November 2, 191 1] 



NATURE 



3 



and a recalculation of the constants of the electrodynamo- 

 ■neter used causes a further reduction to 1-01836 (at 20° C), 

 1 value only slightly higher than values obtained in other 

 aboratories. — Albert Colson : The theory of solutions. 

 An adverse criticism of the van 't Hoff-Arrhenius theory 

 of solutions. — L. Gay : The expansibility pressure of a 

 normal fluid. — Marcel Delepine : The volatility of sulphur 

 :ompounds. Many examples are known in which the 

 replacement of oxygen in a compound by sulphur causes 

 1 lowering of the boiling point, and there is a general 

 impression that this is always the case. The author 

 suggests that the substitution of sulphur for oxygen always 

 |-aises the boiling point of a compound, except in the case of 

 the hydroxyl group of water and the lower alcohols, phenols, 

 and acids. — Henri Martin : A human skeleton found in 

 pharente (see p. 16). — R. Lacasse and A. Magrnan : A 

 joicephalous human monster. — Louis Route : Some larvae 

 )f apodal fishes. — R. Koehler : Antarctic echinoderms 

 .arising from the expedition of the Pourquoi-Pas ? — Henry 

 iHubert : An attempt at a geological map of western 

 Africa. — Ch. Moureu and A. Lepape : The spectrophoto- 

 metric estimation of xenon. Constancy of the xenon-argon 

 :and xenon-krypton ratios in natural gaseous mixtures. 

 The basis of the method is the increase of intensity of the 

 •blue indigo xenon line 4671-4 when the proportion of xenon 

 |is increased in a mixture of xenon and argon. — M. 

 de Montessus de Ballore : The application of the Cardan 

 suspension to seismographs. 



October 23. — M. Armand Gautier in the chair. — Remarks 

 py the president on the work of De Romas, whose statue 

 has just been erected at N^rac. — A. Miintz and E. Laine : 

 The ammonia in the rain and snow at the observation 

 stations of the Charcot expedition. The estimation of 

 ammonia in eighteen specimens of snow and rain water 

 showed that the distribution of ammonia in rain and snow 

 'in the Antarctic regions does not greatly differ from the 

 (amounts found at 'Eliropean stations.— Ch. Andrd : The 

 cosmogony of Laplace. A criticism of some calculations 

 published by T. J. J. See adverse to the theory of 

 Laplace. The author holds these conclusions to be un- 

 tenable. — ^J. Guillaume : Observations of the sun made at 

 the Observatory oT Lyons during the third quarter of 191 1. 

 'Observations were possible on sixty-nine days. The results 

 are giveh in three tables showing the number of spots, 

 their distribution in latitude, and the distribution of the 

 Ifaculae in latitude. — J. Bosler : The spectrum of Brooks's 

 •comet. Three negatives were taken with exposures of 

 ;twenty-five minutes, one hour, and one hour thirty-five 

 minutes, the comparison spectrum employed being that of 

 Vega. Besides the hydrocarbon and cyanogen bands there 

 .was a group df lines of wave-lengths 407, 405, 40 r, and 

 (399. The spectrum of the tail was quite different from 

 that of the head, and resembles the spectrum of the tail 

 of the Daniel comet. — M. Inig^uez : Observations of the 

 Brooks comet made at the Observatory of Madrid. — Henri 

 Viliat : Certain integral equations of a new type and some 

 problems relating to them.— E. Jougruet : The dynamical 

 adiabatic law in the motion of wires. — Georges Claude : 

 The commercial manufacture of pure nitrogen. In the 

 preparation of calcium cyanamide by the action of nitrogen 

 lupon calcium carbide at a high temperature a very pure 

 initrogen is required. The quantities required on the large 

 scale are such that chemical methods of preparation are 

 put of the question, and the present paper gives an account 

 of the method of preparing nitrogen by the fractional 

 distillation of liquid air. It is necessary that the nitrogen 

 iProduced should con-tain less than 025 per cent, of oxygen. 

 iThrf>e installations of the type described in the paper have 

 set up, giving nitrogen of a purity of 99-7 to 99-8 per 

 -Jean Villey : The electric couple in electrometers. — 

 !io Fouard : The osmometry of saline solutions and 

 mic theory of .Arrhenius. An account of experiments 

 • with a differential osmometer against saccharose as 

 .a standard. The results with potassium sulphate are in 

 ticcord with the Arrhenius theory ; with potassium chloride, 

 popper sulphate, and barium chloride, on the- other hand, 

 ['he results found are opposed to the ionic theory. — G. 

 'Oarxens and H. Rest : The syntheses of some new hydro- 

 laromatic ketones. Tlip chloride of the hvdroaromatir arid 

 |is prepared by tlm artion of SOCl,, and "this, diluted with 

 pther, is treated with the organo-magnesium compound at 

 ! NO. 2192, VOL. 88] 



a temperature of — 10° C. The ketone, which is mixed 

 with a small quantity of tertiary alcohol, is purified by 

 conversion into the semicarbazone ; the yields are good, 

 from 40 to 60 per cent. Details are given of the prepara- 

 tion and properties of several ketones. — -M. Marage : 

 Various kinds of deaf-mutes. — Ch. Gravier : Some bio- 

 logical peculiarities of the annelid fauna of the Antarctic 

 seas. — E. Roubaud : The evolution and history of the 

 ■' Ver du Cayor," an African larva from the skin of 

 Cordylobia anthropophaga. — Maurice Piettre : The 

 melanic pigments of animal origin. The pigment 

 was isolated from material from the horse, avoiding 

 the use of strong acids or alkalis in the separation. 

 Analyses of the pigment are given and of the substance 

 derived from it by hydrolysis. — Stanislas Meunier : The 

 chemical and lithological examination of the El Nakhla 

 meteorite. This meteorite belongs to a new type allied to 

 Chladnite, from which it differs by the substitution of 

 hypersthene for eustatite. — J. Thoulet : The fall of sedi- 

 ments in oceanic waters. 



Melbourne. 

 Royal Society of Victoria, September 14. — Prof. E. W. 

 Skeats in the chair. ^ — E. F. J. Love and G. Smeal : The 

 psychrometrical formula. A modified formula for the wet- 

 and dry-bulb hygrometer was suggested by Ekholm in 1908, 

 viz. x = ?j/ — AB(t — t'), where jj is a proper fraction to allow 

 for diminution of vapour pressure by hygroscopic action of 

 the material on the wet bulb. The facts do not require any 

 such interpretation, and the formula is tested by observa- 

 tions with several wet bulbs covered with different materials. 

 A new large type of screen was used, and simultaneous 

 readings show no difference to temperature, as would be 

 the case if such action occurred ; further, by comparison 

 with a Regnault hygrometer, the value of ?; is found by 

 least squares to be unity, confirming the usual theory. — 

 Howard Ashton : Some new Australian Cicadidae. The 

 specimens come from northern Australia. The following 

 are new : — Cyclochila laticosta, Psaltoda pulchra, P. fumi- 

 pennis, Macrotristria doddi, Owra insignis (n.g. et n.sp.), 

 Thaumastopsaltria glauca, Melampsalta brevis, M. viridis, 

 M. crucifera, Pauropsalta elgneri, P. subolivacea, and 

 Prasia vitticollis. — Prof. Skeats : Specimens from Heath- 

 cote showing all stages of metasomatism from diabase to 

 quartz. — T. S. Hall : Graptolites from Preservation Inlet, 

 west coast of New Zealand. These are of Lancefieldian 

 (lowest Ordovician) age ; Bryograptus, Clonograptus, and 

 other genera are present. A most remarkable fact was the 

 exact lithological resemblance of the rock, a blue-black 

 silicified shale, to that of Lancefield (Victoria), though the 

 localities are some 1200 miles apart. 



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