436 



NA rURE 



[September i, 1892 



■criticisms, and it is probable that a careful consideration of them 

 will enable Mr. hdwards still further to improve his, in many 

 respects, excellent treatise. The remaining short contributions 

 are a note on resultants, by Prof. Haskell ; and collineation as 

 a mode of motion, by Dr. Bocher (originally delivered as a lec- 

 ture before N. Y. M. Society (pp. 225-231). The usual notes, 

 new publications, and index close the first volume of this new 

 mathematical venture. 



In the Botanical Gazette for June, Jfr. A. F. Foerste has an 

 interesting paper, illustrated, on the Identification of trees in 

 winter. — Mr. Charles Robertson continues his notes on the mode 

 of pollination of American plants. — Mr. A. P. Morgan describes 

 two new genera of fungi belonging to the Hyphomycetes, 

 Cylindrocladium and Synthetospora. 



In the Journal of Botany for July, M. G. Massee describes 

 and figures a new marine lichen from the coast of Scotland, 

 Verrucaria latevirens, and continues his description of new 

 species of fungi from the West Indies. — Mr. W. H. Beeby 

 argues in favour of the occurrence of natural hybrids among 

 plants. In the number for August, Rev. E. S, Marshall sup- 

 ports the claim of Cochlearia grcenlandica, and the editor that of 

 Sagina Boydii, to be considered as British plants ; both are 

 figured. In the continuation of his Notes on Potamogetons, Mr. 

 Arthur Bennett describes two new species, P. Delavayi from 

 China, and P. tricarhtatus from Australia. 



The articles in the Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano for 

 July are all geographical. Among them Dr. A. N. Berlese 

 "and Signer V. Pegliore give a monograph of the Micromycetes 

 of Tuscany, 293 in number. The list includes sevei-al new 

 s| ecies, and one new genus, PhceopeltosphcEria, belonging to the 

 Sphseriacese. — Signor S. Sommier commences a very interesting 

 description of the physical features of the lower valley of the Obi 

 in Siberia, with some account of its botany. 



In Nos. 5 and 6 of the Bullettino delta Soc. Bat. Italiana, 

 most of the articles are also of local interest. Signor A. Jatta 

 describes a new genus of lichens, Siphulastrum, from Tierra del 

 Fuego. — Signor E. Baroni gives a full description of the 

 anatomy of the fruit and seeds of Eugenia myrtillifolia. — 

 Signor L. Re contributes an account of the spherites found in 

 Agave mexicana and other Amaryliidaceae. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, August 22. — M. Duchartre in the 

 chair. — Heat of combustion of some chlorine compounds, by 

 MM. Berthelot and Matignon. The method of the calorimetric 

 shell was employed for determining the heat of combustion of 

 certain acid bodies. Monochloracetic acid, C2H3CIO2, gave + 

 1 74 "2 calories at constant volume, and + 173 '9 at constant 

 pressure, as the result of two combustions with 

 camphor in presence of arsenious acid. The values 

 obtained for trichloracetic acid, CgHClgOj, were 4- 106 '3 

 at constant volume, and 105 "4 at constant pressure. Trimethyiene 

 chloride, C3H4CI0, burnt in the presence of an equal quantity of 

 camphor, gave a mean of 3*900 calories per gramme of the 

 substance. —On glyoxylic or dibxyacetic acid, by the same. — M. 

 Pasteur, in presenting to the Academy a work by Dr. Daremberg 

 on Cholera, its Causes, and Means of Guarding against it, 

 called attention to the following points : " Dr. Daremberg, 

 in one of the principal chapters of his book, protests 

 with great force against the pollution of the water-courses by 

 drain-waters, and equally against the pollution of the soil by the 

 distribution of these waters on the land under cultivation. He 

 thinks that the germs of cholera, in the form of the bacillus which 

 produces it, can remain living and virulent in the soil for several 

 years, and eventually lead to the spread of the disease. Thus 

 the cholera in the environs of Paris would have originated in 

 cholera germs preserved since the last epidemic in 1884." — 

 Thermo-chemical study of certain organic bodies with mixed 

 functions, by M, Leo Vignon. — Quantitative determination of 

 peptone, by precipitation in the state of peptonate of mercury, 

 by M. L. A. Hallopeau. This method is claimed to be superior 

 to the polarimetric, the calorimetric, and the absolute alcohol 

 methods as being a complete precipitation admitting of more 

 trustworthy measurements than the first, and less difficult than the 

 second. A solution of peptone, which must be neutral or very 

 slightly acid, is precipitated by a large excess of mercuric nitrate. 



NO. II 92, VOL. 46] 



The precipitate of mercuric peptonate, white, flocculent, 

 and bulky, falls almost immediately to the bottom of the 

 vessel. It is allowed to settle, and then poured on to 

 a filter of known weight, washing with cold water until 

 no precipitate is produced by sulphuretted hydrogen. The in- 

 crease in the weight of the filter, dried at 106° to 108°, represents 

 the weight of the peptonate of mercury ; multiplying this by 

 o'666 gives the amount of peptone present. The mercuric 

 nitrate is readily obtained from the " pure " commercial nitrate. 

 Since this contains an excess of free nitric acid, which partially 

 redissolves the peptonate of mercury, the acid must be removed 

 by heating the nitrate with ten times its weight of water for fif- 

 teen or twenty minutes, filtering and heating to near boiling in 

 a porcelain capsule. Then stir and add a few drops of carbonate 

 of soda until the precipitate of oxide of mercury is no longer re- 

 dissolved. — Etiology of an enzootic disease of the sheep, called 

 Carceag in Roumania, by M. V. Babes. In the very fertile and 

 often submerged islands of the Danube, where the shepherds 

 from Roumania and Transylvania congregate, and where there 

 are always hundreds of thousands of sheep, a disease occurs 

 among them, especially in May and June, to which often a fifth 

 of the herd will succumb, especially if it should have been 

 brought thither from a distant pasture. It is an acute malady of 

 a febrile nature, combined with haemorrhage and oedema, and 

 always with hsemorrhagic and sometimes necrotic inflammation 

 of the rectum. In the red corpuscles of the blood are found 

 round, immovable cocci, often undergoing subdivision. 

 They are very similar to those observed in the cor- 

 responding cow-disease known in America as the Texas fever. — 

 On a new chemical function of the comma-bacillus of Asiatic 

 cholera, by M. J. Ferran. The growth of this microbe is 

 always rapid and luxurious in the ordinary culture solutions ; 

 if they contain milk-sugar, it is incomparably more so ; Lut 

 the growth ceases entirely as soon as the solution becomes acid 

 by the development of lactic acid, and the vitality of the microoe 

 is extinguished. It seems reasonable to employ lactic acid in 

 lemonade against cholera, and to aid its action by the anexosmotic 

 power which morphin offers us ; this substance would perhaps 

 hinder the absorption of the toxic substances, and would prolong 

 the action of the lactic acid by opposing its rapid elimination. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Epidemics, Plagues, and Fevers 413 



The Physiology of the Invertebrata. By W. D. H. 414 

 The Design of Retaining Walls and Reservoir 



Dams 415 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Riley : " Directions for Collecting and Preserving 



Insects" 416 



Letters to the Editor :— 



Science and the State.— The Right Hon, T. H, 



Huxley, F.R.S 416 



An International Zoological Record. — F. A. Bather ; 



A Free Lance 417 



" The Limits of Animal Intelligence." — C. Lloyd 



Morgan 417 



Rules of Nomenclature. — W. A. Herdman . . 417 

 An Earthquake Investigation Committee. — D. 



Kikuchi .... 418 



Prehistoric Epochs. — Edmond Bordage 418 



At Portrush.— James Rigg 418 



Origin of Idea that Snakes Sting.— Cyril Frampton 418 

 On the Relative Contamination of the Water- 

 Surface by Equal Quantities of Different Sub- 

 stances, By Agnes Pockels 418 



Notes 419 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Photographic Magnitudes of Nova Aurigae .... 423 



Comparison Stars of the Planet Victoria 423 



International Time 423 



Comet Swift (March 6, 1892) 423 



Geographical Notes . . 424 



Some Problems in the Old Astronomy. By J. R. 



Eastman 424 



Geology at the British Association . 428 



Mechanics at the British Association 429 



Anthropology at the British Association . . 432 



Conference of Delegates of Corresponding Societies 433 



Scientific Serials 435 



Societies and Academies 436 



