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210 



NATURE 



[yan. 2, 1879 



ber, and consisting of two part?, an astronomical and an 

 astrological. 



T/ie Journal of the Russian Chemical and Phyiical Societies cf 

 St. Petersburg (vol. x. No. 8) contains the following papers : — 

 On the chlorides of benzol, by Th. Beilstein and A. Kourbatoff. 

 — On the preparation of glycol, by S. Stempnevsky. — On allyl- 

 dipropylcarbinol, by P. and A. Saytzeff. — On pseudopropyl- 

 acetylene, by F. Flavitzky and P. Kriloff. — Remarks by F. 

 Flavitzky on M. Eltekoflf's paper on the action of water upon 

 the chlorides of ethylenes and similar compounds in the presence 

 of oxide of lead. — Observations on nitrophenols, by M. Gold- 

 stein. — On the nature and the derivates of cholesterine, by M. 

 Valitzky. — On the neutral products of the oxidation of choles- 

 terine, by P. Latschinoff. — On the polarisation of electrolytes, 

 by R. Colly. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, December. — "Note on the Influence 

 exercised by Light on Organic Infusions," by John Tyndall, 

 D.C.L., F.R.S., Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Royal 

 Institution. 



Early last June I took with me to the Alps fifty small herme- 

 tically sealed flasks contaiiung infusion of cucumber, and fifty 

 containing turnip infusion. Before sealing they had been boiled 

 for five minutes in the laboratory of the Royal Institution, They 

 were carefully packed in sawdust, but when unpacked the fragile 

 sealed ends of about twenty of them were found broken off. 

 Some of these injmred flasks were empty, while others still 

 retained their liquids. The eighty unbroken flasks were found 

 pellucid, and they continued so throughout the 'summer. All 

 the broken ones, on the other hand, which had retained their 

 liquids, were turbid with organisms. 



Shaking up the sawdust, which I knew must contain a consi- 

 derable quantity of germinal matter, I snipped off the ends of a 

 number of flasks in the air above the sawdust. Exposed to a 

 temperature of 70° or 80° F., the contents of all these flasks 

 became turbid in two or three days. 



The experiment was repeated ; and after the contaminated 

 air had entered them, I exposed the flasks to strong sunshine for 

 a whole summer's day ; one batch, indeed, was thus exposed 

 for several successive days. Placed in a room with a tempera- 

 ture of from 70° to 80° F., they all, without exception, became 

 turbid with organisms. 



Another batch of flasks, after having their sealed ends broken 

 off, was infected by the water of a cascade derived -from the 

 melting of the mountain snows. They were afterwards exposed 

 to a day's strong sunshine, and subsequently removed to the warm 

 room. In three days they were thickly charged with organisms. 



On the same day a number of flasks had their ends snipped off 

 in the open air beside the cascade. They remained for weeks 

 transparent, and doubtless continue so to the present hour. 



I do not wish to offer these results as antagonistic to those so 

 clearly described by Dr. Arthur Downes and Mr. Thomas Blunt, 

 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society for December 6, 1877. 

 Their observations are so definite that it is hardly possible to 

 doubt their accuracy. But they noticed anomalies which it is 

 desirable to clear up. On July 10, for example, they found 9 

 hours' exposure to daylight, 3| hours of which only were hours 

 of sunshine, sufficient to effect sterilisation ; while, on July 29, 

 "a very hot day, with much sunshine," 11 hours' exposure "9 

 of which were true insolation," failed to produce the same effect. 

 Such irregularities, coupled with the results above recorded, 

 will, I trust, induce them to repeat their experiments, with the 

 view of determining the true limits of the important action which 

 those experiments reveal. 



Chemical Society, December 19. — Dr. Gladstone, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — The following papers were read : — Re- 

 searches on the action of the copper zinc couple on organic 

 bodies, part ix. — Preparation of zinc methyl, by Dr. Gladstone 

 and Mr. Tribe. (During the reading of this paper Dr. Frank- 

 land took the chair.) Methyl iodide in contact with the copper 

 zinc couple is converted at the ordinary temperature, in from 

 three to thirty days, into a crystalline mass of zinc methiodide. 

 By distillation zinc methyl is obtained ; the yield in one case 

 was 99*27. — Dr. Debus made some remarks on the formula of 

 glyoxylic acid. The author considers the formula of this acid 

 to be CaHjOa, in opposition to Perkin, who from quantitative 



experiments came to the conclusion that the true formula was 

 C2H4O4. — Mr. Wills gave a short communication on the pro- 

 duction of oxides of nitrogen by the electric arc in air. The 

 author finds that nitric acid was formed in four experiments 

 equivalent to "54, '55, '6, and "] gramme per hour, and points 

 out the importance of this observation with reference to the 

 proposed use of the electric light in dwellings.— On the action 

 of alkaline hypobromite on oxamide, urea, and potassium ferro- 

 cyanide, part ii., by W. Foster. — On two new hydrocarbons 

 obtained by the action of sodium on turpentine hydrochloride, 

 by Dr. Letts. The principal point in this paper is the fact that 

 the author has obtained a solid hydrocarbon having the formula 

 CjoHi7, which he designates solid turpenyl. — On the formation 

 of baric periodate, by S. Sugiura and C. F. Cross. — On erbium 

 and yttrium, by T. S. Humpidge and W. Bumey. The authors 

 wished to determine the specific heats of these metals, but failed 

 to obtain them in coherent masses. They determined the atomic 

 weight of pure erbium to be 171 ■61. 



Meteorological Society, December 18. — Mr. C. Greaves, 

 president, in the chair. — P. Doyle, F.S.S., J. M. Gray, Lord 

 Hampton, G.C.B., M. Jackson, A. Proctor, G. Simpson, and 

 E. C. Tisdall were elected Fellows of the Society. — The following 

 papers were read : — Abstract of the meteorology of the Bombay 

 Presidency, by C. Chambers, F.R.S., communicated by Sir 

 G. B, Airy, K.C.B., F.R.S., Astronomer- Royal. — Experiments 

 with Lowne's anemometer, by Capt. William Watson, F.M.S. 

 — Meteorology of Bangkok, Siam, by J. Campbell, Staff 

 Surgeon, R.N. — Results of meteorological observations taken at 

 Calvinia, South Africa, by Kaufmann I. Marks, F.M.S. 



Royal Microscopical Society, December ir. — Dr. C. J. 



Hudson, vice-president, in the chair. — Mr. John Harrison and 

 Dr. Alabone were elected Fellows of the Society. — Dr. Hudson 

 described a new species of Rotifer, Oecistes sphagni, coloured 

 drawings of which were exhibited. He also exhibited a number 

 of beautiful transparent diagrams of rare species of Infusoria 

 which he described seriatim. — Mr. F. H. Ward read a paper on 

 a new microspectroscope without a slit, and described this and 

 other accessory apparatus to the instrument. — Mr. F. Crisp read 

 a paper on Hoffmann's new camera lucida, in which he described 

 this and other recent forms of the apparatus, figures of some 

 being drawn upon the board. Another form of camera lucida, 

 by Dr. Russell, of Lancaster, was described and figured by Dr. 

 Millar, and a description of a new one by Swift was also given 

 by Mr. Ingpen. — ^Ir. C. Stewart read a short communication 

 from Mr. A. D. Michael announcing the discovery of the male 

 of Cheyletus venustissimus. Attention was called to a new 

 glycerine immersion lens received from America, by Mr^ 

 Ingpen. — Mr. Beck, in reference to a suggestion for a universal 

 unit of microscopical measurement, gave his decision in favour 

 of divisions of the millimetre, and presented to the Society a 

 micrometer ruled with this, and also in xoVtt inch^ for ready 

 comparison. 



Geological Society, December 18, 1878. — Henry Clifton 

 Sorby, F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Rev. Frederick Charles 

 Lambert, Robert Plant, and Ernest Swain were elected Fellows 

 of the Society. — The following communications were read : — 

 On remains of Mastodon and other vertebrata of the miocene 

 beds of the Maltese Islands, by Prof. A. Leith Adams, F.R.S. 

 The author recognised the following Maltese formations : — Upper 

 Limestone. — Maximum thickness over 250 feet, passing into a 

 sandy rock, and that into a hard red limestone. Fossiliferous, 

 containing four Brachiopoda, several Lamellibranchs and 

 Gasteropods, and twenty-five Echinodermata (ten being pecu- 

 Uar). Sand Bed. — Maximum thickness about 60 feet, variable 

 in character, characterised by vast abundance of Heterostegina 

 depressa; fifteen vertebrata. The Marl Bed.— Maximum thick- 

 ness over 100 feet, but sometimes almost wholly thinned ou<^.. 

 Organic remains rarer than in the sand bed. The Calcareous 

 Sandstone. — Maximum thickness rather over 200 feet. Con- 

 tains bands of nodules, of which the second is rich in organic 

 remains. Hence come the noted teeth of Squalidee. Among 

 its invertebrate fauna are many Pecteus, with other Lamelli- 

 branchs, Gasteropods, and Brachiopods. Also twenty-two 

 species of Echinodermata. The Lower Limestone. — Maximum 

 thickness over 400 feet. Scutella subrotunda and Orbitoides 

 dcspansus are abundant in the upper part, and it is generally 

 fossiliferous. In a nodule-seam in the calcareous sandstone in 

 the Island of Gozo two rather imperfect teeth of a Mastodon have 

 been found. Both are penultimate molars. They agree most; 



