February i8, 1892] 



NATURE 



383 



comparatively low point at the mouth of the burner to about 

 1000° C. at the apex of the zone ; in this portion of the 

 flame various decompositions and interactions occur, which 

 culminate in the conversion of the heavier hydrocarbons into 

 acetylene, carbon monoxide being also produced. (2) The 

 luminous zone, in which the temperature varies from ICXX)° to 

 a little over 1300°. The acetylene is here decomposed with 

 liberation of carbon, which imparts luminosity to the flame. 

 (3) The extreme outer zone, in which the combustion is practic- 

 ally complete. The various actions which tend to cause the 

 loss of luminosity in a Bunsen flame may be summarized as 

 follows: — (i) The chemical action of the atmospheric oxygen, 

 which causes loss of luminosity by burning up the hydrocarbons 

 before they, in their diluted condition, can afford acetylene. 

 (2) The diluting action of the atmospheric nitrogen, which, by 

 increasing the temperature necessary to bring about the partial 

 decomposition of the hydrocarbons present, prevents the forma- 

 tion of acetylene, and so causes non-luminosity. (3) The cool- 

 ing influence of the air introduced, which is able to add to the 

 general result, although the cooling is less than the increase 

 in temperature brought about by the oxidation due to the oxygen 

 in the air. (4) In a normal Bunsen flame the nitrogen and 

 oxygen are of about equal importance in bringing about non- 

 luminosity, but if the quantity of air be increased, oxidation 

 becomes the principal factor, and the nitrogen practically ceases 

 to exert any influence. — The origin of flame coloration, by A. 

 Smithells. This paper was reported in Nature of January 28, 

 (p. 306). — Note on the action of dilute nitric acid on coal, by R. 

 J, Friswell. If bituminous coal be treated with 49 per cent, 

 nitric acid, a black substance is obtained which is almost com- 

 pletely soluble in sodium 'carbonate solution and behaves as a 

 nitro-acid ; on treating this substance further with nitric acid, a 

 brown acid is obtained which has not yet been examined. — A 

 purefermentationof mannitol and dulcitol, by P. F. Frankland 

 and W. Frew. The authors have obtained an organism which sets 

 up a fermentative decomposition, not only of mannitol, but also 

 of dulcitol, a substance which has hitherto resisted fermenting 

 bacteria. The products of the activity of this organism are 

 essentially the same in the case of both sugars, consisting of 

 ethyl alcohol, acetic acid, succinic acid, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, 

 and varying quantities of formic acid. The decomposition 

 may be represented by two sets of changes, viz. {a) CbHi406 = 

 2C2H,iO -I- C O., + C H2O2. and {b) CBH14O6 = C4H6O4 + C2H4O.J -h 

 2H2. It appears that two molecules of the sugar are resolved 

 in accordance with equation (a) for every one decomposed 

 according to {b). The organism is termed Bacillus ethaceto- 

 iuccinicus. — Synthesis of hexahydroterephthalic acid, by J. E. 

 Mackenzie and W. H. Perkin, Jun. The sparingly soluble 

 hexahydroterephthalic acid of Von Baeyer is obtained by 

 eliminating two molecules of carbon dioxide from hexamethylene- 

 tetracarboxylic acid. — The magnetic rotation of dissolved 

 salts, by W. Ostwald. The author considers that the values 

 obtained by Perkin for the magnetic rotatory power of the 

 ammonium salts of fatty acids in solution are in accord with the 

 electrolytic dissociation theory. This theory does not lead to 

 any numerical value or sign of the difference between the 

 observed and calculated values of the magnetic rotation of 

 electrolytes. In the case of haloid acids and salts the variation 

 is positive ; in the case of the oxy-acids negative. It is, there- 

 fore, not surprising that molecules with nearly zero variations are 

 capable of existence. — The dissociation of nitrogen peroxide, by 

 W. Ostwald. Using the data given by Cundall, the author has 

 compared the extent to which nitrogen peroxide undergoes dis- 

 sociation when vaporized, with that which it suffers when 

 dissolved in chloroform. From the results he concludes that it 

 behaves in accordance with Van 't Hoff's generalization that 

 dissolved substances obey the same laws as gases. It appears, 

 however, that in the gaseous state dissociation is far more 

 advanced than in a chloroform solution. — Corydaline, by J. J. 

 Dobbie and A, Lauder. The authors have obtained corydaline 

 in colourless crystals melting at 134° 5. The results obtained 

 on analysis do not agree with Wicke's formula, C]8H|gN04, but 

 rather with C22H28NO4. Analyses of the hydriodide, platino- 

 chloride, and methiodide of the alkaloid also give numbers 

 agreeing with this formula. — Silver compounds of thiourea, by 

 J. E. Reynolds. The author has obained a series of crystalline 

 compounds of thiourea with silver nitrate, bromide, chloride, 

 iodide, and cyanide. These substances contain one, two, or 

 three molecules of thiourea to one of the silver salt, and readily 

 afford silver sulphide when heated a few degrees above their 

 melting-points. 



Zoological Society, February 2.— Mr. W. T. Blanford, 

 F. R S., in the chair. — The Secretary read a report on the 

 additions that had been made to the Society's Menagerie during 

 the month of January 1892. — Mr. W. Bateson, F.R.S., ex- 

 hibited some Crabs' claws bearing supernumerary prongs. It 

 was shown that these extra parts are really complementary 

 (right and left) pairs of indices or pollices, according to their 

 position of origin, and not repetitions of the two pincers of the 

 claw, as was commonly believed. — Mr. Sclater made some 

 remarks on the breeding of the Ground-Pigeons {Geophapes) in 

 the Society's Gardens, and showed that the young of these 

 Pigeons, when first hatched, were not materially different in 

 point of development from those of the typical Pigeons, and 

 that there was consequently no ground for separating the 

 Geophapes from the order Columbse on this accouut, as it had 

 been recently proposed to do. — A letter was read from Prof. 

 R. Ramsay Wright, inclosing some photographs of the heaps 

 of skulls of the American Bison which are collected on the plains 

 of the Saskatchewan, and piled up at the sidings on the Canadian 

 Pacific Railway, awaiting transport, and which testify to the 

 enormous number of these animals recently exterminated. — Mr. 

 W. Bateson gave a summary of his recent observations on 

 numerical variation in teeth. The facts given related chiefly 

 to specimens of Quadrumana, Carnivora, Marsupials, and other 

 orders of Mammals in the British and other Museums. The 

 author pointed out that the ordinarily received view of homo- 

 logies between teeth is based on the hypothesis that the series is 

 composed of members each of which is either present or absent. 

 In the light of the facts of variation, this hypothesis was 

 shown to be untenable, and an attempt was made to arrive at a 

 more just conception of the nature of the homology of multiple 

 parts. — Mr. R. Lydekker described part of an upper jaw of a 

 Sirenian Mammal from the Tertiaries of Northern Italy, con- 

 taining milk-teeth. As these teeth showed a masked Selenodont 

 structure, it was urged that the specimen indicated the descent 

 of the Sirenia from Selenodont Artiodactyle Ungulates. It was 

 incidentally shown that Halitheritim veronense, Zigno, from the 

 same deposits, belongs to Prorastomus, Owen. — A communica- 

 tion was read from the Rev. H. S. Gorham, containing 

 descriptions of and notes on the Coleoptera collected by Mr. 

 John Whitehead on Kina Balu, Borneo. The present com- 

 munication related to the families Hispidse, Erotylidae, Endo- 

 u)ychid£E, Lycidse, Lampyridse, and others. — Another com- 

 munication from the Rev. H. S. Gorham and Mr. C. J. Gahan 

 gave an account of some of the Coleoptera collected by Mr. W. 

 Bonny in the Aruwimi Valley, Central Africa. — Mr. P. L. 

 Sclater, F.R. S., read some notes on a small collection of 

 Mammals brought by Mr. Alfred Sharpe from Nyassaland, 

 amongst which was a flat skin of Angas's Bush-bok {Tragelaphtts 

 angasi), a species of Antelope not hitherto recorded to occur in 

 this district. — Mr. Sclater also gave the description of a new 

 Antelope from Somali-land, proposed to be called Bubalis 

 swaynii, after Captain H. G, C. Swayne, R.E., who had 

 furnished him with the specimens on which it was based. He 

 likewise exhibited and remarked on some other examples of 

 Antelopes from the same country contained in Captain Swayne's 

 collection. 



Linnean Society, February 4. — Prof. Stewart, President,, 

 in the chair. — Mr. J. E. Harting exhibited Gould's coloured 

 plate of a humming-bird {Phcethornis longuemareus), of which 

 species a pair had made their nest in the drawing-room of Mr. 

 Hamilton, of Queen's Park, Trinidad. The nest was built in 

 a palm about five feet high, standing in a tub within the room. 

 The first egg was laid on December 27 last, the second egg on 

 December 29, and a young bird was hatched on January 12, 

 The circumstance was regarded as quite unprecedented, though 

 Mr. D. Morris was able to quote a case which came under his 

 own observation in Jamaica, wherein a humming-bird had built 

 its nest on the extremity of a saddle-bar in a verandah. — Mr. 

 Harting also exhibited some life-sized photographs of the egg- 

 cases of two species of dog-fish {Scy Ilium), and made some 

 remarks on the mode of deposition and period of incubation as 

 observed in different aquaria. — Mr. F. N. Williams read a 

 paper on the genus Dianthus. He pointed out that VeUzia, 

 Dianthus, and Funica form a natural group of genera dis- 

 tinguishable from the Silene group by their seeds, which have 

 a facial hilum and straight embryo. Velezia may be dis- 

 tinguished from Dianthus and Funica by having half the number 

 of stamens. There are, however, three characters to be relied 

 on in distinguishing these two genera; (i) the presence of a 



NO. II 64, VOL. 45] 



