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committee, and issued by Mr. Arrowsmith, of Bristol.
it is traced the institution from its inception (as the Bristol
Library Society) in 1772 to the present day. The
pamphlet, which is well worth perusal, is illustrated by
some excellent process engravings.

THE Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute for August contains the inaugural address delivered by Sir Edward Fry, president of the congress held last month; it contains also the lecture by Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan on "The Relation of Heredity to Physical Deterioration," and that on "The Wastage of Human Life" by W. Fleming Anderson.

THE July issue of the Museums Journal contains, in addition to its General Notes, the address on 64 The Education of a Curator," delivered at the Bristol conference of the Museums Association by Dr. W. E. Hoyle, the president of the conference.

a complete vocabulary of technical terms relating to the microscope.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. FINLAY'S COMET (1906d).-The results of a number of observations of Finlay's comet (1906d) are published in No. 4108 of the Astronomische Nachrichten. At the Utrecht Observatory the comet July 21, and recorded as very faint; the observation showed that corrections of 12m. 58s. and -1° 51' were necessary to the ephemeris published by M. Fayet.

was seen on

neglected, or for which periodical observations are required, were observed. Only the names of the latter are now published, the results of the measures being reserved for the Greenwich observations for 1905.

The measures now published are, in general, confined to stars of which the separation does not exceed 4" or which show orbital movement.

In Nos. 4107-8 of the Astronomische Nachrichten Dr. G. van Biesbroeck publishes the results of the measures of 177 Struve stars made with the 12-inch refractor of the The measures of Heidelberg Astronomical Institute. twenty-nine comparison double stars are also given.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HYBRIDISATION AND PLANT-BREEDING.

THE Royal Horticultural Society held high festival in its new hall and elsewhere from July 30 to August 3. The occasion was the third conference on plant-breeding, previous gatherings having been held at Chiswick and in New York. Mr. William Bateson presided, and was so A NEW book on the microscope, by Sir A. E. Wright, thoroughly imbued with his subject that the visitors found F.R.S., is announced for early publication by Messrs. it difficult which to admire most, his grasp of difficult or his Archibald Constable and Co., Ltd. and complex problems, his able management, The work will contain powers of endurance. The programme was a very long one, although some of the papers were, in the absence of their authors, taken as read. All the memoirs will be printed in full in the journal of the society. The speakers included, besides our own countrymen, Danes, Swedes, Germans, Austrians, French, and Americans. "Mendelism was naturally to the fore, and the numerous exhibits in illustration of the phenomena did more to secure general acceptance for the theory than did the elaborate disquisitions. Some of these, especially those of a mathematical character, evoked from the chairman the remark that we had reached the limits of our comprehension. In his introductory address Mr. Bateson gave a very interesting summary showing the advances that had been made since the first conference in 1898. The predominant note then was mystery-in 1906 we speak less of mystery and more of order. Mr. Bateson the suggests the adoption of genetics" to indicate the nature of our researches into the phenomena of heredity and variation, in other words, He showed that we had the physiology of descent. already arrived at a clear conception of the true meaning of " pure-bred," pointing out that an individual is purebred when the two cells, male and female, from which it develops are alike in composition, containing identical elements or characters. Instead of regarding genetic purity as a vague state which may or may not be attainable by a long course of selection or fixation, we now know exactly what it is and how it is produced.

The magnitude of this object was found to be 9.0 when observed at Strassburg on July 17, its diameter being recorded as 12'.

In No. 4109 of the Astronomische Nachrichten M. L. Schulhof states that the ephemeris derived from his elements shows a greater error than he had foreseen, an error which a superficial revision of his calculations for the perturbations has failed to discover. The comet appears to have suffered a retardation which as yet is unexplained.

Applying, provisionally, the corrections shown to be necessary by the Strassburg observation, he has calculated another ephemeris, from which the following is taken :

1906

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Similar explanations were given as to the significance of "reversion"; the reappearance of the ancient characters is brought about by the meeting together of distinct elements long parted, but how this is effected is still unexplained. Conversely, "variation is often due to the separation or elimination of factors, and sometimes probably to the addition of new factors. Heredity is now known to be a regular phenomenon less or more amenable to experimental methods of research. When someone says, "But can't you breed a Derby winner or do something useful?" Mr. Bateson replies that "though in the attempt to discriminate among animals all good enough to win science may be as much at fault as common sense, yet it would not surprise me if science were to devise a way of breeding even racehorses which would not produce about a hundred wasters' for one fit to win-and yet I understand that common sense remains content with that rather modest attainment after two centuries and a half of steady trying." Mr. Bateson concluded by pointing out that the great advances in the application of science have generally become possible through discoveries made in the search for pure knowledge. In no other spirit can natural knowledge be more profitably pursued.

Other papers were contributed by Prof. Johannsen, of Copenhagen, whose views did not meet with universal acceptance, Messrs. Hurst, Darbishire, Yule, Dr. Wilson,

of St. Andrews. Mr. de Barri Crawshay, Mr. Rolfe, and Prof. Pfitzer spoke on orchids; Mr. Chittenden and Dr. Tschermak dilated on questions of heredity. Prof. Rosenberg, of Stockholm, had a most important paper showing the behaviour of the chromosomes in hybrid plants. M. Noel Bernard spoke of the symbiosis existing between the roots of orchids and the hyphæ of certain fungi.

Miss Saunders, in a very lucid manner, explained the complex results she had obtained in crossing stocks, a paper the comprehension of which was much facilitated by the numerous specimens exhibited in the hall. Mr. Biffen contributed a remarkable paper on the application of Mendel's laws to the improvement of cultivated wheats, and various communications from raisers of carnations, potatoes, bulbs, roses, amaryllids, and other plants were read. The entire programme, with very few exceptions, was worked through under trying conditions of heat and street noises, and those who participated in the hard work honestly earned the recreation that was furnished them by garden-parties at Burford and Gunnersbury, to say nothing of the banquets offered to the foreign guests and other visitors by the Royal Horticultural Society and the Horticultural Club. The success of the conference was marked, and congratulations may be tendered to all who took part in its organisation.

nearly represented by the Australians. In cranial capacity there is a close agreement between the recent and extinct races (1250 c.c.).

The Solutrian stage follows upon the Chelléan, and implements representing it are found in the löss of the Danube, which occurs between the third and fourth fluvioglacial terraces, and thus occupies an horizon corresponding to that of the Höttinger breccia. The Solutrian, or löss man, as the Germans sometimes call him, lived in a warm or genial climate. To the artists of this race are to be ascribed the drawings and paintings left upon the walls of numerous caves in France and Spain, which recall by their spirit and technique the work of the Bush

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MAN AND THE GLACIAL PERIOD

THE correlation of the successive occupation of Europe by various races of mankind with the successive events of the Glacial period has been greatly facilitated by the successful investigations of Prof. Albrecht Penck into the Quaternary history of the eastern Alps. Four welldefined terraces can be traced up the valleys of this region, each of them taking its origin in a terminal moraine. They represent the deposits of rivers issuing from the front of the ice during a glacial episode. Between the terraces the valleys show evidence of deepening by erosion during periods which correspond to genial intervals, the last of which, in order of time, is represented by the breccia of Hötting, when the temperature at Innsbruck, as shown by the included leaves and bracts of Rhododendron ponticum, was 3° C. higher than the average at the present day.

The earliest remains of the human family are afforded by Pithecanthropus erectus of Upper Pliocene age; the skull of this creature, while singularly simian in form, is shown to be human by its capacity (850 c.c.). Evidence supposed to indicate an even earlier existence of man-like species is afforded by the so-called "eoliths, but these it is now scarcely necessary to consider seriously, especially after the observations recently made on the eolithic forms which occur as a by-product in the manufacture of cement at Mantes. Probably 99 per cent. of the supposed implements obtained from the plateau gravels of southern England are of a doubtful character, but there is a small remainder, comprising forms distinguished by a notch, almost semi-circular in outline, which so closely resemble the scrapers once used among the Tasmanians for making their wooden spears that it seems most natural to regard them as of human origin.

The Tasmanians were the most unprogressive race in the world, and probably the oldest within the Australian region; their cranial capacity was 1160 c.c., and they were ulotrichous. It would hence appear that the cleavage between the Ulotrichi and the rest of the human species must have occurred at a very remote period.

The Chelléan stage of culture is represented by stone implements, which occur in the third fluvio-glacial terrace of southern France at the foot of the Pyrenees, and in possibly corresponding gravels in the valley of the Thames. The numerous skulls of Chelléan age which have been met with in cave deposits (Neanderthal, Spy, Krapina) agree in all essential features, and evidently belonged to a single race (Homo primigenius of Schwalbe), now most 1 An abstract of three lectures delivered at the Royal Institution on May 24, 31, June 7, by Prof. Sollas, F.R.S.

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race.

Stow, in his excellent account of the South African races, has furnished the key to much of Solutrian history, and it is of particular interest to observe that this author was led by independent evidence to conclude that the original home of the Bushmen lay far to the north of the area they occupied at the time we first became acquainted with them. The cranial capacity of the Bushmen was 1330 c.c.; that of the Grimaldi skeletons has not yet been made known.

The Magdalenian race, or the reindeer hunters, the last of the definitely Palæolithic tribes, evidently lived under somewhat severe conditions of climate. A study of their implements and mode of life certainly suggests, as Prof. Boyd Dawkins first pointed out, some connection with the Eskimos, but this is a view which has not commended itself to the majority of investigators. The socalled "batons de commandement" may be selected as affording the crux of the problem; these have been compared by Prof. Dawkins with the Eskimo arrow straighteners, an explanation rejected by Hoernes and others on the ground that the Magdalenian people were unacquainted with the use of the bow. This, however, is a pure assumption, unsupported by facts. A stronger objection may be found in the shape of the perforation which characterises the Eskimo straightener as represented by Prof. Dawkins; this is lozenge-shaped, as it is in all the examples I have seen preserved in our museums; in the "baton," on the other hand, the form is invariably circular. Some of my archæological friends have gone so far as to assert that this form is incompatible with use as an arrow straightener, though I have myself made perforated batons out of deer's horn which serve to straighten a crooked stick very effectually. But, what is more to the point, Dr. Boas has figured recently an arrow straightener actually used by the Eskimos of Baffin Bay, which not only resembles many "batons de commandement" in general form, but more particularly in the shape | of the aperture, since it is drilled with a round hole. These two implements, the arrow straightener of the Eskimos and the "baton" of Magdalenian man, are in this case so nearly identical that no manner of doubt can exist as to the truth of Prof. Dawkins's explanation. Additional interest is thus acquired by a curious resemblance in detail which characterises the arrow straighteners of the two races, otherwise very different both in form of the perforation and in certain artistic qualities; this is to be found in the carved end, which sometimes represents two heads placed back to back, an unusual design, repeated, curiously enough, among a tribe of American Indians in their " topos or hair-pins, which are similarly terminated by two heads (llamas') adossé. These facts, taken in conjunction with numerous other resemblances in detail between the implements at present used by the Eskimos and those of Magdalenian man, cannot fail to suggest some ethnic connection.

As regards the skeletal remains of the period, attention may first be directed to those of the Cro-Magnon type, including the skeleton of the seventh interment in the Grotte des Enfants; the skulls of this type, while resembing those of the Eskimos in some respects, especially in the narrowness of the nose, differ widely in others, such as the length of the face and the height of the orbits; the limb bones indicate a race of tall stature (1800 mm. or 1900 mm.), very different in this respect to the short Eskimos (1646 mm.). In the skeleton of La Chancelade these differences disappear; the skull is remarkably Eskimo-like, the stature deficient (1500 mm.). The osteological evidence would seem to point to the contemporaneous existence of two allied races during the Magdalenian age, one now represented by the Eskimos and the other by neighbouring North American tribes, both possibly inhabiting a large part of Europe and Asia, whence they overflowed into North America either by the Icelandic or the Alaskan route, perhaps by both. The xisting Eskimo cult has to a large extent been evolved since the race entered North America. The distribution of Magdalenian remains suggests that the occupation of Europe occurred during the closing phases of the last glacial episode.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

CAMBRIDGE. The committee for the study of special diseases announces that Dr. R. C. Brown, of Preston, Lancashire, has promised the sum of 150l. per annum for two years for a pathological scholarship in connection with the investigations being carried out by the committee on rheumatoid arthritis and allied diseases. This scholarship will be known as the R. C. Brown Scholarship in Special Pathology, and will be open to all recently qualified men. The scholar will be required to work under the direction of the Huddersfield lecturer in special pathology at Cambridge, and to assist in the research the committee have undertaken on the pathology and bacteriology of the above diseases.

The Frank Smart studentship in botany will be awarded during the present month. The studentship (the yearly value of which is about 100l.) is ordinarily tenable for two years, and the student is in special cases eligible for reappointment for a third year. The successful candidate must devote himself to research in botany under the direction of the professor of botany, who shall determine the conditions under which the research is to be conducted and the place or places in which it is to be carried on. Applications must reach the Vice-Chancellor, Trinity Hall Lodge, on or before Saturday, August 25.

PROF. UHLENHUTH, of Greifswald, has been appointed director of the newly established department of bacteriology in connection with the Imperial Bureau of Health, Berlin. DR. G. D. HARRIS, of Cornell University, has been appointed to the chair of geology in the Louisiana State University; he will also direct the Geological Survey of Louisiana.

PROF. E. A. MINCHIN, professor of protozoology to the University of London, will deliver his inaugural lecture on

"The Scope and Problems of Protozoology"

November 15.

on

MISS ETHEL HURLBATT, principal of Bedford College for Women, London, has accepted the post of warden of the Royal Victoria College, McGill University, Montreal. Her successor will shortly be appointed, and will, it is hoped, go into residence at the beginning of the Lent

term.

MR. R. L. WILLS has been appointed by the Kent Education Committee director of technical instruction in the Chatham, Rochester, and Gillingham district, and Mr. J. Quick has been appointed by the same committee director of technical instruction in the Folkestone, Ashford, and Hythe district.

ON Saturday last Prof. T. Clifford Allbutt, F.R.S., and Prof. H. H. Turner, F.R.S., had the degree of D.Sc. conferred upon them by the University of Leeds; the degrees in connection with the British Association meeting and the celebration of the jubilee of the coal-tar industry, to which attention was directed in our last number, were also

conferred.

THANKS to the aid afforded by the Drapers' Company, the work of the statistical laboratory at University College, London, under Prof. Karl Pearson, has been considerably extended. The laboratory, which possesses a large collection of statistical models and diagrams and of mechanical integrators and calculators, provides a complete course of training in the theory and practice of statistics, and instruction is given in exhibition calculation (mechanical and arithmetical) and the use of statistical quantities.

THE Senate of the University of London has accepted from Mr. Martin White two further donations, one to provide a salary of 200l. a year for Dr. Edward Westermarck, university lecturer in sociology, for a further period of five years, the other an additional sum of 700l. for the establishment for five years of two scholarships a year each of the annual value of 351. and tenable for two years. In connection with Mr. White's benefaction, special courses will be delivered during the session 1906-7 on ethnology, by Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S., and on psychology, by Dr. J. W. Slaughter.

ACCORDING to Science, the investigation at Cornell University of problems in fresh-water biology the year through is made possible by a recent provision for a division of limnology in the department of invertebrate zoology in the University. Dr. James G. Needham, of Lake Forest College, has been appointed assistant professor of limnology to take charge of that work. He will enter upon his duties at Ithaca in February of next year. A site for a biological field station has just been selected on the Renwick Lagoon at the head of Cayuga Lake. The necessary station building and equipment will be proIvided in the spring.

THE calendar of Tokyo Imperial University for 1905-6, a copy of which has just been received, shows that the 'total number of students enrolled in September, 1905, was 4517 as compared with 3771 in 1903. These students were divided among the constituent colleges as follows:University Hall, 680; College of Law, 1545; College of Medicine, 641; College of Engineering, 549; College of Literature, 511; College of Science, 122; and College of Agriculture, 469. The number of students at the College of Science is small, probably because all scientific work of an applied kind seems to be apportioned to the colleges of engineering and agriculture, where such subjects as applied chemistry, mining and metallurgy, and agricultural chemistry are studied. The list of original scientific papers published by professors and students of the University is an imposing one, and fills more than forty pages of the

calendar.

A COPY of the prospectus of the agricultural department of Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for the session 1906-7 has been received. Complete courses of work are provided in all departments of agriculture and forestry. The department is subsidised by the Board of Agriculture and by the education committees of the four northern county councils. The Northumberland County Council Experimental Station is worked in connection with the department under the supervision of Prof. D. A. Gilchrist. A special laboratory and the entire use of a byre for ten cows are available, at the Durham County Council Dairy Station, for daily research work. By an arrangement with H.M. Office of Woods, the Chopwell Woods, which extend to about 900 acres, are now placed under the control of the department, and are of great value in connection with the courses in forestry. Intending students will thus see that the college possesses every facility for the practical study of agricultural science.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. LONDON.

The pre

Geological Society, June 27.-Sir Archibald Geikie, Sec.R.S., president, in the chair.-Interference-phenomena in the Alps: Dr. Maria M. Ogilvie Gordon. sent paper, so far as it deals with the general structure of the Alps, was completed in April, 1905, but the author has since endeavoured to strengthen her line of argument by taking as a type the series of structural changes undergone in the largely igneous mountain-massive of Bufaure in the dolomites. After describing in detail the geology of the Bufaure Massive, the structural relation of the Western Alps and the Engadine to one another and to the whole mountain-system are discussed. From the arrangement of overthrusts, as well as from the distribution of the igneous intrusions in the Western Alps and in the Engadine, it is concluded that these were areas where leading cross-faults intersected the east-and-west Central Alpine band, and shows how the coalescence of these crossfaults with E.N.E.-W.S.W. faults on the north side and W.N.W.-E.S.E. faults on the south side defined two leading fault-curves, the one passing through the Engadine, the other passing through the Western Alps. The cross-segment comprising the Rhine-Ticino district between the Western Alps and the Engadine is regarded as anticlinal in character, segments having been down-thrown from it both towards the west and east, and overthrust masses have crept E. and S. E. from the Western Alps and westward from the Engadine. The relation of the

French Jura Mountains to the Alpine system is then discussed, and it is pointed out that the Swiss-French plam flanking the Western Alps presents the same essential features of structure in relation to the Western Alps on its east side and the French Jura Mountains on its west as those elucidated for the Rhine-Ticino cross-segment. The strike-curve round the west formed by the Jura Mountains and the ranges of Dauphiné is interpreted as the peripheral plicational system in the Alps, showing that the region between the Hungarian basin and the mountaingroups of Central France has been under the influence of the westward thrust. The general principle of structure is the sagging of crust-blocks by means of normal faults towards bands or localities of crust-weakness or subsidence, and the reverse or overthrust-movements which may take place from within these bands or localities. The paper affords evidence of differential rates of move ment in different parts of a thrust-mass or fault-block undergoing horizontal displacement, both in respect of the laterally-adjacent parts of a thrust-mass and also of the subjacent layers. The maps and sections show that the

movement.

actual deformations which characterise a thrust-mass have a different direction of strike on either side of an axial band of maximum horizontal displacement. Several examples in the dolomites are described where there has apparently been a local reversal of the regional westward While each individual case demands special examination, an explanation that satisfies certain cases is provided. At localities where the base of the thrust-mass is open to inflows of igneous rock, the igneous material may ascend and be carried onward with the gliding mass. After consolidation of such igneous inflows, they present resisting bodies within the thrust-mass, which, in the same way as any massive developments of sedimentary material, impede the advance of rock-material in the same direction as before. The tendency is for the material of the thrust-mass to be plicated and faulted as it is driven against a resisting body, widening out in a direction parallel with the resisting mass, and piling up the material to such an extent that local reversal of the direction of overlapping is produced.-The influence of pressure and porosity on the motion of subsurface water: W. R. Baldwin-Wiseman. The author commences the paper with a brief historical summary of the researches which have been conducted since 1830 on the motion and behaviour of underground water. In discussing the influence of the porosity of a rock on the rate of flow of water through it, he describes the variations in porosity which may occur in restricted areas of the same rock, due to superincumbent pressure, faulting, and the intrusion of dykes. He de scribes experiments on the rate of desiccation and soakage of rocks. A lengthy series of laboratory experiments, conducted with specially devised apparatus to afford a constant pressure and to eliminate all errors due to lateral flow, are explained, and it is demonstrated that there is not a uniform relation between flow and pressure in rocks over a considerable range of pressure. Various attempts at determining the range of the cone of depletion in strata are passed in review, and a method based upon an experimental determination of the variation of internal pressure in a rock-mass when charged with water and subjected to a considerable difference of pressure on the two faces is outlined. In the concluding portion of the paper data collected during various hydrological surveys are discussed. and the influence of surface-configuration and stratigraphical sequence on the subsurface water-contours are pointed out.

DUBLIN.

Royal Irish Academy. June 25,-Dr. F. A. Tarleton, president, in the chair.-Note on the action of emulsine on B-glycosides: Prof. Hugh Ryan and G. Ebrill. This paper shows that emulsine hydrolyses the galactoside of a-naphthol in aqueous solution, but is inactive towards the arabinosides of cresol, B-naphthol, and carvacrol, as well as the tetracetyl derivatives of the glucosides of B-naphthol and cresol. The composition of a nitrogen mineral water at St. Edmundsbury, Lucan, co. Dublin: Dr. W. E. Adeney. The mineral water which forms the subject of this paper flows from a spring which is situated in the

demesne of St. Edmundsbury, Lucan. The water is supersaturated with nitrogen, and as it rises to the surface of the spring large bubbles of that gas mixed with small quantities of carbon dioxide are constantly evolved, giving it the appearance somewhat of ebullition; hence the name of the "Boiling Well" by which it is marked on the Ordnance maps. The dissolved gases were found to be as follows, expressed in volumes at o° C., and 760 mm. bar., per 1000 volumes of the water :-carbon dioxide, 140-77; ogen, o-o; nitrogen, 27-13. The water contains about ninety grains of mineral matter per gallon. The chief constituents are:-calcium bicarbonate, 35-2 grains; sodium chloride, 41-24 grains; magnesium chloride, 9.4 grains; and magnesium sulphate, 3-24 grains, per gallon. It also contains small quantities of ferrous bicarbonate, potassium chloride, and traces of lithium chloride and of barium sulphate. It is probable that the excess of nitrogen which this water holds in solution was derived from the fermentative decomposition of nitrates; 1-8 parts nitric nitrogen per 100,000 parts of the water would, on decomposition, vield 14 c.c. nitrogen, at o° C., and 760 mm. har., which represents about the quantity in excess of the gas in solution. The fact that after several days of strong frost, and at a time when the temperature of the air was 32° F., that of the water, as it rose to the surface of the spring, was 60°5 F., shows that the water from a considerable depth below the surface of the ground, must rise and this suggests an explanation as to how the water holds so large an excess of nitrogen in solution. examination was also made of the water to ascertain A careful whether it contained any matters which would render it unfit to be drunk, but with negative results.

EDINBURGH.

to

Royal Society, July 2.-Prof. Crum Brown, vice-president, in the chair.-The use of soluble Prussian blue in investigating the reducing power of animal tissue: Dr. D. Fraser Harris. The method of experiment was inject the blood vessels of either decerebrate cats and rabbits or the isolated surviving kidney or liver of pig or sheep. In the latter cases the blue of the potassio-ferricferrocyanide is in the capillaries reduced to the pale green or colourless compound, the di-potassio-ferrous-ferrocyanide -a vital reduction expressed, not by a deoxidation, but by change of trivalent iron into divalent iron. Irrigation with H.O. restored the blue colour. In the experiments on the kidney, when the pressure of injection rose to 100 mm, of mercury, a colourless, gelatinous artificial urine dropped from the ureter, and the pelvis of the kidney was filled with colourless gelatin; this leuco material at came blue on irrigation with H,O,, Various considerations once beshowed that the green or leuco condition resulted neither from the action of the alkaline salts of blood and tissues nor from putrefaction, but proved the existence within the blood of " reducing substances." The leuco compound ten years after formation within capillaries can still be, by the HO,, restored to the blue condition. The least perfect reduction is in the great vessels, the most perfect in the thin-walled capillaries, i.e. in those vessels which are supplying material for anabolism to the living cells endowed with a high reducing capacity.-The viscosity of solutions, part i. C. Ranken and Dr. W. W. Taylor. The paper contained an account of the apparatus, and also the measurements of aqueous solutions of electrolytes and nonelectrolytes at various temperatures and concentrations. Of the substances examined, mercuric cyanide is the only one with a temperature coefficient smaller than that of water. Dilute solutions of carbamide at low temperatures have "negative relative viscosity, the first example of a non-electrolyte in water which is being probably known to exhibit it.-Two lecture experiments in illustration of the theory of ionisation: Dr. W. W. Taylor. (1) To show that the ionisation of an acid is diminished by addition of salts of an acid; addition of dilute nitric acid or of strong solution of potassium nitrate does not coagulate albumen: together they do (2) To show that a weak acid turns out a strong acid from so immediately. its salts; acetic acid solution potassium nitrate does not coagulate albumen; together or strong solution of NO. 1919, VOL. 74]

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In

chair.-Obituary notice of S. P. Langley: Dr. W. Peddie. July 13.-Dr. R. H. Traquair, vice-president, in the The recent epidemic of trypanosomiasis in Mauritius; its cause and progress: Dr. Alex. Edington and Dr. J. M. Coutts. The authors believe that the infection did not come from India with a cargo of cattle, as has been stated, but that it had been already in the island in a latent form. This belief is further strengthened by information recently obtained that a case of trypanosomiasis actually existed on the adjacent French island of Réunion in August, 1901, which antedated the earliest date in Mauritius. Cattle which had been made immune to the trypanosome were found to be still susceptible to the Trypanosoma brucei-the parasite of the tsetse-fly, which is thus proved to be specifically distinct. The parasites totally disappear in the blood of immunised cattle. goats the infection is evinced by progressive emaciation and death after about two months; but although their blood is virulent and produces trypanosomes in susceptible animals, no trypanosomes could be detected in the blood fluids or tissues of the goats. According to the report for 1904 of the director of the Health Department of Mauritius, the epidemic is slowly but surely diminishing. The importation of mules, which are very susceptible to the disease, tends more than anything else to maintain the disease in an active form.-Note on the smolt to grilse stage of the salmon, with exhibition of a marked fish recaptured: W. L. Calderwood. In 1905 the Tay Fisheries Company marked about 6500 smolts by the attachment of a small piece of silver wire to the dorsal fin. On June 1, 1906, the first grilse marked with a wire was taken in the Tay. Since then four other fish had been recaptured. The one exhibited was 24 inches long; fully a year before, when marked with the wire, it was about 5 inches long. Its growth during its residence in the salt water was estimated at from three to six ounces per month.-The effect of precipitation films on the conductivity of electrolytes, part i. W. S. Millar and Dr. W. W. Taylor. The paper contained an account of results obtained by use of the alternating current and telephone method with films of aluminium hydroxide, chromic hydroxide, and cupric ferrocyanide. The solutions compared were the chlorides, bromides, and sulphates of potassium, sodium, and ammonium; sodium ammonium tartrate, and sodium ammonium racemate.-The theory of alternants in the historical order of development up to 1860, and the theory of circulants in the historical order of development up to 1860 Dr. Thomas Muir.-The length of a pair of tangents to a conic: Prof. Anglin.

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:

PARIS.

Academy of Sciences, July 25.-M. H. Poincaré in the chair. The president announced the death of M. Brouardel.-The toxic action and localisation of the radium emanation: Ch. Bouchard and V. Balthazard. The presence in the peritoneum of the guinea-pig of 2 grams of barium sulphate containing about 5 mgr. of radium sulphate proved fatal to the animal. In a control experiment with the same quantity of barium sulphate free from radium, the animal suffered no inconvenience. The distribution of the radium emanation in the various organs of the animal after death was determined by an electrical method. The suprarenal capsules showed the largest proportion of the emanation, the lungs, skin, liver, and kidneys showing decreasing amounts. The author points out that from the chemical inertness of the emanation this selective action of the organs of the body is unexpected.— The results of two deep borings in Picardy: J. Gosselet. The boring at Saigneville was carried to a depth of 425.95 metres, the Devonian being encountered at a depth of 408 metres. The strata met with are compared with those encountered in the boring at Péronne, the latter having a depth of 500 metres.-The extension of vectorial applications to the theory of elasticity: Émile Waelsch. algebra with the aid of the theory of binary forms, with Lagrange's projection applied to the map of European -A class of integral series: Michel Pétrovitch.

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