426 



NATURE 



[March 6, 1879 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Annalmder Physikund Chemie, No. I, 1879.— This begins with 

 a portion of an extended inquiry by Ilerr F. Kohlrausch into the 

 electric conductivity of aqueous solutions of hydrates and palts of 

 the light metak, as also of sulphate of copper, sulphate of zinc, 

 and nitrate of silver. The paper is in three parts — an experi- 

 mental, a practical, and a theoretical (the first two in this 

 number). The practical part gives tables for use, and formulae 

 of conductivity, especially of dilute solutions ; specifies bodies 

 which show a maximum of conductmg power at a degree of 

 concentration of solution below saturation, indicates liquids 

 which commend themselves as a standard for electric conducti- 

 vity, &c. — Herr W. Kohlrausch furnishes an experimental deter- 

 mination of the velocities of light in crystals. He employed the 

 new instrument called a total reflectometer, and he comes to the 

 conclusion that Fresnel's theory of double refraction in optically 

 uni- and biaxial crystals gives a form of light wave-surfaces, 

 which, within very small errors of measurement, is in general 

 experimentally -confirmed for uniaxial crystals, and for the 

 principal sections of biaxial crystals. — Herr Groshaus contributes 

 some interesting observations on the densities of substances in 

 the gaseous and liquid states, in relation to their chemical com- 

 position. — Herr Ritter calculates that the quantity of heat 

 radiated annually from the sun 75,000 years ago must have been 

 about I per cent, less than at present (700,000 years ago about 

 10 per cent, less), a result which is supposed to explain the 

 "glacial period," while the previous tropical climate is accounted 

 for by a less thickness of the solid crmt of the earth. He also 

 estimates that each kilogramme of the sun's mass contains on an 

 average about 43,000,000 units of heat. — Herr "Wiedemann 

 declines to regard the oxide containing copper separated electro- 

 lytically from solutions of acetate of cupric oxide, as a peculiar 

 jdlotropic modification of copper. — There are also papers on the 

 thermo- electric properties of apatite, brucite, &c. (Hankel), the 

 theory and application of electro -magnetic rotation (Margules), 

 the influence of temperature on galvanic conductivity of liquids 

 (Exner and Goldschmiedt), and two new fluorescent substances 

 (Lommel). 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, February 27. — " Studies in Acoustics. I. 

 On the Synthetic Examination of Vowel Sounds." By William 

 Henry Preece and Augustus Stroh. 



The authors had studied the formation of vowel-sounds on 

 Helmholtz's theory, and had succeeded in constructing an instru- 

 ment which reproduced the principal vowels with greater dis- 

 tinctness and accuracy than the phonograph, and which fully 

 confirmed that theory. In the pursuit of this study they con- 

 structed a new phonautograph, a machine for drawing harmonic 

 curves either on paper or on smoked glass, compounded of one 

 or many partials varying in phase and amplitude, called a 

 " synthetic curve machine," a new syren, a new musical instru- 

 ment dependent on the vibration of a diaphragm and several 

 instruments for reproducing vowel-sounds. They had also 

 studied the intensity of sound, and showed experimentally how 

 loudness was dependent on the quantity of air thrown into vibra- 

 tion, and independent of the amplitude of vibration of the 

 sonorous body which remained constant. They also introduced 

 a new stereoscopic slide, which rendered very complicated curves 

 perfectly perspective. 



Linnean Society, February 20.. — Prof. Allman, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — The Rev. G. Henslow exhibited por- 

 tions of an elm bough having a pulley centrally imbedded ; 

 exteriorly all trace of its presence was obliterated, and the wood- 

 growth indicated thirteen years subsequent to the entrance of 

 the foreign body. — Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe showed and com- 

 mented on a series of rare birds. Among those from New 

 Guinea were skins of Paradisea raqgiana, collected by the Rev. 

 Mr. Lawes ; of others obtained in the Fijis by Baron von Hugel 

 were species of the genus Pinarolestes, which also inhabit 

 Tutuela, one of the Samoan Islands.— Mr. W. H. Fitch passed 

 round a coloured drawing of a remarkable large crimson-coloured 

 pitcher (twelve inches long by nine in circumference) of Ne- 

 penthes sanguinea, grown at Bury, by Mr. O. Wrigley. — A 

 paper was read by Dr. H. Trimen, on the genus Oudneya, 

 Brown. This is a small cruciferous shrub discovered by Dr. 

 Oudney in the desert between Tripoli and Mourzuk. The genus 



has been obscure in consequence of Brown's short insufficient 

 diagnosis. This latter Cosson has shown to be a Moricandia, 

 hence Brown's genns has been doubtfully referred to the same. 

 Dr. Trimen shows from an examination of Oudney's herbarium 

 in the British Museum, that Oudne^'a is identical with Heno- 

 phyton, Coss., which name will supersede, having the priority of 

 thirty-one years. — The abstract of a communication on some 

 South American genera of plants of uncertain position, by Mr. 

 John Miers, was read by the Secretary. The author refers the 

 Pleoaginea of Arruda da Camara, who mentions three species 

 belonging to the Chryobalanacese, but of which two only should 

 be retained in that genus, the third belonging to the true Conepia, 

 Aublet. Among Partnarium the two species described and 

 figured by Aublet alone ought to be retained. Those to be 

 excluded are the two British Guiana species of Bentham, and 

 seven others of Brazilian origin described by Dr. Hooker, and 

 which from their floral structure and development of fruit do not ' 

 differ from Licania. The Malayan species of Blume are now 

 shown to belong to the Pdrocarya, Jack., while the African 

 species enumerated by De CandoUe, together with five others 

 yet undescribed, must be referred to Griffonia, Benth. and Hook,, 

 a genus notable for the conferrumination of the cotyledon of the 

 embryo. The genus Minquartia, Aubl., belongs to the Crescen- 

 tiaceae, as does Senapea. Bentham's and De CandoUe's Kigelia 

 are widely different, the K. africana, Benth., properly belonging 

 to Tripiftnaria. The genus Managa, Aubl., Mr. Miers avers 

 belongs to the Aurantiacese ; Racceria, Aubl., does not come 

 under Sapindacese, as De CandoUe supposed, but to the Meliacese, 

 and is allied to Melia and Azenderachta, Juss. — Dr. Maxwell 

 Masters next gave the chief points of a paper on the inflorescence 

 of Crassulacese. Though devoted chiefly to this group he dis- 

 cussed the schemes of classification proposed by Roeper, Bravais, 

 and others, as also the emendations of Hofmeister, Sachs, and 

 the modem German school of botanists. He proposed a re- 

 arrangement under the heads of Monopodial, or indefinite ; Cho- 

 ripodial, or dichotomous ; and Pleiopodal, or definite ; the latter 

 comprising the Sympodial varieties. The modifications brought 

 about by suppressions, adhesions, congenital or otherwise, real or 

 apparent, and by displacement of varying kind and degree were 

 alluded to, the general conclusion being that while suppressions 

 and adhesions do occasionally occur, yet that in most instances 

 the phenomena witnessed might easily be explained by displace- 

 ment of parts, and especially by that process of elongation 

 known as up-lifting. The history of development, as well as 

 the internal structure, he believes are consistent with this latter 

 view, but not, as a rule, with the theory of adhesion. — Messrs. 

 Ed. A. Fitch, Laurence Scott, and Wm. Stone were elected 

 Fellows of the Society. 



Chemical Society, February 20. — Dr. Gladstone, president, 

 in the chair. — The following papers were read : — On colouring- 

 matters derived from diazo compounds, by Dr. O. N. Witt. For 

 some time after the introduction of anilin dyes, though magentas,^ 

 violets, and blues were obtained in profusion, no choice of yellow 

 or green anilin dyes was to be had. A few years back, however, 

 a beautiful yellow dye, chrysoidin, was described by Hofmann, 

 and since that time numerous patents have been taken out for 

 the manufacture of similar substances. In the present paper the 

 author gives an account of these various substances, which are 

 oxy or amido derivatives of azobenzene, including the diff^erent 

 tropseolins. — Investigations into the action of substances in the 

 nascent and occluded conditions ; hydrogen, continued by Dr. 

 Gladstone and Mr. Tribe. The authors have investigated the 

 actions of nascent hydrogen obtained by electrolysis and hydro- 

 gen occluded in palladium or platinum on nitric and sulphuric 

 acids ; they establish a close similarity of character, and therefore 

 of condition between the so-called nascent hydrogen and the 

 hydrogen occluded by metals. — On some methods of vapour 

 density determinations, by Mr. J. T. Brown. The author criti- 

 cises the methods and formulae of previous experimenters, arid 

 suggests the determination of the vapour tensions of mercury by 

 estimating the vapour tension of a substance over Wood's metal 

 and over mercury at different temperatures. — On the decomposi- 

 tion products of quinine and the allied alkaloids, by Mr. J. J. 

 Dobbie and Dr. W. Ramsay. The authors have oxidised the 

 four principal alkaloids derived from cinchona bark, and find 

 that they all yield, on oxidation, the same acid, tricarbopyridenic 

 acid. They also point out that there is a close relation between 

 the cinchona bark alkaloids and the bases of the pyridin series. 



Geological Society, Feoruary 5. — Henry Clifton Sorby, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair.— Arthur Ernest Baldwin, Jamss- 



