494 



NATURE 



[March 22, 1888 



The New York Academy of Sciences (says Science) was 

 organized in 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is 

 fourth in point of age among American scientific Societies. The 

 name and constitution were changed in 1876. The Annals, 

 begun in 1824, have been distributed in all lands, and have 

 given world-wide reputation to the Society. The Transactions, 

 begun in 1881, give a record of the meetings, papers, and dis- 

 cussions, are published in monthly or bi-monthly numbers, and 

 make an octavo volume each year. The libraiy now numbers 

 over eight thousand titles, and is especially rich in sets of the 

 publications of foreign Societies. It is now on deposit in the 

 Library Building of Columbia College, and is accessible to the 

 public from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day of the year except 

 Sundays. The cabinet was destroyed by fire in 1866. Previous 

 to that date it was the principal collection in the city, and did 

 a noble work. The Academy has long looked forward to the 

 time when it could secure a building of its own, such as the 

 corresponding Societies in Boston and Philadelphia have long 

 enjoyed. It is not to the credit of New York that its oldest 

 scientific organization, after nearly three-quarters of a century 

 of steady and persevering activity, should be still unprovided 

 with a building, while many other cities can show noble monu- 

 ments of scientific interest and public spirit. Why should not 

 the recent meeting of the American Association in this city be 

 permanently commemorated by the erection of a fire-proof 

 building for the accommodation of the Academy, or perhaps 

 of several other Societies under the same roof — a building which 

 should be at once a benefit and an honour to the metropolis of 

 America? The interest of the community has been aroused 

 and quickened in the direction of science by the meeting of the 

 Association, and the Academy of Sciences would now invite the 

 citizens of New York to take a greater interest in its work. 



Pure trichloride of nitrogen has at last been prepared and 

 successfully analyzed by Dr. Gattermann, of Gottingen. The 

 first result of these researches upon this terribly explosive sub- 

 stance brought to light the fact that the chloride of nitroTjen pre- 

 pared as usual by the action of chlorine gas upon ammonium 

 chloride is by no means a homogeneous substance, that it really 

 consists of a varying mixture of several chlorides. Moreover, it 

 was found that the longer the time during which the chlorine 

 was allowed to act, the more nearly the composition of the pro- 

 duct approached NCI3 ; but pure NCI3 can never be obtained 

 in this way, owing to the excess of ammonium chloride always 

 present. Dr. Gattermann, however, prepared a quantity of this 

 crude product, as richly chlorinated as possible, washed it well 

 with water until all the sal-ammoniac was removed, drained it 

 as free as might be from the water, and then led over it a rapid 

 stream of chlorine. The resulting oil was again washed, care- 

 fully dried, happily without accident, and finally analyzed. The 

 percentage of chlorine found was almost identical (89" 17) with that 

 required for NCI3 (Sg'io). The success of these dangerous opera- 

 tions is all owing, it appears, to the fact that they were performed 

 upon dull wintry days, when the sun's actinism was very low ; in. 

 deed. Dr. Gattermann was almost led to believe that the disasters 

 which have imparted to the history of this compound so tragical 

 a character must have been owing to some fault of the experi- 

 menters. But at last — it was about the thirtieth preparation — 

 the oil quietly reposing in the chlorinating apparatus suddenly 

 exploded with its usual detonation. At the same moment Dr. 

 Gattermann noticed that the sun had broken through the clouds, 

 and was shining upon his apparatus. Here then was the cause 

 of these apparently spontaneous explosions : chloride of nitrogen 

 is vijlently dissociated by the wave-motion of light. Following 

 this up, it was found that the burning of a piece of magnesium 

 ribbon in proximity to the oil was quite as effeclive in producing 

 an explosion. Finally, Dr. Gattermann has determined the 

 temperature of dis*)ciation of the compound. About half a 



gramme was hea'ed in a thin-walled tube placed in a beaker of 

 liquid vaseline, the thermometer being read off by means of a 

 telescope placed at a safe distance. As high as 90° C. the oil 

 remained unchanged, but at 95° it exploded with such violence 

 that the whole appanitus was destroyed. One feels much regret 

 on reading Dr. Gattermanu's concluding observations, in which 

 he states that his eyes and nerves have been so much affected 

 that he is obliged temporarily to give up all further work upon 

 this interesting substance. 



Messrs. Crosby Lockwood and Son are about to publish 

 the following books : — " Waterworks : being Notes on the 

 Storage of Water in Reservoirs, &c.," by Charles Slagg ; 

 "Practical Surveying: a Text- book for Students preparing for 

 Examinations or the Colonies," by George W. Usill ; "Granites 

 and our Granite Industries," with numerous illustrations, by G. 

 F. Harris; a treatise on "Asbestos, and the Asbestos Mines 

 of Canada," by Robert H. Jones ; " The Mechanic's Workshop 

 Handy-book," by P. N. Hasluck ; and the fourth edition of " A 

 Treatise on Metalliferous Minerals and Mining," by D. C. Davies. 



In a recently-published Report on the Fisheries of New South 

 Wales, Mr. Griffin, the American Consul at Sydney, refers to 

 the great wealth of the colony in this respect, which is totally 

 neglected. Up to the present, no attempt has been made to 

 develop an export trade in fish. In fact, there are only eleven hands 

 employed in the whole colony in fish-curing, with a capital of no 

 more than £^y>, and the output does not annually exceed ;^200 

 in value. Yet the amount of tinned fish imported by the colony 

 last year exceeded 2000 tons, of which about one-half was from 

 the United States, and almost all the remainder from Great 

 Britain. With regard to the species of fish suitable for pre- 

 serving which are to be found in the waters of the colony, the 

 mullet {Mugil grandis) is there in abundance, and when well 

 cured is superior to anything of the kind in the world. Generally, 

 it may be said that the fish fauna of Australia differs very little 

 from similar species in Europe and America. The most remark- 

 able fish in Australia is the Phyllopteryx, described as " the ghost 

 of a sea-horse with its winding sheet all in ribbons about it ; and 

 even as a ghost it seems to be in the last stage of emaciation, 

 literally all skin and grief." 



The resistance of pollen to various external influences is the 

 subject of a recent inaugural dissertation by Herr Rittinghaus in 

 Bonn {Natw/., i, 1888). As to temperature, he found most 

 pollen able to bear 90° C. half an hour, without losing the 

 power of germination. A temperature-maximum was reached 

 at I04°'5 for ten minutes. In conditions favouring germination, 

 pollen does not bear such high temperatures as in the air-dry 

 state. A moderately raised temperature (32°) accelerates growth 

 of the pollen tubes. Low temperatures {eg. under 9°) prevent 

 germination, though a cooling to 20° for forty minutes can be 

 borne without injury. As to liquid chemical reagents, the 

 plasma of pollen proved very sensitive to antiseptics (more so, 

 as a rule, than micro-organisms), but the resisting power is pretty 

 different in different sorts of pollen. Chloroform vapour acting 

 for twenty minutes was fatal, bromine vapour in five minutes, 

 ammoniacal vapour in ten to twenty minutes. Rotation, several 

 hours, of a spherical vessel holding pollen with nutritive solu- 

 tion, did not prevent free germination. The retention of the 

 power varies widely in different plants. Thus, Cyclamen lost it 

 soonest, in seventeen days ; while Clivia, a narcissus, still had 

 it on the sixty-sixth day {Paonia fifty-eight. Camellia fifty-one^ 

 Azalea forty-two). The average is thirty to forty days. 



A recent number of the Indian Agriculturist contains a 

 notice of a little book written in Bengalee, by a Hindoo gentle- 

 man, Nidhiram Mookerjee, and published at the Bangabasi 

 Press, Calcutta. The work is on pisciculture, and gives us the 

 results of the labours of an ardent student of fish and their 



