500 



NATURE 



[A/>ri/ iS, 1878 



with regard to the origin, characteristics, and distribution of these 

 races, and an attempt to prove that they once extended on the 

 west as far as Africa, and on the east as far as America. The 

 writer especially dwelt upon the statements of Herodotus with 

 regard to the eastern and western Ethiopians, and the black 

 Colchians, and referred to the legend of the Asiatic Memnon, 

 and the existence of black races in Central America, within the 

 historic period. The director then read a paper by Dr. Julius 

 von Haast, F.R.S., on some ancient rock paintings in New 

 Zealand. The author considered that when these rock paintings 

 were carefully studied by archaeologists and linguists, they would 

 prove that at one time there had been an introduction of a far 

 higher civilisation than the Maories ever reached. 



Institution orf Civil Engineers, April 2. — Mr. Bateman, 

 president, in the chair. The paper read was on the Huelva 

 Pier of the Rio Tinto Railway, by Mr. T. Gibson, Assoc. Inst. 

 C.E. 



Edinburgh 



University Chemical Society, February 20. — John Gibson, 

 Ph.D., F.R. S.E., presiding. — Mr. W. L. Goodwin read a paper 

 on a method of removal of iron from cupric sulphate for analyti- 

 cal purposes, in which he stated that this could be performed by 

 the replacement of the iron by cupric hydrate. — Mr. Alexander 

 Macfarlane, M.A., B.Sc, read a paper on the disruptive dis- 

 charge of electricity, in which he gave the difference of potential 

 necessary to produce sparks at different distances up to ten 

 millimetres, and also with different pressures and gases as 

 dielectrics. 



February 27. — W. Inglis Clarke, B.Sc, in the chair. — A 

 paper on electrolysis was read by R. M. Morrison, D.Sc, Che- 

 mical Demonstrator of the University, in which he traced the 

 history of electrolysis down to the present time, showing that as 

 recently as 1840 the art was practically in its infancy, and that 

 at the present day it was in numberless ways made use of. The 

 chief points of theoretical and practical interest were dwelt upon, 

 both with regard to the various metals which could practically be 

 used, and to the solvents from which the best results were 

 obtainable. 



Vienna 



Imperial Academy of Sciences, January 10. — On the 

 behaviour of propylic glycol in a high temperature, by M. Linne- 

 mann. — On the direct transformation of isobutylic iodide into 

 trimethylcarbinolamin, by M. Brauner. — On artificial malic acid 

 from evernic acid, by M. Loydl. — On the Maxwell- Simpson 

 synthesis of acrolein from diiodacetone, by M. Voelker. — On 

 the behaviour of )8 bibrompropionic acid towards iodide of potas- 

 sium, by M. Zotta. — On the so-called rag-illness of workers in 

 paper manufactories, by M. Frisch. 



January 17. — The undulating nutation of internodes, by M. 

 Wiesner. 



January 31. — Determination of the path of the second comet 

 of 1874, by M. Wenzel. — Contributions to a fuller knowledge of 

 the Tunicata, by M. Heller. — On Ampere's fundamental elec- 

 trodynamic experiments, by M. Ettinghausen. — On the behaviour 

 of phoroglucin and some related substances towards woody cell 

 membranes, by M. Wiesner. — On the degeneration of leaf-growth 

 of some Amygdaleae, produced by species of Exoascus. — On the 

 theory of surface potential, by M. Wassmuth. — Contribution to 

 study of electricity, magnetism, terrestrial currents, magnetic 

 variation, declination, inclination, and intensity, by M. Dau- 

 brawa. — On a simple method of drawing a tangent to the ellipse 

 and parabola, by M. Zimels. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, April 8. — M. Fizeau in the chair. — 

 The following among other papers were read : — Extract from a 

 work by M. Chevreul, on the vision of colours. M. Chevreul 

 describes some effects obtained by rotation, with diminishing 

 speed, of a disc having one half red the other white, as com- 

 pared with a similar disc viewed when at rest.— On the trans- 

 parence of coloured flames, by M, Gouy. For measuring very 

 weak radiations the objective of the collimator of a spectroscope 

 is half covered with a plane mirror which reflects the rays from 

 a second collimator parallel to fhe axis of the first. Thus in 

 the focal plane of the telescope a^e got two superposed spectra, 

 received on a slit parallel to the liv^es, which serves as eye-pieces. 

 The two flames compared send their rays through the two 

 collimators lespectively ; the eye sees through the prisms half of 

 each of the objectives as a circle with its two halves of the same 



colour, but differing in brightness. The same brightness is given 

 them by means of two Nicols on the second collimator. The 

 angle of the principal sections is then read, and indicates the 

 result of experiment. Coloured flames, got from a mixture of 

 common gas and air with a finely-powdered salt in it, were 

 carefully regulated and inclosed in another flame at the same 

 temperature, but without metallic vapour. M. Gouy demon- 

 strates the transparency of flame for the rays it does not emit, 

 and for its own radiations. — On the variation of indices of 

 refraction in mixtures of isomorphous salts, by M. Dufet. He 

 finds that the differences between the indices of a mixture of 

 two isomorphous salts and those of the component salts are in 

 inverse ratio of the number of equivalents of the salts present 

 in the mixture. — Direct fixation of oxygen and sulphur in benzine 

 and toluene, by MM. Friedel and Crafts. Such fixation is accom- 

 plished by the intervention of chloride of aluminium ; the authors 

 cite it as supporting their hypothesis about this class of reactions. 

 — Researches on nitrification by organic ferments, by MM. 

 Schloesing and Muntz. The vegetable organisms, mould and 

 mycoderms, which are strongly productive of combustion of 

 organic matter, do not produce nitrification ; on the contrary, 

 they transform nitric acid, placed at their disposal, first into 

 organic matter then, partly, at least, into free nitrogen, the 

 last phenomenon being often attended by production of am- 

 monia. Hence they effect a loss of the combined nitrogen on 

 the surface of the globe. The function of nitrifying combined 

 nitrogen seems to be the special attribute of a group of par- 

 ticular beings, and not common to all the organisms which are 

 intermediaries of combustion. — Absorption by the living orga- 

 nism of carbonic oxide introduced in small quantities into the 

 atmosphere, by M. Grehant. Man or an inferior animal caused 

 to respire for half an hour in an atmosphere containing 

 only T-wg- of carbonic oxide, absorbs this gas sufficiently for about 

 half of the red corpuscles combined with the gas to become in- 

 capable of absorbing oxygen, while in an atmosphere con- 

 taining XTT9 of carbonic oxide, about a fourth of the red cor- 

 puscles are combined with this gas. — On the organ called chorda 

 dorsalis in Amphioxus lanceolatus, by MM. Renaut and Duchamp. 

 Amphioxus deprived of red blood containing hjemoglobin in its 

 special elements, has no longer a chorda dorsalis comparable in 

 its structure to that of all vertebrates. 



CONTENTS V:.. 



The Coming Total Solar Eclipse. By J. Norman Lockver, 



F.R.S 4S1 



Gigantic Land Tortoises .... 4^1 



Our Book Shelf: — 



Saunier's " Treatise on Modern Horologj' in Theory and Practice" 

 Gray's "China. A History of the Laws, Manners, and Customs 



of the People" 



Letters to the Editor : — 



The Arraagement of Museums.— General A. Lane Fox, C.B., 

 F.R. 



484 



4"l 



The Phonograph. — Alexander J. Ellis, F.R.S 



Phoneidoscopic Representation of Vowels and Diphthongs. — J H. 

 Blakeslev 



The Acoustical Properties of Soap Films.— Prof. Silw.nus P. 

 Thompson 



Cumulative Temperature.— B 



The Southern Drought.— Rev. S. J. Whitmee 



Research in Libraries. — Robert L. Jack 



Mimicry in Birds. - J. Yoi;ng 



Harrow School Bathing-Place.— A.RTHUR G. Watson 



London Clay Fossils. — Hermann H. Hoffert 



Meteor. — H. George Fordha.m 



The Nightingale.— G. J. Pearse 



Floating Magnets. By Alfred M. Mayer 



Si!N-spOTS and Terrestrial Magnetism 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



New Companion to Aldebaran 



The Star Lalande 37813 



The Minor Planets 



1'he Transit of Mercury on May 6 



Geographical Notes : — 



Africa 



New Mexico 



Geographical Annual 



Meteorological Notes : — 



Meteorology of Stonyhurst 



Weekly Statistics of the Weather 



Missouri Weather Reports, Nos. i, 2, and 3 



Extraordinary Rain-Storm in Canada • 



Comparative Atmospheric Pressure of New Zealand and Great 

 Britain 



4-5 



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487 

 4S7 

 487 

 487 



4S3 



488 

 483 

 483 



489 

 4S9 



Notes 



The Deterioration ok Oil Paintincjs. By Dr. R. Lihhreich . 



Gas-Lighting by Electricity (JVM Illustrations) 



American Science 



University and Educational Intelligence 



Scientific Serials 



Societies and Academies 



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