August 3, 1893] 



NATURE 



325 



of the book, and render it one of the best publications of its 

 kind. Another excellent work of the same kind as the preceding 

 is the " Annuare General de la Photographic," published under 

 the auspices of the International Union of Photography and 

 the National Union of Photographic Societies in France. Some 

 of the illustrations in it are marvellous examples of photographic 

 reproduction. 



Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. have published a 

 pamphlet by Mr. John Sime containing an account of the work 

 of Sir Francis Ronalds, F.R. S., in connection with electric 

 telegraphy. In an essay, entitled " Descriptions of an Elec- 

 trical Telegraph," published as early as 1823, Ronalds gave an 

 account of his experiments in sending signals through a line of 

 overhead wires erected in 1816 in the garden of the house at 

 Hammersmith now occupied by Mr. William Morris, the dis- 

 tinguished poet. A tablet commemorating the fact has been 

 placed on a wall of the house. Says Mr. Sime — "Twenty years 

 before Wheatstone and Cooke or Morse had patented their 

 improvements in the telegraph^ndeed, while the first two 

 were respectively lads of twelve and fourteen years of age — 

 Ronalds had sent messages over eight miles of overhead wires 

 of his own construction, and had laid and worked a serviceable 

 underground line of telegraph of sufficient length to demon- 

 strate the practicability of communication by telegraph between 

 long distances." 



THEfirst part of "A Study of the Languages of Torres Straits," 

 with vocabularies and grammatical notes, was read before the 

 Royal Irish Academy two years ago by Mr. Sidney H. Ray and 

 Prof. A. C. Haddon. The paper has been reprinted, and is 

 published by the Dublin University Press. It is of scientific 

 importance, because a study of the languages in the neighbour- 

 hood of Torres Straits must throw some light on the relations 

 between Papuans and Australians. The three Papuan languages 

 of the district with which the authors deal are (l) the Miriam ; 

 (2) the Saibai ; (3) the Daudai. 



Mr. Aubrey RicharusoR, a son of Sir B. W. Richardson, 

 F.R. S., has brought together the ancient and modern law relat- 

 ing to cremation, together with the rules and regulations of 

 various cremation societies at home and abroad, in a book 

 entitled "The Law of Cremation,' published by Messrs. 

 Reeves and Turner. All interested in the legal aspect of 

 cremation would do well to obtain it. 



Two more volumes of the excellent series of reprints being 

 published by Engelmann, of Leipzig, have been issued. No. 



41 is Dr. Kiilreuter's "Preliminary notice of some experiments 

 and observations on the Sex of Plants" (1761-1766), and No. 



42 contains a communication made by Humboldt and Gay- 

 Lussac in 1805 on "The Volume Law of Gaseous Compounds." 



The annual report of the Connecticut Agricultural Experi- 

 -ment Station for 1892 has been received. Among the investi- 

 .gations carried on during the year, was one dealing with the 

 chemical composition of different parts of the tobacco plant in 

 different stages of growth, and another on the chemical changes 

 which take place in tobacco during the fermentation in the 

 case. 



Messrs. W. Collins, Sons, and Co. have issued an 

 "Acoustics," by Mr. W. Lees. It is an extension of the 

 portion devoted to sound in the author's bjok on " Sound, 

 Light, and Heat," and is adapted to meet the requirements of 

 the new syllabus of the Science and Art Department. 



" Electrical Engineering " — an illustrated monthly maga- 

 'ine published in Chicago — gives in each number an excellent 

 ,noptical index of current electrical literature. 



NO. 124c, VOL. 48] 



A NEW edition of " Practical Solid Geometry," by Mr. 

 J. Payne, that has just been published by Mr. Thomas Murby, 

 contains, in addition, a section on graphic arithmetic and statics 

 by Mr. J. J. Prince. 



Messrs. Charles Griffin and Co. have issued a second 

 edition of Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole's usefiil book, "Aids to 

 Practical Geology." 



We have received the second volume of "Faunae Mediter- 

 ranese," in which Mr. J. C Cams continues his descriptive lists 

 of animal life in the islands of the Mediterranean Sea. 



The Museum and Laboratory report of the Colonial Museum 

 and Geological Survey of New Zealand has been issued. 



An interesting memoir upon the action of liquefied ammonia 

 on the anhydrous chlorides of chromium and iron is contributed 

 by Prof. Christensen, of Copenhagen, to the Zeitschrift fiir 

 Anorganische Chemie. The products of the reaction in the case 

 of chromium are two of the best known of the remarkable 

 ammoniacal compounds of that metal, namely those to which 

 the somewhat formidable names of purpureo- and luteo-chro- 

 mium chloride have been given, which compounds have con- 

 sequently now for the first time been obtained by direct 

 synthesis. Purpureo-chromium chloride may be represented 

 empirically by the formula CrClj . sNHj ; its constitution, 

 however, is usually represented as ClCr . SNH3 . CU, inasmuch 

 as two of the chlorine atoms are much more readily replaceable 

 than the third. The compound crystallises in small carmine- 

 red octahedrons. Luteo-chromium chloride contains one more 

 molecule of ammonia in its composition ; it is represented 

 empirically by the formula CrCl;, . 6NH3. It is a very soluble 

 substance, but yields a 'precipitate of the nitrate with nitric 

 acid, which takes the form of lustrous yellow plates. The 

 synthetical experiments of Prof. Christensen were briefly as 

 follows ; — A small quantity of violet chromium chloride, pre- 

 viously thoroughly dried at 100°, was placed in a small glass 

 beaker immersed in a freezing mixture consisting of solid carbon 

 dioxide and ether, and liquid ammonia (NH3) was slowly added 

 to it. No reaction was found to occur at this temperature, but 

 upon removing the beaker and contenis from the freezing 

 mixture and warming it with the hand, at the moment when 

 the temperature approached that of the boiling-point of 

 ammonia ( - 38°'5), a sudden interaction took place, accom- 

 panied by a hissing noise, and resulting in the conversion of the 

 chromium chloride into a red mass largely consisting of the 

 purpureo-chloride. The excess of ammonia was usually elimi- 

 nated as gas, but if a very large excess was employed a portion 

 of it remained as unchanged liquid capable of reacting with a 

 further quantity of chromic chloride. At the conclusion of the 

 reaction the product was washed with cold water and hydro- 

 chloric acid, finally dissolved in water and the solution allowed 

 to fall into concentrated hydrochloric acid, in which the 

 purpureo-chloride is insoluble, when the small red crystals of 

 the pure salt were precipitated. The first aqueous wash- 

 ings of the product of the reaction were always yellow 

 and yielded a yellow crystalline precipitate of the 

 luteo-nitrate upon the addition of concentrated nitric 

 acid. Hence the product of the action of liquid ammonia 

 upon anhydrous chromic chloride would appear to consist of 

 both purpureo- and luteo-chromic chloride, the latter, however, 

 in smaller quantity than the former. The reaction between 

 anhydrous ammonia and chromic chloride occurs only between 

 comparatively narrow temperature limits. At the ordinary tem- 

 perature gaseous ammonia is without action. If the chloride is 

 cooled by a mixture of ice and salt, there is a minute quantity 

 only of purpureo-chloride produced after a considerable length 

 of time. Even when a freezing mixture of crystallised calcium 



