yuly 13, 1876] 



NATURE 



241 



dichiomate strikes a blackish green or red colour when brought in 

 contact with aniline. You will see the modus operandi when 

 I say that paper is floated with potassium dichromate and a 

 trace of phosphoric acid. Aniline is dissolved in spirits of wine, 

 and the mixed vapours allowed to come in contact with the sen- 

 sitive paper that has been exposed beneath a positive print, such 

 as a map or plan. The impact of the light has so changed the 

 potassium salt, that the aniline vapour causes but little colora- 

 tion, whilst where the paper has been protected from it, the dark 

 colour indicates that the dichromate is unchanged. The forma- 

 tion of this black colour is familiar to the manufacturers of aniline 

 colours, being, I believe, similar in composition to the residue 

 left after the formation of aniline purple by Mr. Perkins's 

 method. 



Tt should be noted that for copying engineers' tracings and 

 drawings this process is extremely valuable, as there is ro occa- 

 sion to take a negative on glass before obtaining a print. All 

 that is requisitels that the original should be iaitly penetrable 

 by light. A piece of paper prepared as indicated, a sheet of 

 glass to place over the plan, and a box in which to place the 

 exposed print to the aniline vapour are the only necessary plant 

 for the reproduction of a design. 



{To be continued.) 



NOTES 



The following are the officers of the forty-sixth annual meet- 

 ing of the British Association which will commence at Glasgow 

 on Wednesday, September 6, 1876 : — President-designate — Prof. 

 Thomas Andrews, M.D., LL.D,, F.R.S., Hon. F.R.S.E., in 

 the place of Sir Robert Christison, Bart., M.D., D.C.L., 

 F.R.S.E., who has resigned the Presidency in consequence of 

 ill health. Vice-Presidents elect — His Grace the Duke of 

 Argyll, K.T., F.R.S., &c., the Lord Provost of Glasgow, Sir 

 William Stirling Maxwell, Bart., M. A., M.P., Prof. Sir William 

 Thomson, D.C.L., F.R.S., &c., Prcf. Allen Thomson, M.D., 

 LL.D., F.R.S., &c., Prof. A. C. Ramsay, LL.D., F.R.S., &c. 

 General Secretaries — Capt. Douglas Gallon, C.B., D.C.L,, 

 F.R.S., &c.. Dr. Michael Foster, F.R.S. Assistant General 

 Secretary — George Griffith, M.A., F.C.S. General Treasurer — 

 Prof. A. W. Williamson, Ph.D., F.R.S. Local Secretaries— 

 Dr. W. G. Blackie, F.R.G.S., James Grahame, J. D. Mar- 

 wick. Local Treasurers — Dr. Fergus, A. S. M'Clelland. 

 The Sections are the following : — Section A : Mathematical and 

 Physical Science. President — Prof. Sir W. Thomson, D.C.L., 

 F.R.S. Section B : Chemical Science. President — W. H. 

 Perkin, F.R. S. Section C : Geology. President— Prof. J. 

 Young, M.D. Section D : Biology. President — A. Russell 

 Wallace, F.L.S. Department of Anthropology, A. Russell 

 Wallace, F.L.S. (President), will preside. Department 

 of Zoology and Botany, Prof. A. Newton, F.R.S. (Vice- 

 President), will preside. Department of Anatomy and 

 Physiology, Dr. J. G. M'Kendrick (Vide-President), will 

 preside. Section E : Geography. President — Capt. Evans, 

 C.B., F.R.S., Hydrogiapher to the Admiralty. Section F: 

 Economic Science and Statistics. President — Sir George 

 Campbell, K.C.S.I., M.P., D.C.L. Section G: Mechanical 

 Science. President— C. W. Merrifield, F.R.S. The First 

 General Meeting will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 6, at 

 8 p.m. precisely, when Sir John Plawkshaw, C.E., F.R.S., 

 will resign the chair, and Prof. Andrews, F.R.S., President 

 Designate, will assume the Presidency, and deliver an Address. 

 On Thursday evening, Sept. 7, at 8 p.m., there will be a soiree ; 

 on Friday evening. Sept 8, at 8.30 p.m., a Discourse; on 

 Monday evening, Sept. il, at 8.30 p.m., a Discourse by Prof. 

 Sir C. Wyville Thomson, F. R. S. ; on Tuesday evening, Sept. 

 12, at 8 p.m., Visoirie ; on Wednesday, Sept. 13, the Concluding 

 General Meeting will be held at 2.30 p.m. The Local Com- 

 mittee, as our readers wiU have seen from a previous report, 

 have made unusual exertions to render the Glasgow meeting a 

 success. A variety of interesting collections will be exhibited. 



and the excursions which have been already arranged for will 

 doubtless form one of the most attractive, and not the least 

 instructive, feature of the meeting. 



It is with sincere regret that we notice the announcement in 

 V Explorateur of the death of the eminent and well-known geo- 

 grapher, Dr. August Ileinrich Petermann, at the early age of fifty- 

 four years. He was bom April i8, 1822, at Bleicherode, in Prus- 

 sian Saxony. In 1839 he became a pupil of the special Academy 

 founded at Potsdam by the geographer Berghaus, whose secretary 

 and librarian he was for six years, as well as collaborateur, for he 

 took an active part in the preparation of the great Physical 

 Atlas of liis master ; the English edition, which appeared at 

 Edinburgh in 1847, even bore his name. In 1845 be left Ger- 

 many for Edinbui^h, after two years' stay in which city he went to 

 London, where be became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical 

 Society, lie wrote many valuable articles on the Progress of 

 Geography, in the Athenceum and the " Encyclopaedia Britan- 

 nica," published the " Atlas of Physical Geography" in con- 

 junction with the Rev. Thomas Milner, and a Tableau of Central 

 Africa according to the most recent explorations. It was greatly 

 due to his influence that the English Government entrusted to 

 the German travellers Barth, Overwes', and Vogel, missions 

 fruitful in results both to science and commerce. Petermann 

 also, as our readers know, paid great attention to questions con- 

 nected with the Arctic regions, though his opinions on certain 

 points connected with Arctic geography are not likely to be 

 confirmed. Still he did excellent service in this department by 

 advocating the equipment of expeditions private and govern- 

 mental, and by recording speedily and accurately the results from 

 time to time obtained. In 1 854, Petermann accepted the chair 

 of geography in the University of Gotha, and in 1855 received 

 from the University of Gottingen the degree of Ph.D. It 

 was at this time that he undertook the direction of the 

 great geographical establishment of Justus Perthes, of Gotha, 

 and commenced to edit the well-known Mittheilungen, the 

 monthly geographical review, whose scientific value has been 

 long recognised. Petermann had a comprehensive idea of 

 what is included under geographical science, and it wUl be diffi- 

 cult to supply his place either as editor of the Mittheilungen, or 

 in the department of scientific geography. 



Mr. Cross on Monday received a very numerous deputation 

 from the British Medical Association, who laid before him their 

 views with regard to the Vivisection Bill now before Parliament. 

 These opinions were conveyed by Mr. Ernest Hart, Mr. John 

 Simon, Dr. Wilks, senior physician of Guy's Hospital, and Sir 

 W. Jenner, who raised his voice against a measure which would 

 place men of science under police supervision, and wotild lay a 

 ban upon them for inflicting cruelties on the lower animals when 

 ten thousand times greater cruelties were inflicted by those who 

 were going to pass this Bill. Such conduct would make those 

 who passed it objects of scorn to all the scientific men in Europe. 

 The Home Secretary, in reply, pointed out that the Bill was 

 framed practically in accordance with the views of the Royal 

 Commission, and that whether the Bill passed now depended 

 entirely upon the line of conduct pursued by the medical pro- 

 fession. 



We are compelled by a pressure on our space to postpone 

 the continuation of Dr. Richardson's articles till next week. 



The Kew museums have recently acquired some interesting 

 additions to their already unique and valuable collections by the 

 presentation, by his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, of the 

 botanical specimenscollectedduringhisrecentvisittolndia. These 

 specimens consist of a number of seeds and fruits of economic or 

 medicinal value, as well as of condiments, drugs, gums, &c., 

 from Southern India, and a series of named woods from Kanara. 

 Though most of the seeds, fruits, and gums are already contained 



