6i4 



NATURE 



[July 15, 1920 



as the good rather than the true ; it possessed a posi- 

 tive, personal, unquestioning quality which is a neces- 

 sary feature of all moral valuation, and belonged to 

 the world of the "excessive," and therefore was, per 

 se, beyond logic. All attempts to communicate the 

 mystic experience were limited to the use of symbols, 

 and, therefore, by their very nature doomed to 

 partial failure. Those symbols, however, were not 

 selected arbitrarily by the conscious mirfd, but 

 drawn from the storehouse of the unconscious. 

 Mysticism differs from "extroversion" in that its 

 supreme interest is in the one who is at once another 

 and the ground of the mystic's being. The truth of 

 mysticism is implied in the truth of the self as tran- 

 scendental, a truth without which the empirical self 

 loses most of its value. But mysticism is not 

 adequately defined as a form of feeling, and what has 

 led to its being so defined is the fact that not thought, 

 but love, is the distinguishing function of all true 

 mystic experience. If an air of unreality surrounds 

 the utterances of mystics, it is only for those who are 

 strangers to love. He who loves eternal beauty holds 

 its transitory appearances as of lesser worth. Dante, 

 for example, at the height of his vision saw love 

 enthroned, and declared that it was love which moved 

 the sun and the other stars. Before this supreme 

 experience of love it would seem that all discursive 

 thought was foredoomed to silence as a worshipper in 

 the outer court of reality. 



Dublin. 

 Royal Dublin Society, June 22.— Dr. F. E. Hackett 

 in the chair. — Prof. W. Brown and P. O'Callaghan : 



The change in the rigidity of nickel wire with mag- 

 netic fields. Transverse magnetic fields, both direct 

 and alternating, have the reverse effect on the rigidity 

 of nickel that direct or alternating longitudinal mag- 

 netic fields have ; that is, for the former there isi an 

 increase, and for the latter a decrease. — Prof, G. H. 

 Carpenter : Injurious insects observed in Ireland during 

 the years 1916-17-18. The paper contains records of 

 injury to apple fruitlets by capsid bugs, as recently 

 noticed in England, and also by beech weevils 

 (Orchestes fagi), as observed by Theobald in Devon- 

 shire in 1912. There are also accounts of the feeding 

 of Ptinus tectus in stores of casein and in carpets. — 

 A. G. G. Leonard and Agnes Browne : Some deriva- 

 tives of nitrotoluidine (4 - nitro - 2 - amido - i - methyl- 

 benzene). The following compounds obtained by the 

 diazotisation of nitrotoluidine [NH2 : Me : N02= 1:2:5] 

 and suitable couplintf have been described : Nitro- 

 methylphenylazo-^-naphthol, bright red needles, m. p. 

 204° C. ; nitrometiiylbenzenediazoamino-o - toluene, 

 yellow needles, m. p. 133° C. ; nitromethylbenzene- 

 diazoamino-/)-toluene, yellow hexagonal plates, m. p. 

 131° C. ; nitromethylaminobenzene-^-sulphonic acid, 

 yellow amorphous substance, m. p. 129° C. ; methyl- 

 nitrodiazoamino-^-nitrobenzene, yellow amorphous 

 powder, m. p. 118° C. ; and 2-methyl-5-nitro-2' : 4'- 

 dihydroxyazobenzene, yellow amorphous powder, m. p. 

 234° C— The late Prof. McClelland and the Rev. H. V. 

 Gill : An investigation into the causes of the self- 

 ignition of ether-air mixtures. When a mixture of 

 ether and air is allowed to expand suddenly into an 

 evacuated tube 3 ft. long and of about 3 in. diameter, 

 it is found to ignite. This ignition is often followed 

 by an explosion which may shatter the tube. The 

 authors describe experiments made to determine the 

 temperatures at different parts of the tube when pure 

 air is used instead of the mixture. A thermo-couple 

 was employed. The increase of temperature fol- 

 lowing on the inrush of air was found to be a maxi- 

 mum near the closed end of the tube, and to decrease 

 in positions further from the end. The length of the 

 tube has an important effect on the rise of tempera- 

 NO. 2646, VOL. 105] 



ture. In the case of a tube 3 ft. long the temperature 

 reached was 193° C. BYom results arrived at by other 

 methods it appears that this temperature is sufficient 

 to cause the ignition of ether-air mixtures. Theoretical 

 considerations were dwelt on. It is proposed to inves- 

 tigate further certain points of interest connected with 

 this effect. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, June 28.— M. Henri Deslandres 

 in the chair.— L. De Launay : The course of the Coal 

 Measures in the Central Massif and at its edges. An 

 attempt to deduce some general considerations upon 

 which experimental borings can be placed in the Paris 

 basin. — L. Maquenne and E. Demoussy : A case favour- 

 able to the action of copper on vegetation. A study 

 of the influence of traces of copper salts on the water- 

 culture of lettuce, peas, and wheat. — Em. Bourquelot 

 and H. Herissey : The presence in the melilot and 

 woodruff of glucosides furnishing coumarin under the 

 hydrolysing action of emulsin. The fresh plants 

 {Melilotus officinalis), extracted with boiling water, 

 gave a solution containing traces only of free 

 coumarin, but the same liquid after treatment with 

 dilute sulphuric acid gave crystals of coumarin on 

 distillation, proving that the coumarin was combined, 

 probably as a glucoside. The plant was shown to 

 contain an enzyme also capable of hydrolvsing the 

 glucoside. Similar results were obtained with 

 Asperula odorata. — A. Righi : Relativity and a scheme 

 for a decisive experiment. — Ch, Ed, Guillaume : 

 Values of the expansions of standard nickel-steels. 

 In the preparation of nickel-steels certain amounts of 

 manganese and carbon are necessarily present. For 

 the standard of reference a nickel-steel containing 0-4 per 

 cent, manganese and o-i per cent, carbon has been 

 chosen, and the effects of varying amounts of these 

 elements upon the expansion have been based on this 

 as a type. The results are condensed in two curves repre- 

 senting the values of the two coefficients, 020 and /32o, 

 of the equation of expansion. — G. J. Remoundos : The 

 modulus and zeroes of analytical functions. — J. Chazy : 

 The course of the movement in the problem of three 

 bodies when the time increases indefinitely. — E. Belot : 

 The origin of solar and stellar heat. — A. Veronnet : 

 The temperature of formation of a star in an in- 

 definite homogeneous nebula. — M. Gouineau : Verifica- 

 tion of the thermo-electricity of liquid mercury. 

 C. Benedicks has recently proved experimentally the 

 existence of a new thermo-electric effect produced in 

 a homogeneous metallic circuit by an asymmetrical 

 distribution of temperatures. The results verify and 

 complete those of M. Benedicks. — A. Sellerio : The 

 analysis of three galvanomagnetic effects. Confirma- 

 tion of a new effect. — M. Audant : Contribution to the 

 study of the critical state of ethyl ether. Studies on 

 the variations of the critical temperatures with the 

 tube-filling and on the critical opalescence. — M. 

 Pauthenier : The ratio of the absolute retardations in 

 the Kerr phenomenon for different wave-lengths in the 

 case of nitrobenzene. Application of the method of 

 instantaneous charges to carbon bisulphide. The ratio 

 of the absolute retardations in both carbon bisulphide 

 and nitrobenzene is —2 if the times of charge are 

 sufficiently short. — E. Damour : The application value 

 (valeur d'usage) of combustibles. This value is in- 

 verselv proportional to the weights of two com- 

 bustibles' required to produce the same thermal effect 

 in a given furnace. Since the efficiency depends on 

 the nature of the fuel, the application value is not 

 measured by the calorific value alone. The tempera- 

 ture of combustion is an important factor in deter- 

 mining the price of a fuel.— R! Dubrisay : The applica- 

 tion of a new method of phvsico-chemical analysis to 

 the studv of double salts. The method is based on 



