himself in the annual College examinations. No person will be eligible who has commenced residence in the University, and the successful candidate will be required to enter his name at the College forthwith, and begin residence in October next. For further particulars apply to Dr. Drosier, Gonville and Caius College.

WE have received from the Science and Art Department a thick pamphlet containing the prospectus of Sir Joseph Whitworth's Scholarships for mechanical science. These Scholarships are of the value of 100%. a year, and are tenable for three years, and the competition is open to all Her Majesty's subjects, at home, in India, and.in the Colonies, who have not completed their 26th year, though we see that after the next examination (May 1873) the limit of age will be 22 years. Ten Scholarships will be competed for this year, at examinations which will be partly in practical workmanship, and partly in theoretical subjects. Those who desire detailed information, should procure a copy of the very full prospectus.

THE examiners for the Burdett-Coutts Scholarship, Prof. Phillips, Prof. Odling, and Mr. E. Chapman, M.A., have recommended to the trustees for election, Mr. Edward Cleminshaw, Postmaster of Merton College. The Scholarship was founded by Miss Burdett Coutts for the promotion of the study of geology and of natural science as bearing on geology. The Scholarship is tenable for two years. Mr. Cleminshaw was placed in the first class by the examiners in the Natural Science School in December last. He received his Scientific training in the Applied Sciences department of King's College, London.

Mr. J. J. TayLOR, of Giggleswick Grammar School, has been elected to the Junior Studentship in Natural Science at Christ Church, Oxford. This studentship is of the annual value of 100/. Mr. Taylor's scientific training has been under the direction of Dr. W. Marshall Watts, the Science Master of the School.

WE understand that Mr. Osbert Salvin, F.Z.S., is about to return to his old collecting quarters in Guatemala for a short period. Mr. Salvin's valuable contributions to the fauna and flora of Central America are well known, but we trust that he will still be able to add to his former discoveries, extensive as they have already been.

THE Russian Government has determined to send a scientific expedition with the military force to Khiva. It will leave in the course of the present month.

WE have received a copy of the syllabus of a course of lectures on botany to be delivered in the Royal College of Science, Stephen's Green, Dublin, by Prof. W. R. McNab. It differs from most other similar courses of lectures in its arrangement, being closely modelled after Sachs's "Lehrbuch." Commencing at once with the morphology of the cell, it proceeds then to the morphology of tissues and the external morphology of plants; then to the special morphology of the various groups of Thallophytes, Characeæ, Muscineæ, Vascular Cryptogams, and Phanerogams; and finally to physiology. Though, perhaps, erring on the side of two great minuteness for a short course of lectures, it is admirable in its comprehensiveness'and scientific arrangement.

DR. DAVID MOORE, the Director of the Botanic Garden of the Royal Dublin Society at Glasnevin, has made a successful attempt to propagate the well-known parasite of the South of Europe, Loranthus europeus, on oak-trees in the gardens. This has frequently been attempted previously by horticulturists in this country and in Ireland, and Dr. Moore deserves great credit for the energy and perseverance with which he has carried his efforts to a successful issue. The common mistletoe, which is not a native of Ireland, has also been successfully introduced by Dr. Moore and others into that country, and is

now rapidly spreading; and in the Botanic Gardens Latera squamaria and two species of Orobanche have also been permanently established, and six species of Cuscuta or dodder more transitorily.

Two fine plants, both from Moreton Bay, are at present ob jects of interest at Kew. The tree of Araucaria Bidwill, in the temperate house, has produced cones for the first time in Europe. It was one of the two original plants brought to this country in 1842 by Mr. Bidwill, the other having been purchased for 100 guineas by the Duke of Northumberland. The Ker tree is about 26 ft. high, and its branches cover a circumference of about 60 ft. The seeds are very important articles of food to the aboriginal inhabitants, and the property of the tribes in indivi dual trees of the Bunya-bunya is the only possession they have, and is the commencement of a communal system amongst them. Dendrobium Hillü is the principal feature in the orchid house The large mass in flower has as many as twenty pale yellow racemes, some being as much as 2 ft. in length.

THE Report of the Ashmolean Society for 1872 shows that a little more life has been infused into that society during the past year, though we think there is still considerable room for improvement, and hope that next year's report will be able to speak of a considerably greater amount of work of permanent value having been done. During the year 1872 the Society has held four General Meetings, at which the following communications have been received :-A paper "On House Temperatures," by Prof. Phillips; a note "On the Meteors of April 19, 1872," by Mr. Lucas; a paper "On the Breaks of Continuity in the Mean Daily Temperature in the months of April and May," by the Radcliffe Observer; a paper "On the Sulphur Compounds in Coal Gas, and the means of removing them," by Mr. A. G. Vernon Harcourt, F.R.S. a paper On the Flintimplement-bearing beds of St. Acheul," by Mr. James Parker; a paper by Mr. Heathcote Wyndham "On the Recent Eruption of Vesuvius," illustrated by oil paintings of sketches made by the author on the spot.

MR. R. W. THOMSON, C.E., the inventor of the road steamer, and a man in many ways remarkable, died at Edinburgh on the 8th inst., in the 50th year of his age.

THE new strip of garden belonging to the Zoological Society on the north side of the Regent's Canal, is now being put into order. The bridge over the canal is already finished, and the new lodge opposite Primrose Hill only wants the entrance gates and turnstiles to make it complete. We understand that it will be open to the public on Easter Monday.

WE see from a leader in the New York Tribune of February 26, that the astounding number of almost 200,000 copies of the three cent reprint of Prof. Tyndall's lectures on light has already been sold, and that orders are still pouring in for them from all parts of the States. The Tribune also publishes a large number of letters from people throughout the States asking the letters to be sent them, and justly praising the enterprise of the paper in so energetically and wisely meeting a wide popular want. It reminds one of the demands occasionally seen on this side of the water for the last sensation novel or the latest news of the most recent poisoning case. Such a wide-spread taste for Light literature of the stamp purveyed by the Tribune to its multitu dinous readers, is a healthy sign, and bodes well for the future of the country among whose people it exists.

WE have received a copy of a letter from Prof. Hayden, United States geologist, to his Government, asking a further ap propriation of 100,000 dols. for the purpose of continuing the geological survey of the territories of the United States during the approaching season. His request is at once granted. For the coming season, the field of labour of the survey is to be

transferred to the eastern portion of the Rocky Mountain Range, in Colorado, and New Mexico.

GENERAL BANKS has introduced into the U. S. House of Representatives a resolution instructing the Secretary of the Navy to make an examination and survey of that section of the American isthmus which lies between Valencia Point and the Changenola River, on the Atlantic side, and the Boca Chica, the Rio Pedrigal, and the upper part of Golfo Dolce, on the Pacific side. This is to include an examination of the intervening country, of the two cordilleras, and exploration of the courses of the rivers from their outlets to their sources, within the above limits, for the purpose of ascertaining the possibility of such a connection as may be feasible for the construction of an interoceanic canal.

MISS HANNAH BRAKENBURY has, among other large legacies, left 12,500/. to the Owens College, Manchester, and 9,000/. to Durham University.

WE learn from the Times of India that Mr. Pogson, the Government Astronomer of Madras, has written a long letter to the local Government, suggesting that some special arrangements should be made for observations of the Transit of Venus in December 1874, in Northern India, independently of the Madras Observatory. The letter has been forwarded to the Government of India for consideration.

Les Mondes says that M. Calombel, Procureur-Général of Missions in China, after careful inquiry, gives it as his opinion that Shanghai is one of the most favourable spots for observing the forthcoming transit of Venus. The climate there is somewhat moist, but the month of December is in general very fine; and Les Mondes says that without doubt Shanghai will be the scene of M. Janssen's "third glorious campaign." Nankin is also a favourable station, but the inhabitants are not yet sufficiently accustomed to strangers, and the presence there of a scientific expedition might lead to a popular riot.

THE Chinese take a curious method to prevent their pigeons from being attacked by birds of prey while circling over the cities or moving from place to place. This consists in the employment of small, short cylinders of bamboo, arranged so as to form a whistle or reed pipe, in groups of three or four, or more. These are attached to the back of the bird, and so adjusted that as it flies through the air a very sharp sound is produced. Varying lengths of the bamboo give variety of tones to this instrument; and when a large number of birds are flying together in a single flock, as is very frequently the case, the sound produced by them is distinctly audible for a great distance. It is said that rapacious birds are effectively repelled by this precaution, so that the pigeons make their flights with perfect safety from one point to another. Varnish is used for coating these bamboo whistles to protect them from moisture This practice is said to have been in vogue among the Chinese for a great many years.

THE temperature of February of this year has shown some very curious peculiarities, and a marked contrast to that of the earlier part of the winter, as may be seen from Mr. Glaisher's tables of observations at Blackheath, published weekly in the Gardener's Chronicle. While, during the whole of the three preceding months there were only twelve frosty nights, with the temperature of the twenty-four hours almost uniformly above the average of the last fifty years, the thermometer fell below the freezing point in eighteen nights in February, and the temperature was below the average on every day except two, the total depression for the month being 4°3 Fahr. The records of very few winters will show so high a minimum as 25°*0 Fahr, the lowest temperature of the past winter at Blackheath, which occurred on February 24 and 25, the thermometer falling

below 30° 0 on only seventeen nights during the whole winter. Since March 2 the temperature has been again uniformly above the mean.

A VERY important extension of the work of the U.S. signaloffice, as far as its system of weather telegraphy is concerned, is about to go into operation. It is proposed to call the post-offices of the country into requisition as intermediate agents for disseminating weather intelligence, for which purpose the territory east of the Mississippi has been divided into districts of about two hundred miles in extent each way, and each having a point of distribution near its centre, to which the "probabilities" will be telegraphed from Washington, and from which two copies of the report are to be sent to all post offices within the district which can be reached by mail as early as six o'clock P.M. each day. It is well known that country post-offices are the centres of intelligence to rural districts, and in order to afford the farmers in the community, especially, an opportunity of profiting by this information, postmasters receiving these despatches are to place a copy as soon as furnished in a conspicuous situation, where the public can see and read it.

Apropos of the correspondence going on in our columns on "Inherited Instinct," we take the following from the Evening Standard of March 8, though it would have been more satisfactory had the Standard named its authority for the statement :During a recent gale the brig Blue Jacket, of West Hartlepool, from Rouen to Shields, was abandoned off Flamborough Head. The crew were taken off, but a cat was left on board. This cat had been given as a kitten to the captain twelve months ago by a lady named Mowbray, living at West Hartlepool, and had never been ashore since that time. On Wednesday last the cat made its appearance at Mrs. Mowbray's house, having swum ashore from the wreck, and travelled thence on foot. It was in a very emaciated condition.

DR. ELSNER, of Berlin, has found that iron is volatilisable at a temperature of at least 3000° centigrade. He experimented with a small piece at this heat, and on uncovering the crucible, distinguished small needles of crystallised iron, says Les Mondes.

WE are glad to note that Ocean Highways has been so successful that next month it is to be considerably increased in bulk, as also in price, the size of the page being at the same time, wisely, we think, somewhat reduced. It is to be hereafter published by Messrs. Trübner.

THE Japanese Government proposes to have an institution for the study of practical engineering, and have instructed their agents to procure a set of machinery and tools similar in all respects to that which the Crystal Palace Company last autumn constructed, for the purposes of their admirable school for practical engineering, under the supervision of Prof. Wilson, as Principal.

THE additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the last week include a puff adder (Vipera arietans), a horse-shoe snake (Zamenis hippocrepis), and a lacertive snake (Calopeltis lacertina) from Morocco, presented by Sir John DrummondHay, K. C.B.; a Rose Hill parakeet (Platycercus eximius), from N. S. Wales, presented by Mrs. Hewett; two Moorish tortoises (Testudo mauritanica), and three Spanish terrapins (Clemmys leprosa), from Algeria, presented by Mr. E. C. Taylor; a crested porcupine (Hyrtrix cristata), born in the gardens; a Malayan bear (Ursus malayanus), deposited; a pig-tailed monkey (Macacus nemestrinus), from Java; a white-cheeked monkey (Cibus lunatus), from Brazil; a talapoin monkey (Cercopithecus talapoin), and a pluto monkey (C. pluto), from West Africa; a Bonelli's eagle (Aquila bonelli), from Morocco; two canary finches (Serinus canarius), from the Canary Islands; and an Iceland falcon (Falco islandus); all purchased.

SCIENTIFIC SERIALS

THE American Naturalist for February, among others, contains an article by Dr. Gill on "The Limits of the Class of Fishes," in which he endeavours to modify their generally accepted classification by dividing them up into two classes and three sub-classes, of equal significance with the reptiles and birds. The names he proposes are (1) Pisces; (2) Marsipobranchii; and (3) Leptocardii, which sufficiently indicate the genera he includes in each class. Such an amount of division we think excessive, and it would undoubtedly necessitate the removal of the crocodiles from the reptilia, among other changes. Mr. A. S. Packard gives an account of one of the beaks of a cuttle-fish, probably Architeuthis dux, which is four and a half inches long; he also describes other colossal specimens. There is a paper by Prof. Jordan on the colours of vegetation, one by Dr. Abbott on the habits of certain crawfish, and another by Dr. Foster on the pottery of the mound-builders, which is fully illustrated.

THE Munich Zeitschrift für Biologie, Bd. 8, Heft 4, contains the following papers of purely medical interest: on the occurrence of enteric fever in the Bavarian army, by Dr. Port, with charts of the mortality in the different barracks and of the amount of subsoil water; On the present state of the cholera problem, by Prof. von Pettenkofer; and on the processes of decomposition which result from venesection, by Dr. J. Bauer.

Schriften der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Danzig, New Series, vol. 3, Part I. The first paper in this publication of the Danzig Society is a contribution to primitive German history by Dr. Lissaicer of Danzig, being a very careful and elaborate monograph on some skulls found at Meisterswalde and Krissau, a short distance from Danzig. The paper is accompanied by some capitally executed photographs of the skulls. The next paper is also a contribution to the history of the early inhabitants of Pomerania, being a description by Herr Kasiski of the numerous and varied contents of some of the ancient graves which abound in the district around the village of Persanzig, on the river Persante, a short distance west of Neustettin. The district abounds with material for the archaeologist. The paper is accompanied with numerous illustrations of the contents of the graves. The next paper is a long one by Dr. C. J. H. Lampe, of Danzig, on the Movement of Water in pipes, accompanied by some calculations as to the pressure and speed of the water in the pipes by which Danzig is now supplied with water from a considerable distance. This paper is also illustrated, as is also the last one, which is the fifth part of A. Menge's Catalogue of Prussian Spiders.

Der Zoologische Garten (Frankfurt a. M.), January 1873, contains an excellent article, with maps in illustration, of the geographical distribution of the Birds of Paradise, with which are included Epimachus and Ptiloris. There is also an article by Dr. H. Dorner on the tongue of the Ka-ka| Parrot (Nestor meridionalis), in which he shows clearly that in structure it presents none of the characters of the Trichoglossina, and in other points his results quite agree with those read before the Zoological Society of London in June last, although he, following Dr. Finsch, does not feel disposed to remove this parrot from among those with trichoglossal tongues, because of a supposed similarity in their beaks, which we find it difficult to appreciate, the Ka-ka's being black and ribbed, whilst that of Lorius is smooth and with an orange tint. There is not the least doubt that, now it has been doubly demonstrated that their tongues are not similarly constructed, there is not any good reason for associating the Nestors with the Lories.

"On a new genus of Amphipod Crustaceans. By Rudolph von Willemoes Suhm, Ph. D., Naturalist to the Challenger exploring expedition.

In lat. 35° 47', long. 8° 23', off Cape St. Vincent, the traw was sent down to a depth of 1090 fathoms on the 28th of January! and brought up among other very interesting things a larg, transparent Amphipod with enormous facetted eyes. The animale evidently hitherto unknown, will be the type of a new genus, having the following characters :

THAUMOPS, nov. gen.

Caput oblongum, inflatum, oculis maximis superiorem capitis partem tegentibus. Segmenta thoracica 6, abdominalia 5. Antennarum in feminis par unum, maxillarum par unum, pedum paria duo minima maxillarum locum tenentia. Mandibulæ nullæ. Pedes thoracici 5, abdominales 3 in quoque latere. Appendices caudales 4. Gangliorum pectoralium paria 5, abdominalium 3.

T. pellucida, n. sp.

Corpus longitudine 14 mm., latitudine 21 mm., pellucidum.

It could not be made out whether T. pellucida inhabits the deep sea, or whether it is, like Phronima, a pelagic animal, having been caught by the trawl only as the latter came up from the depth.

Geological Society, February 26.-Prof. Ramsay, F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. -The following communications were read:"On the Jurassic Rocks of Skye and Raa-ay," by Dr. James Bryce. In this paper the author described numerous sections of Jurassic rocks exposed chiefly in the sea-cliffs of Skye plete series of beds ascending from the Lower Lias to the middle and Raasay, indicating the presence in those islands of a com

of the Middle Oolite. He noticed the occurrence in these sections of fossils belonging to the zones of Ammonites angulatus and A. Bucklandi in the Lower Lias, to the zones of A. Jamesoni, A. capricornus, A. margaritatus, and A. spinatus in the Middle Lias, of Upper Lias fossils, including Ammonites communis, falcifer, heterophyllus, and bifrons and of others indicating beds belonging to the Inferior Oolite and Cornbrash, and to the Oxford Clay. The Loch Staffin beds were described as an logical age, and including a bed almost entirely made up of estuarine series, nearly approaching the Oxford Clay in geoThe whole series of Jurassic rocks

shells of Ostrea hebridica,

in these islands reposes on the Toridon sandstone of Cam brian age; and the author discussed the question whether or not the intervening beds have ever existed in this locality, and came to the conclusion that they probably existed, and have been swept away by denudation. He remarked further upon the resemblance in lithological characters of the beds described with the corresponding deposits elsewhere in Britain. The traprocks intruded between the Jurassic deposits he regarded as of post-oolitic date." Observations on the more remarkable Boulders of the North-West of England and the Welsh Borders," by Mr. D. Mackintosh. In this paper the author described the situation and indicated the probable origin of many of the more striking known boulders in Westmoreland, Cumberland, Lancashire, Cheshire, and on the borders of Wales. The northern boulders seem to have orignated chiefly from Wastdale Crag, Criffel, Ennerdale, and Eskdale; those of Cheshire chiefly from the Lake District and South of Scotland; and many

of those on the Welsh borders from the mountains of Wales. Many of the boulders noticed by the author exhibit glacial striæ. The author also especially referred to the occurrence of boulders at high levels.

Linnæan Society, March 6.-Mr. Bentham made some observations on the homology of the perigynium or utricle of the female flowers of Carex and Uncinia, with a view to calling to the disputed points in question the attention of botanists used to microscopical investigation, who may have the opportunity of examining living specimens in the earliest stages of flowering. Two principal explanations of the homology of the perigynium of Carex have been given. Brown, relying upon its being com. posed of two squama, considered that it represents a perianth, and Payer and Schleiden have adopted the same view, after an examination of its appearance at a very early stage. Kunth, on the contrary, believed it to be formed of a single scale, and to be an ordinary glume subtending the female flower on a secon dary axis, of which the seta of many species of Carex, and of

all the species of Uncinia, is the continuation. If the perigynium is really formed of a single scale, Kunth's view is very plausible, but the two keels or principal nerves, which in most species end in two points or lobes, are strong evidences of its double nature. Kunth explains that circumstance by the suppression of the central nerve or keel owing to pressure, of which, however, there is no appearance in any species examined. Payer states also positively that the two are distinct at an early stage, and unite as they grow up; but implicit reliance is not always to be placed upon his having always clearly seen the minute microscopic and obscure protuberances he delineates. Schleiden delineates the two parts of the perigynium and the seta as forming three parts of one whole; but his drawing is not to be depended upon, as he places them in a wrong position with relation to the axis and the subtending glume. Kunth confirms his views by a comparison with the palea and occasional seta of Gramineæ, but here the position of the two parts in the two orders is by no means homologous. Independently of the relation to the other parts of the flower, the seta or prolonged axis in Gramineæ is outside the paleæ, in Carex inside the perigynium. A stronger confirmation is taken from two South African species of Schoenoxiphium (not generically distinct from Carex) in which the seta occasionally bears a spike of male flowers. This spike appears to be sterile, and may be a case of prolification, but requires further investigation. If it be a normal spike, we must conclude the perigynium or subtending glume to be formed of one scale; for two opposite scales at the base of an alternate inflorescence is a derangement of the ordinary course of change from the alternative vegetative organs to the opposite or whorled floral organs, which is believed to have no example at least in Monocotyledons. If the perigynium is formed of two scales they must belong to the floral whorls. They are not subtending bracts analogous to the two free bracts of Diplacrum, or the united ones of Hoppia, for in both those cases the female flowers are terminal without any other subtending glume, and in Carex the female flower is lateral, and the perigynium is within one outer subtending glume. That they are two out of three parts of a real perianth is rendered improbable by their great development in one sex in an order where it is in all other genera suppressed or rudimentary, and without any trace of it in the other sex. The only remaining supposition is that the perigynium and seta represent the stamens of the male flowers, and are therefore in fact staminodia. position with relation to the axis and subtending glume is the same, and although they are very different in form and texture, that difference is much diminished in Uncinia longifolia where the dilated filaments of the males assume the aspect nearly of the perigynium of the females. The lobes of the perigynium in Carex subulata, and occasionally in some Uncinie, have the look of the seta of Uncinia, and in one instance that seta bore a perfect anther. Brown confirmed his view of the perianth-nature of the perigynium by a specimen of Carex acuta with stamens within the perigynium. An examination of beautiful specimens of this form of Carex acuta, gathered by Mr. Spruce in Yorkshire, shows, from the position and structure of the stamens bearing perigynia, that they are altered female flowers in which more or less imperfect stamens replace the carpellary leaves of which the pistil is formed. If this homology of the perigynium with the androecium of the male flower is thought plausible, it is still doubtful, and the doubt can only be solved by a careful repetition of Payer's observations, and a repeated study of the anomalies of Schoenoxiphium, and of those species of Carex in which the seta is variously developed, many of the forms delineated in the late Dr. Booth's splendid illustrations of the genus requiring a special study on the specimens themselves.

The

Zoological Society, March 4.-Mr. John Gould, F.R.S., V.P., in the chair.-Mr. Edwin Ward exhibited the original leg-bones of Dinornis maximus, from Glenmark Swamp, near Christchurch, New Zealand, described by Prof. Owen in the Society's "Transactions," belonging to Col. Michael.-A communication was read from the Rev. O. P. Cambridge on the spiders of St. Helena, founded on the collections made in that -land by Mr. Melliss. The total number of known spiders of St. Helena was stated to be forty, of which eleven were now described for the first time. The species were mostly European in form. A communication was read from Dr. John Anderson, F.Z.S., Curator of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, on the species and dentition of the Southern Asiatic Shrews, preliminary to a proposed monograph of the group.-A communication was read from Mr. M. R. Butler, being the description of a remarkable new species of butterfly, of the genus Tanaccia, from Penang.

Messrs. P. L. Sclater and O. Salvin read a paper on the birds of Eastern Peru, with notes on the habits of the birds by Mr. E. Bartlett. The total number of species hitherto recorded as met with in the district was stated to be 473, of which 108 were unknown elsewhere.-A communication was read from SurgeonMajor Francis Day on some new or imperfectly known fishes of India. -A communication was read from Mr. G. E. Dobson, M.B., on secondary sexual characters in the Chiroptera. Mr. Dobson pointed out that, contrary to what Mr. Darwin had believed to be the case, special structural characters existed in the males of species of the genera Phyllorhina Taphozous, and other genera of bats.

66

Anthropological Institute, Feb. 18.-Prof. Busk, F. R.S., president, in the chair. Sir John Lubbock, Bart. exhibited two heads of Macas Indians, and contributed a note of the mode of their preparation. Mr. W. Topley read a paper 'On the Relation of Parish Boundaries in the south-east of England to Great Physical Features, particularly to the Chalk Escarpment." March (4.-Prof. Busk, F.R.S., president, in the chair.-A paper was read by Dr. A. Campbell "On the Looshais," a people inhabiting the hill district of Chittagong. They are fairer in complexion than the people of the plains, and their features resemble those of the Malays rather than the Tartar-like people of Mumpore. They have no distinction of caste; marriage is a civil contract, dissolvable at the will of both husband and wife. The men live by hunting, whilst the women are engaged in household work. Sir Duncan Gibb read a paper on Stone Implements

and Pottery from Canada." After describing a collection of arrow and spear heads, some hatchets, and pottery collected by himself in various parts of Canada, he considered the first two as the most ancient implements found in that country, for reasons which he gave, and placed the period of their use at about 200 B. C., although he saw no reason why they might not have been employed 4,000 years ago.-Mr. Hodder M. Westropp contributed a short paper on "The Ventnor Flints," descriptive of fragments of flint and other stone, bearing resemblances to the true arrow-heads and implements of ancient manufacture; and it was shown that the specimens exhibited were wanting in the bulb of percussion and the chipping at the edge which characterised the genuine articles.-The President described an Australian skeleton from the Murray River, which had been sent to the museum of the institute by Dr. Robert Peel, of Adelaide. It was announced that further committees had been appointed for Physical Characters of Mankind; Priscan Archæology; and Descriptive Ethnography.

Chemical Society, March 6.-Dr. Gladstone, F. R.S., viceThe following communications were president, in the chair. read: "On the action of hydrochloric acid on codeine," by Dr. C. R. A. Wright, being a continuation in the codeine series of the author's former researches on morphine. "On new processes for mercury estimation with some observations on mercury salts," by J. B. Hannay. "On a method of estimating nitric acid," by T. E. Thorpe, F. R.S. E., the process depending on the ease with which nitric acid is converted into ammonia by the copper-zinc couple of Messrs. Gladstone and Tribe. "Note on a reaction of the acetates upon lead salts with remarks on the solubility of lead chloride," by F. Field, F.R.S. "Ob. servations on the nature of the black deposit in the copper-zinc couple," by J. H. Gladstone, F. R.S. and A. Tribe, F.C.S. "On an air-bath of constant temperature between 100° and 200° C.," by Dr. H. Sprengel. This consists of a bath similar to the ordinary chemical hot-water oven but made of sheet-lead and filled with dilute sulphuric acid of such a strength as to boil at the desired temperature.

Entomological Society, Feb. 17.-Prof. Westwood, president, in the chair.-Mr. Bond exhibited bred specimens of Acronycta tridens and A. Psi, showing the differences between the two species.-Mr. Müller exhibited some spiral cases of a species of Psyche, and also the egg case of a species of Mantis, both sent from Calcut a by Mr. James Rothney.-Prof. Westwood exhibited two dipterous larvæ preserved in spirits, discharged by a woman in a clot of phlegm, which were probably larvæ of Psila rosa, swallowed with raw carrots. After they had been immersed in spirits for three or four days he took them out for examination, and was surprised to find that they were still alive. He also showed drawings of vine-stems, with excrescences caused by a beetle (Otiorhynchus).-Mr. H. W Bates read a paper on the geodephagous beetles of Japan, col