Feb. 2 1, 1889] 



NATURE 



397 



keen observers of Nature. When he was making collections of 

 birds, insects, and plants, he found the natives of great 

 assistance. " If an insect was shown them," he says, "they 

 could usually take me where more of the same species might be 

 found. On the approach of summer they watched with interest 

 its signs, and often would bring to me insects which they believed 

 were the first of the season. " 



Mr. Payne found that the Eskimo of Hudson's Strait were 

 much given to the habit of offering food and other things to 

 spirits. By the graves of many of their dead were found scraps 

 of food, tobacco, powder, shot, and other articles, and at first it 

 was supposed that these were offered only to those who had died. 

 To Mr. Payne's surprise, however, a number of like articles were 

 found upon a beacon he had built in the shape of a man. When 

 two cannons, found upon the shore near Cape Prince of Wales, 

 that had undoubtedly been left by some of the early explorers, 

 were made to stand on end, a quantity of bullets, shot, and other 

 rubbish rolled out. On inquiry as to how these things had got 

 there, Mr. Payne was informed they had been given as "an 

 offering to the spirits." 



The extent to which variation may prevail among butterflies 

 is well illustrated in some facts set forth in The Entomologist for 

 February, by Mr. W. W. Smith, of Ashburton, New Zealand. 

 The special subject of Mr. Smith's remarks is Argyrophinga 

 antipoihim, one of the few endemic species of New Zealand 

 Rhopalocera. This butterfly in its season is generally numerous, 

 and owing to its slow and somewhat laboured flight is easily 

 captured. Among the specimens Mr. Smith has taken are some 

 remarkable varieties, exhibiting all the phases or stages of 

 variation to which a single species could be subject. Many 

 individuals of both sexes differ considerably from each other in 

 their ground colouring, the colours of the neuration, and in the 

 number of ocelli. The typical colour of the male is given by 

 Mr. A. G. Butler as "dark greyish brown, paler at base" ; in 

 Mr. Smith's specimens every shade of brown is developed, while 

 some are partially melanic forms. Among the females there is 

 also considerable distinction, the general colouring varying from 

 whitish yellow to rich dark orange. In a typical specimen the 

 hind wings are crossed with three small ocelli, the centre one 

 in the male being slightly the largest ; among them are several 

 having a broad blackish band crossing the wing from the inner 

 to the outer margin, and inclosing four distinct ocelli. Others 

 have the three ocelli much enlarged and coalescent, while a 

 number possess only two or one ocelli, and in one specimen (a 

 male) they are obsolete on all the wings. 



A NEW acid of tin has been obtained by Prof. W. Spring, 

 consisting of two molecules of a higher oxide, SnOj, combined 

 with one of water. The new acid, HjSnjOy, or zSnOj . HjO, 

 is consequently analogous to disulphuric acid, HgS^Oy, and 

 dichromic acid, HoCrjO^. The method by which Dr. Spring 

 has prepared it is of peculiar interest. A saturated solution 

 of about ten grammes of stannous chloride, in water containing 

 sufficient hydrochloric acid to prevent decomposition into the 

 oxychloride, was treated at the ordinary temperature with excess 

 of peroxide of barium. The latter substance was obtained pure 

 in the form of the hydrate, BaOj . 6H2O, by precipitating clear 

 baryta-water with oxygenated water. After the addition of the 

 peroxide the liquid became very thick, and lost most of its 

 limpidity, indicating a change resulting in the production of 

 a colloidal substance. Neither by allowing to stand nor by 

 filtration could any clearing of the solution be effected. But 

 upon subjecting it to dialysis, chloride of barium diffused 

 through the membrane, and was eventually entirely removed by 

 changing the water in which the dialyzer floated every day 

 during a period approaching three months. The contents of 

 the dialyzer were now evaporated as low as possible upon a 

 water-bath ; when the evaporation was saliiciently advanced 



the contents of the dish became converted into a white opalescent 

 jelly, and this eventually dried up into a white solid mass of 

 the new acid. The analyses were most thoroughly carried out, 

 the tin, water, and oxygen each being determined directly, and 

 the numbers obtained are, within the usual limits of error, those 

 required for the H2Sn.p7. The oxygen was estimated by 

 passing a current of pure hydrogen over a weighed quantity of 

 the substance contained in a porcelain boat heated to redness in 

 a combustion tube. The water obtained was absorbed by calcium 

 chloride, and weighed, and after deducting the water contained in 

 the substance, the oxygen present in the oxide was readily calcu- 

 lated. As a control, the residue of reduced tin was also weighed. 

 These analyses prove beyond doubt that the tin is here present 

 in the form of trioxide, and that at ioo° C. one molecule of 

 water remains combined with it. From certain secondary 

 phenomena Dr. Spring is of opinion that the reaction really 

 takes place in two stages ; an oxychloride of tin being first 

 formed by direct addition of oxygen to stannous chloride, 

 SnCl2 + BaOj = SnOClj + BaO. This stannic oxychloride 

 appears, then, to react with a further molecule of peroxide of 

 barium with production of barium chloride and trioxide of tin, 

 or hyperstannic anhydride, as Dr. Spring terms the new 

 oxide : 



SnOCl2 + BaO, = BaCl^ -f SnOg. 

 The baryta obtained as by-product in the first stage is of 

 course dissolved by the hydrochloric acid present, and the 

 barium is thus entirely removed as chloride upon dialysis. 



Messrs. Trubner have in the press a work on ethics, by 

 Mr. S. Alexander, Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, entitled 

 "Moral Order and Progress : an Analysis of Ethical Concep- 

 tions." It will be in three books: Book I., Preliminary, deal- 

 ing with conduct and character; Book II., Statical— Moral 

 Order; Book III., Dynamical— Moral Growth and Progress. 

 The work ought to be interesting to students of science, as the 

 author's conclusions, if sound, will tend to confirm the theory of 

 evolution by showing that the characteristic differences of moral 

 action are such as might be expected if that theory were true. 

 In Book III. he aims at proving that moral ideals follow, in 

 their origin and development, the same law as natural species. 



The Clarendon Press has issued a fourth edition of the second 

 volume of Prof. Minchin's "Treatise on Statics, with Applica- 

 tions to Physics." It is to a very great extent a reprint of the 

 previous edition, but Prof Minchin explains that it treats much 

 more fully of conical angles ; contains new articles on line- and 

 surface-integrals and magnetic shells ; and presents an improve- 

 ment in the method of treating some questions of strain and 

 stress, for which the author is indebted to Prof. Williamson. 



The Annuaire, for 1889, of the Royal Observatory ot 

 Brussels, by F. Folic, has been published. This is the fifty- 

 sixth annual issue, and the work fully maintains the high standard 

 of excellence attained in previous numbers. 



The first number of a popular scientific periodical —Z><?r Stein 

 der W?w«— has just been issued by H. Hartleben, Vienna. It 

 will be published once a fortnight. The editor is A. von 

 Schweiger-Lerchenfeld. If we may judge from the present 

 number, the new periodical is likely to be a decided success. 

 The articles are well written, and there are many illustrations. 



Mr. S. H. Wintle contributes to the Victorian Farmers' 

 Gazette an account of a mineral substance found in the slightly 

 decayed heart of a beech-tree, Fagus Cunuinghami, cut down, 

 and split up for firewood, at Gladstone, Mount Camera, Tas- 

 mania. A mass of the substance, about one pound in weight, 

 was sent to Mr. Wintle for examination. Analysis proved it to 

 be oxalate of potassium— -the " salts of lemon" of commerce. 

 " Potash, as potash," says Mr. Wintle, " enters largely into the 



