726 



NATURE 



[August 5, 1920 



column, and is operated by a milled head outside the 

 balance-case. It is claimed that in this way the 

 rapidity and accuracy of weighing are much increased. 



Among the papers read at the annual meeting of 

 the British Pharmaceutical Conference recently held 

 in Liverpool was one by Messrs. Bernard F. Howard 

 and Oliver Chick upon "Some Recent Samples of 

 'Grey' Cinchona Bark." A "parcel" consisting of 

 138 bales of South American cinchona bark received 

 in March, 1920, and analysed by the authors, was 

 found to contain 6-302 per cent, of total alkaloid, the 

 bulk being cinchonine, the figure for which was 

 5-49 per cent. The bark contained only 0-027 per 

 cent, of quinine. Mr. E. M. Holmes, curator of the 

 Pharmaceutical Society's Museum, has examined the 

 bark, and has expressed the opinion that it is the 

 product of one, or possibly more forms of Cinchona 

 peruviana, Howard. ' The large percentage of cin- 

 chonine found in the bark is probably due to the 

 elevation at which the trees grow, as this factor, and 

 the accompanying- differences of heat and moisture, 

 are known to influence the character of the alkaloids 

 present. 



At the recent annual meeting of the British Pharma- 

 ceutical Conference a paper entitled " Cresineol " was 

 contributed by Mr. T. Tusting Cocking, who showed 

 that when oil of eucalyptus and ortho-cresol are 

 mixed heat is evolved, and on cooling a mass of 

 glistening crystals, consisting of an equimolecular 

 combination of cineole and ortho-cresol, is formed. 

 This is a new compound, which has been named 

 "cresineol." It may be recrystallised from various 

 solvents, and forms beautiful white, transparent, 

 prismatic crystals, melting at 55-2° C. and boiling 

 at 185° C. Cresineol is volatile, and possesses 

 a pleasant camphoraceous odour. It is not 

 caustic in its action on the skin, and yet contains 

 41 per cent, of cresol. Having high germicidal pro- 

 perties, it is likely to prove of great value as an anti- 

 septic for both internal and external application. 

 Tjie fact that a solid compound is formed when oil of 

 eucalyptus and ortho-cresol are mixed can be made 

 use of as a means of determining the amount of 

 cineole in oil of eucalyptus. The method is based 

 on the determination of the freezing point of a mix- 

 ture of the oil with ortho-cresol ; having observed 

 this point, one may read off directly from a curve 

 given by the author the percentage of cineole con- 

 tained in the oil. 



Messrs. W. Heffer and Sons, Ltd., Cambridge, 

 have in the press a book by Dr. A. Harker entitled 

 "Notes on Geological Map Reading," the object of 

 which is to teach the student to visualise a geological 

 map as in three dimensions, and to show that the 

 questions which present themselves to the field- 

 geologist reduce to exercises in very elementary 

 geometry. This simplicity is gained by reckoning all 

 slopes and dips as gradients, thus enabling trigono- 

 metrv and the protractor to be dispensed with. The 

 amount of dip, the thickness of a formation, the 

 th;:ow of a fault, etc., are measured directly upon a 

 contoured geological map by the use of the scale 

 alone. 



NO. 2649, 'V'OL. 105] 



Our Astronomical Column. 



The Hill Observatory, Sidmouth. — The council 

 of this observatory has just issued its .annual report 

 for the year ending June, 1920, and it is satisfactory 

 to note that all instruments and other equipment are 

 in good condition and that the observatory is now 

 in lull working order again. The chief work under- 

 taken consists in photographing the spectra of stars 

 down to magnitude 530 and classifying them accord- 

 ing to Sir Norman Lockyer's scheme of increasing 

 and decreasing temperatures. Spectra are also photo- 

 graphed of nebulae and other special objects. An 

 interesting addition has recently been made to the 

 regular work of the observatory in the form of a line 

 of investigation suggested by Prof. W. S. Adams. 

 Prof. Adams has found that the relative intensities of 

 certain lines in stellar spectra vary with the abso- 

 lute magnitude of the star, and thus, provided the 

 apparent magnitudes are known, a fairly gimple 

 method is available for the determination of stellar 

 parallaxes. The line intensities referred to are 

 measured by means of a wedge of dark glass specially 

 made for the purpose, the position of the wedge being 

 noted at which the lines are just obliterated. Some 

 encouraging results have been obtained from pre- 

 liminary work. A party of members of the British 

 Association visited the observatory at the close of the 

 Bournemouth meeting. The paVty included several 

 eminent astronomers, some of whom have consented 

 to form a research committee, intended to act as an 

 advisory body on all matters connected with the 

 research work of the observatory. 



The Infra-red Arc Spectra of Seven Elements. — 

 No. 372 of the Scientific Papers of the U.S. Bureau 

 of Standards gives the results of an investigation on 

 the w^ave-lengths longer than 5500 A. in the arc spectra 

 of seven elements made by Messrs. C. C. Kiess and 

 W. F. Meggers. The yellow, red, and infra-red 

 regions of the arc spectrum of titanium, vanadium, 

 chromium, manganese, molybdenum, tungsten, and 

 uranium were photographed with a large concave 

 grating spectrograph. The photographs were made 

 on plates sensitised to these spectral regions by means 

 of pinacyanol and dicyanin dyes. The wave-lengths 

 of more than 2500 spectral lines were measured, 

 extending from the green at 5500 A. into the infra- 

 red beyond 9700 A. So far as is known, impurity 

 lines and spurious lines have been eliminated from the 

 wave-length tables. Frequency differences which were 

 suspected of being constant have been found in each 

 of the spectra. Those who are specially interested 

 in this work may obtain a copy of the paper by 

 apphdng to the Bureau of Standards, Washington. 



New Solar Radiation Station in Arizona. — x'\n 

 anonymous benefactor has given funds to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution for the establishment of a new 

 solar observing station in the Haqua Hala moun- 

 tains in the Arizona desert. The site was chosen as 

 "being probably the most consistently cloudless region 

 in the United States." Dr. C. G. Abbot has gone to 

 set up this station, which will duplicate the work 

 that has been done for some years at Calama, Chile; 

 it is stated that the results obtained there are of 

 assistance in predicting the weather and temperature 

 in Argentina. As is well known. Dr. Abbot considers 

 that, besides the ii-year variation, there are irregular 

 changes in the solar radiation from day to day 

 amounting to as much as 5 per cent., which he sug- 

 gests may be due either to alterations in the circula- 

 tion in the sun and consequent variation in the amount 

 of hotter matter brought from the interior, or to 

 changes in the transparency of the solar envelopes. 



