February 7, 1901] 



NA TURE 



;63 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, January 17. — "The Thermo-chemistry of 

 the Alloys of Copper and Zinc," by T. J. Baker, King Edward's 

 School, Birmingham. Communicated by Prof. Poynting, F. R.S. 



The heats of formation of a number of alloys of copper and 

 zinc have been ascertained by measuring the diflference between 

 the heats of dissolution, in suitable solvents, of each alloy and 

 of an equal weight of a mere mixture containing the metals in the 

 same proportion. 



The following solvents were employed : — 



(a) An aqueous solution of chlorine. 



{b) A mixture of ammonium chloride and ferric chloride 

 solutions. 



(c) A mixture of ammonium chloride and cupric chloride 

 solutions. 



The first solvent did not give satisfactory results, althoiigh it 

 showed that the heat of dissolution of an alloy was sensibly less 

 than that of the corresponding mixture. 



Solvents b and c were found to be very suitable ; the 

 chemical actions concerned are simple reductions, and no gases 

 are evolved. 



Two series of experiments made on twenty-one alloys yielded 

 very concordant results. 



A sharply defined maximum heat of formation is found in 

 the alloy containing 32 per cent, of copper, i.e. corresponding 

 to CuZno. It amounts to 52 "5 calories per gramme of alloy, or 

 10, 143 calories per gramme-molecule. There is some evidence 

 of a sub-maximum in the alloy corresponding to CuZn. 



From these points there is a steady decrease in the heat of 

 formation, both in the case of alloys containing less than 

 32 per cent, of copper as the quantity of copper decreases, and 

 also in the case of those containing more than 50 per cent, of 

 copper as the amount of copper increases. 



The results, in general, confirm the existence of intermetallic 

 compounds, and the values obtained are in accordance with 

 those demanded by Lord Kelvin's calculation of the molecular 

 dimensions of copper and zinc. 



Royal Microscopical Society, January 16.— Annual Meet- 

 ing. William Carruthers, Esq., F.RS., President, in the chair. — 

 Mr. Hugh M. Leake exhibited a new form of rocking microtome, 

 designed to cut perfectly flat sections. Dr. Hebb said it seemed 

 to remedy the defects of the ordinary Cambridge rocker, it 

 appeared to be easily manipulated and was very stable and solid 

 in construction. — Dr. Hebb read the report of tl>e council for 

 the year 1900. — The president announced that the whole of the 

 Fellows nominated for officers and council had been duly 

 elected, and expressed his thanks to the Fellows of the Society 

 for again placing him in the position which he had occupied 

 during the past year. He congratulated the Society upon the 

 improved conditions indicated in the report. He then read the 

 annual address, which consisted chiefly of an epitome of the life 

 and work of John Ellis, known in his time as "Coralline 

 Ellis." 



Mineralogical Society, January 22 — Proi. A. H. Church, 

 F.R.S. , President, in the chair. — Dr. C. O. Trechmann con- 

 tributed a note on an occurrence of colourless, water-clear 

 mirabilite in gypsum-rock from Kirkby Thorein Westmoreland. 

 — Mr. Alfred Harker discussed a question relative to extinction- 

 angles in rock-slices. A rhombic crystal gives straight 

 extinction in any section parallel to a bisectrix. The author has 

 investigated the degree of departure from straight extinction 

 introduced by a slight obliquity in the direction of section, 

 and finds that no serious error can result unless the angle 

 between the optic axes (measured over the bisectrix in question) 

 is a very large one. — Prof. Lewis communicated an additional 

 note by Mr. R. W. H. T. Hudson on the rotation of points and 

 planes about an axis. Mr. W. Barlow exhibited a model showing 

 an arrangement for the chemical atoms of calcite, which gives 

 the observed crystal-symmetry and is capable of artificial twinning. 

 He explained that the indiarubber balls forming the model 

 are intended to show spherical spheres of influence of the atoms, 

 and that he had arrived at the relative magnitudes which should 

 be used by a geometrical study of elementary stereochemical 

 properties of the carbon compounds. Such models are not 

 supposed to throw any light on the actual forms of the chemical 

 atoms, but are consistent with the supposition that each of these 

 is in motion about a geometrical centre, provided that the centre 

 retain a definite relative situation with respect to the centres 



NO. 1632, VOL. (i-^ 



belonging to other surrounding atoms. In this, like the stereo- 

 chemists, he lays stress on the space arrangement of the atoms 

 within the molecule. Mr. H, B. Hartley exhibited a device to 

 facilitate the separation of minerals by means of heavy liquids., 



Paris, 



Academy of Sciences, January 28. — M. Fouque in the 

 chair. — The production of hydrogen in the igneous rocks, by 

 M. Armand Gautier. In seeking for the cause of the develop- 

 ment of free hydrogen from granitic rocks at a red heat, it was 

 found that hydrogen is evolved when steam is passed over red-* 

 hot ferrous salts. The reaction with ferrous sulphide was care- 

 fully studied, and found to be in accordance with the equation 

 3FeS 4- 4H2O = Fe304 -f 3H2S -t- Hj. Various rocks, after a pre-' 

 liminary extraction of the occluded gases by heating in a vacuum, 

 gave, on further heating in a current of steam, a mixture of 

 hydrogen, methane and carbon-monoxide. — The expenditure of 

 energy necessitated by motor work and resisting work in man' 

 when raising or lowering himself on Hirn's wheel. The 

 evaluation from the oxygen absorbed in the respiratory ex- 

 changes, by M. A. Chauveau. — The permanent secretary 

 announced to the Academy the loss it had sustained by the, 

 death of M. J. G. Agardh, correspondant in the Section o^ 

 Botany. — Diverse positions of the neutral fibre in bodies broken 

 by flexure ; the cause of fragility, by M. Ch. Fremont. In dis-, 

 cussing the experiments of Mr. Had field on the mechanical pro- 

 perties of the iron-nickel alloys, it is shown that these results 

 are in accordance with the views previously put forward by the 

 author. — On the propagation of the Hertzian waves in wireless 

 telegraphy, by M. E. Lagrange. From some experiments de- 

 scribed, in which the wire emitting the waves was entirely 

 underground, it is concluded that the waves do not penetrate 

 the interior of the earth, and that there is probably absorption 

 and reflection of the waves emitted in the ordinary way. — A 

 study of uranium nitrate, by M. CEchsner de Coninck. — Action 

 of boron bromide upon the iodides of phosphorus and upon the 

 halogen compounds of arsenic and antimony, by M. Tarible. 

 The halogen compounds of phosphorus form double com- 

 pounds with one or two molecules of boron bromide. 

 The chlorides of arsenic and antimony give an ordinary 

 double decomposition, the bromides and iodides, on the other 

 hand, simply going into solution without any reaction taking 

 place. — Action of cenanthylic alcohol upon its sodium deriva- 

 tive ; a new method of synthesis for the alcohols, by M. Marcel 

 Guerbet. As a result of the action of cenanthylic alcohol upon 

 its sodium derivative there is produced cenanthylic acid, di- 

 cenanthylic alcohol, trioenanthylic alcohol, and the correspond- 

 ing acid. — Direct hydrogenation in presence of reduced nickel ; 

 the preparation of hexahydrobenzene, by MM. Paul Sabatier 

 and J. B. Senderens (see p. 354). — On the mechanism of diastatic 

 actions, by M. Hanriot. Further experiments are brought for- 

 ward in support of the hypothesis that the action of lipase is a 

 reversible one, and it is pointed out that this reversibility is not 

 an isolated fact, a similar action having been already indicated 

 by Hill in the reaction of maltose and glucose. These results 

 modify the views now held as to the function of the internal 

 ferments in the organism. — Researches on fibrinolysis, by M. L. 

 Camps. Immunity can be produced by injecting into the vessels 

 substances in suspension in a 08 per cent, solution of salt. In- 

 jections of fibrin do not determine the production of a fibrino- 

 lytic serum, and the normal serum may dissolve the precipitate 

 caused by the serum of an immunised animal. — On the relations 

 of the Gregarians and the intestinal epithelium, by M. Michel 

 Siedlecki. Monocystis ascidiae passes the greatest portion of its 

 period of growth altogether in a cell of the intestinal epithelium 

 of a Tunicate, Ciona intestinalis, even in its earliest stages, the 

 Gregarian has the characters of the adult animal, simply in- 

 creasing in size as its grows. — Intracellular parasitism and the 

 asexual multiplication of the Gregarians, by MM. Maurice 

 Caullery and Felix Mesnil. It is shown that there is a great 

 variety of relations between these parasites and the intestinal 

 epithelium, there being all degrees of development from 

 a growth entirely extracellular to a completely intra- 

 cellular development. — On the inversion of the heart 

 in one of the component subjects of a living double 

 monster, by M. Chapot-Prevost. One of the subjects, who 

 died shortly after the separating operation, had the heart nor- 

 mally placed. The other, who survived the operation, was 

 shown by radiography to have the heart inverted. This case of 

 cardiac heterotaxy entirely confirms the ideas of Dareste on the 



