May 4, 1876] 



NATURE 



17 



albuminoid ammonia yielded by the stagnant waters of the Dub- 

 lin streets, as compaied with the quantities of those substances 

 obtained from the Liflfey water receiving the sewage." Twenty- 

 nine street waters were examined ; the mud, also, left from some 

 was examined for ammonia. The following are Dr. Studdert's 

 deductions : — The average of free ammonia from the four sam- 

 ples of the river was 00982, or under i-io of a grain in the 

 gallon ; the average of albuminoid ammonia irom the same is 

 0"0779, or under 1-12 of a grain in th« gallon. The average of 

 free ammonia obtained from the twenty-nine street waters is 

 seventeen grains to the gallon ; that is, over 170 times the like 

 average from the river. The average of albuminoid ammonia 

 from the street water is three grains to the gallon, or thirty- 

 eight times the Liffey average. The maximum of free ammonia 

 from the river only reached 0*175, ^^ l^^s than 1-5 of a grain to 

 the gallon ; whilst the maximum of free ammonia from the street 

 waters was 105 grains to the gallon, that is exactly 600 times 

 greater than the river maximum. The least impure of the 

 twenty-nine street waters yielded nearly three times more albu- 

 minoid ammonia than the most impure sample of the river water. 

 The average of disintegrating animal refuse in the Liffey is 

 0779, or just 3-4 of a grain in the gallon ; whilst the average of 

 such refuse in the street waters is twenty-nine grains to the 

 gallon. That much of this animal matter must, if not rapidly 

 removed, take forms that will vaporise, seems to the writer all 

 but certain, since the conditions for spontaneous decomposition 

 may be said to be always present ; and he concludes that the 

 continued presence of so much dirt in the streets would go far 

 to account for the high death-rate (33 to the 1,000, yearly), then 

 lately recorded for Dublin, and that better scavenging and a 

 level surface for the streets are at once required. 



The proposal for establishing a mountain exploration club in 

 America, with similar objects to the Alpine clubs of England 

 and Switzerland, is meeting with a good deal of encouragement, 

 and several meetings have been held for the purpose of organ- 

 ising it. 



Mr. Bryck M. Wright, of No. 90, Great Russell Street, 

 Bloomsbury, has just received a most perfect specimen of Fossil 

 Turtle {Chf Ionia Hoffmantti) from the Upper Chalk of Maes- 

 tricht. It is 4 feet i inch in length and 22 inches wide, more 

 than twice as large as the largest English specimens from 

 Harwich and Swanage, Dorset, and is indeed the largest known. 



The correspondent J. C, who last year sent us a query con- 

 cerning the cause of death of the house-fly, writes that recently 

 he noticed that a humble-bee had five small animals like yellow 

 spiders on its neck, and two more on its body. He had pre- 

 viously noticed a number of hive-bees lying dead on the green- 

 house floor. Another correspondent explained that the death of 

 the fly was caused by parasites, and J. C. wishes to know if 

 those on the bee are the same, and if they cause the death of 

 bees as well as flies. 



The Lord Mayor and the Lady Mayoress will entertain the 

 President of the Royal Society, the Astronomer-Royal, the Pre- 

 sidents of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, and 

 other distinguished representatives of science, at a grand banquet 

 in the Mansion House, on Saturday-week, the 13th instant. 



The opening meeting of the Northamptonshire Natural 

 History Society and Field Club was held at Northampton on 

 April 21, Lord Lilford in the chair. This Society starts under 

 good auspices, with a roll of sixty members, and we hope it will 

 soon get into vigorous working tiim. 



It is officially announced that the Philadelphia Exhibition 

 will be opened on the loth instant. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two iiennett's Cassowaries {Casuarius bennettt) 



from New Britain, presented by the Rev. George Brown ; an 

 Indian Gazelle {Gazella bennettii) from India, presented by Lieut. 

 King, 76th Regiment ; a Common Badger {Melestaxus) Euro- 

 pean, presented by Mr. W. Barneby ; a Dusky Ichneumon 

 (Herpestes pulverulenius) from India, a broad-fronted Crocodile 

 {Crocodilus frontatus) from W. Africa, presented by Dr. Alex. 

 Jennens ; four Blackish Stemotheres (Sternotharus stibniqer) 

 from Madagascar, presented by Mr. Lionel Hart ; two Protei 

 {Proteus ansfuinus) European, presented by Sir Bartle E. Frere ; 

 a White-fronted Capuchin {Cebus albifrons) from S. America, a 

 White-throated Capuchin {Cebus hyfoleuctts) from Central Ame- 

 rica, a Lyre Bird {Menura superba) from Australia, a Hoffmann's 

 Sloth {Cholopus hoffmanni) from Panama, three Common Boas 

 {Boa conslrktor) from S. America, deposited ; a Collared Fruit 

 Bat {Cynonycteris collaris) born in the Gardens. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Journal of tkt Chemical Society, No. clix., March 1876. — This 

 number contains a lengthy account of the researches of Dr. 

 Wright and Mr. G. H. Beckett on narcotine, cotarnine, and 

 hydrocotarnine, being the third of a series of papers read by 

 them before the Chemical Society on their researches in this 

 direction. — Mr. E. Nelson gives an account of the sebates of 

 the alcoholic series and an additional note on the sebate of 

 cobalt. — A paper by Mr. P. P. Bedson, B. Sc, on some com- 

 pounds of ether with anhydrous metallic chlorides, and one by 

 Mr. R. W. Emerson Maclvor, on the iodides of antimony, 

 complete the list of those papers read before the Chemical 

 Society. — Numerous abstracts of papers published in other 

 journals on various bodies in the different departments of 

 chemistry occupy the greater part of the work now before us. 



Gazzetfa Chimica Italiana, Fascicolo IX. e X., Anno V., 1875, 

 These paits contain the following papers : — Action of anhydrous 

 chloral, and of the hydrate on aniline, by D. Amato. The 

 author has obtained by this reaction a new base formed according 

 to the equation : — 



COjCOH -H 2CfiH5NH„ = H^O -»- CCI3CH j JJ^^'S'- 



Chloral Aniline New base. 



The new substance forms square tabular crystals melting at lOO", 

 soluble in alcohol, ether, and benzene, and in-oluble in water. 

 Distilled with excess of potash it yields phenyiic cyanide : — 



CCI3CH j NHC6H5 + 3KHO = 3H,0 -t- 3KCI 4- 2C6H5CN. 



TheauthordescribesaisothehydrochlorideCCl3(NHC,H5)„HCl, 

 and the platino- chloride [CCl3CH(NHC,iH5)„HCl]„PtCl4". 

 — Study of essence of Cubibs, by A. Oglialoro. The author 

 shows that this substance contains : — (i) a small quantity of 

 a hydrocarbon Cj^Hjg, boiling at 158° — 163°. 2. A hydro- 

 carbon C15H24, boiling at 264° — 265°, forming with hydro- 

 chloric acid the compound C15H24 2HC]. 3. A hydrocarbon 

 boiling at 262" — 263° not forming a compound with HCl, the 

 composition of which is at present doubtful. The action of 

 these hydrocarbons on the polarised ray is also described. — On 

 the natural poison of the extract of human bodies, by Prof. A. 

 Moriggia and A. Battistini. The remainder of the part is occu- 

 pied by extracts from foreign journals. 



Foggendorff'' s Annalen der Physik und Chemie. Erganzung. 

 Band vii. Stiick 3. — In a paper in this number on the magnetism 

 of steel bars, by M. Fromme, it is shown that tie temporary 

 magnetism increases at first more slowly, then more quickly, and 

 again more slowly than the magnetising force. M. Fromme 

 also got the interesting result that when the remanent mag- 

 netism, through repeated action of a force P, has reached its limit, 

 (the saturation corresponding to this force), a smaller force, p, is 

 not capable of altering it. For every permanent moment ol a steel 

 bar there are, from zero onwards, a series of magnetising forces, 

 in relation to which the bar has the properties of a bar of soft 

 iron (without coercive force). Exact determinations were made 

 of the function of magnetisation for forces having this effect ; 

 and it is shown that the Neumann- Kirchhoff developments on 

 this subject cease to hold good as soon as the steel is permanently 

 magnetic. M. Fromme further finds that the temporary mag- 

 netism of a steel bar, with repeated magnetisation by a constant 

 current, decreases, but in such a way that the whole magnetism 



