The earliest seat of the Tibeto-Burmans seems to have been the head-waters of the Yang-tse-kiang. From here they migrated in successive waves along the valleys of the great rivers of eastern India, the Salwîn, the Irrawaddy, the Chindwin, and the Brahmaputra. The first three led them to Burmah, which they conquered, and where they founded a comparatively stable kingdom. Down the Brahmaputra they entered Assam, peopling the river valleys and the mountains in successive waves, failing only to Occupy the Khasi Hills. Some of those who had entered Burmah settled in the Chin Hills, and, finding no room for expansion, were forced into becoming a backwash to the north, entering Assam from the south-tribe after tribe, in raid after raid-until the migration was stopped by the strong arm of British authority. Other Tibeto-Burmans went up the Brahmaputra into Tibet, which they peopled, getting as far west as Baltistan and Ladakh, and also occupying the Himalaya between Tibet and India proper. It was here that they found and partly gave their speech to the Mundâ-Môn-Khmêr tribes already mentioned.

The most recent Indo-Chinese immigration was that of the Tais. They first appear in history in Yunnan, and thence they began to occupy Upper Burmah some two thousand years ago. A great wave of immigration occurred in the sixth century A.D. Not only did they effectively conquer Upper Burmah, but they invaded Assam. They peopled the Shan States, and in the fourteenth century established themselves in the delta of the Mé-nam, driving the Môn-Khmêrs before them so as to form a Tai wedge between those of Tenasserim and those of Cambodia. This was the foundation of the Tai (or Thai) kingdom of Siam. At the present day the Tais are represented in British India by the Shans, the Khamtis, and other tribes of north Burmah and Assam.

A few words may be devoted to the latest great migration into India proper, that of the Aryans from the north-west. We cannot tell when this commenced. All that we can say is that parts of their earliest literary record, the Vêda, which was composed in the Punjab, have been considered by competent scholars to date from so far back as B.C. 2000, while others date them a thousand years later. The main line of approach was over the most western passes of the Hindu Kush, and along the valley of the Kabul River into the Punjab. Thence they spread over northern India. The entry into the Punjab was a very gradual one, extending over centuries. When the latest comers arrived they found that the language and the customs of their earliest predecessors had developed to such an extent that the former was unintelligible, and the latter were unsympathetic to them. This is reflected in the condition of the Aryan languages of India from the earliest times to the present day. There have always been two sharply differentiated groups of Indo-Aryan languages, one representing the speech of the earliest invaders, and the other that of the latest, while between the two there is a band of intermediate forms of speech which can be referred to the dialects spoken by those who were neither first nor last.

Some Aryan hordes entered the western Punjab from the Pamirs directly to the north. Most of these settled en route in the country round Gilgit, Kashmir, Chitral, and in Kâfiristan. Here the inhospitable character of the mountains in which they took up their abode, and their own savage nature, hindered communication with their cousins in the plains, and their customs and language developed on independent lines. The latter presents extremely archaic features. Words which were used three thousand years ago in India proper, and which have since fallen into disuse in that country, have been preserved by it almost letter for letter. These Aryans from the Pamirs have lately been identified with the Pisachas or "Quopάyou," who in later years became the subject of legend, and were looked | upon, in the time of Sanskrit literature, as a race of demons.

THE

RESEARCH IN TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISMA Department of Research in Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution, if we may judge from its report for 1905, does not intend to let the grass grow under its feet. The work it has on hand at present comprises, inter alia, an examination, partly theoretical, by Dr. Bauer into the secular variation of terrestrial magnetism, a discussion of magnetic disturbances observed during the eruption of Mont Pelée, a general study of the laws of the diurnal variation, a special investigation into magnetic storms, and a discussion of magnetic observations made during the eclipse of the sun on August 30, 1905.

In some researches the cooperation of eminent foreigners has been secured. The investigation into magnetic storms, for example, is being prosecuted under the direction of Dr. Ad. Schmidt, of Potsdam. The scheme, however, which figures most largely on the programme for the immediate future is a magnetic survey of the North Pacific Ocean. Arrangements have been made for observations in countries adjacent to it, e.g. China, and a wooden sailing vessel, the brig Galilee, has been specially adapted for work at sea. The brig, of which a general idea will be

FIG. 1.-The Galilee.

obtained from the picture here reproduced, is of about 600 tons, and carries a crew of eleven in addition to magnetic observers. The bridge shown between the masts is intended to supply a specially favourable site for magnetic observations. The vessel has already made preliminary trips which are considered satisfactory.

The survey of the Pacific is primarily intended to furnish data for researches in which Dr. Bauer is interested, but the results should also be of immediate practical use in the improvement of charts. In addition to terrestrial magnetism, the department is providing for work in atmospheric electricity, and cooperation is intended with the new solar observatory of the Carnegie Institution, near Los Angeles, in studying the correlation between solar pheno mena and terrestrial magnetism. With the financial support which the department enjoys, it may look forward to an important sphere of usefulness, especially if it concentrates its efforts, and prefers substantiality to rapidity of achievement.

There are other institutions in America, e.g. the Coast

1 Report of Department of Research in Terrestrial Magnetism, by L. A Bauer, Director. Extracted from the Fourth Year-book of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. (Washington, D.C., 1906.)

44

and Geodetic Survey and the Weather Bureau, the lines of research of which, existing or proposed, do not seem wholly distinct from those indicated in the programme. Even European magneticians might feel some slight uncasiness lest a department of so novel a kind, and displaying such unusual readiness to pay the piper," might not 'splay a corresponding proclivity to call the tune.' One can thus understand the occasion for the director's assurance that the general policy of the department is not to supplant any existing organisation . . . but rather to supplement and to cooperate in the most effective manner,'

REPORT UPON THE CALIFORNIAN
EARTHQUAKE OF APRIL 18.

A PRELIMINARY report of the commission appointed

by the Governor of California on April 21 to obtain information concerning the earthquake of April 18 has reached us. The commission includes Prof. A. C. Lawson, State University of California, chairman; Prof. G. K. Gilbert, U.S. Geological Survey; Prof. Fielding Reid, Johns Hopkins University; Prof. J. C. Branner, Stanford University; Profs. A. O. Leuschner and George Davidson, State University; Prof. C. Burkhalter, Chabot Observatory; and Prof. W. W. Campbell, director of the Lick Observ

The committee on coseismals, being concerned with the records of times at which the earthquake was felt, had to depend largely upon correspondence for information, and for times automatically registered the committee is indebted to seismologists in many countries. Numerous other observations were supplied by officers in the various public services. The committee on isoseismals has also received assistance from many sources.

Subjoined is a summary of the chief results obtained up to the present.

One of the remarkable features of the Coast Ranges of California is a line of peculiar geomorphic expression which extends obliquely across the entire width of the mounminous belt from Mendocino County to Riverside County. The peculiarity of the surface features along this line lies in the fact that they are not due, as nearly all the other features of the mountains are, to atmospheric and stream Prosion of the uplifted mass which constitutes the mountains, but have been formed by a dislocation of the earth's crust, or rather a series of such dislocations, in time past, with a differential movement of the parts on either side of the plane of rupture. In general, this line follows a system of long, narrow valleys, or where it passes through wide valleys it lies close to the base of the confining hills, and these have a very straight trend; in some places, however, it passes over mountain ridges, usually, at the divide separating the ends of two valleys; it even in some cases goes over a spur or shoulder of a mountain. Along this line are very commonly found abrupt changes in the normal slope of the valley sides giving rise to what are technically known as scarps. These scarps have the appearance of low, precipitous walls, which have been usually softened and rounded somewhat by the action of the weather. Small basins or ponds, many having no outlet, and some containing saline water, are of fairly frequent occurrence, and they usually lie at the base of the small scarps. Trough-like depressions also occur, bounded on both sides by scarps. These troughs and basins can only be explained as due to an actual subsidence of the ground, to an uplift of the ground on one side or the other, or on both sides. The scarps similarly can only be ascribed to a

rupture of the earth with a relative vertical displacement along the rupture plane. Frequently small knolls or sharp little ridges are found to characterise this line, and these are bounded on one side by a softened scarp and separated from the normal slope of the valley side by a line of depression. In many cases these features have been so modified and toned down by atmospheric attack that only the expert eye can recognise their abnormal character; but where their line traverses the more desert parts of the coast range, as, for example, in the Carissa Plains, they are well known to the people of the country, and the aggregate of the features is commonly referred to as the earthquake crack."

This line, which can be traced from Point Arena to Mount Pinos, in Ventura County, has a length of 375 miles, is remarkably straight, and cuts obliquely across the entire breadth of the Coast Ranges. To the south of Mount Pinos the line either bends to the eastward, following the general curvature of the ranges, or is paralleled by a similar line offset from it en echelon; for similar features are reported at the Tejon Pass, and traceable thence, though less continuously, across the Mojave Desert to Cajon Pass and beyond this to San Jacinto and the southeast border of the Colorado Desert. The probability is that there are two such lines, and that the main line traced from Point Arena to Mount Pinos is continued with the same general straight trend past San Fernando and along the base of the remarkably even fault scarp at the foot of which lies Lake Elsinore. But, leaving the southern extension of the line out of consideration as somewhat debatable, we have a very remarkable physiographic line extending from Point Arena to Mount Pinos which affords every evidence of having been in past time a rift, or line of dislocation, of the earth's crust, and of recurrent differential movement along the plane of rupture. The movements which have taken place along this line extend far back into the Quaternary period, as indicated by the major, well-degraded fault scarps and their associated valleys; but they have also occurred in quite recent times, as is indicated by the minor and still undegraded scarps. Probably every movement on this line produced an earthquake, the severity of which was proportionate to the amount of

movement.

The cause of these movements in general terms is that stresses are generated in the earth's crust which accumulate until they exceed the strength of the rocks composing the crust, and they find a relief in a sudden rupture. This establishes the plane of dislocation in the first instance, and in future movements the stresses have only to accumulate to the point of overcoming the friction on that plane and any cementation that may have been effected in the intervals between movements.

The earthquake of April 18 was due to one of these movements. The extent of the rift upon which the movement of that date took place is at the time of writing not fully known. It is, however, known from direct field observations that it extends certainly from the mouth of Alder Creek, near Point Arena, to the vicinity of San Juan, in San Benito County, a distance of about 185 miles. The destruction at Petrolia and Ferndale, in Humboldt County, indicates that the movement on the rift extended at least as far as Cape Mendocino, though whether the rift lies inland or off-shore remains as yet a matter of inquiry. Adding the inferred extension of the movement to its observed extent gives us a total length of about 300 miles. The general trend of this line is about N. 35° IV., but in Sonoma and Mendocino counties it appears to have a slight concavity to the north-east, and if this curvature be maintained in its path beneath the waters of the Pacific it would pass very close to, and possibly inside of, Capes Gordo and Mendocino. Along the 185 miles of this rift where movement has actually been observed, the displacement has been chiefly horizontal on a nearly vertical plane, and the country to the south-west of the rift has moved north-westerly relatively to the country on the nerib of the rift. By this it is not intended to imply north-east side was passive and the south in the movement. Most probably the to opposite directions. The evidence of i the differential movement along the

clear and unequivocal. The surface soil presents a continuous furrow generally several feet wide with transverse cracks which show very plainly the effort of torsion within the zone of the movement. All fences, roads, stream courses, pipe lines, dams, conduits, and property lines which cross the rift are dislocated. The amount of dislocation varies. In several instances observed it does not exceed 6 feet. A more common measurement is 8 feet to 10 feet. In some cases as much as 15 feet or 16 feet of horizontal displacement has been observed, while in one case a roadway was found to have been differentially moved 20 feet. Probably the mean value for the amount of horizontal displacement along the rift line is about 10 feet, and the variations from this are due to local causes, such as drag of the mantle of soil upon the rocks, or the excessive movement of soft incoherent deposits. Besides this general horizontal displacement of about 10 feet, there is observable in Sonoma and Mendocino counties a differential vertical movement not exceeding 4 feet, so far as at present known, whereby the south-west side of the rift was raised relatively to the north-east side, so as to present a low scarp facing the north-east. This vertical movement diminishes to the south-east along the rift line, and in San Mateo County is scarcely, if at all, observable. Still farther south there are suggestions that this movement may have been in the reverse direction, but this needs further field study.

As a consequence of the movement, it is probable that the latitudes and longitudes of all points in the Coast Ranges have been permanently changed a few feet, and that the stations occupied by the Coast and Geodetic Survey in their triangulation work have been changed in position. It is hoped that a reoccupation of some of these stations by the Coast and Geodetic Survey may contribute data to the final estimate of the amount of movement.

The great length of the rift upon which movement has occurred makes this earthquake unique. Such length implies great depth of rupture, and the study of the question of depth will, it is believed, contribute much to current geophysical conceptions.

The time of the beginning of the earthquake as recorded in the observatory at Berkeley was 5h. 12m. 6s. a.m., Pacific standard time. The end of the shock was 5h. 13m. 11s. a.m., the duration being im. 5s. Within an hour of the main shock twelve minor shocks were observed by Mr. S. Albrecht, of the observatory, and their time accurately noted. Before 6h. 52m. p.m. of the same day thirty-one shocks were noted in addition to the main disturbance. These minor shocks continued for many days after April 18, and in this respect the earthquake accords in behaviour with other notable earthquakes in the past. The minor shocks which succeed the main one are interpreted generally as due to subordinate adjustments of the earth's crust in the tendency to reach equilibrium after the chief movement.

The destructive effects of the earthquake are in the main distributed with reference to the line of rift. The exact limits of the area of destruction have not yet been mapped, but it is known to extend out about twenty-five or possibly thirty miles on either side of the rift. On the south-west side the greater part of this area to the north of the Golden Gate lies in the Pacific. This area extends from Eureka, in Humboldt County, to the southern extremity of Fresno County, a distance of about 400 miles.

Beyond this area of destructive shock the earthquake was felt in its milder manifestations over a wide territory. Our reports to date show that it was felt in Oregon as far north as Coos Bay, and on the south as far as Los Angeles. To the east it was felt over the greater part of middle California and eastern Nevada, particularly along the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada. It was felt at Lovelocks, and we have unconfirmed reports of its having been felt at Winnemucca. Far beyond the region within which it was apparent to the senses, however, the earth wave was propagated both through the earth and around its periphery, and some of the most valuable and most accurate records of the disturbance which we have are those which were registered at such distant seismographic stations as Washington, D.C.; Sitka, Alaska; Potsdam, Germany; and Tokyo, Japan.

miles by 50 miles in extent, the intensity varied greatly. There was a maximum immediately on the rift line. Water pipes, conduits, and bridges crossing this line were rent asunder. Trees were uprooted and thrown to the ground in large numbers. Some trees were snapped off, leaving their stumps standing, and others were split from the roots up. Buildings and other structures were in general violently thrown and otherwise wrecked, though some escaped with but slight damage. Fissures opened in the earth and closed again, and in one case reported a cow was engulfed. A second line of maximum destruction lies along the floor of the valley system of which the Bay of San Francisco is the most notable feature, and particularly in the Santa Rosa and Santa Clara valleys. Santa Rosa, situated twenty miles from the rift, was the most severely shaken town in the State, and suffered the greatest disaster relatively to its population and extent. Healdsburg suffered to a nearly similar degree. San José, situated thirteen miles, and Agnews, about twelve miles, from the rift, are next in the order of severity. Stanford University, seven miles from the rift, is probably to be placed in the same category. All of these places are situated on the valley floor, and are underlain to a considerable depth by loose or but slightly coherent geological formations, and their position strongly suggests that the earth waves as propagated by such formations are much more destructive than the waves which are propagated by the firmer and highly elastic rocks of the adjoining hill lands.

One of the lessons of the earthquake which seems peculiarly impressive is the necessity for studying carefully the site of proposed costly public buildings where large numbers of people are likely to be congregated. In so far as possible such sites should be selected on slopes upon which sound rock foundation can be reached. It is probably in large measure due to the fact of their having such a rock foundation that the buildings of the State University, at Berkeley, escaped practically uninjured.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

PROF. DOELTZ, privatdocent for metallurgy in the Bergakademie in Klausthal, has been appointed professor of metallurgy in the Charlottenburg Technical High School in succession to Geheimrat Weeren, and will enter on his new duties on October 1.

THE Council of the University of Birmingham has approved of a scheme for the foundation of a department of economic zoology, and has appointed Mr. Walter E. Collinge the special lecturer on that subject. By this arrangement, Mr. Collinge will vacate his lectureship in zoology and comparative anatomy, and take over the new department at premises at present being fitted up at 55 Newhall Street. These comprise an inquiry office, consultation room, research laboratory, and museum.

as

An

ONE of the most satisfactory features of American university education is the keen interest shown by old students in their respective colleges. We learn from Science that at the recent alumni meeting at Harvard University it was stated that during the year graduates had contributed about 360,310l. to the productive funds of the University, and that 17,6231. had been received for immediate use. This sum does not include the more than 22,600l. that the class of one year has given to the University to be used the corporation sees fit. anonymous gift of 12,000l. from a graduate was also announced. Another instance of the same enthusiasm 15 shown by President Hadley's announcement at the Yale alumni dinner that the total of the alumni fund for the year amounted to 25,8471, as compared with the 10,700. announced a year ago. From our contemporary we also learn that a fund of 30,000l., of which Mr. Carnegie con tributed 15,000l., has been raised at Amherst College, and to provide for the work in geology and biology. Mrs. Louisa N. Bullard, too, has given Harvard University Medical School 10,400l. to establish a chair of neuropathology.

will be used

bationers of the London Hospital and Medical College. During the course of an address he delivered subsequently, he said the surgeon, the physician, the nurse, require science to-day in a way in which they never required it before, and science has influenced and affected profoundly their whole teaching. That is why the standards of a generation ago are no good to us, and why any dealing, not merely with the physical organism, but with the great organism of the community, is so much more difficult and far-reaching than used to be the case. Those who are responsible for dealing with the organisation of society know, or ought to know, that unless they have clear principles and plain ends before their minds they can make no advance, and they require economic science, and legislative science, and science of different kinds before they can get those views in a definite fashion. They would do well, Mr. Haldane continued, to take a lesson from the science of medicine, which has taught that the healing of the body is absolutely dependent on the understanding of the principles upon which life is governed. There are new ideas which penetrate deeper and deeper as succeeds year. To-day we know that science is the guiding star of work. It is in such men and women as those studying in medical colleges that we have the hope of the future, the security that the story of our race may yet te a story of progress, and that in the generation to come we may see yet a higher state of things realised than even that which we have realised at the beginning of the twentieth century.

year

THE new buildings of Armstrong College, Newcastle-onTyne, described in NATURE of July 5 (p. 232), were opened by the King, who was accompanied by Queen Alexandra, on July 11, in the presence of a large and representative assembly. Addresses to the King were presented by the governors and council of the college, the professors, and the students. In the first-named the president referred to the electrical engineering laboratories, and stated that it is desired to bring this department to as high a level as that of the mechanical engineering of which the college is so justly proud. The liberality of the shipbuilders of the district, it was added, is now being exercised in the establishment of a school of naval architecture befitting the north-east coast as one of the chief seats in the world of the shipbuilding industry. In the course of his replies, the King expressed his admiration of the magnificent buildings; he commended the wisdom of adapting the teaching of the college to the practical needs of the students, and, in mentioning the name of Armstrong as identified with scientific discovery and industrial success, stated that scientific principles are now more than ever necessary for the mental training of all who hope for success in the great engineering works for which Newcastle is famous all the world over. The Earl of Carlisle presented the Queen with a casket made on the premises by the Newcastle Handicrafts Company, a practical offshoot of the art department of the college. Afterwards the Dean of Durham and Mrs. Kitchin, Sir Isambard and Lady Owen, attended their Majesties in a visit to the electrical engineering laboratory, where Prof. Thornton had arranged several interesting demonstrations.

THE summer meeting of the Association of Technical Institutions was opened at Oxford on July 13, with Sir William Anson, president, in the chair. In his presidential address, Sir William Anson said technical associations are comparatively new in our educational system, and an increasing endeavour should be made to accommodate the old to the new, and to find a place for that which is new without dispossessing the old, where that which is old is not worn out, where it combines, as the ancient universities combine, vitality and the promise of the future with the stability which comes of great traditions drawn from the past. The two elder universities are sometimes thought, Sir William Anson continued, to be aloof from the activities of modern life, and Oxford perhaps more 60 than Cambridge, because of the devotion which Cambridge has always shown to mathematics. Though a university may legitimately specialise in the direction of certain studies, where it can develop those studies in close contact with the operation to which scientific investigation

is applied, it ought never to forgo the general scientific teaching which is an essential feature of a university course. What is the relation of the universities to the work of the technical institutes, which, in one form or another, form such a prominent feature in the educational system of municipalities? Sir William Anson thinks it is twofold. In the lower stages the schools of science and technical institutes attended by boys may give such a training as will qualify for scholarships at the universities, and the universities, being thus the goal of the technical institute in its more rudimentary form, should be the starting-point for technology in its more advanced form. The man of science may make discoveries which others may utilise, but the student, if not a man of action himself, helps and befriends the man of action, and technology, if it is to go on advancing, must go hand in hand with those studies which every university, however situated, is able to promote.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

PARIS.

Academy of Sciences, July 2.-M. H. Poincaré in the chair. An addition to the notes of May 21 and June 11 relating to the discontinuity of the specific heats of fluids: E. H. Amagat. The action of sulphuretted hydrogen on some oxides. Applications to volcanic phenomena and hot springs Armand Gautier. At a white heat, sulphuretted hydrogen reacts with both the magnetic oxide and peroxide of iron, giving iron sulphide and a mixture of hydrogen and sulphur dioxide. A small quantity of sulphuric acid is formed simultaneously, even when oxygen is absent. With alumina, sulphuretted hydrogen gives an oxysulphide of aluminium, together with a mixture of the same gases as above. Sulphuretted hydrogen and carbon dioxide at a red heat give carbon oxysulphide, water, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen, the reaction being the same whether the gases are initially dry or wet. The bearing of these experiments on the composition of volcanic gases is pointed out.-The lava produced by the recent eruption of Vesuvius: A. Lacroix. The general phenomena characterising the recent eruption have been described in earlier papers; in the present note the composition of the products corresponding to each phase of the eruption has been studied.-The earthquake in California according to the preliminary official report: A. de Lapparent. The evidence is distinctly against the view which has been put forward that there is any connection between the earthquake and volcanic phenomena. The Californian earthquake was essentially an orogenic phenomenon, there being signs of dislocation for a distance of more than 600 kilometres along the Californian coast. The connection between the damage done to buildings and the nature of the soil upon which they were built has also been clearly brought out by the preliminary investigations. Some synthetical reactions of pinacoline: Louis Henry. A study of the products of the reactions between pinacoline and magnesium-methyl bromide and hydrocyanic acid. Both the reactions are normal.-Families of Lamé with plane trajectories, the planes passing through a fixed point: S. Carrus.-H. C. Vogel was elected a correspondant for the section of astronomy in the place of the late Prof. Langley.-The classification of irrationals: Ed. Maillet. Researches on armoured concrete and the influence of the removal of the charge: F. Schüle.-The influence of surface tension on the propagation of waves parallel to the surface of a liquid plate: M. Alliaume.An optical arrangement generalising the use of the telescope of 1 metre diameter at the Observatory of Meudon : G. Millochau. The arrangement consists of an objective of three divergent lenses, placed between the telescope mirror and its focus. By varying the position of the lenses, images can be obtained having the dimensions of those which would be produced by a mirror of a metre diameter and a focal distance capable of variation from 15 metres to 25 metres.-The colorations of fringe localised in a thin plate limited by a grating: Ge Meslin. Phosphorus chloronitride: MM. Besson Rosset. An advantageous method of preparing this stance is described, and details given of its reactions.

water, ozone, sulphur trioxide, and nitrogen peroxide. The isomorphism of mercuric iodide with the iodides of zinc and cadmium: A. Duboin. Iodide of mercury is capable of crystallising in all proportions with the iodides of zinc and cadmium.-The non-existence of phosphorus trisulphide R. Boulouch. Definite sulphides of phosphorus having formulæ between P,S, and P,S, do not exist, and the latter is not necessarily a definite compound. -The crystallography of iron: F. Osmond and G. Cartaud. The determination of the transformation points of some steels by the electrical resistance method: P. Fournel. The wire under examination (0.3 mm. diameter) was wound on mica and heated in a vacuum by an electric furnace, the temperature being measured by a thermocouple, and the resistance measured by the potentiometer method. Previous researches in which the same method was used have only shown clearly the point called A, by Osmond. In the present research the additional points A, and A, were also clearly defined.-The solubility of carbon in calcium carbide: H. Morel Kahn. The amount of graphite recoverable from calcium carbide increases with the temperature to which the carbide has been subjected in the presence of an excess of carbon. It also increases with the duration of the heating.-The action of urethane and urea on ethylglyoxylate. A new synthesis of allantoin : L. J. Simon and G. Chavanne. The formation of indazyl derivatives starting with o-hydrazobenzoic acid : P. Carré. Ethyl dioximidosuccinate: A. Wahl.-A mode of reaction of some acid anhydrides: R. Fosse.-A new method of estimating casein in cheese: A. Trillat and M. Sauton. The method is based on the fact that the casein is rendered insoluble by the addition of formaldehyde. Details of the control experiments are given.-The composition of the soils of French Guinea: Alex. Hébert.The malacological fauna of the lakes of Rodolphe, Stéphanie, and Marguerite: R. Anthony and H. Neuville. -The development of the egg of Ascaris vitulorum in an artificial medium: L. Jammes and A. Martin. The seminal apparatus of Helix: A. Popovici-Baznosanu.— The action of the leguminose on the excretion of uric acid : Pierre Fauvel. The utilisation of carbohydrates in arthritic diabetes: René Laufer.-The auto-adaption of abnormal embryos and the tendency to anomaly: Etienne Rabaud. -New attempts on the maturation of the egg in Rana fusca. Parthenogenesic segmentation provoked by freezing and distilled water: E. Bataillon. The fundamental unit of the black races: the radio-pelvic index: Louis Lapicque. Fibrillary structure in the Bacteriacea: J. Kunstler and Ch. Gineste.-Thyroid grafts: MM. Charrin and Cristiani. Radium in gynaecology: MM. Oudin and Verchere. Details are given of the use of radium in nine cases, three of which were cured and the remainder improved.

CAPE TOWN.

South African Philosophical Society. March 28.-Dr. J. C. Beattie, president, in the chair.-Morphological research on the surviving members of the ancient group, the cycads: Prof. H. H. W. Pearson. The relationship of the group to the Pteridophyta was discussed, and microscopic slides showing (a) pollen tubes, (b) the ciliated spermatozoid, (c) the karyokinesis of the nucleus of the central cell of the archegonium prior to the formation of the canal-cell-nucleus, of Encephalartos Alstensteinii were exhibited. A specimen of Stangeria paradoxa with an apogeotropic root and a microscopic section showing the endophystic nostoc were also shown.-The nature of effect of the sun-spot frequency on the variation of the magnetic elements at the Cape of Good Hope: G. H. H. Fincham. By a consideration of Sabine's observations at the Cape of Good Hope obtained in 1842-6, it is shown that the sum of the sun-spot effect on the declination is a maximum in winter; the same result was found for the horizontal intensity.

April 25-Dr. J. C. Beattie, president, in the chair. The round perforated stones (tike) alleged to have been made by Bushmen for the purpose of giving weight to the "kibi " or digging stick: L. Peringuey. That some aborigines, Bushmen or Hottentots, made use of these stones for the aforesaid purpose was now proved. Although Kolben did mention the digging stick as a part of the

Hottentot household utensils, he never said anything abour the perforated stone being used. Sparrmann, however does so. Then follows Burchell, who figures the tiko and the kibi. Livingstone, in his last Journal, gives evidence on the subject, but quotes from memory. In the figures given in that work the stone is a flat disc. That the stones were used for the alleged purpose by some aborigines is, however, made more clear by Bushman paintings, tracings of which were exhibited by permission of Prof. Young, of Johannesburg.

May 30.-Dr. J. C. Beattie, president, in the chair.— Rock etchings of animals, &c., the work of South African aborigines, and their relation to similar ones found in Northern Africa: L. Peringuey. These etchings are not uncommon along the Orange River, also the Vaal River. in the Asbestos Mountains, and other parts of the colony. Beaufort West, Clanwilliam, Humansdorp, &c., also in the Transvaal, and the author proceeded to compare these with etchings of a similar nature discovered and reproduced by the Geological Survey of Algeria.-Observations on the functions of the ethereal oils of xerophytic plants: Dr. R. Marloth. Since the observations of Tyndall on the great diathermancy of the vapours of ethereal oils, many biologists think that the main function of these oils is to produce a protective atmosphere around the plants, thereby reducing their transpiration. If that were the case, one would expect that the excretion of oils would be largest in the driest season and the hottest part of the day. But just the reverse is the case, for many aromatic plants do not betray their presence at such times, while the atmosphere becomes filled with their aroma during foggy weather. Such plants are many Rutaceæ, Composites (wormwood), Umbelliferæ (Bubon), Pelargonium, and even the rhenosterbush. These facts are, however, in perfect accordance with the view that the oils are a protection against the attacks of herbivorous animals, especially also against snails and slugs, which appear onl during wet weather.