May 5, 1887] 



NATURE 



15 



the sponges and corals Mr. Dendy will continue. The vacancy 

 in the Botanical Department occasioned by Mr. Fawcett's 

 appointment to the Curatorship^ of the Botanical Gardens in 

 Jamaica has been gained, after competitive examination, by Mr. 

 Edmund Gilbert Baker, a son of the well-known botanist of 

 Kew Gardens. 



The Council of the British Medical Association have recently 

 ; appointed Mr. Watson Cheyne and Dr. Sidney Martin as Science 

 I Scholars for one year. The former proposes to continue his 

 ; research of Bacteria in relation to disease, and the latter to 

 carry on researches on the vegetable albuminoses, especially with 

 I relation to their alleged toxic action. 



On Monday last, Mr. J. M. Thomson delivered the first of 

 :the concluding course of Cantor Lectures at the Society of 

 \ Arts, The remaining lectures of the course will be delivered on 

 iMay9, i6, and 23. The subject is the "Chemistry of Sub- 

 stances taking Part in Putrefaction and Antisepsis." 



Another synthesis of a natural product has just been added 

 to the long score of successes which have followed Wohler's 

 mitiative. About a dozen years ago it was observed that the 

 outer coatings of walnuts collected at the end of June became 

 covered with small yellow needle-shaped crystals, of a substance 

 which was found by Vogel and Reischauer in the expressed juice 

 of the same, and named by them nucine or juglon, Bernthsen 

 and Semper have very recently {Ber. Deuf. Ckem. Ges. 1887, 

 No. 6) proved conclusively that this substance is an a-hydroxy-o- 

 naphthoquinone, Ci„H50,.(0H), and to complete the proof have 

 actually built up the same substance directly from naphthalene- 

 They first prepared a^ 03 dihydroxynaphthalene, CioHg(OH)o, by 

 Armstrong's method, which was then oxidized by chromic acid ; 

 the brown precipitate obtained was afterwards digested with 

 warm ether, and after removal of the ether by distillation, 

 ^ crystallization from chloroform yielded beautiful acicular crystals 

 identical in all respects with juglon, of nutshell odour, producing 

 violent sneezing. As naphthalene itself can be built up from its 

 elements, it follows that juglon, undoubtedly a product of veget- 

 able growth, has been synthetized by artificial means. 



f 

 bOME important observations on the structure and origin o 



the gelatinous sheath which invests the filaments of many Algte, 

 and also some Flagellata, have recently been published by Herr 

 G. Klebs. In the Zygnemaceag this sheath is composed of a 

 substance entirely independent of the cell-walls. It consists of 

 two portions : a homogeneous substance which is but slightly 

 refringent, and which is indifferent to the action of staining 

 reagents ; and a portion which absorbs pigments with avidity, 

 and which is composed of minute rods at right angles to the 

 cell-wall. This substance does not exhibit the reactions of the 

 ordinary mucilage of vegetable cells ; it is not dissolved by 

 alkalies. The author maintains that the substance of the sheath 

 is derived directly from the cytoplasm of the cell through the 

 cell-wall ; it is always quite distinct from the cell-wall, and must 

 be formed by apposition rather than by intussusception. Similar 

 results were obtained from the gelatinous sheath of the Desmi- 

 dieae and of some other Algre. A gelatinous sheath can be 

 detected in nearly all the Flagellata by the use of sufficiently 

 dilute staining materials ; and here, also, the sheath is due 

 directly to the activity of the protoplasm. In Euglena sanguinea 

 it IS secreted in the form of more or less curved filamentous 

 bodies. In the social forms the gelatine consists of a funda- 

 mental substance, immersed in which are denser granular cor- 

 puscles. The brown or black colour is due to the deposition of 

 oxide of iron. 



On March 17 we stated in a note that the Berlin Academy of 

 Sciences had granted a sum of money "for the printing of some 

 important zoological works," among which we mentioned Dr. 

 Taschenberg's " Bibliothek." Herr Engelmann, the publisher 

 of the "Bibliothek," writes to us that the grant was made to 

 Dr. Taschenberg personally, in recognition of his labours as 

 editor, and that it does not in the slightest degree diminish the 

 publisher's responsibilities in connexion with the work. 



The Council of the Parkes Museum believe that there are 

 many medical men who would be glad to make use of the 

 Museum under the guidance of someone able to point out the 

 object and advantages of the various appliances exhibited. They 

 have therefore arranged, for the month of iMay, three demon- 

 strations, which will be open to all members of the medical 

 profession on presentation of their cards. Prof W. H. Corfield 

 has consented to give a demonstration on Monday, May 9 ; Mr. 

 Rogers Field on Monday, May i6 ; and Mr. Percival Gordon 

 Smith on Monday, May 23. The demonstrations will begin at 

 5 p.m. 



Six years ago a seaside laboratory for the study of biology 

 was started at Annisquam, near Cape Ann, by the American 

 Woman's Education Association. The Society, which does 

 not give permanent support to any of its enterprises, has always 

 been anxious that this institution should be placed on a secure 

 basis; and accordingly a circular letter was lately sent to 

 teachers of science in different parts of the United States, giving 

 an account of the work done, and asking for opinions as to the 

 need of such an establishment. The answers were so satis- 

 factory that a number of naturalists met to consider the question ; 

 and this meeting appointed a Committee with full power to 

 establish a new and greatly improved laboratory. An appeal 

 for 15,000 dollars has now been issued, and if the response is 

 liberal, the laboratory may be opened in the summer of the 

 present year. 



The Italian Meteorological Society reports that its observer at 

 Patagones (lat. 40° 49' S., long. 62' 45' W.), while taking 

 observations at 2 a.m. on December i last — observations being 

 then taken every two hours — was surprised by a continuous 

 shower of innumerable shooting-stars proceeding from all visible 

 parts of the sky. They were of varying brilliancy, the majority 

 appearing to be of the brightness of stars of the second and third 

 magnitude. He was unable to take an exact observation, for 

 want of necessary materials ; but during the fifteen or twenty 

 minutes that he stood observing them, the stupendous display 

 constantly maintained the same intensity. 



The preparations for the making of a canal between the Baltic 

 and the German Ocean are so far advanced that the construction 

 of the earthworks will be begun on June 18. 



M. L. Teisserenc de Bort has published in del et Terre 

 a summary of his charts showing the mean amount of cloud over 

 the surface of the globe, presented.to the Academie'des Sciences, 

 Paris, on February 7. The paper is of interest from the fact 

 that up to the present time the amount of cloud has not been 

 treated in the same general way as the other meteorological 

 elements, except for limited areas. The charts in question are 

 based on observations made at 700 stations, and on an immense 

 number of observations collated by the Meteorological Office in 

 Paris. The following are the principal conclusions arrived at : 

 ( i) there is a marked tendency in all months towards a distribution 

 of cloud in zones parallel to the equator ; (2) when disturbing in- 

 fluences are eliminated it is seen that there is a maximum amount 

 of cloud near the equator, that there are two belts of slight nebu- 

 losity from 15° to 35^ of north and south latitude, and two zones of 

 greater cloudiness between latitudes 45° and 60", and that beyond 

 this (so far as can be judged from observations in the northern 

 hemisphere) the sky appears to become clear towards the Poles ; 

 (3) these zones have a marked tendency to follow the march of the 

 sun's declination ; they are transferred towards the north in 



