214 



NA TURE 



[December 27, 1900 



■ordinary acetone condensation slowly occurs with formation 

 of a ketone, the so-called pseudoionone, having the constitution 



CH(CH3)2.CH2.CH : CH.C(CH3) : CH.CH : CH.CO.CH3. 

 Pseudoionone has a peculiar but not very pronounced smell, 

 and, when heated with a mixture of water, glycerol and 

 sulphuric acid, undergoes conversion into an isomeric ketone, 

 termed ionone, which possesses the constitution 

 (CH3)2C— CH CH : CH.CO.CH3 



I I 

 HoC CH.CHo 



I I 

 HC=CH. 



Ionone possesses an odour of fresh violets, which also feebly 

 recalls that of grape blossom ; it is manufactured on a large 

 scale for use in the preparation of violet perfumes. The pre- 

 paration of homologues of ionone from citral and methylethyl- 

 . ketone has also been protected, and numerous attempts to evade 

 the original patents have naturally been made ; the use of 

 lemongrass oil in place of citral, and of bleaching powder as a 

 condensing agent in place of baryta, have been patented, but 

 these patents have not been upheld by the Courts. It is a very 

 remarkable fact that the two ketones, irone and ionone, possess 

 odours so similar that, either when pure or diluted with alcohol, 

 a trained nose is only just able to distinguish between them. 

 The similarity in odour is doubtless due to the almost identical 

 type of molecular grouping contained in the two compounds. 

 XDil of turpentine consists essentially of a hydrocarbon of similar 

 molecular type to irone and ionone, and it is a very noteworthy 

 -fact that turpentine, when administered internally, imparts a 

 strong odour of violets to the urine ; so far as can be ascertained, 

 this fact has received no commercial application. 



A number of substances have been introduced into commerce 

 -as substitutes for musk ; of these, the first was the trinitroiso- 



C(CH3)3 



NO. 



/\ 



NO., 



butyltoluene of the constitution 



CH, 



It is obtained 



NO, 



by nitrating isobutyltoluene, which is, in turn , prepared by the 

 interaction of isobutyl chloride and toluene brought about by 

 aluminium chloride. This and other trinitro-derivatives of 

 benzenoid hydrocarbons containing two alkyl groups in the meta- 

 position possess a powerful odour of musk, and have been used 

 to a considerable extent in perfumery. 



The investigation and manufacture of artificial and synthetic 

 perfume materials have been only carried on to a very small 

 extent in this country ; the new industry is almost wholly of 

 German origin. During recent years, however, France appears 

 to have been making great strides in synthetic perfume manufac- 

 ture, and at the Paris exhibition this branch of chemical manu- 

 facture seems to be the only onein which the French exhibits equal, 

 or even excel, those of Germany. The cause of this is obscure, 

 but may possibly be connected with the generally recognised 

 principle that supremacy in any particular industry goes hand in 

 hand with supremacy in the related sciences ; and all students of 

 contemporary chemical literature will agree that in Germany the 

 science of chemistry has been in rapid decadence during recent 

 years. A good organisation, administered by a master, accom- 

 plishes great results ; but when the directing hand is gone, the 

 very organisation itself is found to have stultified the faculty for 

 independent thought on the part of those originally destined by 

 nature to take the lead. Subsequently the system aids only in 

 the filling up of immaterial details, and the pioneer work is trans- 

 ferred to men from quite a different school. 



Little has yet been accomplished towards ascertaining the 

 relation between the odour and the chemical constitution of sub- 

 si ances in general. Hydrocarbons as a class possess considerable 

 similarity in odour, so also do the organic sulphides and, to a 

 much smaller extent, the ketones. The subject waits for some 

 one to correlate its various physiological, psychological and 

 physical aspects in the same way that Helmholtz did for sound. 

 It seems, as yet, impossible to assign any probable reason to the 

 fact that many substances have a pleasant odour. It may, how- 

 ever, be worth suggesting that certain compounds, such as the 

 volatile sulphides and the indoles, have very unpleasant odours 

 because they are normal constituents of mammalian excreta and 

 of putrefied animal products ; the repulsive odours may be simply 

 necessary results of evolutionary processes. W. J. P. 



NO. 1626, VOL. 63] 



PRIZE LIST OF THE ACADEMY OF 

 SCIENCES. 

 AT the annual public meeting of the Paris Academy of 

 ''"*■ Sciences, on December 17, after the Presidential Address 

 of M. Maurice Levy, in which was a short account of the life 

 work of MM. Milne-Edwards, Bertrand, Blanchard and 

 Grimaux, the list of awards for the year 1900 was given. 



In Geometry, the Grand Prize of the Mathematical Sciences 

 was awarded to M. Mathias Lerch for work on the number of 

 certain classes of quadratic forms ; the Francceur Prize to M. 

 Edmond Maillet, and the Poncelet Prize to M. Leon Lecornu. 

 No memoir was received complying with the terms of the 

 Bordin Prize. In Mechanics, the Extraordinary Prize of 6000 

 francs was divided betweeniMM. Laubeuf, Charbonnier, Aubus- 

 son de Cavarlay and Grasset, M. Lerosey receiving the Montyon 

 Prize, and Mme. Moissenet the Plumey Prize as a mark of 

 esteem for the work done by her late husband. 



In Astronomy, the Lalande Prize was adjudged to M. Giaco- 

 bini for his work on comets ; the Damoiseau Prize to M. J. von 

 Hepperger for his work on the influence of the planets upon 

 comets : the Valz Prize to M. I'Abbe Verschaffel for work done 

 at the Abbadia Observatory ; the Janssen Prize to Prof. Barnard 

 for his brilliant discovery of the fifth satellite of Jupiter. 



In Statistics, the Montyon Prize has been awarded to M. du 

 Maroussem, the works of M. Barras, M. Laussedat and M. 

 Pailhas receiving honourable mention. 



In Chemistry, M. Behal receives the Jecker Prize, and in 

 Botany, M. H. Bruchmann the Desmazieres Prize, M. Gyula 

 Istvanfi having a very honourable mention. The Montagne 

 Prize is divided between MM. Delacroix and Boistel. In 

 Anatomy and Zoology the Thore Prize is awarded to M. Seurat 

 for his researches on the parasitical larvae of the Hymenoptera, 

 and the Da Gamo Machado Prize to Mme. la Comtesse de 

 Linden, M. Siedlecki, M. P. Carnot and M. Bordas, the 

 Savigny Prize not being awarded. 



In Medicine and Surgery, Montyon Prizes are adjudged to 

 MM. Hallopeau and Leredde, for their treatise on dermatology ; 

 M. Guilleminot, for his work on the medical applications of the 

 X-rays ; and M. Joules Soury, for his book on the central 

 nervous system. In connection with these prizes, mentions are 

 accorded to M. Nobecourt, for his work on the pathogeny of 

 the gastro-intestinal diseases of young children ; M. Sabrazes, 

 for his work on the origin of blood corpuscles ; and M. Gallois, 

 for a book on scrofula and odenoidal diseases ; MM.-.Cuneo and 

 Toulouse receiving citations. The Barbier Prize is divided 

 between M. Marage, for a memoir on the theory of vowel 

 formation, and M. Guinard, for a pharmacodynamic study of 

 morphine and apomorphine, a mention being accorded to MM. 

 Brzemer and Suis. In default of the discovery of an absolute 

 specific for cholera, the arrears of interest on the Breant Prize 

 are divided between M. Auclair, for researches on the toxic 

 substances contained in tubercle bacilli, and M. Paul Remlinger, 

 for a memoir on some rare complications of dysentery, and the 

 association of dysentery with typhoid fever. The Godard Prize 

 is given to M. Leon Bernard, for his researches on the functions 

 of the kidney in chronic nephritis ; the Parkin Prize to M. 

 Henri Coupin, for work done in plant physiology ; the Dusgate 

 Prize to M. Icard, for methods of diagnosis of real and apparent 

 death ; the Baron Larrey Prize to MM. Nimier and Laval, for 

 three works on projectiles and explosives ; the Bellion Prize 

 being divided between M. J. Brault, for his treatise on tropical 

 diseases, and M. Samuel Gache, for his treatise on workmen's 

 dwellings in Buenos Ayres ; the Lallemand Prize between 

 M. Maurice de Fleury, for various treatises on medicine, and 

 M, de Vabias, for his researches on the nervous system of 

 aquatic ga.steropods. Honourable mentions are accorded to 

 MM. Knopf, Jacquet and M. Finck. 



In Physiology the Montyon Prize is divided between M. Pachon 

 for studies on cardiac and vascular mechanism and Mdlle. 

 Joteyko for memoirs on nervous effort and fatigue, and the 

 Philipeaux Prize between M. Delezenne for his reseaches on 

 anti-coagulating substances and M. Nicloux for experimental 

 researches on the elimination of alcohol in the organism, 

 M, Roussy receiving honourable mention ; the Pourat Prize 

 is awarded to MM. Bergonie and Sigalas for a determination of 

 the principal anthropometric data ; and the Martin-Damourette 

 Prize to M. Long for his studies on the central paths of general 

 sensibility. In Physical Geography, M. Lugeon receives the Gay 

 Prize for his theory on the origin of Alpine valleys. 



Among the General Prizes, a Montyon Prize is awarded to 



