6o4 



NATURE 



[April i8, 190T 



— The president communicated some numerical illustrations of 

 the diffraction of sound. These were intended to show the 

 extreme facility with which sounds of relatively large wave- 

 length can make their way round obstacles or through apertures. 

 Thus, with a wave-length of 4 feet, a' wire ^V of an inch in diameter 

 dissipates only the fraction 6'6x lo""* of the energy which falls 

 upon it ; a spherule of water xuVtr of an inch in diameter scatters 

 only I "3 X io~^^. Again, a perforated screen or grating may 

 present hardly any obstacle to the transmission of sound, although 

 the apertures occupy only a small proportion of the total area. 

 Reference was made to the bearing of such results on the 

 attempts made to improve the acoustic properties of buildings 

 by hanging wires, and on current notions as to the possibility of 

 the reflection of sound from clouds. 



Paris, 

 Academy of Sciences, April 9. — M. Fouque in the chair. 

 — On the scientific utility of an auxiliary international language, 

 by M. H. Sebert. This language should be capable of being 

 used for the ordinary intercourse of social life, for commercial 

 purposes and for scientific reports ; it should be easy of acquisi- 

 tion, and it ought not to be an existing language. Nor can a 

 dead language be used, even if its grammar were simplified and 

 its vocabulary enriched. The creation of a new artificial lan- 

 guage alone permits the realisation of simplicity and the unity of 

 niethod to be obtained by the union of elements borrowed from 

 different living tongues. — On the services which the auxiliary 

 international language of M. le Dr. Zamenhof, known under the 

 name oi Esperanto, can render to science, by M. Ch. Meray. — 

 Generalisation of Trouton's law, by M. de Forcrand. In all 

 chemical or physical phenomena the heat of solidification of any 

 gas is proportional to its temperature of vaporisation under 

 atmospheric pressure. — New method of distinguishing colouring 

 matters, application to the indophenols, by MM. C. Camichel 

 and P. Bayrac. The absorption of light by solutions of indo- 

 phenols in alcohol, ether, carbon bisulphide and chloroform has 

 been studied. Taking wave-lengths as abscissae and coefficients 

 of transmission as ordinates, curves of the form of the parabola 

 were obtained with the convex side towards the axis of abscissae ; 

 the branch of the curve corresponding to the red rises much 

 more rapidly than that corresponding to the green or blue. To 

 distinguish each of the compounds studied, the lowest point of 

 the curve was determined — that is, the minimum transparency. 

 This minimum is independent of the concentration for all the 

 compounds of which the coefficient of absorption is proportional 

 to the concentration, following Beer's law ; it varies with the 

 solvent in a manner different from that noticed by Kundt. — On 

 the reaction of the amidobenzophenones and the aromatic 

 amines in the presence of sulphuric acid, by M, Paul Lemoult, 

 In the presence of sulphuric acid the paramidobenzophenones give 

 with certain aromatic amines, to the exclusion of others, reaction 

 products which are colouring matters ; the only amines capable 

 of this reaction are those which have at least two aromatic 

 groups directly united with nitrogen ; it is necessary, moreover, 

 that one of these be a phenyl group, and that its para-position be 

 free, the nitrogen being in i. — The angle limiting the numera- 

 tion of objects and the movements of the eyes, by MM. Andre 

 Broca and D. Sulzer. — Is the resistance of Algerian sheep to 

 foot-rot hereditary ? by M. P. Pourquier. — On Koswite, a new 

 pyroxenite from the Ural Mountains, by MM. L. Duparc and 

 F. Pearce. — On the "blood rain" observed at Palermo in the 

 night of the 9th to loth March, 1901, by M. Stanislas Meunier. 

 In a hundred parts of the powder were found, water, 5 "20; 

 organic matter, 3'I7 ; sand, 59*14 ; carbonate of lime, 23 •91 ; 

 and (by difference) clay, 8 "58. — On the oxidation of iron proto- 

 sulphide, by M. Gay-Lancermin. 



DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 



THURSDAY, KvviW. \Z. 



Royal Institution, at 3.— Naturalism in Italian Painting: Roger Fry. 



Society of Arts (Indian Section), at 4.30.— Madras, the Southern 

 Satrapy : J. D. Rees. 



Rontgen Society, at 8.— Meeting for Discussion. Subject: X-Ray 

 Therapeutics : To be opened by Miss M. M. Sharpe. 



Chemical Society, at 8.— Researches on Moorland Waters. Part II. On 

 the Origin of the Combined Chlorine: W; Ackroyd.— Robinin, Viola- 

 quercitrin, and Osyritrin : A. G. Perkin.— Preparation of Orthodimeth- 

 oxybenzoin, and a New Method of preparing Salicylaldehydemethylether: 

 J. C. Irvine. — (i) Action of Alkyl Haloids on Aldoximes and Ketoximes, 

 Part II. (2) The Supposed Existence of Two Isomeric Triethyloxamines: 

 Wyndham R. Dunstan and E Goulding.— (i). Nitrocamphene, Amino- 

 camphene, and Hydroxycamphene ; (2) Action of Hydroxylamine on the 

 Anhydrides of Bromonitrocamphane : M. O. Forster. — The Influence of 

 Cane Sugar on the Conductivities of Potassium Chloride and Potassium 



NO. 1642. VOL. 63] 



Hydroxide, with Evidence of Salt Formation in the Latter Case : C. J. 

 Martin and O. Masson. 

 Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. — Replies of Mr. H. 

 Ravenshaw and Mr. S. F. Walker to the Discussion on their Papers 

 read at the last Meeting.— Test-Room Methods of Alternate Current 

 Measurements : A. Campbell. — Note on the Use of the Differential 

 Galvanometer : C. W. S. Crawley. 



FRIDAY, April 19. 

 Royal Institution, at g.— The Existence of Bodies Smaller than Atoms : 



Prof. J. J. Thomson, F.R.S. 

 Institution op Civil Engineers, at 8. — The Theory of Cast-Iron 



Beams : E. V. Clark. 

 Institution of Mechanical Engineers, at 8. — Address by the Presi- 

 dent, W. H. Maw. 



SATURDAY, April 20. 

 Royal Institution, at 3. — Climate : its Causes and Effects : J. Y. 

 Buchanan, F.R.S. 



MONDAY, April 22. 

 Society of Arts, at 8.— Alloys: Sir W. iC. Roberts-Austen, K.C.B., 

 F R S 



TUESDAY, Kvv.\\.i^. 

 Royal Institution, at 3.— Cellular Physiology, with Special Reference 



to the Enzymes and Ferments : Dr. A. Macfadyen. 

 Royal Statistical Society, at 5. 



IVE DNESD A Y, AfRiL 24. 



Society of Arts, at 8. — Patent Law Reform : Alexander Siemens. 



Geological Society, at 8. — Notes on Two Well-Sections : Rev. 

 R. Ashington BuUen. — (i) On the Geological and Physical Develop- 

 ment of Antigua ; (2) On the Geological and Physical Development of 

 Guadeloupe ; (3) On the Geological and Physical Development of 

 Anguilla, St. Martin, St. Bartholomew, and Sombrero ; (4) On the 

 Geological and Physical Development of the St. Christopher Chain and 

 Saba Banks : Prof. J. W. Spencer. 



THURSDAY, April 25. 

 Royal Institution, at 3. — Naturalism in Italian Painting : Roger Fry. 

 Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 8. 



Institution of Civil Engineers, at 8. — "James Forrest" Lecture — 

 On Chemistry in its Relations to Engineering : Prof. Frank Clowes. 



FRIDAY, April 26. 



Royal Institution, at g. — Colour in the Amphibia : Dr. Hans Gadow, 

 F.R.S. 



Society of Arts, at 8. — Polyphase Electric Working : Alfred C. Ebirall. 



Physical SociETY,at 5. — On the Thermodynamical Correction of the Gas 

 Thermometer : Prof. Callendar, F. R.S.— On the Production of a Bright- 

 line Spectrum by Anomalous Dispersion and its Application to the 

 Flash-Spectrum : Prof. R. W. Wood. 



SATURDAY, April 27. 

 Royal Institution, at 3. — Climate : its Causes and its Effects : J. Y. 

 Buchanan, F.R.S. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Egyptian Chronology 



Electro-Chemistry, By Dr. F, MoUwo Perkin , . 

 Sclater's Mammals of South Africa. By R. L. . . 

 Infinitesimal Geometry, By R. W. H. T. H, , , , 

 Our Book Shelf:— 



Vivarez: *' Les Phenomenes electriques et leurs Appli- 

 cations " . . , . 



Elliott: "The Agricultural Changes and Laying 

 Down Land to Grass " . 



*' Friederich Wohler, Ein Jugendbildniss in Briefen an 

 Hermann von Meyer." — H, M 



Schumann and Lauterbach : " Die Flora der Deutschen 

 Schutz-gebiete in der Siidsee " 



Jastrow : " Fact and Fable in Psychology " , . . . 

 Letter to the Editor :— 



Selenium in Sulphuric Acid.— V. H. Veley, F.R.S. 

 The Board of Trade and Electric Lighting . . 

 Seismology in Japan. By Prof. J. Milne, F.R.S. . 

 The Eye in the Recently Discovered Cave Sala- 

 mander of Texas. By G, B, H 



The Commercial Uses of Peat, By W, H. Wheeler 

 The British and German Antarctic Ships ... 

 Meeting of the International Association of 



Academies 



Notes 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Nova Persei 



A Remarkable Group of Nebulous Spots 



Stonyhurst College Observatory 



Catalogue of Double Stars 



Indian Forestry, By Sir Dietrich Brandis, K,C.I,E,, 



F.R.S 



Submarine Boats 



The Currents in the Gulf of St, Lawrence , , . . 



University and Educationallntelligence 



Societies and Academies 



Diary of Societies 



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