Nov. 29, 1888] 



NATURE 



113 



was obtained in lai^e colourless rhombic crystals ; the sulphate, 

 Pt[S(C2H5)j].,S04 + 7H2O, in exceptionally lai^e crystals exhibit- 

 ing a great number effaces ; and also the nitrate in very soluble 

 crystals. The halogen salts of the group are readily trans- 

 formed into the more stable platinic compounds, which are 

 found to be much more difficultly soluble. Thus the chloride, 

 Cl2Pt[S(C«H5)2Cl]._j, was obtained in the form of yellow tables 

 and prisms belonging to the triclinic system. The bromide forms 

 red monoclinic prisms, and the iodide, perhaps the prettiest salt 

 of the whole series, crystallizes from chloroform in dichroic 

 prisms, which appear dark red by transmitted, and dark blue by 

 reflected, light. The second series of salts are precisely analo- 

 gous, but contain the radicle methyl instead of ethyl. It is 

 interesting to note that Prof. Blomstrand was successful in iso- 

 lating the base of the second series itself, Pt[S(CH3)2].^(OH)2, as 

 a yellow, strongly alkaline liquid. Between the two series, an 

 interesting mixed sulphine-chloride was obtained, containing both 



ethyl and methyl, PtfJc'H f^ci'' ^^ '^^ addition of two equiva- 

 lents of methyl sulphide to the yellow chloride first mentioned 

 above. It will be readily seen that the work thus briefly re- 

 viewed forms a most valuable contribution to our knowledge of 

 the platinum bases. 



A LIST of the writings of Dr. Asa Gray, chronologically 

 arranged, with an index, has been printed as an appendix to 

 vol. xxxvi. of the American Journal of Science, and is also 

 published separately. The compiler has done his work with 

 great care. 



In an interesting paper on " Musical Sands," Mr. C. Carus- 

 Wilson has discussed the cause of the remarkable sonorous 

 properties exhibited by the sands of various localities, a subject 

 which was referred to in this journal on August 30 and Sep- 

 tember 27 of the present year. Mr. Carus-Wilson gives the 

 details of numerous experiments. Some of them are of a very 

 ingenious character, which lead him to the conclusion that the 

 vibration of the individual sand-grains is brought about by 

 friction, and that it is the cumulative effect of numerous vibrating 

 particles of the same size that becomes audible. This conclusion 

 differs in some respects from the theories which have been put 

 forward by some other investigators of these very curious 

 phenomena. 



The first part of a useful "Introduction to Entomology," 

 by J. H. Comstock, has been published at Ithaca, U.S.A. The 

 groups of insects have been fully characterized, so that their 

 relative affinities may be learned ; and much space has been 

 given to accounts of the habits and transformations of the forms 

 described. The work contains many original illustrations. 



A LITTLE book, by Mr. W. Mawer, containing a brief account 

 of the life and discoveries of Darwin, has just been issued by 

 Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein and Co. The volume is likely to 

 be of interest to young people, for whom it has been specially 

 written. 



In the Administration Report of the Madras Government 

 Central Museum for the year 1887-88, Mr. Thurston, the Super- 

 intendent, speaks of two tours which he made during the year 

 on behalf of the Museum, viz. to Tuticorin and the Nilgiris. 

 At the former place great assistance was rendered by Captain 

 I'hipps, Port Officer, in placing boats and divers at his disposal. 

 Large collections, illustrative of the marine fauna, were made, 

 mainly through the medium of native divers, who displayed no 

 little skill, and some of the specimens, e.g. the entire collection 

 of Sponges and Echinoderms, have been sent to the British 

 Museum (Natural History), for investigation and report. The 

 results of this tour will be published after Mr. Thurston has made 

 a further tour of the Gulf of Manaar. During his tour on the 



Nilgiris a large area of both the plateau and slopes was explored, 

 and large collections of birds, reptiles, butterflies, &c., were 

 made, but as he only returned to Madras a few days before the 

 termination of the official year, he reserves a list for his next 

 annual report. 



The current number of the Asiatic Quarler'y Revirui contains 

 an article by Captain A. C. Yate on the Shan Slates, in which 

 reference is made to the ethnology of the obscure region bounded 

 on the west by Burmah, on the north and norih-east by China, 

 on the east by Tonquin, and on the south by Siam and the 

 Karennee. Of the Shans he has a very low opinion : he 

 describes them as sordid and lazy, they live in extreme poverty, 

 they are not brave, and their foot is yet barely on the lowest rang 

 of the ladder of civilization. Still, they are somewhat ahead of 

 the tribes around them. They have a literature : Captain Yate 

 says it lies about dirty and uncared for in pagodas, priests' 

 houses, and travellers' rest-houses. Amongst the other tribes 

 inhabiting the same region are the Palaungs, the Red and 

 White Karens, Kakyens or Kachins, Dunoos, Laos, Was, Kaws, 

 Chins, Yi'ns or Yeins, Yindalaings, Padaungs, Taungthus, 

 Mtisiis, and Kakins. All these are believed to speak their own 

 dialects, but none of them have a written language. The Pal- 

 aungs, Kachins, and Laos are the more important of these. The 

 Kachins are extending all over the region, and are hated and 

 feared by the Shans. They worship or propitiate certain evil 

 forces in Nature which they call "nats." Captain Yate gives 

 some curious details in regard to this and other tribes, but his 

 aim is rather to describe what they are as he saw them, than to 

 discuss the ethnological problems connected with this region and 

 its races and fragments of all but extinct peoples. 



In a paper in the current number of the Journal of the 

 Anthropological Institute, Mr. J. Allen Brown states, on the 

 authority of Mr. Carlyle, late of the Archaeological Survey of 

 India, that some few of the rudest aboriginal tribes of the wildest 

 central parts of India still practise a modified and partial sort of 

 tattooing, but only with deep blue or other dark or grey colour, 

 never with red. Hindus use red and white, and sometimes 

 yellow colours superficially, without incisions, which will wash 

 off, as religious sectarial caste marks on their foreheads. These 

 are the only instances, so far as Mr. Brown can learn, where such 

 pigments are now used either for embellishment or religous 

 symbols in India. 



We have received the second part of vol. iii. of the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. The 

 following are among the contents : on additional evidence of 

 the genus Ichthyosaurus in the Mesozoic rocks (" Rolling Downs 

 Formation ") of North- Eastern Australia, by R. Etheridge, Jun. 

 (Plate vii.) ; on additional evidence of the occurrence of Plesio- 

 saurus in the Mesozoic rocks of Queensland, by R. Etheridge, 

 Jun. (Plate viii.) ; description of a new Tripterygium from Port 

 Jackson, by E. P. Ramsay and J. D. Ogilby ; notes on the 

 Mueller Glacier, New Zealand, by Captain F. W. Hutton (Plates 

 ix. and x.) ; the insects of King's Sound and its vicinity 

 (Part 1), by William Macleay ; Australian indigenous plants 

 providing human foods and food-adjuncts, by J. H. Maiden ; 

 geographical notes in Malaysia and Asia, by the Rev. J. E. 

 Tenison- Woods ; Diptera of Australia (Part 2, the Sciaridae), by 

 F. A. A. Skuse (Plate xi.) ; note on sympathy and foster-parent- 

 age among birds, by E. G. W. Palmer ; on some new and rare 

 Hydroida in the Australian Museum Collection, by W, M. Bale 

 (Plates xii.-xxi.) ; notes on Australian Coleoptera, with de- 

 scriptions of new species, by the Rev. T. Blackburn ; the 

 development and structure of the pineal eye in Hinulia and 

 Gramtnatophora, by W. J. McKay (Plates xxii.-xxiv.). 



In his note on sympathy and foster-parentage among birds, 

 Mr. Palmer tells a curious story of a wood-duck and a hen. 



