April 27, 191 1] 



NATURE 



297 



tive, epileptic, cooperation with the sanitary authorities as 

 to infectious disease, directions to the parents, school 

 nursing, contributions to hospitals, and establishment of 

 school clinics (p. 94). 



Section V. deals with dental disease and dental treat- 

 ment. Section VI. discusses the problem of special schools 

 for physically defective and epileptic children. Section 

 VII. deals with feeble-minded children; Section VIII. with 

 physical training. There are important appendices on 

 practical questions. 



Altogether, the Board of Education and its chief medical 

 officer are to be congratulated on this conspectus of the 

 school medical service, which is rapidly becoming the most 

 important medical service in the country. 



OPTICALLY ACTIVE PHOSPHORUS- 

 COMPOUNDS. 

 /^NE of the most fascinating problems of organic chem- 

 ^^ istry consists in the attempt to prepare compounds 

 the molecules of which are devoid of planes of symmetry, 

 and are therefore capable (like a screw or a glove) of 

 existing in two forms, usually distinguished as left-handed 

 and right-handed ; these have the property of rotating the 

 plane of polarisation of a beam of light to equal extents 

 in opposite directions. Such compounds usually contain 

 an " asymmetric " atom linked to four or five radicles all 

 differing from one another ; but compounds have recently 

 been prepared in which the asymmetry cannot be 

 attributed to any single atom, but is a property of the 

 whole molecule (see Nature, vol. Ixxxii., p. 266, 

 December, 1909 ; this vol., p. 93, March 16). In addition 

 to carbon (linked to four different radicles), asymmetry has 

 been traced by Pope and his colleagues to atoms of penta- 

 valent nitrogen and of tetravalent tin, sulphur, and 

 selenium, whilst Kipping has added tetravalent silicon to 

 the list. The latest addition, that of pentavalent phos- 

 phorus, forms the subject of a recent paper by Prof. 

 Meisenheimer in the Berlin Berichte. Two or three years 

 ago this author described a new type of isomerism in the 

 case of nitrogen, the chief characteristic of which was the 

 presence of only four different radicles attached to the 

 pentavalent atom instead of the five that had usually been 

 thought necessary to give rise to optical activity. The 

 conclusions then arrived at have been confirmed by the 

 recent preparation of methylethylaniline oxide, 

 CH,\ 



C,H, 



c:h; 



^N^O 



in pure crystals, which displayed a large optical activity 

 when dissolved in dry benzene, both the dextro and the 

 laevo forms of the oxide having been separated and 

 examined. The new phosphorus compound is of precisely 

 similar composition, having the formula 



CM;, \ 



CgHs-^P^o 



C«H, 



'/ 



It was prepared by combining diphenylethylphosphine, 

 (C,H,)2P(C2H5), with methyl iodide, liberating the base 

 by means of silver oxide, and decomposing it by boiling 

 with water, as indicated by the equation 

 (C.H.,).(C,H,)(CH,,)POH =C.H,+ (C.H,)(C,H,)(Cn,)PO. 

 The inactive base was resolved by combining it with 

 bromocamphorsulphonic acid — the same agent that was 

 employed twelve years ago by Pope and Peachey in pre- 

 paring the first active derivatives of asymmetric nitrogen — 

 [and was separated again from this acid by passing 

 unmonta gas into a solution of the salt in benzene. The 

 imonium salt was filtered off, and the base separated in 

 leedle-shapod crystals of undoubted purity. When redis- 

 !>lved in benzene, the base showed fhe highly satisfac- 

 jry rotatory power (ul„-^ 3.^"^° f M )„+ S?"- 

 ,The experiments now described provide a completed solu- 

 of a problem which had already been solved partially 

 Kipping and Luff (Proc. Chem. Soc, 1909, p. 203). 

 se authors succeeded in isolating two isomeric hydrind- 

 les of the formula 



o=p;-oc7H7 



NO. 2165, VOL. 86] 



which differed from one another in optical rotatory power, 

 and almost certainly contained the dextro- and laevo- 

 rotatory forms of the phosphoric radicle ; unfortunately, 

 it was not found possible to separate this radicle from the 

 active hydrindamine which had been used in resolving it, 

 and the final proof of the activity of the phosphoric radicle 

 could not be given. 



METEOROLOGICAL REPORTS AND 

 SUMMARIES. 

 J^ANILA WEATHER BUREAU (1906).— The meteor- 

 ological observations at the secondary stations have 

 now been published, and form part ii. of the annual report 

 (part i., referring to the central observatory, appeared 

 some time ago). It extends to 404 quarto pages, and 

 includes daily observations and monthly means at the 

 stations which at that time constituted the meteorological 

 service of the Philippines. The observations are carefully 

 collated and examined at the central observatory ; some of 

 the stations extend to the Ladrone and Western Caroline 

 Islands, and are of the utmost importance in connection 

 with the origin and premonition of the destructive typhoons 

 that frequently advance from that part of the Pacific 

 Ocean. They are also used in the preparation of the 

 valuable monthly weather bulletins of the bureau, to which 

 we have often had occasion to refer. 



Toronto Observatory (1908). — During the year covered 

 by this report, the building used since 1855 was 

 replaced by a new Canadian Meteorological Office and 

 Observatory. The following values are taken from the 

 useful summary of results given for each month and 

 the year, with differences from the average of the past 

 sixty-nine years. The extremes of temperature are taken 

 from the maximum and minimum thermometers in the 

 Stevenson screen. Highest temperature (July 30), gi-s"; 

 lowest (February 4), — 17-4° ; highest on record, 99-2° ; 

 lowest, —26-5°. Mean of highest readings in 1908, 

 55-8° ; of lowest, 37-7°. Mean from max. and min., 46-7°, 

 being 27° above the average. Highest solar radiation 

 (August 4), 128-3° ; lowest night radiation (February 4), 

 — 210°. Rainfall, 21-72 inches; depth of snowfall, 77-8 

 inches. Percentage of possible sunshine, 47, the average 

 for the past twenty-seven years being 42 per cent. The 

 mean W. declination was 5° 54-1'; dip, 74° 369'. 



Korea Meteorological Observations (1908-9). — These 

 valuable observations and results are in continuation of 

 those referred to in our issue of May 19 last. The follow- 

 ing statistics refer to Chemulpo Observatory (lat. 

 37° 29' N., long. 126° 32' E.) for 1909. Temperature : — 

 mean maximum, 58-5°; absolute, 932" (in August); mean 

 minimum, 44-1°; absolute, 8-1° (in December); annual 

 mean, 507° (normal, 51-1°); rainfall, 25 inches (normal, 

 37-7 inches), days, 96 ; sunshine, 2746 hours (62 per cent, 

 of possible amount). The instruments and methods are 

 the same as those at Japanese stations. 



Odessa Observatory (1909). — We are glad to see that 

 Prof. Stankevitsch proposes to cooperate regularly in the 

 international researches of the upper air. Two kite ascents 

 were made in December, but only moderate altitudes were 

 reached. .At present this important work can only be 

 carried out under difficulties, as the director and his prin- 

 cipal observers are engaged at the University. The 

 annual summary shows that the mean temperature was 

 507°; January, 21-2°; July, 74-3"; absolute maximum, 

 04-8° (in July), minimum, —7-2° (in Januar}'). Rain- 

 fall, 14* inches, on 98 days ; fog, 58 days ; frost, 95 days. 

 Appendices give the normal values for a number of years 

 (see NAxaKfc, February 16), also rainfall and thunder- 

 storms, at stations in south-west Russia. 



India Weather Review. Annual Summary (1909). — ^The 

 greater part of this work is taken up by the calculation 

 of the monthly and annual departures of each element 

 from the normal values, and a useful discussion of the 

 results under four sea.sons : cold-weather f>eriod (January 

 and February), hot-weather period (March-May), south- 

 west monsoon period (June-September), period of the 

 retreating south-west monsoon (October-December). 

 These are followed by abstracts of the observations made 

 in India and a few extra stations, and by maps relating 

 to rainfall, and the tracks of cyclonic storms formed in the 



