Jan. 19, 1888] 



NATURE 



283 



white light, was seen going in a north-westerly direction at 

 Kailskogo, also in Central Sweden. 



Another important paper upon the synthesis of glucose is 

 communicated by Drs. Emil Fischer and Tafel to the current 

 number of the Berichte. They have succeeded in artificially 

 preparing glucose directly from glycerine. It will be rciiiem- 

 tjcred that this synthesis was first effected by decomposition of 



lolein dibromide, CHjBr . CHBr , CHO, with baryta water; 

 Jycerine aldehyde, CHgOH . CHOH . CHO, being probably 

 fust formed, and afterwards polymerizing into glucose. Hence it 

 miij;ht be expected that the same result could be achieved by 

 direct oxidation of glycerine to aldehyde and subsequent con- 

 densation by means of alkalies. This supposition ha^ been com- 

 pletely confirmed by experiment, and the new method is at once 

 an easier and a cheaper one. A large quantity of glycerine was 

 first oxidized by means of soda and bro.nine, the temperature 

 being kept down to 10°. The bromine readily dissolved on 

 shaking, and the evolution of carbonic acid ga; soon rendered 

 evident the progress of the change. After half an hour the 

 reaction was found to be complete ; the liquid was then acidi- 

 fied with hydrochloric acid and a current of sulphur dioxide 

 passed through it until all the bromine was reduced. The 

 liquid, afier neutralization with soda, was found to contain a 

 large quantity of glycerine aldehyde. About i per cent, more 

 soda was then added, and the solution alio Ared to stand at a 

 temperature of about o" for four or five days. As the pDlymeriza- 

 tioa proceeded, the liquid gradually lost the powar of reducing 

 alkaline copper solutions in the cold, but, like sugar, rapidly 

 reduced them on warming. In order to isolate the sugar thus 

 formed, the phenylhydrazine compound was prepared, as in the 

 former experiments, by neutralizing with acetic acid and adding 

 phenylhydrazine and sodium acetate, heating six hours upon a 

 water-bath. After some time crystals of the phenylhydrazine 

 compounl, C^gH^jN^O^, were deposited, and after purification 

 were found to possess all the prjperties of the compound 

 obtained from acrolein dibromide ; in fact, they were identical 

 with it. This cojipound crystallizes in beautiful yellow needles, 

 melting at 217° j on heating it with zinc dust and acetic acid, a 

 base is obtained which, by the action of nitrous acid and subse- 

 quent neutralization with soda, yields, on evaporation, syrupy 

 glucose itself. Not only does this later work of Drs. Fischer 

 and Tafel confirm their former striking results, but it leaves the 

 subject in a much more complete state, an 1 furnishes chemists 

 with a far readier method of preparing artificial glucose in the 

 laboratory. 



The habits of a running spider of Southern Europe, Taran- 

 tula narbonensis, Latr., studied by Herr Beck, are curious. It 

 makes a vertical round hole in the ground about 10 inches 

 deep, and this, with a small earth wall sometimes made round 

 the mouth, is lined with web. A little way down is a small 

 lateral hole, into which the spider shrinks when an animal falls 

 into the tube ; when the animal has reached the bottom the spider 

 pounces on it. One can readily te'l that a tube is tenanted, by 

 the bright phosphorescent eyes of the spider turned upwards. 

 In fight the spider erects itself on its last pair of legs, striking 

 with the others. The bite is not fatal to man, but it causes 

 large swellings. The children in Bucharest angle for these 

 spiders by means of an egg-like ball of kneaded yellow wax 

 tied to a thread. This is lowered with jerks into the hole, and 

 the spider fastens on it and can be pulled out ; whereupon an- 

 other thread is passed round one of the legs, and the animal is 

 played with. 



Lemmings are very numerous in several valleys in Southern 

 Norway this winter. In many places the snow is furrowed for 

 miles by the march of these little animals on their migration 

 southwards. 



In November last a Runic stone was found at Haggerstalund, 

 in Sweden. A lady happened to notice a long stone in the 

 proximity of a well-known Runic boulder, and having had it 

 turned found that there was an inscription on the other .side> 

 which has been interpreted thus : — " Gdrdar and Jorund raised 

 these stones after (in memory of) their sister's sons, Emmund and 

 Ingemund." The newly-discovered stone is of importance, as 

 it supplements the Runic inscription of the other stone, viz. : — 

 " These memorial stones are made after (in memory of) the sons 

 of Inga. She took heirloom after them, but these brothers (re- 

 ferred to on the other sto le) will take heirloom after her. 

 Gjad's (?) brothers ; they died in Greece." The latter stone is 

 made particularly interesting by the reference to the death of the 

 two men in Greece. 



Whilst digging for potatoes late last autumn on the Island of 

 Fredoen, on the west coast of Norway, a man unearthed a flat 

 gold armlet with Runic inscriptions, and bearing on the inside 

 the year 875. On the outside is a large bright stone, but of 

 what kind has not yet been ascertained. This island is rich in 

 historical traditions from the Viking era. 



In a late issue of the Izvestia of the Russian Geographical 

 Society M. Krasnoff makes some interesting remarks on the 

 antiquities of Turkistan. He poiuts oat that ii the stone 

 inscriptions he has seen in the Tiai-Shan the men are always 

 represented oa horseback, armed with bows, arrows, long pikes 

 with flags, and curved swords. Their dress is like the present 

 khalat of the Mongolians and the Turks. The scenes represented 

 mostly relate to hunting, and the men are surrounded by stags, 

 arkhars (wild sheep), foxes, tigers, wild boars, and some 

 very big animal with a thick hairy tail, and with tusks like 

 those of the mammoth. In the gorge of the Uzun-su, M. 

 Krasnoff saw the drawing of a camel. There are no inscriptions 

 proper by the side of these drawings ; but plenty of wild sheep, 

 like the tau-tek of our days, are represented in files along 

 mountain-paths. These drawings are very rapidly obliterated, 

 and will soon disappear. They ought to be reproduced by 

 archaeologists. 



The second number of the "Bibliographies of Indian Lan- 

 guages," by Jam2s C. Pilling, has just been issued by the U.S. 

 Bureau of Ethnology. It treats of the Siouan stock. 



A USEFUL Catalogue of British Mollusca, published by Mr. 

 H. W. Marsden, of Gloucester, has been sent to us. The 

 Catalogue has been compiled by Mr. Charles Jeffreys, from 

 Jeffreys' "British Conch ology," with alterations and additions 

 to date. 



The Royal Botanic Garden of Calcutta has just completed 

 the first hundred years of its existence, having been established 

 in the year 1787. The Times of India, in reviewing the 

 history of the Garden, points out the many aivantages which it 

 has conferred on India. It has practically established and has 

 done wonders to promote the now flourishing tea industry of 

 India. The directors were the first to introduce potato-growing 

 in that country, and they imported the quinine-yielding cin- 

 chonas from South America, and thus took the first step towards 

 the establishment of what is now one of the most successful 

 Indian industries. Besides these great successes, India owes to 

 that establishment, the Times of India thinks, almost all the 

 efforts that have been made to improve the q.iality of Indian 

 cotton, and to push its sale in the European markets. The best 

 sugar-cane has been brought from the West Indian Islands, and 

 has been planted in all parts of the country ; and flax, hemp, 

 tobacco, henbane, vanilla, coffee, cocoa, ipecacuanha, india- 

 rubber, taoioca, and many other products have been system- 

 atically experimented on in the Garden. Nor has horticulture 

 b^en neglected by the superintendents, for the presence in India 



