282 



NATURE [JULY 23, 1891 



carefully determined, but to be well up to date, this very modest 

 pamphlet will prove as useful a guide to the collector as it is 

 valuable to the stratigraphical geologist. 



Messrs. Woodall, Minshall, and Co., Oswestry, have 

 issued " A Flora of Oswestry and District," by T. P. Diamond, 

 Honorary Secretary of the Offa Field Club. It contains a list 

 of plants in the neighbourhool of Oswestry, arranged according 

 to their natural orders ; and at the end there is an index, in which 

 both the English and the Welsh names of the plants are given. 

 Mr. Diamond calls attention to the fact that his "list of over 

 700 plants includes representatives of 90 out of the loi natural 

 orders in the flora of the United Kingdom." 



The United States Department of Agriculture is printing — in 

 the series entitled "Contributions from the United States 

 National Herbarium " — what promises to be a valuable manual 

 of the plants of Western Texas, by John M. Coulter. This 

 district is described as "one of the richest regions in plant dis- 

 play, containing; a flora particularly interesting on account of 

 the intermingling of Mexican species." The manual is being 

 published in parts because the author hopes tha": their successive 

 appearance may call forth additional information that may be 

 embodied in a final supplement. 



A SHEET dealing with the potato disease will shortly be issued 

 by the Royal Agricultural Society of England. It was originally 

 published by the Irish Land Commission, by whose permission 

 it is being reproduced. In the text, by Mr. William Carruthers, 

 F.R.S., all necessary information is given, and this is accom- 

 panied by coloured drawings illustrating various phases of the 

 potato disease. 



In the July number of the London and Middlesex Note-Book, 

 Mr. G. F. Lawrence says he recently obtained a drift implement 

 of unusual form from the site of Mr. Peter Robinson's new 

 premises in Oxford Street. The peculiarity consists of the 

 curious curvature of one face of the implement compared with 

 the flatness of the other side. He does not know of another 

 like it, but suggests that, as attention is called to what may be a 

 mere variation of an ordinary type, examples may be found in 

 other collections. This specimen is of a somewhat ochreous 

 colour, is lustrous and but slightly abraded or rolled, and it 

 measures 5i inches long by 3 inches wide. The occurrence of 

 drift-implements in Central London is rather unusual. Mr. 

 Lawrence thinks twelve would be rather over than under the 

 number known. 



In the current number of the Scientific Proceedings of the 

 Royal Dublin Society (vol. vii. Part 2) Mr. E. W. L. Holt 

 publishes a preliminary note on the fish obtained during the 

 cruise of the s.s. Fingal, 1890, on the Society's survey of fishing 

 grounds on the west coast of Ireland. Amongst the shore fishes, 

 Aphia ptllucida, Nardo, and Crystallogobms nilssonii, Diib. and 

 Kor., are for the first time recorded from Irish waters. The 

 second British specimen o^ Arnoglossus grohmanni, Bonap., is 

 also recorded. From depths between 100 and 500 fathoms off 

 Achill Head, Pomatomus telescopium, Risso, Mora mediterranea, 

 Risso, ai.d Macrttrus cequalis, Gihr., are added to the British 

 fauna ; and a description is given of a new deep-sea eel, inter- 

 mediate between Saurenchelys and Nettastoma, which has been 

 named Ncttophichthys retropinnalus, n. g. et sp. Gadus 

 esmarkii, Nilsson, and Macrtiriis rupestris. Gunner, are added 

 to the Irish fauna from similar depths, and Argentina sphyrcena, 

 Linn., from 52 to 80 fathoms. Amongst other fish recorded from 

 depths exceeding 100 fathoms are Chimccra monstrosa, Linn., 

 -Trigla lyra, Linn., Gadus argentetts, Guich., Phycis bltnnioides, 

 Briinn., Haloporphyriis eques, Gthr., Macrurus ccelorhynchus, 

 Risso, M. Icevis, Lowe, &c. A young Phycis is also recorded 

 from 26 fathoms, and mention is made of the occurrence at the 



NO. II 34, VOL. 44] 



surface of a shoal of young Gadus poutassoii, Risso, 34 miles- 

 from land. 



Hardness is one of the most important properties of solid 

 bodies ; yet the measurement of it has not been very satisfac- 

 torily effected hitherto. Prof. Auerbach, of Jena, has recently 

 described {Repertoriuni Jib' Physik) an apparatus for the pur- 

 pose, designed for transparent bodies. In it the spherical sur- 

 face of a lens is pressed up by the short arm of a weighted lever 

 against a small thick plate, on which the observer looks down 

 through a microscope furnished with a micrometer, watching 

 the effects of increasing pressure. Glass and rock crystal were 

 observed. The author offers a theory of the subject, and tests 

 it. A comparison of hardnesses with moduli of elasticity shows 

 that, while the more elastic of those substances were also the 

 harder, the hardness increases less than the elasticity. 



From recent accounts it appears that the consumption of gas 

 in Paris in 1890 exceeded that in 1880 by 26'2 per cent., while 

 the number of consumers increased 56 "8 per cent. The amount 

 per consumer diminished I9"5 per cent., from 1642 to 1322 

 cubic metres. Electricity has evidently withdr.iwn many large 

 consumers of gas. The same account stares thit in th7-ee years 

 the number of arc and glow lamps has increased 140 and 170 per 

 cent, respectively. The consumption of petroleum in France 

 has increased 47 per cent in those ten years, while that of gas,. 

 in the whole of France, has grown 62 per cent. 



A SERIES of addition compounds of aldehydes with hypo- 

 phosphorous acid are described by M, Ville in the current number 

 of the Annates de Chimie et de Physique. As is well known, 

 aldehydes exhibit the characteristic property of uniting directly 

 with many other substances, such as ammonia, hydrocyanic 

 acid, acid sulphites, and hydroxylamine. Some time ago, it 

 was shown by Fossek that trichloride of phosphorus was likewise 

 capable of uniting directly with many aldehydes with production 

 of liquid compounds decomposable by water. M. Ville now 

 shows that a similar series of additive compounds are formed 

 with hypophosphorous acid, and these compounds are of con- 

 siderable importance as throwing more light upon the nature of 

 this lower acid of phosphorus. Hypophosphorous acid, H3PO2, 

 the acid derived from the as yet unisolated oxide PgO, may be 

 H 



regarded as possessing the structure PO — OH. By the direct 



H 



action of aldehydes under the influence of a slight rise of tem- 

 perature, two distinct classes of new compounds are obtained. 

 When the aldehyde and hypophosphorous acid are allowed to 

 react in the propori:ion of equal molecules, compounds of the 

 R— CH— OH 



type PO— OH are obtained, where R may represent the 



H 



radicle of any aldehyde. If, however, two molecular proportions 



R— CH-OH 



of aldehyde are employed, compounds of the type PO — OH 



R— CH— OH 

 are formed. The aldehydes of the aromatic series lend them- 

 selves best to the formation of these compounds, those of the 

 fatty series exhibiting a great tendency to the production of con- 

 densation products. The compound of the second type with 

 CgHg— CH— OH 



benzoic aldehyde, PO— OH, is obtained by digesting to- 



C„H,— CH-OH 



