February 25, 1892] 



NATURE 



403 



was published in the Keiv Bulletin for October and November 

 1891. A translation of the botanical section of the reports 

 made by the French members of the Commission is given in the 

 February number of the Bulletin for the purpose of supple- 

 menting Dr. Brown Lester's notes. 



Ai'PENDix II., 1892, of the Kew Bulledn contains a list of 

 the new garden plants of the year 1891. The list includes, 

 besides the plants brought into cultivation for the first time 

 in 1891, the most noteworthy of those which have been re- 

 introduced after being lost from cultivation. Other plants in 

 the list have been in gardens for several years, but either were 

 not described or their names had not been authenticated till 

 recently. 



In their Irish Education Bill the Government propose that a 

 large proportion of the funds at their disposal for the improve- 

 ment of national education in Ireland shall be spent for the 

 benefit of the teachers, who as a class have hitherto been too 

 much neglected. The rest of the amount will be devoted to a 

 capitation grant, and to the freeing of all schools in which the 

 fees do not exceed six shillings a year per child. Attendance 

 at elementary schools, if the Bill becomes law, will be com- 

 pulsory in Irish towns, but in rural disiricts it will be open to 

 the people to accept or reject compulsion as they may think fit. 



The National Association for the Promotion of Technical 

 and Secondary Education has issued an appeal to the electors of 

 the London County Council on the subject of technical in- 

 struction. As everyone interested in technical education knows, 

 London has devoted to the relief of the rates the whole of its 

 share of the grant obtained from the proceeds of the beer and 

 spirits duties. This has been done in direct opposition to the 

 wish of Parliament ; and the Association has no difficulty in 

 showing that the grant will be continued only if it is used for 

 the purposes to which the House of Commons intended it to be 

 applied. It may be hoped that the appeal will be widely read, 

 and that voters will perceive that it deals with a matter by which 

 their interests must sooner or later be vitally affected. 



The principal article of interest to meteorologists in the 

 American Meteorological Journal for January is by A. L. 

 Rotch, on the mountain meteorological stations of the United 

 States. At the present time the only stations in operation 

 throughout the year are the Lick Observatory, in California, 

 and the Blue Hill Observatory, in Massachusetts. That on 

 Mount Washington (6280 feet above the sea) was established in 

 1870, and partially closed in 1887 ; during the three following 

 years it was opened during the summer months only. At no 

 other station in the world was such severe weather experienced, 

 as the highest wind velocity often occurred with the lowest 

 temperature. During a storm in February 1876, when the 

 temperature fell to - 50°, a wind velocity of 184 miles an hour 

 was recorded. In foggy weather the frost formed upon the 

 anemometer cups in such quantity as to break off the arms. 

 The observations at this station have been much lessened in 

 value, owing to their not being published in detail, and to the 

 want of a low-level station for comparison. The Blue Hill 

 Observatory is only 640 feet above the sea, and was opened in 

 1885. The hourly values for five years have been printed in the 

 Harvard College Observatory. For several years hourly ob- 

 servations of clouds have been made, with a view to benefit 

 weather predictions. The Observatory on Pike's Peak, Colorado 

 (14,134 feet), was built in 1873, and for fifteen years was main- 

 tained by the Signal Service. It was closed in 1888, and the 

 observations have been published in the Annals of the Harvard 

 College Observatory. The average annual temperature was 

 19°, and the extremes 64° and - 39''. Pike's Peak is remark- 

 able for its electrical storms. When the air is moist, and 

 NO. II65, VOL. 45] 



generally when snow is falling, sparks emanate from the fingers 

 of the outstretched hands ; but the station was only once struck 

 by lightning. The Lick Observatory is on Mount Hamilton, 

 4300 feet above the Pacific Ocean, which is plainly visible from 

 the summit. Fragmentary observations have been made at 

 various other stations, the most important of which were those 

 by Prof. Langley, on Mount Whitney, California, in 1881, 

 which have served to change the theory of the nature of the 

 heat received from the sun, and to show that the sun is much 

 hotter than had been supposed. The article is accompanied by 

 photographic illustrations of several of the stations. 



Electricity is being applied to a novel use in the U.S. 

 Navy. Four electric fans have been placed by the Crocker 

 Wheeler Company in the turrets of the powerful iron vessel 

 Mianionomah, the intention being that they shall blow away 

 the smoke from the guns. 



An interesting compound of carbon with the metal barium, 

 possessing the composition CjBa, is described by M. Maquenne 

 in the current number of the Comptes rendus. It may be con- 

 sidered, perhaps, as an acetylideof barium— that is, a compound 

 formed by the replacement of the hydrogen of acetylene, CnH,, 

 by metallic barium. For immediately it is brought in contact 

 with water pure acetylene gas is evolved with great rapidity. 

 M. Maquenne has obtained the new substance by the direct 

 action of metallic barium, employed in the form of an amalgam 

 consisting of one part barium and four parts mercury, upon 

 powdered retort-charcoal. Upon distilling such a mixture in a 

 current of hydrogen, when the mercury had been expelled and 

 the temperature attained redness, an energetic reaction was 

 found to occur between the barium and the carbon, with pro- 

 duction of the new carbide or acetylide. The hydrogen took no 

 part in the reaction, and M. Maquenne has subsequently found 

 that it may be replaced by nitrogen ; the latter, however, being 

 less advantageous, inasmuch as the carbide produced is then 

 admixed with more or less cyanide. The new substance, as 

 obtained when hydrogen is employed to furnish the atmosphere, 

 consists of a grey, friable mass, which remains quite unaltered 

 when heated to bright redness. The moment, however, it is 

 thrown into cold water it is decomposed, with a rapid effer- 

 vescence of a gas which possesses the odour of acetylene, burns 

 in the air with a luminous flame, precipitates a red substance 

 resembling acetylide of copper from an ammoniacal solution of 

 cuprous chloride, and, in short, possesses all the properties of 

 acetylene. M. Maquenne adds that the acetylene thus obtained 

 is remarkably pure. The reaction with water may be expressed 

 by the equation — 



CoBa -f 2H2O = C2H2 -f- Ba(0H)2. 

 Barium acetylide would appear to be analogous to the com- 

 pounds obtained by M. Berthelot by heating the metals of the 

 alkalies in a current of acetylene, and also to the acetylide of 

 calcium prepared by Wohler. The direct formation of this 

 substance from barium and carbon, together with its reaction 

 with water, afford another mode of synthesizing acetylene, which 

 M. Maquenne considers to be of interest from the point of view 

 of the formation of the natural hydrocarbons. He considers it 

 probable that other metals possess this same property of forming 

 acetylides under the influence of high temperatures. . If, there- 

 fore, as M. Berthelot has attempted to show, it is a fact that 

 acetylene forms the primary material, or starting-point, for the 

 formation of other hydrocarbons, it is quite possible that such 

 compounds of metals with carbon, upon coming in contact with 

 water under conditions of more or less pressure, may give rise 

 to the production of the immense stores of natural hydrocarbons, 

 such as those which exist in the petroleum wells of Russia and 

 the New World. 



