August i i, 1923] 



NA TURE 



227 



intersection, the two curves having different direc- 

 tions, should show an angular point. Determinations 

 of the solubility of ammonium nitrate at eleven 

 temperatures between 26-7° and 39-2° C. and calori- 

 metric experiments on the same salt at 28° C. and 

 36° C. give results confirming the views of Le Chatelier. 

 — P. Laffitte : The propagation of the explosive wave. 

 A study by the photographic method of the explosion 

 of mixtures of carbon bisulphide and oxygen in 

 spherical glass vessels. — Mile. Chamie : The ionisation 

 produced by the hydration of quinine sulphate. — 

 Albert Colson : The range of the displacement of 

 equilibrium. — E. Decarriere : The catalytic oxidation 

 of ammonia by air in contact with pure palladium. 

 The yield of oxidised nitrogen is a function of the 

 temperature of the catalyst, the percentage of 

 ammonia in the gas entering, and also of the physical 

 state of the metal. The results of experiments on 

 the effects of the last factor are given. — Andre Job 

 and Andre Samuel : Oxidation phenomena in the 

 complex nickel cyanides : valence, co-ordination, 

 coloration. — M. Marange : The identification of 

 cocoa butter by miscibility curves. — M. Haehl : 

 ^-Chlorodiphenylsulphone. The chlorodiphenylsul- 

 phone prepared by Beckurts and Otto has been 

 prepared by another method and is shown to be the 

 para compound. — L. Bert : The chloride of cumyl- 

 magnesium. — Mile. N. Wolff : The furfural- and 

 difurfural-7-methylcyclohexanones. — R. Fosse and A. 

 Hieulle : Xanthyl-allantoin. The precipitation of 

 this compound from an acetic acid solution serves 

 to identify allantoin, and to precipitate it from 

 solution containing very small proportions. — A. 

 Mailhe : The preparation of petroleum starting from 

 vegetable oils. Dry distillation of rape oil with zinc 

 chloride gave more than 50 per cent, of hydrocarbons 

 consisting of paraffins and unsaturated ethylene 

 derivatives. — Andre Helbronner and Gustave Bern- 

 stein : The action of the antioxygens on rubber. 

 Crude depolymerised rubber is preserved from oxida- 

 tion by the presence of small proportions of anti- 

 oxygens, such as tannin or hydroquinone. Vulcanised 

 rubber thus treated does not show the usual effects 

 of ageing. — Paul Woog : Direct observation of the 

 hydration of hydrocarbons. — A. Loubiere : A new 

 genus of Pyrenomycetes. — Emile F. Terroine, R. 

 Bonnet, and P. H. Joessel : The influence of tempera- 

 ture on the energy yield in germination. — A. Polack : 

 The correct form of the experiment on the chromatism 

 of the eye by the partial closing of the pupil. — R. 

 Faillie and J. P. Langlois : The vertical oscillation 

 of the centre of gravity of the body while walking 

 down an inclined plane.— Mme. Anna Drzewina and 

 Georges Bohn : The influence of light on the activating 

 power of the sperm of the sea urchin. — Ch. Dejean : 

 Role of the middle layer in the assemblage of the 

 first beginnings of the eye. — P. Lec^ne and H. Bierry : 

 The demonstration of the presence of sucrase in the 

 wall of the mucoid cysts of the ovary. 



Calcutta. 



Asiatic Society of Bengal, July 4. — J. Coggin Brown • 

 On the occurrence of Ostrea gryphoides Schlotheim in 

 Calcutta. Specimens were found near the surface in 

 excavations for a new building in Calcutta. They 

 provide no new evidence on the question of a former 

 extension of the sea over the present site of Calcutta. 

 — H. C. Das- Gupta : On the fossil Pectinida) from 

 Hatbab, Bhavanagar State (Kathiawar). — P. N. 

 Missra : Eakshman Samvait. Calculation of European 

 equivalent dates for 16 Lakhsman Samvat dates on 

 various assumptions as to the beginning of the era. — 

 H. C. Ray : Allusions to Vasudeva Kfi^hjiia Devaki- 



NO. 2806, VOL. I 12] 



putra in Vedic literature. Vasudeva Krishria is 

 mentioned not only in the Epic and the Puranas 

 but also in at least two works of the Vedic literature. 



Cape Town. 



Royal Society of South Africa, May 16. — Dr. A. Ogg, 

 president, in the chair. — P. A. van der Bijl : Notes 

 on some South African Xylarias. — A. Ogg : The 

 crystalline structure of the alkaline sulphates. In 

 conjunction with Mr. Lloyd Hopwood it was shown 

 that the crystal unit of alkaline sulphates contains 

 four molecules. With sulphur atoms at the corners 

 and the face centres, and with the nitrogen atoms at 

 the centres of each of the eight -rhombs into which 

 the unit can be divided by planes through the centre 

 of the unit at right angles to one another and parallel 

 to the faces, we can build up a structure which 

 explains the structure of the ammonium sulphate 

 crystal. The nitrogen atoms lie at the centre of 

 a tetrahedron of hydrogen atoms, each hydrogen 

 connecting up to an oxygen atom, which in turn 

 connects' up to a sulphur atom. In the structure 

 for potassium, rubidium, and caesium sulphates, if 

 the metals with sulphur lie along the diagonal of the 

 100 face of the unit, the length of the diagonal, 

 assuming Bragg's values for the atomic diameters, 

 agrees with those found from X-ray measurements. 



Washington, D.C. 



National Academy of Sciences (Proc. Vol. 9, No. 6, 

 June). — L. P. Eisenhart : Another interpretation of 

 the fundamental gauge-vector of Weyl's theory of 

 relativity. — G. Y. Rainich : Tensor analysis without 

 co-ordinates. A method of deriving the theory of 

 surfaces without introducing notions having no 

 intrinsic significance such as transformations, co- 

 variants, and contravariant quantities, the funda- 

 mental tensor gn etc. — A. B. Coble : Geometric 

 aspects of the Abelian modular functions of genus 

 four (III.). — H. D. Curtis: On irregularities in the 

 velocity curves of spectroscopic binaries. The spectro- 

 graphic velocity curves of some of the Cepheid variable 

 stars seem to fit elliptical velocity curves, each with 

 a single oscillation or hump which occurs near the 

 time of maximum velocity of approach. This is in 

 agreement with Duncan's theory of a large and 

 tenuous star rotating about a darker companion in 

 a slightly resisting medium. — W. J. Luyten : On the 

 form of the distribution law of stellar velocities. 

 The distribution and space velocities of the stars 

 which have been observed within a sphere with the 

 sun as centre and of radius 10 parsecs seem to fall 

 on a simple logarithic error curve. — C. G. Abbot and 

 colleagues : The solar prelude of an unusual winter. 

 The mean monthly values of the solar constant 

 determined " at Mount Harqua Hala, Arizona, and 

 Mount Montezuma, Chile, decreased throughout 1922 

 and the early part of 1923. This seems to have been 

 related to unusual weather conditions in the United 

 States. — C. E. Mendenhall and M. Mason : The 

 stratified subsidence of fine particles. Suspensions 

 of rock particles were allowed to settle in rectangular 

 tubes across which a temperature gradient was 

 maintained. Stratification occurred in the tubes 

 where the amount of suspended material increases 

 appreciably with depth, but too great a temperature 

 gradient destroys any strata. The effect seems to 

 be due to convection currents which circulate in 

 definite layers. — M. Mason and C. E. Mendenhall : 

 Theory of the settling of fine particles. An expression 

 giving the position of layer boundaries is derived. 



