April i5. iSjS] 



NATURE 



575 



would exhibit in the extreme violet or the ultra-violet, an 

 absorption band similar to that of the compounds and certain of 

 the derivatives of the blood colouring matter. It was found 

 that solutions of turacin in caustic soda or ammonia, so dilute as 

 to be almost colourless, and to exhibit, when a stratum lo mm. 

 thick was examined, only a faint shading in the position of the 

 stronger of the two turacin bands in the green, absorbed the 

 extreme violet and ultra-violet rays of the spectrum precisely as 

 highly diluted solutions of the acid compounds of hrematin {e.g. 

 hcematin hydrochloride dissolved in glacial acetic acid). The 

 earlier observations were made by allowing the spectrum of a 

 beam of sunlight reflected into the dark room from the mirror of 

 the heliostat, and which had passed through the solution of 

 turacin, to fall upon a fluorescent screen of the double cyanide 

 of platinum and barium, when an intense absorption band at the 

 commencement of the ultra-violet was visible to the naked eye. 

 This observation was subsequently confirmed by taking a series 

 of photographs of the spectrum, employing solutions of turacin 

 of various degrees of concentration. 



It thus appears that turacin, like the acid compounds of 

 hjematin, exhibits an absorption band, which is exactly on the 

 boundary of the ultra-violet proper, and which extends further 

 and further into the ultra-violet, as the concentration of the 

 solution increases. 



The identity of the spectrum of turacin with that of the 

 hsematin compounds was so complete that it led the author to 

 surmise the existence of a close relationship between the copper- 

 containing body and the iron-containing colouring matter of the 

 blood. Without any knowledge of Prof. Church's second investi- 

 gation, published in 1892,^ in making an oral preliminary com- 

 munication of his first results to the International Physiological 

 Congress at Berne, in September, 1895, the author expressed his 

 conviction that turacin contains the same atomic group which is 

 the cause of the extreme violet and ultra-violet absorption band 

 in the spectrum of highly dilute solutions of haemoglobin and its 

 derivatives, and predicted that by removing the copper from 

 turacin, it would be possible to obtain a turaco-porphyrin similar 

 to the body (hiiiniato-porphyrin) which results from the removal 

 of the iron from hicmatin. It was only after the completion of 

 the experiments necessary for the elucidation of this point, that 

 the fact of his having been anticipated in this matter by Prof. 

 Church was brought under the notice of the author. 



The results of the present work offer, however, an indepen- 

 dent and additional confirmation of Prof. Church's results. 



The facts placed on record in this paper point to the essen- 

 tial identity of turaco-porphyrin and hcematoporphyrin, and 

 when taken in connection with the identity of the ultra-violet 

 spectrum of turacin, and of the acid hnematin compounds, 

 appear to establish that turacin contains the atomic group, which 

 is the cause of the characteristic extreme violet and ultra-violet 

 absorption exerted by haemoglobin, its compounds, and principal 

 derivatives. 



Entornological Society, April i. — Prof. Meldola, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair. — Mr. Champion exhibited, on behalf 

 I if Mr. Blatch, specimens of Quedius riparms, Kellner, cap- 

 tured in February last on the banks of running streams at 

 " ilock, Somerset. He remarked that the insect was an 

 cresting and unexpected addition to the British list, and the 

 >^»jand recent novelty from the west country, the other being 

 chtliebiiis lejoHsi, Muls. and Rey, found at Ilfracombe in June 

 ' by Mr. Bennett. He added that Mr. Waterhouse had in- 

 led him that he had seen specimens of the Quedius from 

 les and Scotland. Mr. Champion also exhibited a small 

 :tion of Coleoptera made by Mr. O. V. Aplin in Southern 

 during various expeditions inland from (iabes. The 

 ;tion included some interesting Tenebrionida; of the genera 

 telia and Adesmia. Mr. Aplin noticed specimens of these 

 :ts impaled by shrikes. — Mr. Goss exhibited, for Mr. 

 leron, an apterous male oi Mutilla contracta taken at Barrack- 

 5, India. The specimen was stated to be the first recorded 

 mce in this species of a wingless male, and was also abnormal 

 ^^ti having the thorax incised laterally. — Dr. Sharp, F.R.S., 

 called attention to the fact that at a recent meeting of the 

 Society (March 20, 1895) a specimen of a supposed dimorphic 

 form of one of the species of Dytiscus was examined, and Prof 

 Stewart inquired whether any anatomical examination had been 

 ule of the sexual organs. He said that in the Comptes rendtis 

 . Bordeaux, 1894, there svas an account of the examina- 

 A. H. Church, " Researches on Turacin, an Animal Pigment containing 

 per," Phil. Trans., vol. 183(1892), A, pp. 5"-53o- 



NO. 138 1, VOL. 53] 



tion of the sexual organs of the supposed second form of D. 

 marginalis by M. Peytoureau, who came to the conclusion 

 that it was really a distinct species. — Prof Poulton, F.R.S., 

 exhibited examples of the type labels now in use in the 

 Hope Collection at Oxford, and illustrated their employment by 

 projecting on the screen, by the lantern, a photograph of the 

 Westwood types of African Etiseiniiz described in F. 

 Bates' " Matabele Land" (London, 1881). He said that 

 such labels, having been once set up in type, could be 

 reproduced in electrotype very cheaply and efficiently. 

 Mr. Verrall said he was of opinion that no species should be 

 described from a single type, but from many specimens, 

 and he wished every so-called "type" could be destroyed 

 as soon as a species had been described from it. Mr. Bland- 

 ford explained the system of labelling types in the Brussels 

 Museum. Dr. Sharp, Prof Meldola, Mr. McLachlan, and 

 Prof Poulton continued the discussion. — Mr. Blandford ex- 

 hibited a series of lantern slides showing the uses to which 

 photography could be put in entomological illustration. The 

 photographs shown included various Salurniidce, Vanessida, 

 species of Maviestra, Tipiila, Ophion, Carabtis, Lucanns, 

 Silones, &c., as well as one or two examples of insect-injury, 

 and a view in Windsor Park showing oaks defoliated by Tortrix 

 viridana. Prof Meldola expressed surprise that photography 

 had hitherto been so little employed in the illustration of works 

 on entomology.^ — Prof Poulton read a paper entitled " On the 

 Courtship of certain European Acridiidre.' He said that these 

 observations upon the courtship of Swiss Acridiidoe were made 

 in exceedingly favourable weather at the end of August and 

 beginning of September last year. He was much indebted to 

 Mr. F. Jenkinson and Mr. V. F. Dickins for many independent 

 observations and valuable confirmation. The observations wer6 

 almost all made in the neighbourhood of the Weisshorn Hotel, 

 high above Vissoye, in the Val d'Anniviers. Prof Meldola 

 expressed great interest in the paper, and said that the observa- 

 tion of the habits of insects in the field seemed to be much 

 neglected by many entomologists. Dr. Sharp remarked that 

 there was a greater variety in the organs capable of producing 

 sound in the Orthoptera than was generally supposed. — Mr. 

 G. F. Hampson read a paper entitled "On the Classification of 

 Three Subfamilies of Moths of the Family Pyralidre : the 

 Epipaschiime, Eiidotrichince, and Pyralina.''" 

 Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, April 7. — M. A. Cornu in the 

 chair. — Applications of the theory of divergent series capable of 

 summation, by M. E. Borel. — Some remarks on the X-rays, 

 by S. P. Thompson. An account of the phenomena observed 

 with a fluorescent screen in a Crookes' tube during the gradual 

 production of a vacuum. At a very high vacuum, the rays 

 penetrate bones as well as flesh, and hence there is a certain 

 degree of exhaustion for which the difference between the 

 transparency of the bone and flesh is a maximum.— On electrified 

 Rontgen rays, by ^L A. Lafay.— A condition for the maximum 

 power of Crookes' tubes, by MM. J. Chappuis and E. Nugues. 

 The radiation of a Crookes' tube, as measured by the rate at 

 which its rays discharged an electrometer, was found to vary 

 with the rate of vibration of the commutator of the Ruhmkorff" 

 coil employed. For the coil used by the authors, ten breaks 

 per second produced the maximum effect ; rates higher or lower 

 than this were less efi"ective. — Thermal studies of some 

 oxybromides, by M. Tassilly. Determinations of the heats of 

 solution of the hydrated oxyliromides of the alkaline earths. — 

 Action of hydrobromic and hydriodic acids upon phosphoryl 

 trichloride, by M. A. Besson. — At a temperature of 400"'-500° 

 in presence of pumice, hydrobromic acid acts upon phosphoryl 

 trichloride giving the complete set of substitution derivatives 

 POCl.,Br, POClBr,, POBrj, and PBr,. Hydriodic acid acts 

 somewhat differently, a solution of the gas in phosphoryl tri- 

 chloride slowly reacting at the ordinary temperature giving 

 phosphorus triiodide and metaphosphoric acid. — On a sample of 

 rice over a century old, by M. Balland. The sample on analysis 

 differed from ordinary rice only in a lower percentage of fat. — 

 Elongation of the lower limbs due to castration, by M. Lortet. 

 Berlin. 



Meteorological Society, March 3.— Prof Bornstein, 

 President, in the chair. — Prof Hellmann spoke on Indo- 

 Germanic superstitions as to weather, which are still wide 

 spread among the people, and are based upon a belief in the 

 importance of the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany, or 



