Oct. 20, 1887] 



NA TURE 



587 



ideas of the age as to the methods of instruction in chemistry 

 and physics. 



We have received the first number of \\\e Journal of Morpho- 

 logy, edited by Mr. C. O. Whitman, with the co-operation of 

 Mr. E. P. Allis, Junr., and published by Messrs. Ginn and Co., 

 Boston, U.S.A. The journal is to be devoted principally to 

 embryological, anatomical, and histological subjects. It will be 

 published at irregular intervals, new numbers appearing "as 

 often as the requisite material is furnished." The second 

 number will be issued in November, and will complete the first 

 volume. 



Messrs. Macmili.an have just issued a second edition of 

 "The Growth of the Recruit and Young Soldier," by Sir W. 

 Aitken. The work was originally published twenty-five years 

 ago, and the writer's main object was to suggest a judicious 

 selection of " growing lads " for the army and a regulated system 

 of training recruits. In the present edition the subject-matter 

 has been recast to meet the requirements of the time. Sir W. 

 Aitken holds that the circumstances which justified the first 

 publication are far more pronounced now than they were twenty- 

 five years ago. 



A SEVENTH edition of Prof. H. Alleyne Nicholson's well- 

 known " Manual of Zoology " (Blackwood), has just been 

 issued. While the general plan of the original book has been 

 retained, the work has been recast. A considerable number of 

 fresh illustrations have also been added. 



The Madras Literary Society has issued its Journal of 

 Literature and Science for the session 1886-87. It contains, 

 besides other good papers, notes on the cyclone of November 9, 

 1886, by C. Michie Smith ; on a new method of finding the 

 factors of any given number : a contribution to the theory of 

 numbers, by J. K. Winter; on the reputed suicide of scorpions, 

 ^by A. G. Bourne ; the cosmogony of the Vedas, by the Rev. 

 Maurice Phillips ; and the pearl oyster of the Gulf of Manaar, 

 by H. S. Thomas. 



The second Annual Report of the City of London College 

 Science Society has been sent to us. The Society has steadily 

 grown during the past year ; and it is claimed that in general 

 interest and thoroughness of treatment the papers read at the 

 evening meetings were fully up to the standard previously set. 



The General Electric Apparatus Company have issued a third 

 edition of their Illustrated Catalogue of Electric Lighting Plant 

 and Material, and a sixth edition of their Illustrated Catalogue 

 of Electric Bells. These catalogues present much interesting 

 evidence as to the growth of a new and important industry. 



A NEW tetrahydric alcohol, CJ0H20O4, belonging to the series 

 CnHjnOj, of which it is as yet the only known member, has 

 been synthetically pr< pared in the laboratory of M. Friedel, by 

 M. Combes {Ann. de Chini. et Phys., October 1887). It is of 

 special interest to organic chemists, as being the first tetrahydric 

 alcohol which has been prepared by direct synthesis, and the 

 discovery is but one of many exceptionally rich ones which have 

 followed the application, by M. Combes, of the well-known 

 aluminium-chloride reaction of MM. Friedel and Crafts, to the 

 fatty series. While studying the action of chloride of aluminium 

 upon acetyl chloride, it was found that a remarkable organo- 

 metallic compound, Ci-jTIi^OgALjCIg, was formed, consisting of 

 crystalline lamella; showing strong cilours in polarized light. 

 These lamellce dissolved in water with great violence, evolving 

 carbonic and hydrochloric acid gases, and extraction with chloro- 

 form and subsequent distillation showed that the decomposition 

 by water had resulted in the formation of a new ketone of the com- 

 position CgHgOj and constitution CII3 — CO— CHj — CO — CH3. 

 To this ketone M. Combes gave the name acetyl-acetone, and 

 it was by the hydrogenation of this substance that the new 

 tetrahydric alcohol was obtained. The reduction was eflfecled 



by means of hydrochloric acid and sodium amalgam, and, when 

 the reaction was completed, a second extraction with chloroform 

 and subsequent evaporation yielded a syrup consisting of a mix- 

 ture of two compounds : one, boiling at 177°, being another new 

 glycol of the composition C 1 1.,— C HOI I— ClI.^—CHOH—CHj; 

 and the other, passing over at 270°, consisting of the anhydride 

 of the tetrahydric alcohol, which appears to lose the elements of 

 water very readily. The constitution of this alcohol is pretty 



CH3— COM— CHj -COH— C H,. 

 conclusively shown to be | | 



CH3— COH— CHj— COH -CH3 

 It should be stated that the above are all general reactions, and 

 open a wide field for further research ; indeed, there can be 

 little doubt that the richness of the results obtained through 

 their first application by M. Combes will only pr -ve an earnest 

 of greater success in the future. 



A CORRESPONDENT of the Nation for October 6, " R. T. 

 H.," writing from Arkadelphia, Ark., directs attenti )n to what 

 he calls a " scientific revival" in the Southern States of America. 

 "In several of the States," he says, " the question of elementary 

 physiology and hygiene in the public schools has come before 

 the Legislature this year, and, though generally decided ad- 

 versely, opinion in its favour is growing, and it is a most active 

 leaven. In the Colleges there is a great advancement, and 

 technical studies and natural history may be said to be enjoying 

 a 'boom.' The University of North Carolina has a small but 

 modern Natural History Department. The University of Ten- 

 nessee is also waking up in this respect. The Mississippi State 

 Agricultural College is exceptionally modem, and the Arkansas 

 State Industrial University has recently added a competent 

 naturalist to its faculty. Tulane University of New Orleans is 

 also paying attention to biologic studies. The most interesting 

 struggle, however, is in Texas, where, owing to an inexplicable 

 tangle, we have the spectacle of the most progressive University 

 in the South handicapped by the most unreasonable embarrass- 

 ments — the rivalry of another State institution and many sect- 

 arian Colleges. But there is no room to doubt that in a few 

 years the struggle will end in the University being unfettered, 

 and becoming a centre from which will radiate much intelligent 

 thought." The writer says that one great obstacle to biologic 

 teaching in the South — opposition to the importation of teachers 

 from the North — is being in part obviated by the fact that young 

 Southerners are beginning to be found who have been abroad or 

 North. For all those who are fitted, good places are made. 



An earthquake is reported from Constantinople. It occurrei 

 at 10 a. m. on September 30, and lasted for seventeen seconds. 

 Violent shocks were noticed on October 4 and 5 on the Greek 

 mainland, the Ionian Islands, the Cyclades, and the Peloponnese. 



Several earthquakes are reported from the south-east of 

 Hungary, many having occurred during the last weeks of 

 September. The most severe one was noticed at St. Peter's 

 (Temesvar), one shock lasting for three seconds, and many 

 houses being greatly damaged. Tne direction of the shock was 

 from south-west to north-east. 



A STEAMER which arrived lately at New York brought in- 

 formation from Navassa, an inland lying between Hayti and 

 Jamaica, that on September 23 an earthquake occurred there, 

 which seemed to send a tremor through the whole island. No 

 damage was done. 



Prof. Hudson is giving a course of lectures in the Michael- 

 mas Term of 1887 at King's College once a week, on Wednesdays, 

 at 7 p.m., on " Elementary Applications of the Differential and 

 Integral Calculus," beginning with applications to dynamics. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Crested Lark {Aland i cristata S ) from 

 India, presented by Colonel Verner ; two Proteus {Proteus 



