a Carboniferous cavern in the county of Cork: R. J. Ussher. After recapitulating the work that has been done in Irish caves, Mr. Ussher described an extensive cavern in county Cork, near Doneraile, in every portion of which that he has examined remains of extinct Mammalia have been found. Mammoths, old and young, have been met with in several places; bears and reindeer were abundant; Irish elk, wolf, and hyæna were also found; the last, identified by Dr. Scharff from a portion of a skull with teeth, is an addition to the Irish fauna. These remains were in red sand beneath a floor of crystalline stalagmite, which was present in the various chambers and galleries.

PARIS.

Academy of Sciences, November 7.-M. Mascart in the chair. Researches on the desiccation of plants and vegetable tissues final equilibrium, under average atmospheric conditions: M. Berthelot. The rate of loss of moisture is proportional at any instant to the quantity of water remaining in the plant. A further amount of moisture is driven off at 110° C.-On the absolute desiccation of plants and vegetable materials: period of artificial desiccation. Reversibility by atmospheric moisture: M. Berthelot.—On the preparation in a state of purity of boron trifluoride and silicon tetrafluoride, and on some physical constants of these compounds: Henri Moissan. The boron fluoride was prepared in two ways, by heating a mixture of boric anhydride and calcium fluoride with sulphuric acid, and by direct synthesis from boron and fluorine. After purification, the gas was frozen by liquid air, foreign gases pumped off, and the solid allowed to volatilise. The boron fluoride melted at at -127° C. and boiled - 101°. Silicon fluoride, purified in a similar manner, melts at -97°, and passes into the gaseous state without melting. The experiments establish the physical identity of BF, and SiF prepared synthetically with the compounds prepared by the ordinary chemical methods. On the nature of charriage: Ed. Suess. -Remarks by Michel Lévy on the preceding paper.-On a hyperelliptic surface: M. Traynard.-On the complementary geodesic triangulations in the higher parts of the French Alps: P. Helbronner.-On a new mode of conThe helices destructing aerial helices: Ch. Renard.

scribed are 2.5 m. in diameter, and are perfectly rigid when rotated by power, although their weight is only 3 kilograms. -On explosions in boilers: L. Lecornu.-Retrograde diffusion in electrolytes: E. Bose. The author points out that the results obtained experimentally by Thovert were predicted by Abegg and Rose on Nernst's theory.-On the estimation of temporary radio-activity for its therapeutic utilisation: Th. Tommasina.-The proof of a radioactivity peculiar to living beings, vegetable and animal : Th. Tommasina.-The action of low temperatures on colouring matters: Jules Schmidlin. An alcoholic solution of rosaniline chlorohydrate shows a clear diminution in the intensity of the red colour, and at the same time developes a fine greenish-yellow fluorescence.-Heats of combustion of