May 6, 1875] 



NATURE 



19 



Mons. Louis Redier exhibited his new barograph, which was 

 explained to the meeting by Mr. Symons.— Mr. Scott also 

 exhibited Prof. Wild's pressure anemometer. 



Physical Society, April 24.— W. Spottiswoode, F.R.S., in 

 the chair.— Mr. J. Barrett exhibited an " auxiliary air-pump ; " 

 it is a modification of Poggendorff's arrangement for obtaming 

 a Torricellian vacuum, and is allied in principle to the exhauster 

 used by Geissler in the preparation of vacuum tubes.— Mr. 

 Barrett also showed a hammer break for the instantaneous rup- 

 ture of the current in the primary wire of an induction coil. It 

 is impossible to explain it clearly without a diagram, but an up- 

 right swing hammer is kept constantly vibrating by the alternate 

 action of a spring and the magnetised core.— Dr. W. H. Stone 

 read a paper " On some points connected with wind instru- 

 ments." lie stated that discrepancies might be noted in the 

 behaviour of air issuing from the side orifices of wind instiu- 

 ments. These discrepancies deserve attention, and may be 

 accounted for by the laws of efflux. He showed that the stream 

 of air from the side hole of a clarionet was sufficient to extinguish 

 a candle, though the musical vibration was obviously in the 

 main tube. It is usual to tune such instruments by introducing a 

 resinous cement into the holes so as to diminish their calibre, but 

 after a certain point is reached the rounded surface thus obtained 

 ceases to produce an effect. If a short pipe of the same dia- 

 meter as the orifice be now inserted, auxiliary vibrations are set 

 up, and a definite note may be produced.. Dr. Stone was led 

 to inquire whether the theorem of D. Bernoulli, or the particular 

 part of it named after Toricelli, could be brought to bear on the 

 question. The vaia contracta, which in fluids reduces the eflflux 

 to 0-62 of the calculated amount, is also to be noticed in gases, 

 and the nature of the eilluent column of air is affected by three 

 conditions : i. The thickness of the wall in which the orifice is 

 made. 2. The shape of the nozzle. 3. Friction in a long pipe. 

 Some mathematical details were then given respecting these con- 

 ditions, and it was admitted that the vibration in a musical tube 

 must also exercise sensible influence. There are two functions in 

 a side orifice in an instrument ; the first is to cut off a portion of 

 the tube, and by this means to raise the pitch ; the second esta- 

 blishes a point of non-resistance in the wall of the tube, and 

 thus acts by influencing the longitudinal vibrations. In the organ 

 peculiar qualities of tone are often obtained by these side holes, as 

 in the " Viol di Gamba " and ' ' keraulophon " stops. In flutes, 

 oboes, clarionets, and other instruments, much of the tone comes 

 from the bell, even when the side holes are open. In instru- 

 ments in which the holes are long, as in the bassoon, the holes 

 themselves became separate vibrating tubes. This was shown by 

 introducing tubes of different and increasing lengths, into an 

 orifice in the side of an organ reed pipe. The friction at last 

 became so great, and the secondary wave so strong, that the 

 organ-pipe returned to its original pitch. A reed was also ap- 

 plied to a cylindrical tube, and it was shown that a shcarp-edged 

 orifice opened at the middle point of the tube rendered it im- 

 possible to produce any note until a cylindrical nozzle was intro- 

 duced, when the octave was sounded freely. The general results 

 proved that lateral holes had a double function, the pitch of the 

 notes emitted varying with their size, shape, and length, the 

 actual severing of continuity in the principal tube being a com- 

 paratively minor point. Dr. Stone then ii^serted three tubes vary- 

 ing in length from two to six inches in a cylindrical tube like that 

 of a clarionet, at right angles to its length, the longest being 

 placed at the the centre of the instrument, and the shortest at 

 one-eighth from the mouthpiece. The same note was produced 

 when each tube was used singly and when the three were em- 

 ployed, and Dr. Stone expressed a hope that a series of experi- 

 ments would render it possible to develop curves in which the 

 co-ordinates would be the lengths of the additional tubes and 

 their position in the instrument. He also considered that a new 

 instrument might be produced in which the side orifices acted 

 purely as nodal points by the assistance of fiiction and the con- 

 tracted vein. 



Anthropological Institute, April 13.— Col. A. Lane Fox, 

 president, in the chair.— A paper, largely illustrated by dia- 

 grams, was read by Prof. Kolleston, F.R.S., "On the people 

 of the Long Barrow period." The author discussed at great 

 length the following points :—i. The evidence existing for 

 dividing the Long Barrow period into three epochs. In the 

 earliest one the dead were interred unbumt in chambers, i.e. in 

 graves walled with upright flags and communicating with the 

 exterior by a passage or gallery, or at any rate constructed so as 

 to admit of successive interment.'. In those chambers was 



found the greatest amount of manganous discoloration. In 

 the second period the dead were still interred unbumt, but in 

 cists, i.e. in cloed stone receptacles not intended to be re- 

 opened, and having no gallery leading to the exterior. The 

 third epoch of the Long Barrow period was distinguished, to 

 the great regret of the craniographer, by the practice of crema- 

 tion, a practice which, like that of burial in cists, and with even 

 more probability, might be supposed to link the Long and 

 Broad Barrow periods together. 2. The evidence for accepting 

 what might be called the Ossuary theory for explaining the 

 appearances met with in the Long Barrows, rather than the 

 theory of successive interments as put forward by Prof. Nilsson, 

 or the theory of human sacrifices and anthropophagy as sug- 

 gested by the late Dr. Thumam. What inclined Prof. Rol- 

 leston to the Ossuary theoiy was the fact that just those 

 bones are found in connection most frequently which would, by 

 virtue of their ligamentous or muscular connections, longest 

 resist the dislocating effects of removal from a provisional to a 

 permanent burial-place. 3. The evidence as to the mode of 

 life prevalent in the Long Barrow period which the cranial and 

 other bones of the persons buried or burnt in them furnished. 

 Mr. Bertram F. Hartshome exhibited and described objects of 

 Pre-Hellenic age from Troy. 



Berlin 



German Chemical Society, March 22. — F. Gass and C. 

 Hell have observed a condensation of amylic aldehyde through 

 the agency of carbonate of potash resulting in the formation of 

 a body Q-^^\-^^0<i. — C. Hempel has found amongst the pro- 

 ducts of oxidation of terpin a new monobasic acid, C8H12O4, 

 homologous with terebinic acid. — E. Prehn found that hydro- 

 chloric acid transforms mesaconic into citraconic acid. — E. 

 Biichner, in distilling paramonobromaniline, has observed its 

 transformation into aniline, dlbromaniline, and tribromaniline. — 

 R. Fittig and R. Mayer, continuing their communications on 

 isomerism in the aromatic series, insist upon the transform- 

 ation of all three bromophenols into mixtures of resorcin and 

 pyrocatechin, a fact 'singularly affecting theoretical conclusions 

 hitherto drawn from single experiments. — A. Schrohe observed 

 allylene-sulphuric acid to yield not only mesitylene, but also ace- 

 tone, by the action of water. — W. Lessen sent a short note on the 

 reduction of metallic'oxides by hydroxylamine, which is thereby 

 transformed into N and H2O. — C. Gosslich asserts that he 

 has discovered a fourth isomeric bromobenzene-sulphonic acid. — 

 H. Limpricht recommended measures of precaution to be taken 

 in the determination of the solubility of salts. — D. M'Creath 

 described substituted guanidines obtained through the action of 

 anhydrides on guanidines, viz., benzoyl-triphenyl-guanidine, 

 diacetyl-triphenylguanidine, and dibenzoyl-diphenyl-guanidine. 

 — T. Jannasch has been able to transform bromomesitylene, 

 CaH.2Br(CH3)3, into tetramethylbenzene, a liquid isomeric with 

 durene. — C. Liebermann and H. Troschke have studied the action 

 of ammonia on alizarine. The products are compounds in which 

 OH is replaced by NHj, and 2OII are replaced by NH. — C. 

 Liebermann and F. Palm exhibited crystalline compounds of 

 hydrocarbons with the chloride and with the amide of picric 

 acid. 



April 12. — O. Brenken has studied what was generally consi- 

 dered as the melting of terchloride of iodine, and has" found it to 

 consist of a dissociation into monochloride and free chlorine. — P. 

 Melikoffdetei mined that at 77'^ ICl., is completely decomposed 

 into ICl and Cij. — A. Michaelis and J. Ananoff, in treating 

 PCla-Cgllr, with zinc ethyl, have obtained diethyl-phenyl-phos- 

 phine, a liquid base, distilling at 222°, taking up 2HCI and 2CI. 

 i Oxide of silver, exchanging O against Cl„, produces an oxide with 

 j the latier body. VQ^\^{(Z^\^^ is a well-crystallised compound. 

 I Similar bodies have been obtained by the action of zinc methyl on 

 i phosphenyl-chloride. — A. Micliaelis, by treating PClaCfiHj, with 

 PI 1.3 and water or alcohol, obtained a yellow powder of the 

 formula CgH., - P= P — OH, diphusphobenzol corresponding to 

 adiazobenzoL— E. Benzinger, heating phosphenylic acid, CrH, 

 PO(OII)2 with nitric acid in sealed tubes, has obtained a crystal- 

 line mononitrophosphenylic acid, which with tin and hydro- 

 i chloric acid yields the corresponding amido-acid. — II. Lange, in 

 i passing toluene and PCI3 through a red- hot tube, was unable to 

 1 produce phosphobenzyl-chloride, but obtained stilbene only. — A. 

 Michaelis, who has lately expressed the constitution of phos- 

 phorus acid thus : HPO(OH)2, defends his view against a 

 paper lately published by Zimmermann. — F. Kammerer has fixed 

 I the melting-point of perchloride of antimony as - 6° C. — H. 

 Kohler and B. Aronheim. have treated icdide of isopropyl and 



