August 



1898] 



NATURE 



359 



of a model lecture to exhibit methods of dealing with the sub- 

 ject, adapted for science teachers and teachers in Board schools 

 who, having some knowledge of the subject, desire to receive 

 instruction in the scientific construction and use of experimental 

 apparatus and the improvements of methods of teaching. A 

 course of ten lectures with demonstrations on advanced graph- 

 ical statics as applied to girders and arches will be delivered by 

 Prof. Karl Pearson. A course of twenty lectures on physi- 

 ology will be delivered by Prof. Halliburton. Some of the 

 meetings of the class will be devoted to the performance by the 

 students themselves of the fundamental experiments in con- 

 nection with the microscope and the methods of chemically 

 testing substances of physiological importance, such as foods, 

 the air, &c. A course of ten lectures on elementary physical 

 measurements, each lecture followed by a class for practical 

 work, will be given by Miss Edith Aitken at Bedford College. 

 The Technical Education Board is doing very valuable work 

 by thus assisting to extend the knowledge of the principles of 

 rational science teaching. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 



BoUettino della Societa Sismologica Italiana, vol. iv. No. I. 

 — The new volume begins with the rules of the Society and 

 a list of the Fellows, there being forty-four Italian and nine 

 foreign members. — Dr. Papavasiliou continues his Hst of earth- 

 quakes observed in Greece in 1897 ; during the last half of the 

 year sixty-four shocks were recorded, fifty-two of which were 

 felt in Zante.— Vesuvian notes for the year 1897, by G. Mercalli. 

 — The Indian earthquake of June 12, 1897, by G. Agamennone ; 

 a summary of several preliminary notices in Nature and else- 

 where. — Notices of earthquakes observed in Italy (July 1-27, 

 1897), by G. Agamennone, the most important being the 

 Garganic earthquakes of July 3 and 24, earthquakes in 

 Ales.sandria on July 6, Carniola on July 15, and Pisa on July 

 27, and distant earthquakes on July 22 and 27. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, August i.— M. Wolf in the chair.— 

 Further researches on the metal-backed glass mirrors of an- 

 tiquity, by M. Berthelot. The three mirrors described were 

 originally discovered in Thrace and Egypt. The metal backing 

 consists of almost pure lead, which, in the molten state, appears 

 to have been poured on the concave surface of discs cut from 

 balloons of blown glass. — On the theory of the abacus of align- 

 ment, by M. Ernest Duporcq. — On the theory of reed-pipes, 

 by M. A. Aignan. Remarks and experiments on the pro- 

 duction of sound in pipes with free and beating reeds. — Action 

 of pure hydrogen phosphide upon cupric sulphate, by M. E. 

 Rubenovitch. The results obtained by previous experimenters 

 seem to show that the product of the action of hydrogen phos- 

 phide upon salts of copper is of variable composition. The 

 author, however, by working with pure hydrogen phosphide 

 obtained by the dissociation of phosphonium chloride, and by 

 taking precautions to exclude air or oxygen from the apparatus 

 employed, finds that a well-defined copper phosphide of the 

 formula P2CU5H.JO is produced. This is a black substance, 

 which, on heating to 150° C. , loses all its water and becomes 

 of a reddish brown colour. It oxidises slowly in the air, 

 and dissolves in sulphuric acid with liberation of hydro- 

 gen phosphide, whilst excess of oxygen during its prepara- 

 tion gives rise to rapid decomposition with formation of 

 metallic copper and phosphoric acid. — Action of bromine upon 

 normal propyl bromide in presence of anhydrous aluminium 

 bromide, by M. A. Mouneyrat. It has been shown, in a pre- 

 ceding note, that by treating ethyl bromide with bromine in 

 presence of aluminium bromide, the hydrogen atoms may be 

 successively replaced by bromine, the final product being hexa- 

 bromethane, CjBrg. The present paper describes a series of 

 similar experiments with normal propyl bromide, the highest 

 brominated derivative yet obtained being pentabromopropane, 

 CHBrj— CHBr — CHBr^. In the reactions involved the 

 aluminium bromide abstracts the elements of hydrobromic acid 

 from the alkyl bromide and the ethylenic derivative, thus 

 temporarily formed, immediately takes up two atoms of 



NO. 1502, VOL. 58] 



bromine. — On the hydrolysis of ethane-dipyrocatechin, by M. 

 Ch. Moureu. The author has previously shown that ethane- 

 dipyrocatechin yields, on hydrolysis with dilute sulphuric acid, 

 pyrocatechin and a compound of the formula CgHgO^. This 

 latter, it is now proved, is identical with the orthohydroxy- 

 phenoxyacetic acid obtained by the interaction of monochlor- 

 acetic acid and the monosodium derivative of pyrocatechin. 

 The mechanism of this singular reaction is discussed. — On a 

 new Trichophyton productive of herpes in the horse, by MM. 

 Matruchot and Dassonville. An epidemic of herpes among 

 the horses of an artillery regiment was found to be 

 due to a fungus which the authors succeeded in isolating, and 

 the pathogenic nature of which was verified by inoculation ex- 

 periments on guinea-pigs and on man. The organism is a 

 Trychophyton related to, but not identical with, the species 

 described by Sabourand and Bodin as producing herpetic 

 affections. — Physiological function of iron in the vegetable 

 organism, by M. Jules Stoklasa. It has long been recognised 

 that iron is necessary for vegetable life, and microscopic ob- 

 servations have led to the supposition that the metal exists in 

 organic combination in the nucleus of the cell. It is not present 

 in chlorophyll. The author has extracted from onions and from 

 peas a substance, containing r68 per cent, of iron, which 

 closely resembles, in composition and properties, the hermatogen 

 obtained by Bunge from yolk of egg. This compound is also 

 contained in non-chlorophyllaceous plants, as was proved by its 

 being obtained from moulds (Mucor miicedo) and fungi {Boletus 

 edulis). — Fructifications of Macrostachya, by M. B. Renault. — 

 On pietine, or stalk disease, in wheat, by M. Louis Mangin. 

 This disease has been attributed by MM. Prillieux and Dela- 

 croix to the action of Ophiobohts graminis, but inoculation 

 experiments carried out by the author tend to prove that the 

 injurious effects are, for the most part, caused by Leptosparia 

 herpotrichoides, althougli the two parasites are frequently 

 associated. 



New South Wales. 

 Linnean Society, June 29.— Prof. J. T. Wilson, President, 

 in the chair. — Observations on the vegetation of Lord Howe 

 Island, by J. H. Maiden. The author visited Lord Howe 

 Island in H.M.C.S. Thetis \v\. March and April last, spending 

 nine days on the island. Hemsley's Flora of the island {Annals 

 of Botany, x, p. 221, June 1896) records 206 plants and three 

 introduced ones, total 209. The author has added 16 species 

 and one named variety to the indigenous flora, and 17 species 

 of introduced plants, while he has removed five species of sup- 

 posed indigenous plants from Hemsley's list. So that, according 

 to the present paper, the flora of Lord Howe Island stands at 

 present at 217 indigenous species (being a net addition of 11), 

 and 10 introduced ones.— Notes on Sterculia {Brachychiton) 

 lurida and S. discolor, by J. H. Maiden and E. Betche. The 

 authors give reasons for believing that Sterculia lurida is but 

 the young state of S. discolor, and cannot even rank as a distinct 

 variety, much less as a species. — On two well-known, but 

 hitherto undescribed, species of Eucalyptus, by R. T. Baker. 

 The author shows that under Eucalyptus Stuartiant, F.v.M., 

 no less than three species and one variety are included. — 

 Descriptions of some apparently common Australian Nematodes 

 found at Sydney or in Port Jackson, by Dr. N. A, Cobb. Nine- 

 teen species and one variety, referable to eleven genera, are 

 described as new. With two exceptions they are marine forms. 



Amsterdam. 

 Royal Academy of Sciences, June 25— Prof, van de 

 Sande Bakhuyzen in the chair.— Prof. H. Behrens and Mr. H. 

 Baucke on Babbits'^ antifriction metal. By slow cooling this 

 alloy (82Sn, 9Sb, 9Cn) is really split up into compounds of 

 different fusibility. The separation and chemical examination 

 of these compounds have been carried out by Mr. H. Baucke, 

 analytical chemist, of Amsterdam. By pressure between hot 

 iron plates a metallic mother liquid was squeezed out ; the 

 remaining cakes of crystalline metal were treated with hydro- 

 chloric acid and washed with water. An alloy, containing 

 9oSn, loSb, on being thus treated, yielded the same cubic 

 crystals as Babbits' metal, which were found to answer to the 

 formula SbSn2 (found 337 Sb, calculated 33-8 Sb). With 

 42Sb prismatic crystal of the compounds SbSn were ob- 

 Uined (found 5035 Sb, calculated 50-37 Sb). In Babbits' 

 metal the copper forms brittle needles of whitish bronze con- 

 taining no antimony. Such bronzes show less stability than the 



