I 



July 24, 1919] 



NATURE 



419 



have gained much had he carefully studied the 

 close reasoning and the method of treatment of his 

 subject displayed in the address of Huxley on "A 

 Liberal Eduaition and Where to Find It," delivered 

 in the South London Working Men's College in 1868. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



SlIEKFIELD. 



Society of Glass Technology, June 18. — Mr. S. N. 

 Jenkinson, president, in the chair.— S. N. Jenkinson : 

 Impressions of a recent tour of the German glass fac- 

 tories. During a tour in Germany Mr. Jenkinson 

 visited Silesia, Saxony, Saxe-Weimar, and other dis- 

 tricts, and investigated conditions in several works, 

 particularly glass factories. The size of the glass 

 industry in Germany in pre-war days can be judged 

 from the fact that in 19 13 they exported glass to the 

 value of i23,oc|o,ooo marks, and pottery to the value 

 of 94,000,000 marks. This amount means that 75 per 

 cent, of their output was exported. It can be realised, 

 therefore, that the outbreak of war caused the shutting 

 down of many German glass factories during 1914-15. 

 The policy during 19 15-16 in Germany was to re- 

 open several of the factories and allow one furnace 

 in each works to be kept going, and a scheme was 

 inaugurated whereby finance in the industry was 

 pooled. At the present time very little production of 

 t^lassware is taking place, due largely to the lack of 

 coal and tiie state of transport. All the plant in the 

 works was kept in the highest pitch of efficiency, so 

 that immediately opportunity came a high rate of pro- 

 duction would follow. Out of some 132 furnaces 

 into which Mr. Jenkinson made inquiries, only 

 eight were working. — Dr. M. W. Travers : Some ex- 

 periments with a gas-fired pot- furnace. The author 

 gave a description of furnaces which had been used 

 in producing chemical glassware, and advocated burn- 

 ing the gas from the producers in front of the pots, 

 and taking the burnt gases out of the furnace at the 

 back.— Edith Firth, F. W. Holden, and Dr. W. E. S. 

 Turner : The properties of British lire-clays suitable 

 for glassworks use. Part i. : The variation of shrink- 

 age, density, and porosity with temperature. (Pre- 

 liminary communication.) This paper was illustrated 

 by assemblies of fire-clay blocks showing the behaviour 

 of various fire-clays under the tests outlined by the 

 authors. It is the first communication of a research 

 carried out under the auspices of the Refractories 

 Research Committee of the society. — A. V. EUden, 

 O. Roberts, and H. S. Jones : The examination of 

 optical gla<s in relation to weathering properties. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, June 23. — M. Leon (iuignard 

 In the chair. A. Lacroix and M. Tilho : The vol- 

 canoes of Tibesti.~-(i. Humbert: The positive 

 quadratic forms of Hermite. — .\. Rateau : The theory 

 of aeroplanes. Principal consequences of the formulae. 

 A development of a theorv outlined in a previous com- 

 munication.— R. de Forcrand and F. Taboury : The 

 sulphones formed by srtdium, rubidium, and caesium 

 iodides. The pressures of liquid SO^ in contact with 

 Nal, Csl, and Rbl at -2*3-5'^, 0°, and 95° were 

 measured, and compared with the pressures of liquid 

 SO. alone at the same temoeratures. The combina- 

 tion's XaI + 3.SO„ RbI + 3S63, and CSH-3SO. were 

 isolated and ana'lvsed.— C. Sauvageau ;ind L. Moreau : 

 Marine algae as food for horses. Finns serralus and 

 Laminaria flexicauJis form good food for horses, the 

 only fault being that at the commencement there may 

 be some' difficulty in getting the animals to take them, 

 and there is also a preliminary period during which 

 digestion is incomplete. — M. Widal was el(^cted a 



NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 



member of the section of medicine in succession to 

 the late M. Dastre.— .\. Egnell : Vectorial fields with, 

 indeterminate asymptotic directions. — G. Reraoundos : 

 Singularities of differential equations and series 

 capable of summation. — J. Andrade : A new method 

 for the experimental study of fiat spirals.— L. Bloch : 

 The formula of Ritz and the theory of quanta. — H. 

 Colin and Mile. .A. Chaudnn : The law of action of 

 sucrase. Influence of the viscosity on the velocity of 

 hydrolysis! It has been shown in an earlier com- 

 munication that after the ratio of saccharose to sucrase 

 reaches a certain limit, the velocity of hydrolysis ceases 

 to increase with the proportion of sugar; but for a 

 considerable increase in the sugar concentration above 

 this limit the velocity diminishes, and this is now 

 shown to be due to the increased viscosity. The 

 velocity of hydrolysis under these conditions is a linear 

 function of the fluidity of the solution. — A. Valeur and 

 E. Luce : The action of hydrogen peroxide upon 

 sparteine and isosparteine. — C. Gorcei.\ : The proof of 

 an isostasic post-Glacial movement in the region of 

 Chamb^ry. Age of tTTe Voglans lignites.— J. Ronch : 

 The velocity of the wind in the stratosphere. Ob- 

 servations on the coast, under conditions of clear sky 

 and with moderate wind, show no reduction of velo- 

 city in the stratosphere.— J. Tissot : Mechanism of 

 the destruction in the serum of the antigen sensitised 

 cell bv its specific antibody.— -G. Bertrand : The 

 mechanism of the preservation' of fruit in cold water. 



June 30.— M. L6on Guignard in the chair.— P. 

 Termier : Transport phenomena of .\lpine age in the 

 Rhone Valley, near Avignon.— .\. Rateau : Theory of 

 the rectilinear rising of aeroplanes. The maximum 

 ascension velocitv.— G. Charpy and G. Decorps : The 

 conditions of formation of coke. .\ continuation of 

 previous communications by MM. Charpy and 

 Godchot. Since the strength of the coke may vary 

 with the preliminary compression of the charge and 

 with the temperature of the retort, experiments are 

 described in which the effect of change in each of 

 these two variables was studied separately. The effect 

 of a preliminary baking at a low temperature, 5(X)° C, 

 for fortv minutes, followed by coking at 900° C., was 

 also studied with interesting results, cokes with very 

 high resistance to crushing being obtained by this 

 means.— M. Andoyer was elected a member of the 

 section of astronomy in succession to the late M. Ch. 

 Wolf.— P. Boutroux • .\ family of multiform functions, 

 integrals of a differential equation of the first order.— 

 G GuiHaumin : Forc<'d conduits with variable charac- 

 teristic- M. Ldtang : The phenomena which take 

 place during th«> combustion of powder in a closed 

 vessel.— .\. Cornu-Thenard : Flexion tests of notched 

 bars by shock.— M. Brillouin : The dynamical theory 

 of the atom and the auanta theory.— L. Benoist : New 



■ " .\ complex 



ifferent 

 the 

 porosities being 0-30, 023, .-^nd 01 8. The lime of flow 

 of a fixed volume of water under a given pressure 

 was measured and found to vary with the direction 

 of flow, according as it entered the most porous or 

 least porous side of the olate.— H. Abraham and E. 

 Bioch : Amplifiers for continuous currents and for 

 currents of very low frequency.— G. Chavanne and 

 L. J. Simon : ' The preparation of some volatile 

 saturated cvcHc or open-chain hydrocarbons contained 

 in petrol.— .\. Guibhard : Causes of displacement of 

 the earth's crust. S. Stefanescu : The practical applica- 

 tion of the characters of the root of the molars of 

 elephants and mastodons. -G. Guilbert : The predic- 

 tion of variations of atmospheric pnssure of small 

 amplitude.— P. Girard : Ph\si(;t1 srh.mo for the studv 

 I of mineral nutrition of tli, . . 11. A. Besredlta : 



of the atom and the quanta tneor>.— 1.. «*..«.=. . 

 porous walls filtering unsymmetrically. A con 

 filtering plate, consisting of three layers of diff< 

 porosity, was constructed, the magnitudes of 



