May 23, 1889] 



NATURE 



85 



before the end of the year, the capital and surrounding districts 

 were visited v/ith several severe shocks of earthquake. The first 

 shock took place on December 29 at 8 p.m. This was followed 

 by another at 11 p.m., and on Sunday, December 30, at 

 4.21 a.m., by the most severe of all, lasting 25 seconds, and 

 of such force as to cause considerable damage to the principal 

 buildings in San Jose, and to nearly all the churches, besides 

 private houses, few of which escaped damage. The morning was 

 pitch dark, and hundreds of people, in all kinds of costumes, 

 hurried into the Central Park looking for their friends, not 

 knowing what might happen or whether any portion of their 

 houses would be left to them. Several houses have been con- 

 demned by the authorities, and have had to be pulled down, whilst 

 energetic measures are being taken to repair the damage done 

 to the principal buildings, and the Government have erected 

 temporary shelters for the poor who have been rendered home- 

 less. The total damage is estimated at half a million sterling. 



The half-yearly meeting of the Council of the Italian Meteor- 

 ological Society was held on April 28. Padre Denza referred 

 to the activity of the Society during the previous six months, 

 during which time several observing stations had been 

 added in Italy and at Malta and Punta Arenas (South 

 America) ; and to the working of the hygienic stations estab- 

 lished at Florence and several other important cities. He also 

 referred to the various Conferences which are being held in ac- 

 cordance with the decisions of the general meeting at Venice 

 last year, for the purpose of popularizing meteorological science 

 in Italy. Special investigations are being carried out with the 

 view of determining the amount of carbonic acid gas in the air, 

 and with regard to the system of the winds in the South Atlantic. 

 The questions of sunshine and phenological observations were 

 also discussed, and the importance of issuing general instructions 

 for these subjects, and for the regular geodynamical observations 

 at the Society's stations. 



At the meeting of the Scientific Committee of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society on May 14, Mr. Wilson made some re- 

 marks on the question of the protection of fruit-trees againht 

 winter moths. He observed that the plan recommended in the 

 Agricultural Gazelle of October 15, 1888, of making a ring of 

 cart grease and Stockholm tar round the bases of fruit-trees, 

 though very effectual in catching large quantities of wingless 

 females, had not prevented them from attacking the trees 

 altogether, as the leaves on certain trees thus treated (as 

 described at the Scientific Committee on January 15, 1889) were 

 all going at the present date. At the same meeting Dr. Masters 

 exhibited several photographs of plants from Madeira, including 

 one of Phylolacca dioica as a large tree with a massive base of 

 confluent roots, the usual form of this plant in Europe being 

 a herb. 



At the last meeting of the Chemical Society of Gottingen, 

 Dr. Buchka announced the re.-ults of his investigations upon the 

 'composition of bromide of sulphur. Balard long ago showed 

 that sulphur readily dissolves in bromine with formation of a ruby- 

 red liquid ; this liquid, as more recently shown by Mr. Pattison 

 Muir, may be freed from excess of bromine by means of a current 

 oi dry carbon dioxide. On attempting, however, to subject it 

 to distillation, it is found to boil at about 200° C, but with de- 

 composition. Indeed it is possible, by repeated distillation, to 

 completely dissociate it int t sulphur and bromine. Hence it has 

 never hitherto been possible to analyze a sample of the redistilled 

 liquid, and so there has been a certain amount of doubt as to its 

 composition. Most of the analyses hitherto published have 

 pointed to the formula SoBr^, but Guyot ascribes to it the formula 

 SBrj. Hence Dr. Buchka has attempted the distillation of the 

 crude product under diminished pressure, and finds that the ex- 

 periment entirely succeeds at the low pressure of 20 mm. of 



mercury, the red liquid passing over withoat the least sign of 

 decomposition at a temperature of 1 11°- 113°. Analyses of this 

 redistilled liquid confirm the formula S.2Br2. Hence bromide 

 of sulphur resembles the monochloride, SgCU, the most stable 

 of all the chlorides of sulphur : it differs from the chloride, 

 however, in being more unstable, and only volatilizable without 

 decomposition at a pressure not much exceeding 20 mm. of 

 mercury. 



Formaldehyde, CHjjO or H . COH, the first member of the 

 important series of aldehydes, has been synthesized by Prof. 

 Jahn, of Cronstadt, Hungary, in a most instructive manner. 

 During the course of Dr. Jahn's well-known researches upon the 

 volumetric estimation of hydrogen by means of palladium, it was 

 noticed that the presence of carbon monoxide always considerably 

 disturbed the occlusion of the hydrogen by the palladium. As 

 there was a possibility that some of the hydrogen had bodily 

 united with the carbonic oxide with formation of formaldehyde, 

 it was determined to repeat the experiment upon a larger scale 

 and in a more suitable form of apparatus. A mixture of carbon 

 monoxide and hydrogen was therefore led over a layer of spongy 

 palladium, and the products passed through a series of bulbs con- 

 taining water. On detaching the bulbs the odour of aldehyde 

 was readily perceived, and the contents at once reduced an 

 ammoniacal silver nitrate solution with formation of the silver 

 mirror characteristic of aldehydes. Hence it was quite evident 

 that the carbon monoxide and hydrogen had partially united in 

 the pores of the palladium with production of formaldehyde. 

 Two litres of the mixed gases were found quite sufficient to give 

 a good silver mirror. This reaction is all the more interesting 

 in view of Dr. Loew's recent synthesis of formose, CgHjaOg, an 

 artificial member of the glucoses, by condensation of formalde- 

 hyde with calcium hydroxide ; for as carbon monoxide is readily 

 prepared by passing oxygen over excess of heated carbon, it may 

 be said that glucose has been built up directly from its elements 

 — carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. 



The officials of the Australian Museum, Sydney, are now 

 engaged in working at the Percoid Fishes, and the trustees 

 announce that they will be glad to make exchanges in this group 

 with the authorities of other museums. 



The Paris Correspondent of the Daily News says the Zoological 

 Society of France has warned the French Government that a 

 great ornithological calamity is impending. The Department 

 of the Bouches du Rhone has hitherto been one of the chief 

 landing-places for swallows coming from Africa. Engines for 

 killing them, formed of wires connected with electrical batteries, 

 have been laid in hundreds along the coast. When fatigued by 

 their over-sea flight, the birds perch on the wires and are struck 

 dead. The bodies are then prepared for the milliner, and crates 

 containing thousands of them are sent on to Paris. This has 

 been going on for some years, and it has been noticed this spring 

 that swallows have not landed on the low-lying coast, but have 

 gone farther west or east, and that they go in larger numbers 

 than formerly to other parts of Europe. There are places, says 

 the Zoological Society in its petition, where they used to be 

 very numerous, but which they have now deserted, although there 

 has been no falling-off in the gnats and other flying insects on 

 which they live. 



Miss E. C. Jelly, F.R. M.S., proposes to issue shortly a 

 catalogue of the published species of recent Polyzoa, with a full 

 synonymy. The main lines followed are those of Hincks and 

 Waters. Only a limited number of copies will be printed, and 

 application for them must be made to the authoress. 



The State University of Iowa has begun to issue what 

 promises to be an excellent series of Bulletins from its 

 laboratories of natural history. No systematic biological survey 

 of the State has yet been attempted, and the editors of the new 



