April 2,, i8$o] 



NA TURE 



527 



cent. As regards (6), all experimental data available, especially 

 those relating to sulphuric acid, show that the deviations are 

 neither regular nor always in the same direction. Mr T. II. 

 Blakesley said he was greatly interested with Prof. Pickering's 

 paper, for some time ago he was induced to make experiments 

 on the volume of salts in solution by reading Joule's papers on 

 that subject. Some of the results confirmed, but others did 

 not agree with, Joule's theory that the molecular volume in solu- 

 tion was a whole number. If this theory was true, then (he 

 said) it would be possible to predetermine the density of solu- 

 tions, and from the measured density of any known solution we 

 could determine the water of crystallization of the salt from the 

 formula 



^(D-,) 



D 



(h;u + ^ )' 



where W and w are the masses of the water and salt respectively, 

 D the density of the solution relative to water at the same 

 temperature, A the molecular weight of the dehydrated portion 

 of the salt, x the number of molecules of water, and n the 

 molecular volume of ihe salt in solution, the two latter being 

 whole numbers. 



Chemical Society, March 6. — Dr. W. J. Russell, President 

 in the chair. — The President announced that the senior 

 Secretary would attend the meeting to be held in Berlin on 

 March il to celebrate the 25th ainiversary of the promulgation 

 of Prof Kekule's benzene theory, and would present a con- 

 gratulatory address from the Society. — The following papers 

 were read : — Some crystalline substances obtained from the fruits 

 of various spt-cies of Cilrtis, by Prof. W. A. Tilden, F. R.S., 

 -and Mr. C. R. Beck. The authors have examined the solid 

 matters which are de|»osited from freshly extracted oils of limes, 

 lemons, and berganot made by hand. The substance, limettin, 

 obtained from oil of limes (C limetta) has the composition 

 Ci,jHj40g, and crystallizes in tufts of needles melting at I2i°-I32°. 

 It is neither an acid nor a glucoside, is not acted upon by acetic 

 chloride or phenylhydrazine, and yields phloroglucol, and acetic 

 and formic acids on fusion with potash. Essence of lemons 

 yields a substance, C]4Hj40g, very similar to limettin in appear- 

 ance, though the crystals are more lustrous and melt at 116°. 

 Bergamot yields a compound which crystallizes in colourless 

 prisms and melts at 270°-27i°. — Reduction of adiketones, by 

 Prof. F. R. Japp, F.K.S., and Dr. F. Klingemann. Benzil, 

 when reduced by I'oiling with fuming hydriodic acid for a few 

 minutes, gives an excellent yield of deoxybenzoin. Phenanthra- 

 quinone, unHer like conditions, gives so-called phenanthrone, 

 which, contrary to Lachowicz's view, is not the deoxybenzoin of 

 phenanthraquinone, but a mono-hydroxyphenanthrene. — Studies 

 on isomeric change, No. IV; halogen derivatives of quinone, 

 by Mr. A. R. Ling. The experiments of Hantzsch and of 

 Nietzki have proved, in opposition to those of Levy, that the 

 "anilic" acids are paradihydroxy-derivatives of quinone, and 

 Hantzsch and Schniier have shown that an isomeric change 

 occurs when paradichloroquinone is brominated, the product 

 being nieiadichlorometadibromoquinone. The author has in- 

 vestigated the aciion of bromine on paradichloroquinone and 

 diacetylparadichloroquinol, and the action of chlorine on para- 

 dibromoquinone, and has obtained results which confirm 

 Hantzsch and Schniter's conclusion, since all attempts to 



/CBr.CCK 

 prepare paradichloroparadibromoquinone, C0<^ /CO, 



^CCl.CBr/ 

 have been unsuccessful, the product in every case con- 

 sisting of the isomeric metadichlorometadibromoquinone, 



yCCl.CBr 

 CO<^ ^CO. — Note on a phenylic salt of phenylthio- 



^CCl.CBr/ 

 carbamic acid, by Prof. A. E. Dixon. — Contributions to the 

 chemistry of thiocarbimides ; interaction of benzyl chloride and 

 of allyl bromide with thiocarbamide, phenyl- and diphenyl- 

 thiocarbamides, by Mr. E. A. Werner, 



Geological Society, March 12.— Mr. J, W. Hulke, F.R.S., 

 Vice-President, in the chair. — The following comnunica ions 

 were read : — < "n a dt-ep channel of drift in the valley of the Cam, 

 Essex, by W. Wh'iiaker. In Scotland and in Northern Eng- 

 land long and deep channels filled with drift have been noticed, 



but not in Southern England. For some years one detp well- 

 section has betn known which showed a most um xpectcd thick- 

 ness of Glacial drift in the higher j^^art of the valley of the Caro^ 

 where that drift occurs mostly on the higher grounds and is of 

 no very great thickness. Lately, further evidence has come to- 

 hand, showing that the occurrence in question is not confined to- 

 one spot, but extends for some miles. The beds found are for 

 the most part loamy or clayey. At the head of the valley- 

 various wells at Quendon and Kicklingshow irregularities in the 

 thickness of the drift, the chalk coming to or near the surface ii> 

 some places, whilst it is nearly 100 feet below it .sometimes. 

 Further north, at Newport, we have the greatest thickness of 

 drift hitherto recorded in the South of England, and then with- 

 out reaching the base. At one spot a well reached chalk at 75 

 feet; whil.-t about 150 feet off that rock crops out, showing a 

 slope of the chalk surface of i in 2. In the most interesting of 

 all the wells, after boring to the depth of 340 feet, the work was- 

 abandoned without reaching the chalk, the drift in this case 

 reaching to a depth of about 140 feet below the level of the- 

 sex, though the place is far inland. The chalk crops out about 

 1000 feet eastward, and at but little lower level, so that there is 

 a fall of about i in 3 over a long distance. At and near Wei'den 

 the abrupt way in which drift comes on against chalk has beei> 

 seen in open sections. Two wells have shown a thickness of 

 210 and 296 feet of drift respectively ; and as the chalk comes- 

 to the surface, at a level certainly not lower, only 140 yards fron> 

 the latter, the chalk surface must have a slope of i in less thai* 

 l|, and this surface must rise again on the other side, as the 

 chalk again cropis out. The drift here reaches to a depth of 6(> 

 or 70 feet below the sea-level. At Littlebury, in the centre of 

 the villai;e, a boring 218 feet deep has not pierced through the 

 drift, which reaches to 60 feet below the sea-level. As in a 

 well only 60 yards west and slightly higher, the chalk was 

 touched at 6 feet", there must here be a fall of the chalk surface 

 of about I "2 in i. Eastward, too, on the other side of the 

 valley, the chalk rises to the surface. The places that have been 

 mentioned range over a distance of 6 miles. How much further 

 Ihe drift-channel may go is not known, neither can \ve say to- 

 what steepness the slope of the underground chalk surface may 

 reach ; the slopes given in each case are the lowest possible. 

 The author thinks that the channel has been formed by erosion 

 rather than by disturbance or dissolution of the chalk. After 

 the reading of the paper there was a discussion, in which Dr. 

 Evans, Mr. Clement Reid, Mr. Topley, Mr. J. Allen Brown, 

 Dr. G. J. Hinde, and the author took part. — On the 

 Monian and ba^al Cambrian rocks of Shropshire, by Prof. 

 J. F. Blake. — On a crocodilian jaw from the Oxford Clay ot 

 Peterborough, by R. Lydekker. — On two new species of Laby- 

 rinthodonts, by R. Lydekker. 



Linnean Society, March 20. — Mr. W. Carruthers, F.K.S.,. 

 President, in the chair. — After reading the minutes of the last 

 meeting, the following resolution, moved from the chair, was- 

 unanimously adopted : — " On the occasion of a gift, from Mr.. 

 Crisp, of a handsome oaken table for the meeting-room, the 

 Society desires to record its deep sense of the valuable services- 

 rendered by that gentleman, not only as Treasurer, but by 

 numerous acts which are not generally appreciated because 

 they are practically unknown to the Fallows." — Prof. P. Martin- 

 Duncan, K. R.S., exhibited several specimens of Desviophylltitn 

 cristagalli obtained from an electric cable at a depth of 550« 

 fathoms. Though showing great variation in the shape and 

 nature of the wall, the specific characters of the septa were main- 

 tained. The core, extending as a thin lamina far beyond the 

 peduncle, had no connection with the septa. A section of 

 Caryophyliia claviis showed theca between the septa, and a 

 section of Lophohelia proUfera exhibited a true theca extending 

 beyond the sepia. — Mr. E. B. Poulton, F.K.S., exhibited some 

 Lepidopterous larva.' showing the variation in colour induced by- 

 natural surroundings ; and some lizards, in spirit, from the 

 West Indies, showing the pineal eye very distinctly. — In con- 

 tinuation of a former paper on the external morphology of the 

 Lepidopterous pupa, Mr. Poulton gave a detailed and interest- 

 ing account of the sexual differences observed in the develop- 

 ment of the antenna' and wings. — Prof. G. B. Howes read a 

 paper on the intestinal canal of ihe Ichthyopsida, with especial 

 reference to its arterial supply. He described certain arieries 

 hitherto unrecorded, and some variations he had found in them 

 in the Frog and Salamander. The artery known in the Elasmo- 

 branchii as the inferior mesenteric, was shown to belong to 



