486 



NATURE 



[December 8, 192 1 



pressures and at the temperature of liquid air, 

 the practical aim being to determine the vacuum- 

 producing power of such adsorbents, esjiecially 

 in regard to the efficiency of metallic Dewar 

 vacuum vessels. The paper also discussed the ad- 

 vantage of evacuating by means of charcoal con- 

 tained, not in a single vessel, but in a series of vessels, 

 which are to be utilised in succession.- — Henry Briggs : 

 The Military Physical Test Station, Edinburgh. The 

 purpose of the station was to test men drawn from 

 the Army units in Scotland who proved to be re- 

 fractory material in the hands of the drill sergeant, 

 and to discriminate between the malingerer and the 

 person who was actually of low physical capacity. 

 The method of testing was determined after a long 

 series of experiments. Instructive cases were cited 

 and graphical records shown as to the physical per- 

 formance of different men. — E. T. Whittaker : Tubes 

 of electromagnetic force. A mathematical investiga- 

 tion on four-dimensional relativity lines, which by 

 generalising the conception of tubes of force co- 

 ordinated in an interesting wav the electrostatic and 

 the magnetic tubes created by Faraday and developed 

 by Maxwell, Sir J. J. Thomson, and others. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, November 21. — M. Georges 

 Lemoine in the chair. — MM. Constantia and Dufour : 

 Researches on the biology of .the Monotropa^ At a 

 spot in .the forest of Fontainebleau Monotropa Hypo- 

 pithys . has been found growing abundantlv, and this 

 material has been examined for a fungus, since Cal- 

 luna vulgaris, and other species of Ericaceae have 

 been shown to carry a fungus. A species was found, 

 apparently new, to which the provisional name of 

 Monotropomyces nigrescens has been given, and de- 

 tails are given of the media upon which this can be 

 grown .^ — A. Calmette, L. Negre, and A. Boquet : Tuber- 

 culous antibodies. It is concluded from the experi- 

 ments described that the antibodies — "" Sensibilisatrices 

 antituberculeuses " — even when employed in large 

 doses, have no bactericidal power, and are incapable 

 of producing the disintegration, either in vitro or in 

 vivo, of the tubercle bacillus. They do not neutralise 

 tuberculin, and exert no favourable influence on the 

 course of tubercular infection. Hence it is useless to 

 place the slightest hope in the therapeutic effects of 

 the antibodies contained in the so-called antituber- 

 culous sera. — M. Marcel Brillouin was elected a mem- 

 ber of the section of general physics in succession to 

 the late M. G. Lippmann. — T. Varopoulos : Some pro- 

 perties of increasing functions. — G. Julia : Integral or 

 meromorphic functions. — M. Riabouchinski : The re- 

 sistance of viscous fluids. — H. Grouiller and J. Ells- 

 worth : New elements of light variation of the variable 

 star VV Ononis. A studv of the changes in bright- 

 ness of variable stars in the cases due to eclipses has 

 shown that there are many difficulties in the inter- 

 pretation of the observations, due probably to imper- 

 fection of the data. The star VV Ononis of this t^pe 

 has been chosen for detailed examination, and 300 

 observations taken between November 3. IQ16, and 

 March 11, 192 1, by J. Ellsworth are now discussed. 

 The value for the period given by Hertzsprung is 

 appreciably modified (+000842 day). — F. Michaud : 

 The surface tension of electrified liauids. It is shown 

 that theoretically, from the principle of energy, the 

 surface tension should be independent of the state of 

 electrification of the surface. This conclusion has 

 been verified experimentally, a method being chosen 

 which eliminates the effects of electrostatic repul- 

 sion. — A. Sellerio : The thermal analogue of the axial 

 galvanomagnetic effect. — E. Berger and G. Crut : The 

 NO. 2719, VOL. 108] 



equilibrium in the redjJctiorv of nickel chloride by 

 hydrogen. The reaction indicated by the equation 



NiCl^+H^ 'i^ Ni+2HC1 



is reversible, and the equilibrium concenii.aiuns are 

 the same, starting either from left or right. The 

 constant K in the Nernst equation has been detei- 

 mined, K = 5-93. — L. Guillet : The thermal treatment 

 of certain complex aluminium alloys. In order to 

 extend and explain the results obtained by the thermal 

 treatment of duralmin, alloys of aluminium and 

 copper, aluminium and silicon, aluminium, silicon, 

 and copper, aluminium, silicon, and magnesium, and 

 allovs containing all four constituents, have been 

 studied, and the results of the micrographic examina- 

 tion are given. In all cases the simultaneous pre- 

 sence of silicon, magnesium, and copper is indis- 

 pensable to obtain the interesting results given by 

 tempering high resistance aluminium alloys. 

 E. Grandmougin : Octobrom indigo. — C. Dufraisse 

 and P. Gerald : The supposed true dibenzoyl- 

 methane of Wislicenus : some new experiments. 

 In an earlier communication it has been shown that 

 the Wislicenus compound is probably not 

 (C6H;'C0). = CH,. From the results now given it is 

 concluded that the supposed dibenzovlmethane of Wis- 

 licenus is C,H,-C0-CH = C(0C,H;)-C,H„ and the 

 mechanism of its production is exolained. — G. Denizot : 

 The upper peneplain of the Paris basin and the 

 primordial levellings of the peripherv. — O. Mengelij 

 The Canigou and the Maladetta. poles of the primU 

 tive axis of the Pyrenees. — S. Stefanescu : The practi- 

 cal and phytogenetic importance of the T;^ of tht 

 molars of niastodons and elephants. — F. Kerforne and! 

 Y. Milon : Observations on two recent shocks of the 

 Armorican massif.— J. Lacoste : Contribution _ tc 

 weather prediction, especiallv storms, by observations 

 with pilot balloons. — G. Guilbert : The formation ot 

 rain and the origin of cirrus clouds. — Ph. Schereschew- 

 ski and Ph. Wehrle : The movement of the nuclei of 

 pressure variations. — Mile. Y. B. de Black and P. 

 Marty : The constitution of the Cantalian volcanic 

 massif. — St. Jonesco : The transformation of the 

 chromogens of some plants into a red pigment by 

 oxidation. — H. Ricome : The problem of geotropism. — 

 R. Morquer and J. Dufrenov : Contribution to the study 

 of the formation of a jelly from the lignified mem- 

 brane of the Spanish chestnut.— E. Chemin : The cor- 

 rosive action of plant roots on marble. The etching 

 action of plant roots on polished marble has been 

 variously attributed to the action of acetic, propionic, 

 butyric, malic, and hydrochloric acids secreted by 

 the root hairs. The author's experiments lead him to 

 the conclusion that the roots of plants excrete no 

 sensible amounts of any acid other than carbonic acid, 

 and it is shown that this excretion is sufficient to 

 pccount for the corrosion of the marble. — M. Marage : 

 Protection against sound vibrations. — T. Pellegrin : 

 The reproduction in an aquarium of a Brazilian fish. 

 Acara tetramerus. — L. Boutan : The origin of the pearl 

 sac and the mode of formation of oearls.— E. Faure- 

 Fremiet : Constitution of the egg of Sabellaria alyeo- 



lata. Mile. H. Goldsmith': The phototropic reaction? 



of some marine animals.— E. Le Danois : The biology 

 of the white tunnv-fish.— ErI. and Et. Sergent, L. 

 Parrot, A. Donatien, and M. Beguet : The transmission 

 of the Biskra boil by Phlebotomus papatasi. 



Melbourne. 

 Royal Society of Victoria, July 14.- D. K. Picken : 



The Euclidean geometry of angle. The author intro- 

 duces a fundamental geometrical figure, the complete 

 angle, intermediate between straight line and (com- 

 plete) triangle, with the notations (l„ L), (AB, CD). 



