the additions made to geographical knowledge during the year by the journeys of Dr. Sven Hedin, Dr. Aurel Stein, and Lieut. Shackleton, Sir Duncan Johnston devoted the bulk of his address to the subject of topographical maps, considering specially the preliminary triangulation for such maps, the methods of detail survey, the scale of the map, the scale of the field survey, the methods of representing details on the map, and the methods of reproduction. The address was printed in NATURE of September 9. The remainder of the first morning sitting of the section was taken up with the reading of papers by Miss Luella A. Owen, of St. Joseph, Mo., on floods in the great interior valley of North America; by Mr. James White, head of the Geographical Department of the Dominion of Canada, on the nomenclature of the islands and lands of Arctic Canada; and Dr. Robert Bell, formerly head of the Geological Survey of Canada, on the Hudson Bay route in its present aspect. The first of these papers, written by an eye-witness of the flood of 1903, when at the end of May and the beginning of June the valley at Kansas City 46 was filled from bluff to bluff with the turbulent muddy waters, which on June 2 completely submerged the entrances to the main waiting-room of the Union station,' gave in a compact form an account of the conditions which produce floods in the region in question and of the diversified character of their consequences, and then considered the possibility of their future control as a subject of vital interest to the United States, and one involving a careful examination of the methods of control in order to avoid the possibility of bringing about evils disastrous than the floods themselves. Mr. White's paper necessarily consisted entirely of details, but as these are of no little interest in the history of geography, geographers will be glad to learn that they will be made available in the pages of the Geographical Journal. In the third of the morning papers Dr. Bell reiterated the views he has long held and urged as to the practical importance of the Hudson Bay route for the development of the north-west of Canada, emphasising on this occasion the urgency of the problem in view of the rapidity with which that development is taking place and the effect which it may be expected to have in promoting more intimate commercial relations between that region and the mother country. more No separate meetings of Section E were held in the afternoons, but the afternoon of Thursday, August 26, was devoted to a joint meeting of that section with the subsection on agriculture, at which a paper contributed to Section E by Prof. A. P. Brigham, secretary of the American Association of Geographers, on the development of wheat culture in North America, was followed by one contributed, to the subsection on agriculture by Prof. Mavor, of Toronto, on the agricultural development of Canada, 1904-9. The first of these papers will be published in full in the annual report of the association, as well as in the Geographical Journal. Here, therefore, it will be enough to say that it laid stress on the enormous possibilities still remaining for the expansion of wheat production even in the United States, directing attention, among other things, to the large production of wheat relatively to population in some States not generally thought of as wheat States, such as Maryland, which this year produced eleven bushels of wheat per head. Prof. Mavor's paper was a continuation of his well-known report to the Board of Trade on the same subject, coming down to the year 1904, and, like it, protested against some of the more sanguine estimates of the possibilities of wheat production in Canada, although he admitted that his estimates of 1904 ought to be increased. An animated discussion followed the reading of the two papers. vailing note of that discussion was sanguine, both as to the possibility of enormously extending the area under wheat in North America and increasing the production in the area already placed under that crop. Major Craigie, chairman of the subsection on agriculture, directed attention, however, to the dependence of that increase on the distribution of population, and thus implicitly raised the question of the future rate of increase of wheat production in North America, and the possibility of maintaining that increase without a concurrent advance in prices. The pre The first paper read in Section E on Friday, August 27, was also by Prof. Mavor-a summary sketch of the economic geography of Canada. Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner, F.R.S., then gave a semi-popular account, illustrated by many beautiful lantern-slides, of the Seychelles, a subject on which he sent a report to the association as secretary of the committee for the investigation of the Indian Ocean appointed by the association. Two papers relating to physical geography followed.. The first of these, by Prof. W. H. Hobbs, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, developed an interesting theory of the cycle of Alpine glaciation, showing how many of the phenomena of glacial erosion found their explanation in the alternation of the conditions bringing about the advance and retreat of glaciers. This paper will also appear in the pages of the Geographical Journal. The other was by Prof. Dodge, of Columbia University, on the formation of arroyos in adobe-filled valleys in the south-western United States. The origin of these arroyos, or wadis, as they would be termed in arid regions frequented by Arabic-speaking peoples, was attributed in this paper to the introduction of sheep, the grazing of the herbage by which in gently sloping valley floors first gave the water an opportunity to become concentrated in streams instead of running off the surface in sheets, a theory which confirms an observation of the Navajos, the native race of the region. The last paper read that morning was by Mr. Lawrence J. Burpee, of the Carnegie Library, Ottawa, on the water route from Lake Superior to the westward. Of the three routes, that of the Kaministikwia, that by Grand Portage. and that by way of Lake Nipigon, the first-mentioned was the first to be discovered, but was neglected and forgotten after the discovery of the Grand Portage route, and remained forgotten until the Canadians ascertained that Grand Portage lay in the territory of the United States. Search for another route led to the re-discovery of that by the Kaministikwia, and rendered the nearly simultaneous discovery of the Nipigon route of no practical importance. Two hours of the morning of Monday, August 30, were taken up with a discussion on the teaching of geography in secondary schools at a joint meeting of Sections E and L, held at the meeting place and under the chairmanship of the president of the latter section. The discussion was opened by an informatory and helpful paper by Prof. R. E. Dodge, of Columbia University, New York, and followed by one (read in the absence of the writer by the recorder of Section E) by Dr. C. H. Leete, principal of the Sachs School for Girls, New York, who has been engaged in the secondary teaching of geography for upwards of a quarter of a century. Several professors and teachers of geography took part in the discussion that followed, and almost all these coincided with the view expressed by Prof. Dodge, that the teacher of geography should look upon it as his business to let the relation of the earth to man dominate his presentation of the subject. The remainder of the morning was taken up with a lecture by Mr. A. O. Wheeler, president of the Alpine Club of Canada, on some characteristics of the Canadian Rockies, which attracted a larger audience in Section E than was assembled on any other occasion during the meeting. The meeting on Tuesday, August 31, was opened by a carefully prepared and instructive paper on the influence of mechanical transportation upon the framework of cities, by Mr. George E. Hooker, civic secretary to the City Club of Chicago. It was, unfortunately, read to a very meagre audience, but there is reason to hope that it will appear somewhere in a permanent form. Prof. A. P. Coleman, of Toronto University, followed with a paper on the Yellowhead Pass and Mount Robson, an adjacent peak, the highest in the Canadian Rockies. Prof. J. W. Gregory, of Glasgow, then gave a brief but very illuminating account of the remarkable success which has attended the replace ment of kanaka by white labour on the sugar plantations of Queensland. The last two papers read that morning furnished two illustrations of the action of waves and currents in bringing about changes in shore-lines. The first was by Prof. Douglas W. Johnson, of Harvard Uriversity, and dealt with the physical history of Nantasket Beach, a spit running northwards from the east end of the south shore of Boston Harbour. This beach consists of sand, gravel, and cobbles deposited by wave action between several drumlins which formerly existed as islands, and with the aid of a series of lantern-slides the reader of the paper showed how the form of the beach ridges and their relation to abandoned marine cliffs on the drumlins prove the former existence of several drumlin islands now entirely destroyed by the sea. The second of these papers was by Dr. F. P. Gulliver, secretary to the geographical and geological section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and dealt with what he called the Wauwinet-Coscata Tombolo, Nantucket, Mass. The term tombolo, the Italian for a pillow," applied in Italy to the low ridges or necks connecting Mt. Argentario with the mainland, Dr. Gulliver proposes as a general designation for such necks. The paper described and illustrated by lantern-views the opening of the neck referred to by a storm in December, 1896, when a channel navigable by small boats was formed, and the closing of this channel by waves and currents nearly twelve years laterNovember, 1908. Some of the most interesting papers read in the section during the meeting were reserved for the last day, Wednesday, September 1, which was so far fortunate that the winding up of several other sections on the previous day allowed of the gathering of a larger audience in this section than was present on most of the other mornings. The first two papers were by Mr. James White, of Ottawa, one of them on the progress of the geographical knowledge of Canada from 1497 to 1909, the other on the economic development of Canada from 1867 to 1909. The subject treated of in the first of these two papers, which will appear in full in the Geographical Journal, was illustrated by a number of maps for different dates, for the most part at intervals of fifty years, illustrating for the earlier years the extent of exploration within the territory of the present dominion, and for the later years the extent of territory that remained unexplored. The subject of the second was illustrated mainly by means of statistical diagrams. These were followed by a very interesting paper by Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, formerly of the Geological Survey of Canada, on a remarkable forgotten, or nearly forgotten, geographer, Mr. David Thompson, a native of London but of Welsh parentage, who, in the latter part of the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth century, travelled more than fifty thousand miles in the western wilds of Canada, making surveys wherever he went, and producing a map which was for many years the only one available, and was distinguished by such accuracy as to induce the reader of the paper to claim for its compiler the designation of the greatest practical land geographer who had ever lived. This paper also will appear in full in the Geographical Journal. Dr. L. A. Bauer, director of the department of terrestrial magnetism at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, then gave a brief general account of the progress of the general magnetic survey of the earth in recent years, a subject dealt with more fully in a paper read by the same author to Section A. here be mentioned, however, that the author stated that since April 1, 1904, the declination and dip of the magnetic needle and the intensity of the magnetic current had been determined at some 900 land stations in different parts of the world, and a general magnetic survey of the Pacific Ocean had been made, in the course of which the nonmagnetic cruiser Galilee had made cruises amounting to about 60,000 nautical miles. The last paper read before the section was by Mr. Allorge, of the Oxford School of Geography, on the eastern (Tunisian) Atlas Mountains, their main structural and morphological features, a paper embodying the results of a journey made by Mr. Allorge and a companion in Tunis last spring. It may It may be mentioned, in conclusion, that a somewhat dramatic incident marked the close of the meeting of this section. The last paper had been read, the audience had withdrawn, and the two secretaries, after winding up the work of the meeting, were just about to leave also, when they were summoned to the telephone to be informed of the reported reaching of the North Pole by Dr. Cook. PHYSIOLOGY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. THE president's address on "The Physiological Basis of Success," as distinguished from simple survival, has already appeared in NATURE (September 23, P. 384). The report of the committee on Anæsthetics formed the basis of an interesting discussion. Presented by Dr. Waller, the chairman, the report gave, in the first instance, a summary of the work done during the year by the members of the committee, each of whom added appendices on the particular branch of the subject they had investigated. Appendix i. gave the results in clinical practice of Drs. Hewitt and Blumfeld, who employed a mixture of two parts of chloroform and three parts of ether; this they consider to be safer than chloroform alone when given by the open method. Appendix ii. described Dr. Waller's chloroform balance, which shows at a glance the percentage of chloroform given to the patient. Appendices iii. and iv. summarise Dr. Waller's results on the comparative anæsthetising power of chloroform, ether, and alcohol, and Appendix vi., by Drs. Waller and Symes, gave a method of intravenous anææsthesia which can be used for the basis of a similar calculation. The very important results are reached that 1 gram of chloroform is equivalent to 8 grams of ether and 32-40 grams of alcohol, according to the method used for the calculation. Further, the effect of mixtures of anaesthetics is that of the sum of the constituents. As the anesthetic action of ether (and still more of alcohol) is so much less than that of chloroform, a mixture of ether and chloroform will behave in practice like dilute chloroform, so far as the experiments have gone. In the discussion that followed all the speakers expressed their appreciation of the scientific value of the determinations that had been made. Dr. N. H. Alcock referred to the excellent results that had been obtained by the administration of known percentages of chloroform vapour, and summarised the work that had been done on the individual variations in susceptibility to the drug. He regretted that the case of sudden death under a mixture of chloroform and ether (Times, August 5) had supplied such an inauspicious comment on Appendix i. of the report. Prof. A. R. Cushny considered that the results obtained by Messrs. Buckmaster and Gardiner were of great importance to the general theory of pharmacological action. He considered that as the concentration of chloroform in the blood of patients who had succumbed during anæsthesia had not yet been ascertained, it was possible that the concentration was not unduly high. Prof. W. T. Porter suggested that the unhappy result in some of these cases could not at present be averted by the most skilful anæsthetists, and that the cause might be sought in the hyper-irritability of the heart and vasomotor apparatus. Dr. Webster contributed a paper on the use of atropine and allied drugs in conjunction with anæsthetics, giving the results of numerous experiments. The conclusion reached was not favourable to the use of drugs of this class in conjunction with a general anæsthetic. Prof. A. B. Macallum read two papers on the inorganic constituents in the blood of fishes, the first dealing with the osmotic pressure and the second with the relations of the inorganic salts to one another. He also read a third paper, on the inorganic composition of the blood in puerperal eclampsia, in which he pointed out the greater preponderance of magnesium, and especially potassium, in comparison with sodium. A group of papers on the tracts in the spinal cord was furnished by Dr. Page May and Prof. Sutherland Simpson. Dr. Page May, who exhibited microscopical specimens and lantern-slides, gave a further description of a descending tract discovered by him, and which he names the posteroseptal tract." The origin and course, as determined by Wallerian degeneration and by retrograde chromatolysis, is from a joint region of the optic thalamus and corpora quadrigemina along chiefly the mesial fillet into the posterior column of the spinal cord, where it lies symmetrically on either side in close contact with the posterior septum, terminating in the tenth and eleventh thoracic segments. Its function is still undetermined, a series of detailed experiments showing only that it is not concerned with the pyramidal or voluntary motor path, or with any obvious vasomotor process of the spleen, kidney, and other organs, as examined with the plethysmograph. Dr. Page May also demonstrated, by the method of retrograde chromatolysis, the delimitation of the motor area in the cerebral cortex. The method is free from the fallacies that attend stimulation and ablation, and has enabled the author and Dr. Gordon Holmes to map out the cerebral motor area with great precision. This area in man and the higher mammals is definitely precentral, as Sherrington and Grünbaum have found by other methods. Dr. Sutherland Simpson and his pupils described the pyramidal tract in the sheep and guinea-pig. The fibres were traced by the degeneration method after removal of the motor cortex of one side, the staining being carried out with Marchi's method. In the sheep it was found that no pyramid fibres could be found in the posterior columns, the proportion of direct fibres was large as compared with the crossed fibres, and the fibres could not be traced at all below the first cervical segment. Prof. Simpson also communicated a paper by Mr. E. C. Peterson on the ascending tracts in the spinal cord of the cat. The report of the committee on the ductless glands, drawn up by Prof. Swale Vincent, furnished an interesting group of papers by Mrs. W. H. Thompson (of Winnipeg), Drs. Halpenny and Brandson, and Dr. Young. Mrs. Thompson (who illustrated her paper with a series of excellent diagrams), as a result of the study of the thyroids and parathyroids throughout a wide range of the animal kingdom, supported the views of Vincent and Jolly, and Forsyth, that these bodies are not separate and independent, but are very intimately related. Although distinct in the lower Vertebrata, and of somewhat different embryological origin, in the Mammalia they form, in fact, one apparatus. Dr. Halpenny discussed the operation of parathyroidectomy, and also the effect on the parathyroids after excision of the thyroids. Dr. Young investigated the effect of excluding the blood passing through the adrenals from the circulation; he found no fall of blood pressure even after several hours; there was, however, a distinct rise when the ligature was removed. In presenting the report of the committee on Arum spadices, Dr. Waller referred to the result obtained by him of the effect of local heat on vegetable and animal tissues. "Thermic shocks," short of actual injury to the tissues, produce no excitation, in contradiction to the usual text-book statement, but give an electrical effect of opposite sign to that given by excitation. Prof. E. J. McWeeney read a paper on the bacilli con nected with food poisoning, for the details of which the report must be consulted. The joint discussion with Section B, to which Dr. E. Frankland Armstrong, Dr. E. J. Russell, and Prof. J. Wilson communicated papers, proved one of the most successful features of the meeting, and it is to be hoped that the precedent thus set will be followed on future occasions. Dr. E. Frankland Armstrong directed attention to the difference in composition of different proteins, and pointed out that not only should the total nitrogen be taken into account in comparing the different foods, but due regard should also be paid to the composition and nature of the constituent units. Dr. E. J. Russell referred to the very great difference in food value between different samples of hay and roots, which showed but small variation with the usual methods of analysis. Prof. J. Wilson gave a most interesting historical account of the practice of farmers in feeding live-stock, particularly bullocks. He Dointed out the great economic importance of the knowledge of the proper amount of the different proportions of the more expensive protein to the less expensive fat and carbohydrate, and showed how the practice of farmers had changed in this matter. Prof. H. E. Armstrong, Prof. NO. 2086, VOL. SI] Cushny, Dr. Alcock, and Dr. Hardy also joined in the discussion. On the last day of the meeting Dr. Alcock gave a demonstration of his chloroform apparatus in the theatre of the Winnipeg General Hospital, and subsequently there was a discussion on the structure and function of the nucleus, in which Prof. A. B. Macallum and Dr. W. A. Hardy took part. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL CAMBRIDGE.-At a meeting of the master and fellows of St. Catharine's College, held on October 19, Prof. R. H. Biffen, of Emmanuel College, was elected to the vacant professorial fellowship. Prof. Biffen, who was a scholar of Emmanuel College, was placed in the first class in part i. of the natural sciences tripos in 1893, and in the first class in part ii. of the same tripos in the following year. Shortly after taking his degree he was elected to the Frank Smart studentship at Gonville and Caius College, and soon afterwards he undertook a research which greatly modified the process of the manufacture of india-rubber. Later, as professor of agricultural botany, he has done much to produce new wheats, some of them rust-resisting, others combining a high yield with the strength " which bakers desire. This autumn, for the first time, the seeds of these wheats are being distributed to agriculturists. Prof. Biffen is also a well-known authority on fungoid diseases of plants. 66 Mr. V. H. Mottram, of Trinity College, has been appointed additional demonstrator of physiology until Michaelmas, 1912. Mr. W. McD. Scott has been elected to a John Lucas Walker studentship, and Dr. C. W. Ponder, of Emmanuel College, has been elected to a second studentship. The Arnold Gerstenberg studentship has been awarded to Mr. C. D. Broad, scholar of Trinity College. MANCHESTER. In response to the appeal made by Prof. Perkin at the opening of the new extension of the chemical laboratories on October 4, the following donations have been received towards the cost of the necessary apparatus, material, and equipment :-Dr. Hugo Müller, 300l.; anonymous, 250l.; Mr. Vernon K. Armitage, 250l.; Mr. M. J. Fernandez Ferreira, 5ol.; Mr. Noah Kolp, gol. The sum of 1100l. is still required. Dr. C. P. Lopage has been appointed lecturer in observation of children and school hygiene. OXFORD. The geographical scholarship for 1909-10 has been awarded to Mr. H. Wallis, scholar of Hertford College. MR. A. P. I. COTTERELL has been appointed lecturer on sanitary engineering in the faculty of engineering of the University of Bristol. The faculty is provided and maintained in the Merchant Venturers' Technical College. DR. A. CAMPBELL GEDDES has been appointed successor to the late Prof. A. Fraser in the chair of anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Prof. Geddes was formerly assistant to the late Prof. D. J. Cunningham, F.R.S., Edinburgh. To show his personal interest in the new Hong Kong University, the King has directed that holders of Government scholarships shall be styled "King Edward VII. scholars." Lord Crewe, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, suggests that the scholarships should be confined to Hong Kong Chinese and Chinese born in the Straits Settlements. THE Corporation of Yale University has received from Messrs. W. D. and H. T. Sloane, of New York, a gift of 425,000 dollars for the erection and equipment of a physics laboratory. Among other recent gifts are 25,000 dollars from Mr. A. G. Vanderbilt toward the general WE learn from the Scotsman that during the recent recess many alterations and additions to the buildings in connection with the physiological department of the University of Edinburgh have been carried out, and that the additional accommodation will be available in the course of the present month. By utilising what was formerly the lecture-room, a new physiological chemical laboratory has been obtained, and the former chemistry room has been re-fitted as a laboratory for special research in chemical physiology. In addition to the foregoing, a new lectureroom has been erected on a piece of vacant ground at the south-west corner of the new buildings of the University. It is a one-storey building, designed to harmonise in appearance with the older adjacent buildings, and accommodates about 350 students. THE Electrician for October I reprints in slightly abridged form from the Electric Journal an article by Mr. F. W. Taylor, an employer and past president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, on the reasons why manufacturers dislike college graduates. The difficulty in America appears to be that the graduate, on first entering works, becomes dissatisfied with the simplicity of the jobs allotted to him, and only after a year or two of shop experience develops character enough to do monotonous, unpleasant, or disagreeable work. Mr. Taylor suggests as remedy a year hard work in the shops to follow immediately the first year of college life of all students, whether they are intended ultimately for the engineering profession or the Church. He believes they will in this way get a sounder knowledge of man and his duty in this world than can be gained by any other means. The Electrician, in a leading article devoted to the question raised by Mr. Taylor, cordially endorses many of the opinions he expresses. of If PROF. W. OSLER, F.R.S., formally opened on October 15 three new laboratories for physiology, chemistry, and physics, respectively, at the London Hospital Medical College. The laboratories have been constructed and equipped at a cost of about 8oool., and afford accommodation for some 120 students. In declaring the laboratories open, Prof. Osler said that, after all, laboratories are the foundation-stones on which the work of a hospital rests. Medical students cannot spend too long a time in them. Medical students ought to get their laboratory methods so thoroughly ingrained into their constitution that they carry them with them to their dying day. they are to be good practitioners they have to carry their laboratory work with them into their practice. Prof. Osler said he would like every medical student in one or other of the laboratories to undertake during some portion of his career a small piece of research work. It is difficult, but it altogether depends upon the individual will of the individual man. All can do it if they only make up their minds to it, and in view of their large research endowment fund there is no reason why some of the money should not go to helping the research work of some of the younger men. THE new University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire at Cardiff was opened on October 14 by Lord Plymouth, president of the college. The King, as Protector of the University of Wales, sent wishes for the success and prosperity of the future work of the college. The Prince of Wales, as Chancellor of the University, sent a letter to Lord Plymouth to be read at the ceremony. In the letter the Prince said:"The steady growth of the college and the record of work accomplished during the first twenty-five years of its life are evidence that it has adapted itself to the needs of the community. This development is particularly noticeable in the technological and medical schools, and, thanks to the generous support of the coalowners of South Wales to the former and the assistance specially given by the Treasury to the latter, still further vigour and usefulness may be looked for from these departments. To Principal Griffiths and the students. past and present I offer my hearty congratulations upon the good results achieved by the college. Meanwhile, we must look ahead and endeavour to be ready to meet all the requirements of scientific and intellectual progress. The imperative necessity for higher education and research is becoming more and more recognised, and I feel sure it is not lost sight of by those who direct the great commercial industries of the district. The University College of South Wales is destined to provide the want, and I confidently believe that the people of South Wales, through whose patriotic generosity so much has already been accomplished, will by their continued sympathy and material support not only extinguish the debt upon the new buildings, but secure the funds necessary for still further developments.' THE trustees of the Oxford University Endowment Fund have completed the first year of their administration of the fund. The total sum received by the trustees was 86,570l., the greater part of which was forwarded to them as the result of Lord Curzon's appeal for donations for the further endowment of Oxford University. Among grants made by the trustees the following may be mentioned. A grant of 500l. a year has been promised for eight years to the curators of the Bodleian Library. The trustees have also provided the funds required to convert the North Gallery into a new reading-room, and have undertaken to meet the cost of constructing an underground chamber for the storage of books belonging to the Bodleian Library. It is estimated that this chamber will cost 10,000l. Five hundred pounds have been offered to meet the cost of equipment for further accommodation if space can be found by the University for the expansion of the school of geography. The trustees have agreed to pay for three years the salary of the newly appointed lecturer in Japanese, so that the school of Japanese-the first to be established in any English university-may be initiated without more than nominal calls upon the funds of the University. A school of engineering has been provided, largely by gifts allocated by donors and passing through the hands of the trustees. From the sum thus provided the trustees have promised a payment of 600l. a year for five years as a contribution to the cost of the engineering school, and have paid 300l. for equipment. Out of the general income of the trust fund a further sum not exceed ing 150l. per annum has been promised for three years to furnish accommodation for the professor, for whom at present there is no adequate laboratory available. The sum of 61,5531. has been invested. The income will enable the trustees to make annual grants in aid of studies at present endowed inadequately, or in the establishment and initiation of new studies. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Literary and Philosophical Society, October 5.-Mr. Francis Jones, president, in the chair.-A new binary progression of the planetary distances, and on the mutability of the solar system: Dr. H. Wilde. In his table of planetary orbits the author has adopted the radius vector of Mercury as the unit to which the other planetary distances should be referred, the terrestrial unit being a survival of the geocentric system of the universe. The change in the unit of distance has revealed a new binary progression of the planetary distances nearer the observations than that of Bode's law. PARIS. Academy of Sciences, October 11.-M. Bouchard in the chair. The total sugar of the plasma and globules of the blood: R. Lépine and M. Boulud. The sugar estimated in the blood by the ordinary methods is called by the authors the immediate sugar of the blood; after heating with hydrofluoric acid the maximum amount of sugar found is called the total sugar. An investigation is described on the estimation of the immediate and total sugar in the blood from dogs both in a normal healthy condition and after deprivation of food.-Observations on the surface of the planet Mars from June 4 to October, 1909: R. Jarry-Desloges. The work was done at two observatories, both at a high altitude, at Revard (1550 metres above the sea) and near Massegros (900 metres). The paper is illustrated by two diagrams.-The effects of mechanical shocks on the residue of condensers: Paul L. Mercanton. A glass condenser was charged to about 400 volts, and the effects of mechanical shocks and also vibrations on the amount of the residual discharge studied. The results are summarised in tabular form. The reduction of weighings to vacuum applied to the determination of atomic weights: Ph. A. Guye and N. Zachariades. The substances studied in this work, twenty-six in all, were chosen from material actually used in atomic-weight determinations. The reduction to vacuum weights was first applied in the usual way from the known densities of the substances, and the results compared with direct weighings in a vacuum. The differences on 100 grams of material varied between I and 32 milligrams, and the conclusion is drawn that it is completely illusory to weigh bodies closer than 1 part in 10,000, or to calculate atomic weights with a greater precision, whenever the weights of powdered substances, determined in air, are reduced to vacuum by calculation. The probable influence of the motion of the moon on atmospheric radio-activity. Some meteorological consequences: Paul Besson. The radioactivity of the principal spring of Uriage-les-Bains has been found to vary with the barometric pressure and also with the movements of the moon. If this latter effect is confirmed, it would result that the moon, by increasing or reducing the number of condensation nuclei, would have an effect on weather.-The asymmetry created by a continuous current in liquid chains, initially symmetrical, formed by aqueous couples of identical viscosity: M. Chanoz.-The revision of the density of gaseous hydrochloric acid; the atomic weight of chlorine : Otto Scheuer. Twenty-eight determinations, made in seven series, of the density of hydrochloric acid gas give 1-6394 grams as the normal weight of a litre (t=0° C., H=760 mm., h=o, y=45°). This leads to the figure 35-45 as the atomic weight of chlorine.-The spectrographic analysis of blendes: G. Urbain. The spectra were taken from the arc, iron being taken as the comparison spectrum. Out of sixty-four blendes, thirty-eight gave clear evidence of the presence of germanium, and amongst these five contained the element in such a proportion that all the germanium lines were observed. Indium was found in forty-one blendes, three being remarkably rich. Nearly all the blendes contained gallium, there being only five in which gallium could not be detected. The other elements noted included iron, copper, silver, tin, antimony, cobalt, bismuth, arsenic, and molybdenum.-Some derivatives of hexahydro-oxybenzoic acid: P. J. Tarbouriech. This acid was first obtained by Bucherer from cyclohexanone. This latter substance can now be readily obtained in quantity by the Sabatier and Senderens reaction, and Bucherer's work is repeated and extended.-A new series of leucobases and colouring matters derived from diphenylethene P. Lemoult.-The liquid crystals of the combinations of cholesterol and ergosterol with urea : Gaubert.-The Dioscorea cultivated in tropical Africa, and on a case of natural selection relating to a species spontaneous in the virgin forest: Aug. Chevalier. The stratigraphical position of the Heterodiceras Lucii layers at Saléve: E. Joukowsky and J. Favre. The distribution of granites in the French Congo: H. Arsandaux. -The earthquake of October 8, 1909: Alfred Angot. The earthquake felt in Croatia was registered in the observatories of Parc Saint-Maur and Grenoble.-Some remarks on the great magnetic disturbance of September 25, 1909, and the accompanying solar phenomena: Emil Marchand. CAPE TOWN. Royal Society of South Africa, September 15Borchard's form of the eliminant of two equations of the nth degree: Dr. T. Muir. DIARY OF SOCIETIES. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21. INSTITUTION OF MINING AND METALLURGY, at 8.--The Influence of the FRIDAY, October 22. QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB, at 8.-Notes on the Life-history of the BRITISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION, at 5.-Annual Meeting: Address Paul Modern Methods of Illumination. (Illustrated.) By Leon Gaster 499 Annual Meterological Reports 500 Zoology at the British Association Work of the Physikalisch-technische Reichsanstalt in 1908 503 504 504 505 507 508 500 510 |