Societies and Academies

Abstract

PARIS Academy of Sciences, August 9.—M. Wurtz in the chair.—The following papers were read:—Summary report of a zoological exploration in the Bay of Biscay in the Government ship Le Travailleur, by M. A. Milne-Edwards.—Experiments tending to prove that fowls vaccinated for cholera are refractory for charbon, by M. Pasteur.—Results of observations of solar spots and faculæ during the first two quarters of 1880, by P. Tacchini. The numbers indicate rapid increase of solar activity. The days without spots form five groups separated by a mean interval of twenty-nine days, showing that in one hemisphere (which is that visible in the end of last December) the spots were formed with difficulty.—On a class of linear differential equations of the second order, by M. Brioschi.—Experiments on the discharge in rarefied gases, by M. Righi. Inter alia, the glass seems to become luminous at the point where it acts as positive electrode. During discharge the negative electrode is probably much more heated than the positive. The cause of mechanical action of the negative electrode is the same as in the radiometer.—On some properties of flames, by M. Meyreneuf. The gas which feeds a flame is subject to two opposing influences, one creating a draught outwards, the other (expansion through combustion) tending to drive the gas back. By diminishing the rate of outflow without modifying the combustion, one may regulate these movements so as to get vibrations of the nature of sound. Better sonorous effects are had by making a flame impinge on a round rod or on another flame.—Indices of refraction of aqueous solutions of acetic acid and of hyposulphite of soda, by M. Damien.—On an improvement of the Bunsen battery by M. Azapis, by M. Ducretet. For acidulated water is substituted a 15 per cent. solution of cyanide of potassium, caustic potash, marine salt, or ordinary sal ammoniac. The zincs need not be amalgamated. They are less consumed than in the Bunsen; the intensity of the current is no less, and its constancy is remarkable.—On the spectra of ytterbium and erbium, by M. Thalén. —On thulium, by M. Cleve.—Researches on the heats of combustion of some substances of the fat-series, by M. Louguinine.—Secondary reaction between sulphuretted hydrogen and hyposulphite of soda, by M. Belamy.—On the acid obtained by M. Boutroux in the fermentation of glucose, by M. Maumené.—On a new process for producing malleable nickel of different degrees of hardness, by M. Gamier. This consists in incorporating phosphorus with the nickel (to take up oxygen); e.g., adding to the bath of nickel a phosphide of nickel containing about 6 per cent, phosphorus. Very thin sheets of the material can be produced.—On propylnervine, by Mr. Morley.—Influence of light on transpiration of plants, by M. Comes. Plants transpire more in light than in darkness, and more the intenser the light. The more intense the colour of the organ, the greater the transpiration. The luminous rays absorbed alone favour the transpiration,—On the source of muscular work and on supposed respiratory combustions, by M. Sanson. The liberation of energy is due greatly, if not wholly, to phenomena of dissociation similar to those in fermentations; in presence of anatomical elements (blood-corpuscles specially) the immediate principles of the plasma are dissociated, give carbonic acid and doubtless other compounds which borrow oxygen from the hæmoglobin for their formation, and yield their energy to the muscular elements, which then manifest it by doing work in contracting, or to the blood for maintenance of animal heat.—On the use of nitrite of ethyl for rendering contaminated places healthy, by M. Peyrusson. It acts like ozone, but more powerfully.—Complement of the biological evolution of pucerons of galls cf poplar (Pemphigus bursarius, Lin.), by M. Lichtenstein.—On the affinities of the genus Polygordius with annelides of the family of Opheliidæ, by M. Giard.—Discovery of new mammalia in the phosphate of lime deposits of Quercy (Upper Eocene), by M. Filhol.—On the structure and functions of the embryonal suspensor in some leguminous plants, by M. Guignard.——On deforming pilosism in some plants, by M. Heckel.—On a new instrument for pointing guns, by M. Arnoux.