5^4 



NATURE 



\Oct. 19, 1876 



to be shown by Mr. Muir's experiments that the solvent action of 

 dilute saline solution upon lead tends to attain a maximum when 

 large surfaces of liquid are exposed to the surrounding air, and 

 when the volume of liquid is large in proportion to the surface 

 of lead exposed. Further, that under these conditions, and in 

 the presence of those salts which aid the action — especially 

 nitrates and more especially ammonium nitrate — the quantity of 

 lead dissolved increases in an increasing ratio with the time 

 during which the action is allowed to proceed. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, October 9. — Vice-Admiral Paris in 

 the chair. The following papers were read : — On the absorp- 

 tion of free nitrogen by the immediate principles of plants, under 

 the influence of atmospheric electricity, by M. Berthelot. He 

 used, this time, the weaker normal electric tension in the atmo- 

 sphere. One closed tube of thin glass was inclosed in another. 

 In the former was a roll of platinum joined to a conductor elec- 

 trified by the atmosphere (at a height of 2 metres), while a thin 

 sheet of tin round the outer tube was connected to earth. Into 

 the annular space was (previously) introduced pure nitrogen or 

 ordinary air, along with moist strips of blotting paper or a few 

 drops of syrupy solution of dextrine. Twelve tube-systems, 

 varying as described, were connected in position, from July 29 

 to October 5 ; the mean electric tension being that of 34 Daniell 

 elements, but oscillating from -t- 6oZ>to — 180 Z>. In all the 

 tubes nitrogen was fixed by the organic matter — one to several 

 millimetres per tube. In two cases green spots of microscopic 

 algae were found on the strips of moist paper in nitrogen 

 tubes, showing a greater fixation of nitrogen in these. The 

 experiments indicate an influence, little suspected hitherto, 

 in vegetation. — Note on capillary affinity, by M. Chevreul. The 

 name comprises all cases of union of a solid vidth a gas, a 

 liquid, or a body held in solution by a liquid, where the solid 

 retains its apparent form. The present note refers to action of 

 massicot or calcined litharge on lime, strontium, or baryta water. 

 The facts of capillary attraction are specially important for agri- 

 culture. — On the action which boric acid and the borates exert 

 on plants, by M. Peligot. French beans watered once with 

 solutions of borate of soda or potash, or boric acid, soon 

 withered and died. He doubts if a substance so deleterious to 

 plants can be quite innocuous to animals, where used to pre- 

 serve meat. — On the reciprocal action of oxalic acid and mono- 

 atomic alcohols, by MM. Cahours and Demarfay. Where 

 oxalic acid is caused to act on a mixture of propylic and isopro- 

 pylic alcohols, propylic oxalate is produced almost exclusively. 

 If the corresponding alcohols be extracted from this mixture of 

 oxalates by saponification, a mixture 1 ich in propylic alcohol is 

 had, which, etherified anew by oxalic acid, furnishes oxalate of 

 propyle almost pure. Hence we have a very simple mode of 

 separation for two alcohols, which it would be almost impossible 

 to separate by present processes. — On the stercoral anguillule, by 

 M. Bavaz. This is the nematoid found in the stools of patients 

 subject to diarrhoea of Cochin China. It is closely related to 

 \k\t.Rhabditis terricola,T>v^]z.xdS.n. It has been met with in the 

 stomach, pancreatic duct, choledochus, hepatic ducts, and the 

 walls of the gall-bladder, and in at least thirty patients. — On 

 the flow of blood by tubes of small calibre (transpirability of 

 Graham), by M. Haro. Heat accelerates the flow of defibri- 

 nated blood, and more so the richer the blood is in corpuscles ; 

 on serum heat acts much as on distilled water. Defibrinated 

 blood which has had a current of COj passed through it some 

 time, and has then been filtered through fine linen, flows more 

 slowly than the same blood made rutilant by decantation in 

 free air. Sulphuric ether, containing no trace of alcohol, retards 

 the flow of defibrinated blood, serum, and water. Chloro- 

 form retards the flow of water and serum, while it favours that 

 of defibrinated blood. These facts have important physiological 

 bearings. — Geological study of the prehistoric grottoes of Gre- 

 aulx, in their relation to thermal waters, by M. Saubert. The 

 latter are shown to be the cause of the former. — New observa- 

 tions on the Piiylloxera of the oak, compared with that of the 

 vine, by M, Balbiani. The new facts prove a great resemblance 

 between the two in their habits and the phenomena of their re- 

 production. — Results obtained in treatment of phylloxerised 

 vines with sulphide of carbon ; measure in which this treatment 

 should be applied, by M. Allies. — On the orders and classes of 

 certain geometrical positions, by M. Halphen. — Determination 

 of nitric acid in organic substances ; chemical composition of 

 certain gun-cottons, by MM. Champion and Pellet. Organic 



substances containing nitrogen are completely reduced, in certain 

 conditions, by ferrous salts, and behave like nitrates. Hence, 

 to determine the nitrogen, the authors adopt a modification of 

 the process of Pelouze or Schlcesing, The composition assigned 

 to gun-cotton corresponds to the pentanitrocellulose of Pelouze, 

 C24Hi50i55N05, not trinitrocellulose (Abel). — On the limits 

 between which fire-damp explodes, and on new properties of 

 palladium, by M. Coquillion. The first limit, with excess oj fire- 

 damp, is I of firedamp to 6 of air ; the second, with excess of 

 air, I of fire-damp to 16 of air. Palladium may with impunity 

 be raised to a red heat in one of the most detonant mixtures 

 known. —Note on the crystalline form of melinophane, by M. 

 Bertrand. — The formula of seiches, by M, Forel. 



Geneva 



Society of Physics and Natural History, September 7. — 

 M. Raoul Pictet described observations by him made on an in- 

 termittent fountain in the neighbourhood of Vichy, department 

 of AUier. The case under consideration does not belong to the 

 class which may be accounted for by the ordinary explanation of 

 a siphon charging and discharging itself subterraneously. The 

 fountain is here projected at intervals from an artificial vertical 

 hole pierced in the ground to the depth of more than 100 metres. 

 Other borings made in the locality tend to prove that there 

 exists at that depth an underground collection of water, under 

 pressure, which permanently maintains the level of the water in 

 the tube at three or four feet below the level of the ground. At 

 intervals occurring four or five times during the day, bubbles of 

 gas begin to rise in the liquid ; then, in the space of two 

 seconds, the water rushes out in force, and for a certain time to 

 a height of twelve metres. No siphon hypothesis can be 

 applied to the locality ; the phenomenon must be explained by 

 a mechanical action of another kind. M. Pictet supposes the 

 pressure of the subterranean gas to accumulate above the surface 

 of the water underneath. In certain places the surface of the 

 earth above may present hollows the upper part of which is at a 

 higher level than the lower orifice of the tube. The pressure 

 increasing, gas may then enter the tube, diminishing the pressure 

 of the liquid, which causes equilibrium with the subterranean 

 pressure, and effecting an emission of water which will last 

 until that equilibrium is restored. M. Pictet has devised an 

 apparatus to prove his theory and which completely illus- 

 trates it. (Vide Archives des\ Sciences PhysiquA et Naturelles, 

 September, 1876.) 



CONTENTS Page 



Maudslev's "Physiology OF Mind." By Douglas A. Spalding . 541 



Our Book Shklf : — 



" Annual Record of Science and Industry for 1875 " 543 



" Causeries Scientifiques " 543 



LSTTKRS TO THB EDITOR I— 



The Self-fertilisation of Plants.— Rev. George Henslow ... 543 

 Wallace's "Geographical Distribution of Animals."— Richard 



LVDEKKER 544 



The Resistance of the Electric Arc— W. E. Ayrton ; John 



Perry 544 



Habits of Animals Transmitted to Offspring.— Thomas H. 



Potts 544 



Moon-Stroke.— E. Bonavia, M.D 54s 



The Memoirs of the Geological Survey. — Wm. Horsfall . . . 545 

 Our Astronomical Column \— 



Chacornac's Variable Nebula near f Tauri 545 



Olber's Supposed Variable in Virgo 545 



Relative Brightness of Uranus and Jupiter's Satellites .... 54S 



Blanpain's Comet, 1819 545; 



Prof. Huxley on University Education 546 



Rev. Mark Pattison onIUniversity Reform 550 



The Fifth Meeting OF Russian Naturalists 55a 



Principles of Time-Measuring Apparatus. II. By H. Dent ' 



Gardner. (With Illustrations) ■ . 554 



Crookes's Radiometer. By Dr. E. Frankland, F.R.S .... ssS 



Geology of England And Wales. [With lllustratiotis) . . . 556 



Sumner's "Method at Sea'' 559! 



Notes 359 



Scientific Serials S6>- 



Societies and Academies 5^3 



I 



