348 



NATURE 



[August 9, i 



The Organizing Committees of Sections A and G of the 

 British Association have arranged a joint discussion on lightning 

 conductors, to be held at the Bath meeting in September. Mr. 

 W. H. Preece, F.R. S., will open the discussion, and Prof. 

 Oliver J. Lodge, F.R.S., willl defend the position he laid down 

 this year before the Society of Arts. 



Agreeably to a resolution of the International Congress of 

 Hydrology and Climatology held at Biarritz, in October 1886, 

 the second triennial session of the Congress will be held in 

 Paris next year, at the beginning of October, in connection with 

 the Exhibition there. The President of the Committee is M. E. 

 Renou, Vice-President of the French Meteorological Society. A 

 preliminary programme has been issued, setting forth the questions 

 to be discussed under (1) scientific hydrology ; (2) medical hydro- 

 logy ; and (3) climatology. The subscription of membership is 

 12 francs. 



The new Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood's Holl, 

 Massachusetts, was formally opened on the day appointed, 

 Tuesday, July 17. Several members of the Board of Trustees, a 

 few students, and a half-dozen or more of guests were present, and 

 spent the morning in examining the new building and its equip- 

 ment, and in visiting the laboratories and aquaria of the United 

 States Fish Commission. At two o'clock the whole party dined 

 at Gardiner Cottage — the domestic head-quarters of the new 

 enterprise — which a generous citizen of Wood's Holl, Mr. J. S. 

 Fay, has kindly put at the disposal of the trustees. Shortly after 

 three o'clock the Director, Dr. C. O. Whitman, delivered in the 

 Laboratory an opening address upon the history and functions of 

 marine biological laboratories, referring especially to the Penikese 

 School and to Prof. Baird's labours in this direction. Prof. C. 

 S. Minot then said a few words on behalf of the trustees. Some 

 eight or ten students are already at work in the Laboratory ; and 

 Science says that the responses from colleges and from students 

 make it certain that next year there will be at the institution a 

 large and enthusiastic gathering of investigators and students in 

 biology. The building, according to Science, appears to be 

 admirably adapted to its purposes. It is plainly but strongly 

 built, of wood, two stories high, and with a pitched roof. The 

 roof and sides are covered with shingles, unpainted. There is a 

 commodious and convenient basement under the western half of 

 the building, intended for storage, for the safe keeping of alcohol, 

 boats, oars, and the like. The lower floor of the Laboratory is 

 intended for beginners, and for teachers and students who are 

 learners but not investigators. The upper story is for investi- 

 gators only. The equipment includes work-tables, specially 

 designed, and placed before the large and numerous windows. 

 Each student is provided with a Leitz microscope, a set of re- 

 agents, watch-glasses, dissecting pans, and the dishes and other 

 things indispensable to good work. The Laboratory owns boats, 

 dredges, nets, and other tools for collecting. A small library 

 has been provided, and, under the progressive and efficient 

 management of Dr. C. O. Whitman and Mr. B. H. Van Vleck, 

 a season that promises to be highly successful, and most im- 

 portant in the history of American biology, has been auspiciously 

 begun. 



Mr. Henry O. Forbes, the New Guinea explorer, author of 

 "The Naturalist in the Malay Archipelago," has been selected 

 by the London Commission to succeed the late Sir Julius von 

 Haast as Director of the Canterbury Museum, New Zealand. 



Some time ago a good deal of interest was aroused by a con- 

 troversy as to the effects of light on water-colours. The Com- 

 mittee of Council appointed a Committee of artists to consider 

 the subject ; and Dr. W. J. Russell and Captain Abney were 

 invited to investigate the scientific aspects of the question. A 

 Blue-book has just been issued, containing the first report of 

 these two gentlemen. 



We regret to record the death of Miss Glanville, who was 

 well known in South Africa as the Curator of the Albany 

 Museum, Grahamstown, Cape of Good Hope. This clever and 

 accomplished young lady discharged her duties as Curator most 

 conscientiously and ably, and did much to promote an interest in 

 science in her native town and country. 



A NEW gas, possessing some remarkable properties, has been 

 discovered by Prof. Thorpe and Mr. J. W. Rodger, in the 

 research laboratory of the Normal School of Science. It is a 

 sulpho-fluoride of phosphorus of the composition PSF 3 , and is 

 termed by its discoverers thiophosphoryl fluoride. The best 

 method for its preparation consists in heating pentasulphide of 

 phosphorus with lead fluoride in a leaden tube. It may also be 

 obtained by substituting bismuth fluoride for the fluoride of lead, 

 the only difference between the two reactions being that the 

 second requires a higher temperature than the first. Again, 

 when sulphur, phosphorus, and lead fluoride are gently warmed 

 together, an extremely violent reaction occurs, but if a large 

 excess of the fluoride of lead be employed a tolerably steady 

 evolution of the new gas occurs, the excess of the lead salt appear- 

 ing to act as moderator. It is an interesting fact, throwing con- 

 siderable light upon the constitution of the sulpho-fluoride, that 

 it may be obtained by heating together to 150 C. in a sealed 

 tube a mixture of the corresponding chloride — thiophosphoryl 

 chloride, PSC1 3 , a mobile colourless liquid — and trifluoride of 

 arsenic. The simple exchange of chlorine for fluorine here brings 

 about a striking physical change, from a highly refracting liquid 

 to a colourless gas. And now for the remarkable properties of 

 the gas. In the first place, it is spontaneously inflammable. If 

 it be collected over mercury, upon which it exerts no action, in a 

 tube terminating above in a jet and stopcock, and the latter be 

 slowly turned so as to permit of its gradual escape, the gas 

 immediately ignites as it comes in contact with the air, burning 

 with a greenish-yellow flame tipped at the apex with blue. If, 

 however, a wide tube containing the gas standing over mercury 

 be suddenly withdrawn from the mercury trough, the larger mass of 

 gas ignites with production of a fine blue flash, the yellowish-green 

 tint again being observed as the light dies away. Thiophosphoryl 

 fluoride is readily decomposed by the electric spark with deposi- 

 tion of sulphur. If a quantity contained in a tube over mercury 

 be heated for a considerable time, complete decomposition 

 occurs, sulphur and phosphorus both being deposited upon the 

 sides of the tube and gaseous silicon tetrafluoride left. From a 

 spectroscopic examination, dissociation was shown to occur at the 

 lowest temperature of the electric spark. The gas is slowly dis- 

 solved by water, and appears to be somewhat soluble in ether, but 

 alcohol and benzene exert no solvent action upon it. Finally, 

 the colourless, transparent gas was reduced to a liquid, some- 

 what resembling the sulpho-chloride, by means of Cailletet's 

 liquefaction apparatus. 



A VOLCANIC eruption, which began on August 3, in the Island 

 of Vulcano, one of the Lipari Group, is said to have done an im- 

 mense amount of injury. The greatest damage has been caused 

 on the property of an English company under the management 

 of Mr. Harleau, the estate being completely destroyed. 



We have received the Year-book of the Meteorological 

 Observations of the Observatory of the Madgeburg Journal for 

 the year 1886, being the fifth of the series. It contains obser- 

 vations taken three times daily, with means and monthly 

 summaries according to the international scheme, hourly obser- 

 vations of the self-recording instruments, and fac-similes of the 

 sunshine records ; also additional observations, such as earth-tem- 

 perature, evaporation, underground water, &c. , as in previous 

 years. The principal alteration is the omission of the continuous 

 barograms : these are now given only in cases of special interest, 

 owing to the expense of the reproduction. We have already 



