566 



NATURE 



[April \\, T889 



Eeasley will represent the University of Cambridge ; Oxford 

 has not yet chosen its representative. The Shah and several 

 Indian princes will send representatives. 



The Central Society of Agriculture of France has conferred 

 upon Prof. J. C. E« art the title of honorary member in recog- 

 nition of the services he has rendered to the fishery industry by 

 his "many and eminent labours." 



The Keiv Bulletin for April 1888 contained a list of new 

 garden plants described to the end of the year 1887. The 

 Bulletin for the present month consists of a list of those described 

 and published during the year 1888. The list has been extended 

 to include the descriptions of new plants (and name alterations) 

 which have appeared in several horticultural periodicals, that 

 were not included in the former list. The number of new 

 garden plants annually described in various English and foreign 

 periodicals renders it a matter of considerable difficulty to 

 botanists and horticulturists to keep them in view. The publica 

 tion of a complete annual list of new garden plants is, therefore, 

 as the editor explains, indispensable to the maintenance of a 

 correct nomenclature, especially in the smaller botanical estab- 

 lishments in correspondence with Kew, as these, for the most 

 part, are only scantily provided with horticultural periodicals. 

 The editor also points out that such a list will afford information 

 respecting new plants under cultivation at Kew, many of which 

 will be distributed in the regular course of exchange. 



A SEVERE shock of earthquake was noticed over the whole of 

 South-East Japan on February 18. At Yokohama and at Tokio 

 many houses were damaged. The shock continued for 6m. 12s., 

 and was felt at Sendai, a town 45 geographical miles to the 

 north of 'Jokio. 



On March 20, about 10 p.m., a slight shock of earthquake 

 was felt near Carlstad, in Sweden. It was followed by a more 

 severe shock at 3 a.m. 



Several meteors have been observed recently in Scandinavia. 

 On the evening of March 14, a brilliant meteor was seen 

 at Molde, in North-West Norway, bluish-white in colour, and 

 going in an easterly direction ; and on March 21, at about 10 

 p.m., another was seen at Sarpsborg, on the Christiania fjord. 

 It radiated in the west, and went in a southerly direction, dis- 

 playing, during its passage, rainbow colours, and leaving a red- 

 dish trail behind. What may have been the same meteor was 

 seen off the coast of Gothenburg, at 10.22 p.m., a considerable 

 distance further south. It was very brilliant, and bluish-green 

 in colour, and its passage— in a direction south-west-north — 

 occupied fifty seconds. 



The atomic weight of chrooiium has been redetermined by 

 Mr. Rawson, of University College, Liverpool. Previous de- 

 terminations, of which there have been many, have resulted in 

 placing the value somewhere between 52*0 and 52*5. The 

 method employed by Mr. Rawson appears to have been an 

 exceptionally accurate one, there being no transference from 

 one vessel to another, no filtrations and consequently no burning 

 of filter papers. The plan of operations consisted in first re- 

 ducing a known weight of pure ammonium dichromate with 

 alcohol and hydrochloric acid to chromic chloride, and subse- 

 quent estimation of the oxide produced by direct precipitation 

 with ammonia. The purest obtainable ammonium dichromate, 

 (NH4)2Cr207, was repeatedly recrystallized, dried for a couple 

 of days at 100° C, an I finally for a fortnight in a desiccator. 

 The water used in the estimations was trebly distilled, and, 

 on evaporation of 100 cubic centimetres, no residue was ob- 

 tained. The purest commercial hydrochloric acid was redistilled, 

 and the distillate in like manner gave no residue on evaporation. 

 Similarly, the ammonia solution and the absolute alcohol were 



redistilled, until absolutely free from impurities. The method 

 of vibrations was employed in weighing, and the platinum dish 

 used in the operations was counterpoised by a similar dish of 

 nearly equal weight, the slight difference being made up by a 

 piece of platinum-foil. The two dishes were always treated 

 alike : when one was placed on the water-bath, the other was 

 also placed on a water-bath, and for the same time ; they were 

 both ignited for the same length of time, and, after ignition, were 

 simultaneously placed in desiccators. In this way the usual errors 

 in weighing platinum after such treatment were eliminated. 

 During the experiments, the dishes were protected by covers of 

 platinum-foil, which were not, however, weighed with them. In 

 the actual experiments, the finely ground ammonium dichromate 

 was weighed in one of the dishes, 10 c.c. of water added, and 

 when the salt had dissolved 10 c.c. of hydrochloric acid. In 

 small quantities at a time, 10 c.c. of the alcohol were sub- 

 sequently added, and the whole evaporated to complete dryness 

 on the water-bath. After repetition of this treatment to insure 

 complete reduction, the residue was dissolved in 10 c.c. of water 

 and 2 c.c. of the ammonia added ; after an interval another 10 

 c.c. of water and 3 c.c. of ammonia were added, and the 

 whole evaporated again to complete dryness. The dish was 

 then heated in an air-bath to 140° for five hours, and after- 

 wards to redness for an hour in a muffle furnace. The 

 residual oxide, after weighing till constant, was found to 

 be perfectly pure, and of a fine green colour ; on washing 

 with water and evaporating the washings, no residue was ob- 

 tained. In calculating the results, to which all the known 

 corrections were applied, it was assumed that O = 15*96 and 

 N = 14 '02, both well-determined numbers. The mean of the 

 values from six experiments, the maximum difference between 

 which was only o-i20, gives for the atomic weight of chromium 

 52"o6i. Hence chromium appears likely to possess a whole- 

 number atomic weight, and it cannot but be admitted as re- 

 markable that so many of the later stoechiometrical investiga- 

 tions, conducted with all the modern experimental refinements, 

 have yielded values approximating to true multiples of the 

 atomic weight of hydrogen. 



Mr. W. E. Beale writes to the Times from Folkington 

 Manor, Polegate, Sussex, April 4 : — "On this estate is to be 

 seen a nest, which has evidently been built partly by a thrush 

 and partly by a hedge-sparrow. The nest itself is of the ordinary 

 size of the thrush's nest ; but, instead of being lined with mud, 

 it is lined with horsehair, wool, and moss. The birds seem to 

 have been good friends during the laying of their eggs. On 

 Monday last there were three sparrow's eggs in the nest, and 

 five thrush's. But on visiting the nest to-day it was found that 

 the sparrow's eggs had been destroyed. The birds appear to 

 have quarrelled when it came to the question of which should 

 sit on them, and the thrush asserted its rights, not, however, 

 without a struggle on the part of the sparrow, one of the thrush's 

 eggs being broken, one missing, and three being perfect." 



According to the American Field, wild boars have become 

 very numerous in the deep recesses of the Shawangunk Mountains, 

 that border Orange and Sullivan Counties, N.Y. They are the 

 genuine Black Forest wild boars of Europe, the descendants of nine 

 formidable and ferocious boars and sows which Mr. Otto Plock, 

 of New York, imported some few years ago for the purpose of 

 annihilating the snakes and vermin that infested his estate near 

 the Shawangunk Mountains. After the boars had eaten up all 

 the snakes and vermin in the inclosure, they longed for more, 

 and dug under the wire fencing and escaped to the mountains, 

 where they have since bred and multiplied. They are so fero- 

 cious that the most daring hunter is said to hesitate before 

 attacking them. They have immense heads, huge tusks and 

 shoulders, and lank hind-parts. 



