ii8 



NATURE 



[yime 2, 1887 



May IQ.-Mr. Wm. Croo'.ces, F.K.S., President, in the chair. 

 —The fo-mation of hyponitrites, by Prof. Dunstan and Mr. 1 . h. 

 Dymond.— Ozone from pure oxygen, by Mr. W. A. Shenstone 

 and Mr T Tudor Cundall.— The volumetric relations of ozone 

 knd oxygen : a lecture experiment, by Mr. W A. Shenstone 

 and Mr T. Tudor Cundall. Soret and Brodie have shown that 

 if J/ be the contraction produced on the electrification of a mass 

 of oxygen then 2v will represent the further contraction that 

 will occur on absorbing the ozone formed by means of turpentine. 

 If it be true that ozone completely dissolves in turpentine, this 

 indicates that three measures of oxygen are concerned in the 

 formation of two measures of ozone. The authors describean 

 apparatus which they have constructed for readily exhibiting 

 Soret's observations to a class. The President said that he had 

 been accustomed to join tubas in situ in the manner described by 

 Mr Shenstone. He added that it was possible to join together 

 two different kinds of glass by means of a little soft white enamel, 

 such as could be obta-ned from Powell's. Mr. Fairley had also 

 joined tubes in the manner described by the authors ; calling 

 attention to Brodie's ozonizing apparatus, he remarked that the 

 tube used by Brodie was probably thinner than was used by 

 the authors. Dr. Armstrong thought that the results of the 

 authors' experiments on the action of mercury on ozone 

 were a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the in- 

 fluence of minute amounts of third bodies on the course of 

 chemical change. He suggested that it was important, if 

 possible, to determinethe extent to which oxidation took place in 

 presence of varying minute amounts of moisture, in order to 

 ascertain if this exercised an influence comparable with that 

 exhibited in Prof. II. B. Dixon's experiments on the rate of pro- 

 pagation of the explosive wave in a mixture of carbonic oxide 

 and oxygen. Mr. Shenstone said that experiments such as were 

 suggested by Dr. Armstrong, although very difficult with mer- 

 cury, might probably be carried out with silver, which effected 

 the decomposition of ozone with extraordinary facility. In reply 

 to the question put by Mr. Page, he was quite unable to account 

 for the peculiar condition assumed by the mercury when sub- 

 mitted to the action of the ozone. He had not been successful 

 in joining tubes with the aid of the enamel spoken of by the 

 President, but on the other hand had found it easy to join even 

 combustion tubing to soft glass by means of an oxyhydrogen jet. 

 — On the thermal phenomena of neutralization and their bearing 

 on the nature of solution and the theory of residual affinity, by 

 Mr. S. U. Pickering. — The action of metallic alkylates on 

 mixtures of ethereal salts and alcohols, by Prof. T. Purdie. 



Royal Meteorological Society, April 20. — Mr. W. ElUs, 

 President, in the chair. — The following papers were read : — The 

 storm and low barometer of December 8 and 9, 1886, by Mr. 

 C. Harding. This gale will long be remembered as the one in 

 which twenty-seven lives were lost in the lifeboat disaster off 

 Formby through the capsizing of the Soutliport and St. Anne's 

 lifeboats. The violence of the storm was felt over the whole of 

 the British Islands as well as over a great part of the Continent 

 of Europe, the force of a gale blowing simultaneously from 

 Norway to Spain. The strongest force of the gale in the United 

 Kingdom was experienced in the west and south-west, and the 

 highest wind force recorded by any anemometer over the country 

 was a velocity of eighty miles in the hour registered at Fleet- 

 wood, whilst at Valentia, Scilly, and Holyhead, the velocity 

 reached seventy miles in the hour. The most exceptional feature 

 of the storm was the extraordinary low reading of the barometer 

 and the long time that the mercury remained at a low level. 

 The absolutely lowest authentic reading was 27 '38 inches at 

 Belfast, and the barometer fell below 28 inches over a great part 

 of England, Scotland, and Ireland. At Aberdeen the mercury 

 was below 28 inches for eighteen consecutive hours, and below 

 29 inches for more than sixty hours, whilst in the north of 

 England the barometer readings were equally exceptional. — 

 Report of the Wind Force Committee, drawn up by Mr. G. 

 Chatterton. In this Report, which is a preliminary one, the 

 Committee have dealt mainly with that portion of the investiga- 

 tion relating to Beaufort's scale of wind force and the equivalent 

 velocity in miles per hour. — A new form of velocity anemometer, 

 by Mr. W. H. Dines. In this instrument an attempt has been 

 made to measure the velocity of the wind by the rotation of a 

 small pair of windmill sails, the pitch of the sails being altered 

 automatically, so that the rate may always bear the same rates to 

 that of the wind. — Description of two new maximum pressure 

 registering anemometers, by Mr. G. M. Whipple. 



May 18. — Mr. W. Ellis, President, in the chair. — The following 

 papers were read: — Brocken spectres and the bows that often ac- 



company them, by Mr. H. Sharpe. The author has collected all 

 the original descriptions of the Brocken spectre, which is really the 

 shadow of the observer cast by the sun upon clouds. In some cases 

 the shadow is surrounded by a bow, which the author shows is like 

 the rainbow in colour and in the order of colours. The head of 

 a shadow is sometimes surrounded by another sort of phenomenon 

 touching the head, and which the author names the "glory." — 

 Results of thermometrical observations made at 4 feet, 170 feet, 

 and 260 feet above the ground at Boston, Lincolnshire, 1882-86, 

 by Mr. W. Marriott. These observations were made on Boston 

 Church tower which rises quite free from any obstructions, in a 

 very flat country, to the height of 273 feet. A Stevenson screen 

 with a full set of thermometers, was placed 4 feet above the 

 ground in the churchyard, a similar screen and thermometers 

 was fixed above the belfry at 170 feet above the ground, while a 

 Siemens electrical thermometer was placed near the top of the 

 tower, the cable being brought down inside and attached to a 

 galvanometer on the floor of the church, where the indications 

 were read off. The results showed that the mean maximum 

 temperature at 4 feet exceeds that at 1 70 feet in every month oi 

 the year, the difference in the summer months amounting to 3° ; 

 while the mean minimum temperature at 4 feet differs but little 

 from that at 170 feet, the tendency, however, being for the 

 former to be slightly higher in the winter and lower in the 

 summer than the latter. As the electrical thermometer was 

 read usually in the day-time, the results naturally showed that 

 the temperature at 4 feet during the day hours was considerably 

 warmer than at 260 feet. The author, however, detailed several 

 sets of readings which had been made during the night as well 

 as the day, the results from which were of a very interesting 

 character. — Snowstorm of March 14 and 15, 1887, at Shire- 

 newton Hall, near Chepstow, by Mr. E. J. Lowe, F. R. S. — 

 During the evening the President made a presentation to Dr. J. 

 W. Tripe of a silver tea and coffee service, which had been 

 subscribed for by the Fellows in acknowledgment of the many 

 services which he had rendered to the Society during a period of 

 over thirty years. 



Edinburgh. 



Royal Society, May 16. — Lord Maclaren, Vice-President, 

 in the chair. — Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson read a paper on thf 

 blood of Myxinc, and also a paper on the larynx and stomach ii 

 Cctacea. — Mr. W. Peddie read a paper on the increase o 

 electrolytic polarization with time ; and another on transition 

 resistance at platinum electrodes, and the action of condensec 

 gaseous films. He showed that such resistance exists ; that i 

 gradually increases with the lapse of time after heating the plate: 

 to redness ; and that it is due to the condensation of gas on th( 

 surface of the electrodes. The specific resistance of the con 

 densed gases is probably of the same order as the specifi( 

 resistance of ordinary dielectrics. — Prof. Crum Brown com 

 municated a paper by Dr. A. B. Griffiths on the problematica 

 organs of the Invertebrata, especially those of the Cephalopoda 

 G ist'TOpoda, Lanicllibranchiita, Crustacea, Instxta, and Oligo 

 clirta. — Mr. J. T. Cunningham gave an account of the nephridi; 

 of Lanice conchilega, Malmgren. — Prof Tait informed thi 

 meeting that M. Amagat has succeeded in solidifying tetrachloridi 

 of carbon by pressure alone. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, May 23. — M. Janssen in the chair 

 — Obituary notices of the late M. Vulpian, by M. Bertrand, ii 

 the name of the Academy, by M. Charcot on behalf of th 

 Section for Medicine and Surgery, and by M. Brown-Sequar 

 on behalf of the Biological Society. — A general method c 

 determining the constant of aberration, by M. Loewy. At th 

 moment of observation, when the two coupler of stars are a 

 the same height above the horizon, their common altitude, h, i 

 determined by the formula : 



A A' 



sin h = cos - cos — . 

 2 2 



Then, this quantity being known, a complete answer may b 

 given to the questions as to the most rational values to be adopte 

 for A and A' in order to obtain the greatest effect of aberratior 

 — On the dift'erent states of tellurium, by MM. Berthelot an 

 Ch. Fabre. It is shown that in passing from the amorphous t 

 the crystalline state this element absorbs a certain quantity ( 

 heat ; also that the precipitated tellurium, whether in presenc 

 of an alkaline liquid or an excess of hydrotelluric acid, corn 

 sponds to the state of the crystallized tellurium, but when pn 

 cipitated by sulphurous acid it is altogether or mainly amorphou 



