igo 



NA TURE 



[June 23, 1892 



other. The authors conclude that for practical purposes the 

 weight of slag in best and common iron may be taken as 

 identical, and that on reheating and rolling each loses about the 

 same weight of slag. The additional loss noticed on reheating 

 impure iron is due chiefly to the elimination of phosphorus, 

 probably in the form of ferrous phosphate. On attempting to 

 estimate the slag by combustion in chlorine, a method already 

 employed for cast iron, it was found that the slag was readily 

 attacked by the gas at a very low red heat. An examination of 

 the behaviour of a number of iron ores and slags showed that 

 action occurs according to the equation 3FeO = Fe.,03 + Fe ; 

 the free iron subliming as ferric chloride. — Corydaline, ii., by 

 J, J. Dobbie and A. Lauder. Analyses of salts of corydaline 

 are given in support of the formula C2.2H29NO4, originally 

 proposed by the authors for this alkaloid. The alkaloid em- 

 ployed by them is identical with that extracted by Adermann 

 from the roots of Corydalis cava. Corydaline yields four 

 molecular proportions of methyl iodide on treatment with 

 concentrated hydriodic acid ; the hydriodide of a new base 

 Ci8H'2iN04,HI is also obtained. The conclusion that corydaline 

 contains four methoxy-groups is confirmed by the inability of 

 the authors to obtain any definite reaction with phenylhydrazine 

 or phosphorus pentachloride. — The action of bromine on 

 allyithiocarbimide, by A. E. Dixon. Allylthiocarbimide 

 readily combines with bromine, yielding dibromopropylthio- 

 carbimide as an oily liquid which decomposes on distilla- 

 tion under ordinary pressures. This compound does not 

 afford dibromopropylphenylthiourea when treated with 

 aniline, but the two substances react with elimination 

 of hydrogen bromide and formation of a compound of the 

 formula CjoHjiBrNgS, probably «-phenylbromotrimethylene- 

 i/'-thiourea. — The hydrolytic functions of yeast, Part i., by J. 

 O'Sullivan. It is generally stated, on the authority of Berthelot, 

 that the water in which yeast has been washed possesses, like 

 yeast itself, the power of hydrolyzing cane sugar, and that the 

 active substance can be precipitated from the solution by means 

 of alcohol. The author shows, however, that healthy yeast 

 yields none of its invertase to water in which it is washed. 

 When such yeast is placed in contact with sugar, hydrolysis is 

 effected solely under the immediate influence of the plasma of 

 the cell, no invertase leaving the cell while hydrolysis is taking 

 place. A detailed account is given of experiments carried out 

 under various conditions, which show that water which had 

 been in contact with highly active yeast for various times had 

 no hydrolytic power, although on the addition of a mere trace 

 of invertase, it at once became active. The author therefore 

 concludes that the resolution of cane sugar under the influence 

 of yeast is entirely due to zymic hydrolysis. — The constitution 

 of lapachicacid (lapachol) and its derivatives, by S. C. Hooker. 

 Lapachic " acid " is found in a crystalline state in the grain of a 

 number of South American wnoHs, and derives its name from 

 the lapach tree, which is plentiful in the Argentine Republic. 

 On treatment with sulphuric acid, lapachol is converted into an 

 isomeride generally known as lapachone. The author proposes 

 to term this latter substance /3-lapachone, it being a derivative 

 of /3 naphthaquinone. When lapachol is tieated with con- 

 centrated hydrochloric acid, o-lapachone, a derivative of 

 a-naphthaquinone is obtained. The author assigns the follow- 

 ing constitutional formulas to these three isomerides — 



O O 



^^,CH : CH . C3H7 {^/\cYi^ .CH . C3H7 



OH 



O 



Lapachol, 



/\/\ 



L 







a-Lapachone. 



CH . C3H7 



yS-Lapachone. 

 It is shown that Paterno's isolapachone in reality contains less 

 hydroL'cn than the lapachones, and is doubtless a )3-naphtha- 

 quinone-propyl-furfuran. 



Linnean Society, June 2. — Prof. Stewart, President, in the 

 chair. — l he Vice- Pre- idents for the year having been nominated 

 by the President, a vote of thanks to the officers of the Society 



NO. II 82, VOL. 4.6] 



was proposed by Mr. Thomas Christy, seconded by Mr. C. J. 

 Breese, and carried. — Mr. H. Bernard exhibited .specimens and 

 made remarks on the probably poisonous nature of the hairs 

 and claws of an Arachnid {Caleodes). — On behalf of Capt. 

 Douglas Phillott there was exhibited a curious case of mal- 

 formation in the beak of an Indian parrakeet, Palaornis tor- 

 quatus. The upper mandible was so abnormally decurved as 

 almost to penetrate between the rami of the lower mandible, 

 and although the bird was in good condition at the 

 time it was shot by Capt. Phillott at Dera Ismail Khan, 

 Punjab, in March last, it was evident that had it not been killed 

 then, death must have soon ensued from a severance of the 

 trachea by the sharp extremity of the prolonged mandible. — 

 Mr. D. Morris exhibited, and made some very instructive re- 

 marks on, plants yieldin<r Sisal hemp in the Bahamas and 

 Yucatan, and pointed out their distribution and mode of growth. 

 He also exhibited and described the preparation of a gut silk 

 from Formosa and Kiungchow. — Mr. Scott Elliott gave a brief 

 account of a journey he had recently made to the west coast of 

 Africa, and described the character of the vegetation of the 

 particular region explored, and the plants collected by him. — 

 Mr. Jenner Weir exhibited and made remarks on a species of 

 Psyche. — On behalf of Mr. Ernest Floyer, a paper was read by 

 the Secretary on the disappearance of certain desert plants in 

 Egypt through the agency of the camel. — Mr. F. Perry Coste 

 gave an abstract of a paper on the chemistry of the colours in 

 insects, chiefly Lepidoptera. The paper was criticized by Prof. 

 Meldola, who was unable to accept the views expressed, the 

 results of the experiments made being, in his opinion, incon- 

 clusive. — The meeting was brought to a close by the exhibition 

 of an excellent oxyhydrogen lantern, recently presented to the 

 Society by Dr. R. C. A. Prior, when Dr. R. B. Sharpe exhi- 

 bited a number of coloured slides of birds designed to illustrate 

 the interesting subject of mimicry and protective coloration. 



Geological Society, June 8.— W. H. Hudleston, F.R.S., 

 President, in ihe chair. — The following communications were 

 read : — The Tertiary microzoic formations of Trinidad, West 

 Indies, by R. J. Lechmere Guppy. (Communicated by Dr. 

 H. Woodward, F. R.S.) After giving an account of the 

 general geology of the island, and noticing previous memoirs 

 devoted to that geology, the author describes in detail the 

 characters of the Naparima Beds, to which he assigns an Eocene 

 and Miocene age. He considers that the Nariva Marls are not 

 inferior to but above the Naparima Eocene Marls, and are 

 actually of Miocene date. Details are given of the composition 

 and characters of the "argiline," the foraminiferal marls occa- 

 sionally containing gypsum, and the diatomaceous and radio- 

 larian deposits of Naparima. The Pointapier section is then 

 described, and its Cretaceous beds considered, reasons being 

 given for inferring that there was no break between the Creta- 

 ceous and Eocene rocks of the Parian area. Detailed lists of 

 the foraminiferal faunas of the marls are given, with notes. The 

 author observes that the Eocene molluscan fauna of Trinidad 

 shows no near alliances with other known faunas, thus differing 

 from the well-known Miocene fauna of Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, 

 Trinidad, and other localities. Only one mollusk is common 

 to the Eocene and Miocene of the West Indies. The 

 shallow-water Foraminifera are found in both Eocene 

 and Miocene, whiht the deep-water Foraminifera are 

 nearly all of existing species. It would appear that during 

 the Cretaceous and Eocene periods a sea of variable depth (up 

 to 1000 fathoms) occupied the region now containiig the 

 microzoic rocks of Trinidad, whilst a mountain-range (which 

 may be termed the Parian range) extended continuously from 

 the north of Trinidad to the littoral Cordillera ol Venezuela, 

 forming the southern loundary of the Caribbean continent, and 

 possessing no large streams to transport mechanical sediment 

 into the Cretaceo-Eocene sea which opened'easi ward into the 

 Atlantic. An appendix by Mr. J. W. Gregory deals with the 

 microscopic structure of the recks. The reading of this paper 

 was followed by a discussion, in which the President, Dr. H. 

 Woodward, Mr. J. ^^ . Gregory, Mr. Vaughan Jennings, and 

 Dr. Hinde took part.— The Bagshof Beds of Bagshot Heath 

 (a rejoinder), by the Rev. A. Irving. — Notes on the 

 geology of ihe Nile Valley, by E. A. Johnson Pasha and 

 H. Droop Richniord. (C ommunicated by Noiman Tate.) The 

 rocks on either side of the Nile are chiefly Eocene (and Cre- 

 taceous?) from Cairo to Esreh ; south of this is sandstone, 

 which the authors believe to be Carboniferous, and to yield pos- 

 sible indications of coal, reaching to near Assouan, where it 



