Societies and Academies

Abstract

SYDNEY. Royal Society of New South Wales, June 6.—Mr. R. H. Cambage, president, in the chair.—A. L. Kroeber: Relationship of the Australian languages. Native terms for a number of fundamental concepts, chiefly names of body parts, were transcribed into a standardised orthography, and the data for each concept were entered on maps. Schmidts' fundamental separation of South and North Australian languages seems unnecessary. The languages are divided into groups, 8 southern and 7 northern; of ii stems, each appears in a majority both of northern and southern groups, and each of 22 others in at least two southern and two northern groups. Genetic unity of all Australian languages seems probable.— J. Read and G. J. Burrows: Note on the dilution of ethylenebromohydrin with water. When ethylenebromohydrin is diluted with water a continuous absorption of heat occurs until a dilution of about 80 per cent.; further dilution from about 75 per cent. to 10 per cent. is attended by a continuous evolution of heat. Upon reversing the process an inibial positive thermal effect is followed by a negative thermal effect. The volume of the solution is always less than the combined volumes of the two components: at 20° a maximum contraction of 1.07 per cent. occurs at a concentration of 50–041 per cent., corresponding closely with the ratio iC2HsOBr: 7H2O. Density and viscosity measurements afford no indication of hydrate formation.—G. Taylor: The warped littoral around Sydney. Pt. I. The region within one hundred miles of Sydney is dominated by warps to the north, west, and south. Of these the well-known Blue Mountain monocline is the largest. The area is subdivided into 15 geographic regions symmetrically arranged about an east-west axis through Botany Bay. The central portion forms a “stillstand,” bounded to the west by three silt-lakes along the Nepean. The coastal features are also symmetrically arranged. Port Hacking is a geographic parallel to Port Jackson, as Illawarra is to the Tuggerah coast. Sydney is unique in that a city of a million people is surrounded on almost all sides (at 50 miles distance) by a belt of country with scarcely an inhabitant. This is a result of geographic controls.—A. R. Penfold and R. Grant: The germicidal values of the principal commercial eucalyptus oils and their pure active constituents, with observations on the value of concentrated disinfectants. From commercial eucalyptus oils, and also the waste products obtained therefrom after rectification, cheap disinfectants having a high germicidal value can be manufactured. The crude oils gave coefficients varying from 5 to 12, while the pure constituents varied from 3–5 up to 22.5. The germicidal activities of the crude oils is due to certain aldehydes, alcohols, and phenols.—M. Henry and W. L. Hindmarsh: Stypandra glauca (a suspected poison plant). Experiments on thirty-two animals of five species, carried out in five different months and over a space of three years, were entirely negative. Sheep fed solely on Stypandra glauca for twenty-five days remained perfectly healthy.