June 7, 1888] 



NATURE 



*33 



certificates of honourable mention will be awarded to the best 

 exhibit or exhibits in each class of photography, photographic 

 apparatus, lenses, &c, provided the jury deem any exhibit or 

 exhibits of sufficient merit. From the decision of the jury there 

 will te no appeal. The Club, as far as its funds permit, will 

 purchase the most interesting exhibits. Amateurs have not to 

 pay hire for the space allotted to them. On application they can 

 obtain the use of frames free of charge. A catalogue will be 

 published, possibly with illustrations of the most interesting 

 objects. According to the statutes of the I. and R. Austrian 

 Museum for Arts and Manufactures, admission will be free five 

 days a week. 



The current number of the Board of Trade Journal contains 

 an abstract of the third volume of the Reports of the Royal 

 Commission appointed by the King of the Belgians in April 

 1886 to inquire into the condition of labour in Belgium. The 

 volume contains the propositions of the various sections of the 

 Commission with respect to the different questions relating to the 

 condition of the working classes, and also the final conclusions 

 of the whole Commission. The third section of the Commission 

 dealt with technical education, and the conclusions adopted by 

 the whole Commission are as follow : — (1) They recommend that 

 in the technical schools practical lectures be given on the applica- 

 tion of art and science to industry. (2) Manual dexterity should 

 be cultivated in the elementary schools. At the indus'rial schools 

 the theoretical application of science to industry should be taught. 

 (3) The Government should limit its action to providing grants 

 for these schools, and fixing the position each school is to occupy 

 in a proper gradation of educational institutions. (4) The local 

 bodies should introduce manual exercises into the primary schools, 

 and found more technical schools and schools of design and 

 modelling. (5) The aid of the Government and the communes 

 should be given conditionally on a minimum age being fixed for 

 apprentices, and on a test examination at entrance being made 

 necessary. (6) The Government should aid in increasing the 

 facilities by which workmen would get technical instruction in 

 Subjects suited to their occupation. 



M. Coumbary, Director of the Imperial Meteorological 

 Observatory at Constantinople, has published a pamphlet upon 

 the climatology of that place, deduced from twenty years' 

 observations (1868-87). Hitherto, what has been known about 

 its climate is mostly ow ing to observations and summaries con- 

 tained in the periodicals of the French Meteorological Society, 

 commencing with the year 1847, and to the telegraphic reports 

 in the French Bulletin International. M. Coumbary issued a 

 monthly Bulletin in 1869, containing observations made at 

 several places in the Ottoman Empire, but this was discontinued 

 in 1874. The present discussion shows that the mean tempera- 

 ture is 57°"7. The absolute maximum was 99° - i in August 

 1880, and the minimum l7° - 2 in January 1869, giving a range 

 of 82°. The French observations show greater extremes, but 

 this is probably owing to imperfect protection from radiation in 

 earlier years. The greatest daily ranges were 37° *8 in December, 

 and 36 in March ; in other months the range has not exceeded 

 27°. The extremes are of course modified by the influence of 

 the Black Sea ; it is not unusual for the thermometer at Odessa, 

 for instance, to indicate 24 or so below the temperature at 

 Constantinople. The mean annual rainfall is 28 inches, and 

 the days of rain average 84. Snow falls on 14 days, on an 

 average. About three years ago the Sultan showed his interest 

 in the subject by the establishment of a second observatory in 

 his palace at Yildiz. Both institutions are furnished with the 

 best instruments. 



We have received the twelfth Annual Report on the Meteoro- 

 logy of India, containing the observations taken in 1886. It 

 deals with nearly the same area as last year, and is published in 



the form previously adopted. For fullness and thoroughness in 

 the discussion of results, it remains unexcelled, and it includes, 

 as before, monthly charts showing very clearly the mean pressure 

 and temperature, and the resultant winds over the vast region 

 embraced in the Report. Among the more important additions 

 are an observatory at Mandalay, where the transitions of the seasons 

 are said to be sudden, and earthquakes not infrequent, and a 

 station on the Great Coco Island, in the Bay of Bengal, an island 

 which is said to be destitute of drinking-water. The results show 

 that in every month of the year 1886 the mean " equilibrium " 

 temperature of insolation throughout India was below the average 

 of the last ten or eleven years by amounts varying from o 0- 8 to 

 i°'8. The annual variations for the past seven years show a fairly 

 well-marked periodicity, and suggest a slight variation in the sun's 

 radiating power. The rainfall is represented by 500 stations (14 

 more than in the previous Report), and was characterized by 

 several striking features. On the mean of the whole area there was 

 an excess of 277 inches as compared with the averages for previous 

 years. 



Three important new chlorine compounds of titanium have 

 been obtained by Drs. Koenig and von der Pfordten, of Munich. 

 They may be considered as chlorine derivatives of titanic acid, 

 Ti(OII) 4 , and form the only complete series of such compounds 

 with which we are as yet acquainted in the whole range of 

 inorganic chemistry. They are formed by the replacement of 

 the hydroxyl groups by chlorine, and have therefore the follow- 

 ing constitutions: TiCl(OH) 3 , TiCl 2 (OH) 2 , and TiCl 3 OH. 

 The well-known tetrachloride of titanium, TiCU, thus completes 

 the series, and in reality formed the starting-point from which 

 the three intermediate compounds were successively prepared. 

 Trichloride of titanic acid, TiCl 3 OII, was obtained by the 

 careful addition of concentrated hydrochloric acid to the tetra- 

 chloride in such proportion that the amount of water present in 

 the strong acid was that required by the following equation : 

 TiCl 4 + H 2 = TiCl 3 OH + HC1. The reaction is very violent, 

 and a solid mass of the trichloride was almost instantly formed 

 and considerably distended by the escaping hydrochloric acid 

 gas. The substance was at once transferred to the vacuum of 

 an air-pump, and after a few days was found to be entirely freed 

 from last traces of the gas. The solid trichloride thus formed 

 is extremely deliquescent, and readily dissolves with considerable 

 hissing in water and alcohol, the aqueous solution being remark- 

 ably stable. The dichloride, TiCl 2 (OH) 2 , was prepared by 

 addition of a slight excess of strong hydrochloric acid to the 

 tetrachloride, and also by placing the latter compound in a small 

 quantity of ice-cold water. In the latter case, the drops of 

 T1CI4 are at first decomposed with loud hissing, which, as the 

 drops continue to fall, gradually diminishes until a point is 

 reached when a drop floats on the surface and remains un- 

 attacked. This last drop is then removed, and the clear 

 solution evaporated in vacuo, when the dichloride is left as a 

 compact deliquescent solid. The monochloride, TiCl(OH) 3 , is 

 the product of the action of moist air upon the tri- and 

 di-chlorides, hydrochloric acid gas being at the same time 

 evolved, in accordance with the following equations : 

 TiCl 3 OH + 2H 2 = TiCl(OH), + 2IICI, 

 TiCl 2 (OH) 2 + H 2 = TiCl(OH) 3 + HC1. 

 The monochloride thus formed remains stable in air ; on evapora- 

 tion over oil of vitriol it is obtained as a white solid, crystallizing 

 apparently in the hexagonal system, and very difficultly soluble 

 in water. In conclusion, the Munich chemists show very con- 

 clusively that these new substances are true compounds and no 

 mere mixtures ; and, it may be added, the analyses, which must 

 of necessity have been extremely difficult, are quite satisfactory. 



The British Consul at Mogador, in Morocco, in his last report 

 notes, in connection with the fisheries of the year, a curious 



