86 



NA TURE 



[May 24, 1894 



^ 



vertical and horizontal positions, and gradually approached to 

 and removed from the poles, whilst its behaviour is critically 

 watched— in the majority of cases the watches were found to 

 perform very satisfactorily. Magnetic and meteorological ob- 

 servations were carried on as usual, and sketches of sun-spots 

 ■were made on 155 days. 



It occurred to us while glancing through the " Mtimoires 

 de la Socieic de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle" of Geneva, 

 of which the second p.irt of vol. xxxi. was recently received, 

 that the custom of inserting, at the commencement of the 

 volume, the President's riiumi of the conimunic-ilion? 

 to the Society during his year of office, is an admirable 

 one. The present bulky tome contains an address by the 

 late C. de Candolle, in which he surveyed the scientific 

 advances of the Society during 1891, and also a similar 

 retrospect in which M. E. Sarasin reviews the growth of 

 knowledge during 1S92. It has been said more than once 

 that the abstracts of papers are frequently superior to the 

 originals, inasmuch as they present in a concise form the tenor 

 of an author's work. But however this may be, it is certain that 

 the plan followed by the Presidents of the Physical Society of 

 Geneva (and also by those of some of our own Socie'.ies), viz. that 

 of giving terse descriptions of the investigations communicated 

 to the Society duiing their respective years of office, considerably 

 facilitates reference, and what is more, it enables a worker to 

 know the gist of a paper without reading through and digesting 

 the original. In addition to the two presidential addresses re- 

 ferred to, the " Mcmoires " contain a paper by Prof. J. Brun, 

 on a new species of marine diatoms, fossil and pelagic, illus- 

 trated by twelve plates, containing 120 of the author's drawings, 

 40 micropholographs by Prof, van Heurck, and So by M. Otto 

 Miiller. The volume also comprises the second part of Prof. 

 Chodat's "Monographia Polygalacearum," illustrated by twenty- 

 three plates, and the fifth of his " Contributions a la Flore des 

 Paraguay." Both of these papers will excite the admiration of 

 systematic botanists. 



The address delivered by Dr. .\rmstrong, in March last, at 

 the annual general meeting of the Chemical Society, is con- 

 tained in the May number of the Society's journal. 



The papers set at the examinations of the Royal University 

 of Ireland during 1S93 have just been published as a supplement 

 to the University Calendar for that year. 



Messrs. R. Fkif.di.anuer and Son, of Berlin, have sent 

 us Nos. S-8 of " Naturw Novilates," containing lists of 

 scientific works recently published. 



MESsts. Percy Lund and Co. will shortly publish a work 

 entitled "The Stereoscope and Stereoscopic Photography, " 

 translated from the French of F. Drouin. 



An excellent feature of the American Xaturalist is the 

 classified notes of recent work in all of the natural sciences. 

 L>r. \V. S. Bayley, of Colby University, edits the section de- 

 voted to minciabgy and petrography. His contributions to 

 the journal under that head, during 1893, have now been col- 

 lected and published separately, and the pamphlet thus created 

 formsa useful jummary of progress. 



The "Year-Book of the Scientific and Learned Societies of 

 Great Itiitain and Ireland," published by Messrs. C. Griffin and 

 Co., first appeared in 1884, and has been issued annually since 

 then. It ii really an extremely useful and convenient handbook 

 of reference. Lists ofthe papers read during the year are given 

 under the descriptions of the societies to which they were pre- 

 sented, wiih the dates of the communications. These have 

 been complied from official sources, and therefore constitute a 

 Iruslwoithy record of the progrihi of various branches of 

 scieoce. All the papers read before almost every British 

 NO. 1282, VOL 50] 



society are included in the lists, so the " Year- Hook " may clain-. 

 to be recognised as an important assistant in the organisation of 

 scientific literature. 



The advances made in the study of geology since 1S7S have 

 rendered the publication of a new edition of the late Sir 

 .\ndrew Ramsay's well-known manu.il oil "The Physical 

 Geology and Geography of Great Britain " a necessity, if thp 

 book is to retain its place. \Ye are glad, therefore, to learn 

 that a new edition (the sixth) has been undeitaken by Mr. 

 Horace B. \Yoodward, of the Geological Survey. The edition, 

 accompanied by a corrected foim of the small coloured map 

 which appeared in the fifth edition, will very shortly be issued 

 by Mr. Edward Stanford. 



\Ye have received the second yearly report of the Sonnblick 

 Society, for the year 1893. The Society now numbers 423 

 ordinary members, and the report shows that the importance 

 of keeping this mountain observatory in thorough efficiency 

 is fully recognised. The height of the summit has been 

 determined by trigonometrical measurement during the year, 

 and was found to be 10,192 feet, which agrees very closely with 

 that found by barometrical measurements by Dr. Hann. 

 In addition to the regular meteorologicil observations, special; 

 attention is paid by the observer, P. Lechner, to observations 

 of atmospherical electricity, and some interesting resuUs have 

 been already obtained. It is found that the electric condition | 

 of the earth at the summit remains nearly constant during clear ^ 

 days throughout the year, so that, owing to its height an.i 

 configuration, it is free from the daily and yearly fluctualior. 

 electricity which are observed on the earih's surface at km.. 

 levels. It would be interesting to know whether this has also ^ 

 been observed at other mountain stations. The observations ot j 

 St. Elmo's Fire have shown the interesting fact that when snow 

 falls in large flakes, the electricity is almost always positive, but 

 when the snow consistsof dust like particles, negative electricity | 

 is developed. 



A DIRECT method of preparing the meihyl and ethyl deriva- 

 tives of hydroxylamine of the type RII.MOli is described by j 

 M. Lobry de Bruyn in the current issue of the Ktceiiil dts | 

 iravau.x chimuiucs dn PaysBas. These so-called ^-alkyl- j 

 hydroxylamines have only recently been isolated m the pure 

 condition bv Kjellin, by an indirect process, although their forma- 

 tion has been demonstrated by several workers. Goklschmidt 

 and Kjellin some time ago showed that they were produced id 

 the decomposition by hydrochloric acid of the esters of nitro- 

 benzaldoxine. K, lloflmann and Victor Meyer have also shown 

 that when nitro-ethane is reduced by stannous chloride the. 

 hydrochloride of fl-methylhydroxylamine, CII3. NllOU . HCI,| 

 is produced ; and Kirpal has further proved that the reaction I 

 is general, that whenever nitroparafVms are reduced to amines | 

 intermediate products are formed which reduce Fehling's solu- . 

 lion. Dr. Kjellin has mote recently resumed the former work | 

 which he carried on in collaboration with Dr. Goldschmidt, andi 

 has succeeded in isolating the chlorides of the alkyl hydroxyla- 

 mines from the prixlucls of the reaction above referred to.. 

 Moreover, by employing a similar process to that which proved 

 I so successful in the hands o( M. de Bruyn for the isolation of] 

 I free hydroxylamine. Dr. Kjellin eventually obtained the pure* 

 bases themselves. An account of his work was given in these 

 columns at the time (vol. xlix. p. 38)- M. de Bruyn now shows; 

 that these simple alkyl derivatives of hydroxylamine maybe 

 obtained in the pure state directly from the b.i*e itself. In his 

 preliminary account of the isolation of the parent base, he| 

 stated that upon agitating a very coi.cenlraled aqueous so- 

 lution of hydroxylamine with methyl iodide and a little^ 

 methyl alcohol, considerable evolution of heat occurs 

 and a crystalline mass separates. On repeatirg this expert-. 



