NATURE 



[January 7, 1892 



plovers which have been trampled on by these uncouth 

 marauders in their clumsy and ever eager attempts lo ' annex ' 

 everything they can in the least possible time." The editor of 

 ;he Zoologist pertinently asks why the Wild Birds Protection 

 Act is not put in force. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 

 on November 25, Mr. Fred. Turner exhibited specimens of 

 lelopea oreades, F. v. M. (narrow-leaved form), the Victorian 

 Waratah, collected at the Fitzroy Falls, N.S.W., the most 

 northern habitat yet recorded for the plant ; said to be very rare. 

 Also three fungus-smitten grasses from the interior : Eriochloa 

 ■bunctata, Hamilt., Panicum Alitchelli, Benth. (two valuable 

 pasture grasses — in the case of the second of these the" first 

 occasion on which he had seen fungoid growth on it), and 

 Aristida ramosa, R.Br., one of the " three awned spear grasses," 

 a noxious plant. To the presence in fodder of parasitic fungi 

 such as these, the fact that many sheep died so mysteriously at 

 times was, Mr. Turner thought, sometimes possibly attributable, 



Messrs. WhittakerandCo. have made arrangements with 

 the editor of El Telegrafista Espafiol for the translation into 

 Spanish of Mr. Preece's work upon "The Telephone." The 

 book has already been translated into French and German. 

 The same firm will publish shortly, in a cheap form, Mr. A. R. 

 Bennett's papers on the telephoning of great cities and the 

 electrical parcel exchange system. 



We are glad to welcome the first number of The Annals of 

 Scottish Natural History, a quarterly magazine, with which is 

 incorporated The Scottish Naturalist. It is edited by J. A. 

 Harvie-Brown, J. W. H. Trail, and W. E, Clarke, and pub- 

 lished by David Douglas, Edinburgh. The periodical ought 

 to play an important part in stimulating the study of natural 

 history in Scotland. 



An important botanical work has been planned by T. 

 Durand, aide-tmluraliste at the Botanic Gardens of Brussels, 

 and H, Schinz, privatdocent at the University of Zurich. It is 

 entitled " Conspectus Floras Africae," and will be published (by 

 subscription) in six volumes. 



The Botanical Society of Edinburgh prints, in the latest 

 instalment of its Transactions and Proceedings, a capital " pre- 

 liminary notice " of the Pilcomayo Expedition, by Mr. J. 

 Graham Kerr, naturalist to the Expedition. Mr. Kerr gives a 

 short sketch of the Expedition itself, and then presents a sum- 

 mary of the more striking botanical features of the region 

 traversed by it. 



Messrs. J. and A. Churchill have published the "Year- 

 book of Pharmacy," comprising abstracts of papers relating to 

 pharmacy, materia medica, and chemistry, contributed to British 

 and foreign journals from July i, 1890, to June 30, 1891. The 

 volume also contains the transactions of the British Pharma- 

 ceutical Conference at the twenty-eighth annual meeting, held at 

 Cardiff, August 1891. 



Messrs. Dulau and Co. have issued a catalogue of geo- 

 logical works which they offer for sale. The works relate to 

 crystallography, mineralogy, mining, petrography, boulders, 

 caves, vulcanology, water, &c. 



Several new compounds of carbonyl platinum chloride and 



bromide with ammonia derivatives are described by Dr. Foerster 



in the current number of the Berichte. An account of the 



interesting carbonyl platinum compounds was given in Nature, 



NO. 1158, VOL. 45] 



vo). xliv. p. 530, en the occasion of the publication by Drs. 

 Foerster and Mylius of the results of their investigation con- 

 cerning them. They were first obtained in 1868 by Scbutzen- 

 berger by heating spongy platinum first in a stream of chlorine 

 and afterwards in a current of carbon monoxide. The most 

 stable and best investigated of these substances is the compound 

 COPtClo. It is a crystalline substance possessing a somewhat 

 basic character. The crystals readily dissolve in concentrated 

 hydrochloric acid, forming the hydrochloride COPtCla-HCl. 

 Nevertheless, the substance appears capable of combining with 

 ammonia or its derivatives, for Schutzenberger obtained a com- 

 pound, to which he assigned the formula COPtCl2.2NH3, by 

 passing ammonia gas through a solution of carbonyl platinum 

 chloride in carbon tetrachloride. As this ammonia compound 

 does not readily lend itself to accurate analysis. Dr. Foerster 

 determined to prepare a compound with a base such as aniline 

 or pyridine, which would probably form crystals more capable 

 of thorough investigation. For this purpose he chose the base 

 pyridine, CjHgN. lie finds that carbonyl platinum chloride 

 does not combine with two, but with one molecule of the ba'e, 

 to form the compound COPtClo.CsHgN. This result is all the 

 more satisfactory, inasmuch as Zeise has shown that the com- 

 pound ethylene platinum chloride, C2H4PtCl2, forms an 

 analogous compound with one molecule of ammonia of the 

 composition C2H4PtCIo.NH3. The new compound with 

 pyridine, COPtCIa-CgHgN, is a crystalline substance pos- 

 sessing basic properties, combining with hydrochloric acid 

 to form the hydrochloride, COPtCl2.C5H5N.HCl. Another 

 new compound is obtained from the hydrochloric acid solu- 

 tion by the addition of more pyridine dissolved in alcohol, 

 crystallizing out upon allowing the solution to stand a short time. 

 When- recrystallized from alcohol, this second compound is 

 obtained in fine greenish-yellow crystals. Its empirical com- 

 position is COPtCl.CjHgN, but its molecular composition is 

 probably represented by the double formula — 

 COPtCl.CgHgN 

 I 



COPtCl.CgHgN 



Water instantly decomposes it. In a similar manner two 

 analogous compounds containing bromine have been obtained- 

 The first of these, COPtBro.CgHgN, crystallizes in yellow 

 tabular or acicular prisms, melting at the temperature, very 

 low for a platinum compound, of 78°. The second compound, 

 (COPtBr)2(C,-,HgN)2, is distinguished by its difficult solubility, 

 only chloroform dissolving it in sufficient quantity for the pur- 

 pose of recrystallization. 



In addition to the above compounds with pyridine, an 

 interesting compound with phenylhydrazine has been ob- 

 tained, COPtClo-CeHgNsHs, .in fine crystals. The hydro- 

 chloride of this compound, COPtCl2.CeH5N2H3.HCl, has 

 also been prepared ; it forms remarkably beautiful orange- 

 coloured crystals. Indeed, it appears highly probable that 

 hydrazine itself, N0H4, would be found to combine with these 

 carbonyl compounds of platinum in a manner similar to 

 ammonia and its derivatives. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Diana Monkey {Cercopithectis diana 9) 

 from West Africa, presented by Mrs. R. Godfrey ; a Rough- 

 eyed Cayman {Alligator sclerops) from South America, presented 

 by Mr. Charles Taylor ; four Mississippi Alligators {Alligator 

 ■inississippicnsis) from South Carolina, presented by Mr. W. S. 

 Copleston ; four Gouldian Grass Finches [Poephila gouldiir), 

 two Crimson Finches {Esti-elda phaeton) from Australia, pur- 

 chased ; four Beautiful Grass Finches [Potphila mirabilis) from 

 Australia, purchased. 



