November 15, 1900] 



NA TURE 



75 



instrument under test is got by means of a transformer worked 

 on a hundred volt circuit. The potential difference in the same 

 phase is got by allowing the current to flow through a non- 

 inductive resistance and increasing the voltage at the ends of 

 the resistance to the required amount by means of another 

 transformer. — The Society then adjourned until November 23. 



Chemical Society, November i. — Prof. Thorpe, President, 

 in the chair. — The following papers were read : — Action of 

 alkalis on nitro-compounds of the paraffin series. Part 2 : The 

 reactions and constitutions of methazonic acid and the formation 

 of isoxazoles, by W. R. Dunstan and E. Goulding. On treat- 

 ing nitromethane with alkalis, a mono-basic acid, methazonic 

 acid, C2H4NJO3, is produced ; when heated with acids or alkalis 

 it decomposes into carbon dioxide, hydrogen cyanide, and hydr- 

 oxylamine. The authors attribute the constitution 



CIio.NH 



I ' I 

 HO.N:C — O 

 II 

 O 



to methazonic acid. — Hexachlorides of benzonitrile, benzamide 

 and benzoic acid, by F. E. Matthews. Chlorine water in 

 presence of light converts benzonitrile into a crystalline hexa- 

 chloride, CsHjClg.CN, which, when heated with sulphuric acid 

 at 170 — 180°, is converted into the hexachloride of benzamide ; 

 the latter is oxidised by fuming nitric acid yielding benzoic acid 

 hexachloride, CgHjCle-COOH. — The influence of solvents on the 

 rotation of optically active compounds, i, by T. S. Patterson. 

 As the result of experimental work on ethyl tartrate, the author 

 traces the variation of rotatory power with solvent to the varia- 

 tion of the asymmetry of the molecule owing to changes of 

 the internal pressure in the solution. — The action of heat on 

 ethyl sulphuric acid, by W. Ramsay and G. Rudorf. Ethyl 

 hydrogen sulphate yields, when heated, sulphur dioxide, carbon 

 dioxide, carbon monoxide and ethylene, as gaseous decompo- 

 sition products. — Contributions to the knowledge of fluorescent 

 substances: (i) The nitro-derivatives of fluorescein, by J. T. 

 Hewitt and B. W. Perkins. Anhydrous dinitrofluorescein is not 

 fluorescent in soda solution ; the authors are unable to confirm 

 von Baeyer's analytical numbers for tetranitrofluorescein, and 

 suggest the composition C2oHio(NO.i)406 for this substance. — 

 Derivatives of ethyl o-methyl-;8-phenylcyanglutarate, by W. 

 Carter and W. T. Lawrence. Ethyl cinnamate and ethyl sodio- 

 cyanacetate interact in alcoholic solution and, on adding methyl 

 iodide to the product, the two stereoisomeric forms of ethyl 

 a methyl-/3-phenyl-o-cyanglutarate are produced ; derivatives of 

 these substances are described. — The nitration of acetamino- 

 orthophenyl acetate (diacetylorthoaminophenol). A correction, 

 by R. Meldola and E. Wechsler. — Rhamnazin and rhimnetin, 

 by A. G. Perkin and J. R. Allison. The authors show that 

 rhamnazin is a niethoxyrhamnetin and that rhamnetin has the 

 following constitution : — 



CH3O.C— CH = C.CO C C— CH:C.OH 



II I II II I 



HC.C(OII):C.C(CO).C.OHCH.CII:C.OH. 



— Luteolin, 3, by A. G. Perkin and L. H. Horsfall. — Genistein, 

 2, by A. G. Perkin and L. H. Horsfall. —The colouring matter 

 of the flowers of Delphinium consolida, by A. G. Perkin and E.J. 

 Wilkinson. The yellow colouring matter in these flowers is 

 preserit as a glucoside, and has the composition CjsHioCg ; it 

 yields phloroglucinol and /-hydroxybenzoic acid on iusion with 

 potash. — Note on Gallinek's amidomethylnaphthimidazole, by 

 R. Meldola and F. W. Streatfeild. — The amount of chlorine in 

 rain-water collected at Cirencester, by E. Kinch. — Researches 

 onthe alkyl-substituted succinic acids: (3) Dissociation constants, 

 by W. A. Bone and C. H. G. Sprankling. The authors have 

 determined the dissociation constants of a number of new di- 

 alkyl-substituted succinic acids, and show that as the mass of a 

 normal alkyl-substituting group increases the dissociation con- 

 stant also increases ; in the case of ' iso ' substituting radicles, 

 however, there is a structural effect opposed to that of mass. 

 — The reaction between ethyl alcohol and hydrochloric acid, by 

 T. S. Price. The author has determined the velocity of reaction 

 between ethyl alcohol aud hydrochloric acid, and finds that the 

 velocity increases very rapidly with rise of temperature. 



Royal Microscopical Society, October 17. — Mr. Car- 

 ruthers, F.R.S., President, in the chair. — Dr. Hebb brought 

 before the notice of the meeting samples of stains for microscopic 



specimens, prepared by Messrs. Burroughs, Wellcome and 

 Co. The stains were in a solid form, each "soloid," as they 

 are termed, containing a definite amount of the staining re- 

 agent. The advantages of this form of preparation are sim- 

 plicity and economy. — Messrs. R. and J. Beck exhibited a new 

 pattern students' microscope. It was of the continental form, 

 and was chiefly noticeable for its cheapness, which was attained 

 without sacrifice of quality by adopting an improved method of 

 manufacture. It was called the "London" microscope, and 

 had rack and pinion coarse adjustment, perfect micrometer screw 

 fine adjustment, vulcanite top stage, iris diaphragm in sliding 

 tube, and spiral substage fitting. — Mr. F. W. Watson Baker 

 gave an exhibition of slides and models illustrating the structure 

 and development of the skin. — The Secretary announced that 

 Mr. Millett had forwarded Part ix. of his report on the Foram- 

 inifera of the Malay Archipelago, which would be taken fs 

 read ; the paper appears in the current number of the Journal 

 of the Society. 



Manchester. 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, October 16. — Pro^. 

 Horace Lamb, F. R.S., President, in the chair. — Prof. H. B. 

 Dxon, F.R.S., gave a summary of the results of experiments, 

 conducted by himself and Mr. F. W. Rixon. on the specific 

 heat of gases at high temperatures. As part of a larger investi- 

 gation, the authors have determined directly the specific heat of 

 carbonic acid, up to 400° C, at constant volume. The gas is 

 screwed up in a mild steel cylinder, which is heated in a gas- 

 oven running on rails. The oven and cylinder can thus be 

 brought quickly over the calorimeter, into which the cylinder 

 falls through trap-doors forming the bottom of the oven. The 

 transference is thus effected with a minimum loss of heat. The 

 difficulties arising from splashing and from escape of steam are 

 overcome by dropping the cylinder into a glass tube dipping 

 some distance below the water. The glass tube breaks at a 

 crack made in the neck, and thus ensures a complete immersion 

 of the hot cylinder at a good depth in the water, which closes 

 over the cylinder in a cataract. A similar experiment being 

 performed with the empty cylinder, the difference gives the 

 heating effect of the gas. The results given below for CO2 

 show that the method, which, it is hoped, may yet be improved, 

 is a workable one : 



The authors are now measuring the specific heat of nitrogen 

 in the same way. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, November 5. — M. Maurice Levy in 

 the chair. — On the velocity of light, by M. Perrotin. A re- 

 determination of the velocity of light by Fizeau's method. The 

 distance between the two stations was nearly 12 kilometres, and 

 the mean result of about 1500 observations by two observers was 

 299,900 kilometres per second. — Onthe latest results obtained 

 in the study of the infra-red part of the solar spectrum, by M. S. P. 

 Langley. The author has been able to extend his previous 

 researches on this subject in two directions, firstly by increasing 

 the sensibility of the bolometer, and secondly by taking the 

 observations at a great altitude, about 13,000 feet. By reason of 

 the remarkable purity of the atmosphere at this height, a region 

 of the spectrum has been discovered beyond the extreme point 

 attained by previous observers. The tables now issued contain 

 about 600 lines, 400 of which are new. The paper is accom- 

 panied by a whole page illustration. — Remarks on the preceeding 

 communication, by M. J. Janssen. Attention is drawn to the 

 effect of season upon the lines observed. By working at a high 

 altitude some telluric lines may be eliminated. — On a class of 

 algebraic surfaces, by MM. G. Castelnuovo and F. Enriques. 

 On the topographical correction of pendulum observations, by 

 M. J. Collet. — Acetals of polyvalent alcohols, by M. Marcel 

 Delepine. Determinations of the heats of combustion of the 

 formals and acetals of glycol, erythroland mannitol. — Constitu- 

 tion of the nitro-derivatives of ethyl dimethylacrylate, by MM. 



NO. 1620, VOL, 63] 



