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AM TURE                                           [Oct. 19, 1871
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                SCIENTIFIC SERIALS
   .ahrbwuch der kaiserlich-kWni'glichen geologischen Reichsanstalt.
 Vol. xvi. No. I. (Vienna.) The first paper in this part of the
 7ahrbuch is one by Prof. Kreuz, " Das Vihorlat-Gutin-Tra-
 chytgebirge."  This is one of those painstaking lithological
 papers which are less commonly met with in our own scientific
 journals than one could wish.  The author has carefully ex-
 amined under the microscope the trachytic rocks of the Vihorlat-
 Gutin mountains of North-eastern Hungary, a range which
 stretches from north-west to south-east in the same direction as
 the Carpathian Sandstones. He groups the rocks under three
 divisions :-(I) Augite-andesite; (2) Sanidine-oligoclase-trachyte;
 (3) Breccias and Tuffs; and his descriptions of the two
 former are particularly full and interesting.  The breccias and
 tuffs are necessarily less susceptible of clear concise description;
 they appear to vary as much and in as short a space as similar
 volcanic accumulations elsewhere.-Prof. Koch, of Ofen, con-
 tributes " Beitrag zur Kentniss der geognostischen Beschaffenheit
 des Urdniker Gebirges," an isolated little mountain range, which
 stretches between the Danube and the Save in East Sclavonia.
 He describes the Tertiary strata he examined in his last visit to
 that district as being grouped round the foot of the hills. The
 beds are of marine, fresh, and brackish-water origin.   He
 does not determine their exact geological horizon, but gives
 lists of the fossils he obtained. The paper concludes with an
 account of a mass of sanidine-trachyte, which the author believes
 to be of Tertiary age. -A paper on Azilococeras Frr. V. Hazer, by
 Dr. Edm. von Mosjsisores, is illustrated with four lithographic
 plates. This and the following paper " On the Tertiary Forma-
 tion ot the Vienna Basin," by Theodor Fuchs and Felix Karrer
 we recommend to the attention of our paleontologists. Fuchs'
 and Karrer's paper is most elaborate, and contains copious lists
 of fossils which, besides being interesting in themselves, are use-
 ful for purposes of comparison. The Jahrbuch concludes with
 " Studien aus dem    Salinargebiete  SiebenbUrgens," by F.
 Posepny; this, however, is only the second part of the paper,
 the first part having been published so far back as 1867. These
 saliferous regions are described in considerable detail, and numer-
 ous chemical analyses are given. A map, and sections. &c.,
 accompany the paper. We should mention that the 7ahrbuch
 includes obituary notices of two former members of the Institute,
 the well-known Wilhelm Haidinger, and Urban Schloenbach, an
 enthusiastic paleontologist and geologist who was cut off at the
 early age of thirty-one.
 THE three numbers of the Quarlerly _7ournal of Miicroscopical
 Science of the present year contain a number of valuable original
 contributions to science, besides transactions, chronicles of the
 progress of histology and micro-zoology, and various reviews and
 short notes and memoranda. In the January number Prof.
 Allman describes a new mode of reproduction by fission in a
 new hydroid polyp, which he figures in a plate.-Haecket's
 researches on the nature of Coccoliths and Bathybius are
 noticed at length, and the remarkable Radiolarian Myxo-
 brac/zia is figured in a tinted plate.-Mr. Archer, of Dublin, to
 whose researches published in the same journal in I869 we owe
 our knowledge of a most beautiful and interesting group of fresh
water Protista-the Heliozoa-contributes to the April number
a further account of new fresh water rhizopods, illustrated with
two coloured plates.-In the same number Mr. Moseley figures
and describes the nerves of the cornea, and Mr. Lankester gives
a minute account of the structure and mode of formation of the
sperm-ropes of the river Annelids.-In the July number an ex-
ceedingly valuable memoir by Dr. Van Beneden appears "On
the Development of a Species of Gregarina," which he de-
scribed last year (also in the Journal). It appears that the
Gregarinae exhibit a young stage when they are devoid of nuclens,
and have great activity and worm-like form; to this stage Dr.
Van Beneden applies the name pseudo -filarian.-In the same
number Mr. Sorby gives an elaborate paper on the colouring
matters of leaves, which has an appropriate place in a journal
devoted to microscopy, since it is only by the micro -spectroscope
that many of those colouring matters can be studied on account
of their small quantity, and, further, since the application of such
methods of analysis to histology as the micro-spectroscope affords
is of the very highest importance. -Various points relating to the
instrument itself are discussed in these three parts by Dr. Royston
Pigott, who figures his aplanatic searcher and its results on the
Podura scale; by Messrs. Dudgeon, Newton, aud others, who
describe new apparatus.-Mr. Moseley gives accounts of how to
use gold chloride and silver nitrate in histological research, and
how best to prepare and cut sections of the frog's egg for embryo-
logical study. -The original paper by Dr. Nitzsche, of Leipzig
(illustrated), on the reproduction of the Bryozoa, and the reply
to Mr. Hincks, are important, and on a very curious point, It
is, however, to the chronicles and notes which we would espe-
cially call attention as of service to biological students. Long
abstracts of all the important papers published in the German
periodicals are to be found-in some cases illustrated by wood.
cuts; thus we have Neuman on the origin of the red blood cor-
pucles, Kranse on connective tissue, Flemming on fatty tissue,
Schdbl on the bat's wving and mouse's ear, Pfluiger on the method
of demonstrating nerve-endings in the liver and other glands,
Exner on the Schneiderian membrane, Cienkowski on the sporo-
gonia of Noctihica, and many other such.
  IN the ?ozirnal of Botany for October, Dr. Braithwaite con-
tinues his Recent Additions to our Moss Flora. Mr. R. Tucker
gives some Notes on the now well-defined Flora of the Isle of
Wight; and Dr. Moore Notes on some Irish Plants. Mr. F.
Stratton contributes an article on Monotropa hySpopitys, confirming
the statement of other recent observers that this plant is not truly
parasitic. The remainder of the number is occupied by short
notes, reviews, reports, and reprints.
  THE Scottish Naturalist for October opens with a timely re-
print of an extract from Mr. Patrick Matthew's work on Naval
Timber, published in I83I, and referred to in Darwin's "Origin
of Species," in which he distinctly enunciates the theory that
"circumstance and species have grown up together," or that
new species have arisen from old species adapting themselves to
altered circumstances. The most important original articles in
the number are: The Baleens, or Whalebone Whales of the
North-east of Scotland, by Mr. R. Walker; Notes on the
Tetraonidae of Perthshire, by Mr. R. Paton; On the Altitudes
attained by Certain Plants (varying from those already recorded),
by Dr. F. Buchanan White; and On Scottish Galls, by Mr. J.
W. H. Traill.
         SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES
                           PARIS
  Academy of Sciences, October 2.-M. C. Jorden read a
mathematical paper " On the Classification of Primary Groups."
Two papers on subjects connected with physics were read, one by
M. A. Cornu, " On the Determination of the Velocity of Light,"
in which he suggests an improvement in the method proposed by
Fizeau for this purpose, and a note by M. G. Salet on the Spectra
of Tin and its components, which he describes as the most
singular he has ever seen. -On astronomical subjects several com-
munications were made.-M. Chasles replied to a statement made
by M. Bertrand at a previous meeting with regard to Aboul
W&fa's method of calculating the position of the moon. M.
Yvon Villareau communicated a long paper, full of mathemati-
cal formulae, " On the Determination of the true Figure of the
Earth, without the necessity of actual levellings. "-M. Dtlaunay
read a note on the two recently discovered planets, Nos. II6 and
II7, in which he indicated that the planet discovered at Ver-
sailles by M. Borelly, and named Lornia, must be numbered II7,
as the planet discovered by M. Luther two days afterwards had
been previously detected in America by Mr. C. H. F. Peters.-
498
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