Sept. 23, 1875J 



NATURE 



465 



the same piece of zinc, when covered with spongy copper, gave 

 off eighty volumes in one hour, which showed fan elevenfold 

 increase for an addition of the negative element of only o"ii per 

 cent. In the second note he showed that if a quantity of arseni- 

 cal zinc foil was " coupled," washed and heated with water, and 

 two litres of hydrogen evolved therefrom were passed through a 

 tube heated to redness, not a trace of arsenic was observed ; but 

 when a portion of the same arsenical zinc was treated with dilute 

 sulphuric acid, and two litres of hydrogen evolved by the action 

 were passed through a heated tube as before, -0019 gramme of 

 arsenic was deposited in the cool part of the tube. Arsenical 

 zinc, when covered with spongy copper and acted upon with 

 dilute sulphuric acid, also gave arseniuretted hydrogen. This 

 appears to show that it is not the copper, but the inability of the 

 arsenic to get into solution when hydrogen is .made from water 

 and the "couple," which is confirmed by adding an aqueous 

 solution of arsenic to the same couple, when the mirror imme- 

 diately appears. 



The same gentleman also read a paper by the same authors, 

 in which it was shown that if aluminium be "coupled" with 

 more negative metals, such as copper or platinum, then at the 

 ordinary temperature of the air in the latter case, 4 c. c. of 

 hydrogen are evolved in twenty-two hours, and if the tempera- 

 ture be raised to 100° C, in the first six hours 484c, c. are 

 evolved. Aluminium alone, according to Deville, only decom- 

 poses water at a white heat. 



The President read a paper On an apparatus for estimating 

 Carbon Bisulphide in Coal Gas. The principle upon which the 

 success of the method depends is the following : — When carbon 

 bisulphide is heated, in the presence of hydrogen, sulphuretted 

 hydrogen is formed. 



The apparatus consists of a flask filled with pebbles and 

 asbestos (to expose a large surface to the action of heat), and 

 surrounded by fire-clay cylinders, in which gas is kept burning. 

 This flask is connected through a solution of lead with an aspi- 

 rator. There are other connections also by means of which gas 

 from the source requiring to be tested circulates through the 

 ilask and is burnt. When the flask has been heated for about 

 twenty-four hours continuously (to expel all moisture), a mea- 

 sured quantity of water is drawn off from the aspirator, which 

 causes the same volume of gas to bubble through the lead solu- 

 tion, and on account of the presence of sulphuretted hydrogen to 

 produce a decolorisation of the ler.d solution. A similar vessel 

 containing the same quantity of lead solution and a known quan- 

 tity of sulphuretted hydrogen is placed beside it, the gas being 

 allowed to bubble through the first until the colour is judged to 

 be equally intense ; the amount of sulphuretted hydrogen in a 

 known volume of the gas is thus found, and hence the amount of 

 carbon bisulphide. Having once got the apparatus started, 

 gases from several different sources may be tested. 



Prof. A. Oppenheim made some remarks on oxyuvilic acid, 

 which he stated belonged to the aromatic series, and said he 

 was able to show that it could be prepared from its elements, 

 thus making the fifth of that series which could be prepared 

 by synthesis. The formula of the acid he showed to be 



I CII3 

 Cs^Ia \ rnOH *^^"^ making it a derivative of benzole. It gives 



( COOH 

 a reddish brown colour with ferric chloride in the presence of 

 alcohol. If it is slightly heated it changes its composition to 



(CH3 

 C„H, < OH. which gives a violet colour under the same 



( COOH 

 circumstance: if it is still further heated it is converted Jnto 



CeHi j oS' or cresole. 



The Professor also made some remarks on the derivatives of 

 mercaptan, which were founded on some researches of Ur. 

 Williamson on the action of chloroform. 



Mr. Chas. T. Kingzett read a paper On the Oxidation of 

 Essential Oils, which he observed was a continuation of papers 

 which had previously been communicated to the Chemical 

 Society. The object of the paper was to give some results on 

 the limited oxidation (by air) of terpenes of the general formula 

 CioHjfi, certain terpenes of the formula CJ5H54, and cymene, 

 CioH]4. The terpenes experimented upon were hesperidine, 

 myristicene (obtained in three different wayS from oil of nutmeg), 

 wormwood, all of which gave on atmospheric oxidation, per- 

 oxide of hydrogen and I acetic acid, i Citronella and Ylang 

 yiJVtig, clove-terpene (C15H24), were found to develop no peroxide 



of hydrogen. Cymene obtained from three sources and exposed 

 to atmospheric oxidation was also found to develop peroxide of 

 hydrogen. These researches prove that in terpenes of the 

 formula C15H24 the carbon exists in an allotropic form. 



SECTION D— Biology 

 Department of Anthropology. 



One day was chiefly occupied by a valuable series of papers on 

 the population of the Indian region. A combined discussion on 

 the three papers now to be noticed followed their reading. The 

 first paper was by Sir Walter Elliot, On the original localities of 

 races forming the present population of India. After some pre- 

 liminary remarks, he said that the circumstance of colour was one 

 of the most observable signs of difference of race, and the very 

 word for the Aryan institution of caste was varanum, or colour, 

 they having doubtless introduced it to distinguish themselves 

 from the Dasyns or alien peoples with whom they came in con- 

 tact on crossing the Indus. The author detailed the different 

 colours or races now inhabiting India, and went on to remark 

 that it is now generally admitted that the centre of dispersion 

 from which all the peoples of the earth had migrated was Central 

 Asia. The first great wave that surmounted the Himalayan 

 barrier, at a time when the earth's surface was in a different con- 

 dition from what it is now, could no longer be traced as a sepa- 

 rate and distinct people. Remnants of the primeval movement 

 were now only to be found amongst the most degraded denizens 

 of the hills and forests, and probably in the despised slave popula- 

 tion. The great Dravidian migration must have been made 

 much later in time. It was probably not a simultaneous move- 

 ment, but consisted of successive swarms, which would account 

 for the existence of well-defined groups am.ong them, which bad 

 preserved their characteristics unchanged to the present day. 



But the normal representatives of the race were to be found 

 in the mountaineers of Central India, where, protected by 

 regions of deadly malaria encirclmg their highland territory, 

 they have for ages bid defiance to hostile aggression, and 

 preserved their habits and independence unchanged. The 

 ground on which so many at first sight heterogeneous races 

 were united under the title of Dravidian was mainly com- 

 munity of language, but that test was not infallible. A better 

 link was furnished by similarity of form, features, colour, 

 and structural coincidence. He maintained that the characters 

 of Prof. Huxley's Australioid type could be traced among the 

 classes of Dravidians, modified as was to be expected, among 

 those most exposed to external influences, but still always 

 apparent to a practised eye. There was nothing to show by 

 what routes the first settlers arrived. Their advance was pro- 

 bably a slow and gradual percolation from different parts of the 

 north through the mountain barrier that cuts off India from the rest 

 of Asia. The migratory instincts or necessities of the people of 

 Central Asia exerted themselves in all directions. Of the exact 

 seat of the brown-skinned, Iwavy -haired Australioids, they had no 

 definite knowledge. But the Mongols and Mandchurians sent off 

 successive hordes to the south-east, whence in time the teeming 

 population of China sougin an eastern direction. Those people 

 were thus brought into contact with tribes already settled there 

 from a more westerly quarter. Thus the inhabitants of Siam, 

 Burmah, and the Malayan Peninsula, spoke a monosyllabic lan- 

 guage, but wrote it in a Dravidian character, and Mr. Hodgson 

 found the scattered tribes around Nepaul partaking of the same 

 mixed characters, both with regard to race and language. 



Mr. Hyde Clarke's paper On the Himalayan Origin of the 

 Magyar and Fin Languages, attempted to prove his theory by 

 facts of analogy in the languages themselves, and by inferences 

 from facts of history. He found that the aflinities of Magyar 

 and Fin were strongest for the languages of East Nepaul. 



Mr. Bertram Hartshorne, of the Ceylon Civil Service, read a 

 paper on the interesting IVcddas of Ceylon, who still depend for 

 their means of subsistence upon their bows and arrows, and pass 

 their lives in the vast forests of Ceylon without any dwelling- 

 houses or system of cultivation. There is an entire absence of any 

 flint or stone implements among them, and their state of barba- 

 rism is indicated by the practice of producing fire by means of 

 rubbing two sticks together, as well as by their habitual disre- 

 gard of any sort of ablution. Their intellectual capacity is very 

 slight ; they are quite unable to count, or to discriminate between 

 the colours ; but while their moral notions lead them to regard 

 theft or lying as an inconceivable wrong, they are devoid of any 

 sentiment of religion except in so far as that may be inferred 

 from their practice of offering a sacrifice to the spirit of one of 



