January io, 1918] 



NATURE 



379 



sight into the history of civilisation may be gained by 

 combination of the points of view. The annual lecture 

 was upon the crafts of Britain, past and future, and in 

 it Mr. Henry Wilson, president of the Arts and Crafts 

 Society, pleaded with geographers for spiritual maps, 

 maps of the spread of forms of spiritual expression in 

 handwork, maps of the spread of ideas and enthu- 

 siasms. In this way, the lecturer urged, we should 

 work effectively towards a genuine revival of folk-life 

 and of taste and creative power that would go with it. j 

 Mr. W. E. Whitehouse (University College, Aberyst- 

 wyth) opened a discussion on map-reading as an 

 element in both geographical and military education, 

 and gave the results of his experience in training 

 O.T.C. cadets and teachers. A session was devoted to 

 papers sketching advanced courses for pupils in second- 

 ary schools (sixteen-eighteen), and the association's 

 view was strongly expressed that an attempt must be 

 made to diminish the separateness of the faculties of 

 -Study. It would be highly desirable to have an "ad- 

 vanced course," including history on one hand and 

 science on the other, and pivoting upon geography as 

 essentially the regional study of human experience. 

 The association is glad to be authoritatively assured 

 that a course planned on these lines would receive sym- 

 pathetic consideration from the Board of Education 

 whatever the wording of the present regulations. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Faraday Society, December 12, 1917.— Mr. W. R. 

 Bousfield, vice-president, in the chair. — Prof. A. W. 

 Porter : The thermal properties of sulphuric acid and 

 oleum. The object ol this paper is to supply data at 

 various temperatures for the heats of solution and 

 dilution and evaporation, both of sulphuric acid and 

 oleum. Pre-existing data apply only to atmospheric 

 temperatures ; but technical processes take place at 

 various temperatures up to 200° C. or above. These 

 additional data are obtained by indirect methods either 

 from vapour pressures (of H^O or SO3) by means of 

 Clapeyron's formula or from thermal capacities. — 

 W. R. Bousfield : Isopiestic solutions. Solutions of 

 KCl, LiCl, NaCl, and KNO3 of equal vapour pressure 

 are placed together in an exhausted vessel, so that 

 interchange of aqueous vapour may take place. Hence 

 is indicated an accurate method of determining the 

 vapour pressure of an aqueous solution, by comparison 

 with the equal vapour pressure of a solution of LiCl. 

 The observations lead to the conclusion that for a 

 pure salt without water of crystallisation there is, at 

 a given temperature, a certain vapour pressure of 

 water below which the dry salt surrounded by aqueous 

 vapour will not take up water, and will, if it is not 

 dry, become dried. This pressure may be called the 

 critical hydration^pressurc of the salt at the given tem- 

 perature.— Dr. J. W. McBain : Notes on the system 

 of recording rate of chemical reaction. The usual 

 equation representing rate of reaction may be written 

 in the form fet = (remainder of expression). The author 

 proposes so to choose the unit of time that k is always 

 unity. A single number will then completely record the 

 rate of reaction. ^ — A. L. Feild : The viscosity of blast- 

 furnace slag and its relation to iron metallurgy '(seep. 373). 

 — G. Le Has : The refractivities of saturated and un- 

 saturated compounds. The refractivities of unsaturated 

 compounds, together with unsaturated systems con- 

 taining conjugated unsaturated groups, have been con- 

 sidered. Benzene has been shown to be possessed of 

 no anomaly. Cross-linking has been assumed in some 



NO. 2515, VOL. 100] 



cases. The effects of conjugation of ethenoid and 

 carbonyl groups have been shown, whilst nitrates, 

 nitrites, and nitro-compounds have been studied. The 

 oximino-group especially has been taken into con- 

 sideration. The cyclo-paratTms, substituted and un- 

 substituted, have been considered, together with a 

 number of p-terpenas and derivatives. Anomalies have 

 been connected with the side-chains or substituents 

 and the appropriate numbers ascertained. The larger 

 anomalies are connected with the Irimethylene ring. 

 Those for benzene derivatives have be;n ascertained. 

 The unsubstituted hydrocarbons show no anomalies. — 

 Dr. E. B. Ludlam : The effect of hydrogen chloride on 

 the nitrogen-hydrogen equilibrium. Th<' paper records 

 an experimental attempt to simplify the difficult condi- 

 tions of high temperature at high pressure under which 

 the Haber synthesis takes place. It was thought that 

 the presence of hydrochloric acid during the synthesis 

 would displace the equilibrium in the direction of the 

 formation of ammonia. The result of the experiments 

 was negative. — Dr. H. B. Maxted : The influence of 

 carbon monoxide on the velocity of catalytic hydro- 

 genation. The inhibitive effect of small percentages of 

 carbon monoxide on the velocity of hydrogenation of 

 olive oil in presence of nickel has been studied quan- 

 titatively. 



Geological Society, December 19, 19 17. — Dr. Alfred 

 Barker, president, in the chair. — B. Smith : The Chel- 

 laston gypsum-breccia considered in its relation to the 

 gypsum-anhydrite deposits of Britain, (i) At Chellas- 

 ton the gypsum was laid down as such, and has 

 suffered no appreciable alteration or addition since the 

 time of its original deposition and brecciation. There 

 is no evidence that the rock was ever anhydrous. (2) 

 By comparison with this deposit, and also by indepen- 

 dent evidence, it seems probable that most of the im- 

 portant beds of gypsum in the country were laid down 

 as gypsum, and have behaved throughout as stratified 

 deposits. (3) When anhydrite is present, the evidence 

 favours the view that it is original, and w^as deposited 

 in a stratiform manner in sequence with gypsum. (4) 

 Microscopic evidence shows that there has been, in 

 some cases, an alteration of anhydrite into gypsum 

 where the two minerals were in original juxtaposition; 

 this alteration, however, is considered to have occurred 

 at, or immediately after, the time of deposition, and 

 to be confined to the existing plane of contact of the 

 two minerals. 



Papis. 



Academy of Sciences, December 17, 1917. — M. Ed. 

 Perrier in the chair.— L. Guignard : The development 

 of the structure of the ovule in the Apocynaqeas and 

 the Asclepiadaceae. After a summary of contradictory 

 conclusions arrived at by previous workers on this 

 subject, the author gives the summarised results of his 

 researches on twenty species.— G. A. Boulenger : The 

 conformation of the" phalangettes in certain African 

 frogs. — M. Balland : The alterations in war-bread : an 

 investigation into the cause of war-bread going mouldy. 

 The moisture ought to be from 10 to 12 per cent., but 

 it generallv amounts to more, 13 to 15 per cent., and in 

 .some of the mouldv bread up to 18 per cent. An 

 alteration in the shape of the loaf is suggested as a pro- 

 visional measure.— P. Fatou : Rational substitutions.— E. 

 Batlcle : The determination of the most advantageous 

 dimensions of the principal elements of a hydraulic 

 power installation.— M. Mesnager : A rigorous demon- 

 stration of the formulae of beams and plates. — J. 

 Guillaume : Observations of the sun made at the Lyons 

 Observatorv during the second quarter of 1917. Ob- 

 servations were made on eighty-six days, and the re- 



