156 



NA TURE 



[June 14, 1894 



posed to sunshine for Uss than three hours inii-ariably killed (he 

 animals, whilst when insolation was prolonged for three and a 

 half, four, and four and a half hours respectively, not a single 

 guinea-pig succumbed. The interesting discovery was, more- 

 over, made that those animals which had survived inoculation 

 with the insolated cholera cultures were protected from cholera, 

 for when eight days later they were inoculated with virulent 

 cholera cultures they did not succumb to this disease. The 

 pathogenic properties of the cholera bacillus were removed more 

 quickly by insolation when immersed in water than in broth. 

 It will be remembered that Arloing stated, as far back as 1S85, 

 that he had succeeded in reducing virulent anthrax cultures to 

 the condition of vaccine by insolation ; but so far as we are 

 aware. Dr. Palermo is the only other investigator who has been 

 able to render animals immune to a disease by the inoculation 

 of insolated pathogenic cultures. 



A PAMPHLET on " Dry Methods of Sanitation," by Mr. G. V. 

 Poore, the author of " Essays on Rural Hygiene," has been 

 published by Mr. Edward Stanford. 



In connection with an exhibition of beautiful and curious 

 British and foreign species of butterflies and moth<, at his 

 Piccadilly establishment, Mr. William Watkins has issued a 

 descriptive guide to the specimens on view. 



The address on "The Rise of the Mammalia'in North 

 America," delivered. by Prof. H. F. Osborn at the last meeting 

 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 and partly reprinted in these columns (vol. xlix. pp. 235, 257, 

 ■ S93), has been published separately, and can be obtainel from 

 Messrs. \V. Wesley and Son. 



A PRELIMINARY list of the vertebrate animals of Kentucky 

 is contributed by Mr. II. Carman to the Bulletin of the Essex 

 Institute, Massachusetts (vol. xxvi. Nos. I-31. The list is 

 based upon collections and observations made in various parts of 

 Kentucky from points near the eastern limits of the State to 

 Hickman on the Mississippi River. 



A VOLI'ME by Prof. Dwelshauvers-Dery, entitled "Etude 

 Expt'rimenlale Dynamique d'une Machine a Vapeur," has 

 lately been added to the Aide-Mumoire series published sX 

 Parisby Gaulhier-Villars and by Masson. Two other volumes 

 recently received are " IMectricilc Appliquce a la Marine," by 

 M. P. Minel, and " La Rectification de L'Alcool," by M. 

 Ernest Sorel. 



The Agent-General for New South Wales has sent us the 

 report of the Department of Public Works for the year 1892. 

 A considerable amount of work w.is carried out during the year 

 in connection with harbours and rivers and water supply, water 

 conservation and irrigation, roads and bridges and sewerage. 

 The report contains twenty-seven plates illustrating the stale of 

 the work in hand .nnd the machinery employed. 



The difficult genera Koia and Rubui arc the subject of care- 

 ful study by French botanists. A Khodological Society has 

 been founded for the purpose of publishing a herbarium of the 

 Roses of France, name<l by the Helgian rhodologist M. Ctcpin. 

 Those intending to subscribe are invited to correspond with 

 Dr. Pons, Illesur-Tct, Pyrenees Orienlalcs. A publication is 

 also announced with the title Kiiln fi><,->erlim Galliii exsiica/i, 

 under the editorship of Prof. Bonrlay, Rue de Toul, Lille, and 

 M. Bouly de Lesdain, 16, Rue Emmery, Dunkerque. We 

 note aho the publication of the first fascicle of Messrs. E. F. 

 and W. R. Linton's "Set of British Willows." 



FovK new volumes of the series of reprints published by 

 Engelmann, of Leipzig, vii. 0<twald'.s " Klassiker dcr Exakten 

 Wissenschaften, " hive just apjicarei. No;. 46 an! 47 de.i! 



NO. 1285. VOL. 50] 



with the calculus of variation, and contain papers by Joh 

 Bernoulli (1696), Jac Bernoulli (1697), Euler (1744), Lagrange 

 (1762, 1770), Legendre (17S6), and Jacobi (1837). Electricians 

 will be interested in No. 52, which contains Galvani's observa- 

 tions on the action of electricity on the muscles of frogs. The 

 twenty-one quaint figures in the text give this volume additional 

 value. Gauss' researches on the intensity of terrestrial 

 magnetism, communicated to the Goltingen Gesellschaft der 

 Wissenschaften in 1832, are reprinted in No. 53 of this very 

 useful series. 



Among numerous papers recently distributed by the Smith- 

 sonian Institution are Prof. S. P. Langley's memoir on "The 

 Internal Work of the Wind " (see Nature, vol. xlix. p. 273, 

 1893), '"'d several contributions by Prof. II. F. Osborn to the 

 Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. One of 

 these is concerned with the fossil mammals of the Upper 

 Cretaceous beds of .•\merica, and the conclusions arrived at from 

 a discussion of the upper and lower dintilion are the reverse of 

 those expressed by Prof. Marsh on the same fauna. Other j 

 recently-issued excerpts from the Bulletin referred to are " Ar- 

 tionyx, a new Genus of Ancylopoda," by Prof. Osborn and Dr. 

 J. L. Wortman ; "On the Divisions of the White River or 

 Lower Miocene of Dakota," by Dr. Wortman ; and " Ancestors 

 of the Tapir from the Lower Miocene of Dakota," by Dr. 

 Wortman and Mr. C. Earle. 



MM. J. B. BAiLLitRE ET FiLS, Paris, have published 

 a "Flore de France," by M. A. Acloque, containing the 

 description of all the indigenous species, and illustrated by 

 2165 small figures representing the characteristic types of genera 

 and sub-genera. The book has been designed to assist in the 

 identification of plants. It appeals, therefore, to those who, 

 when they see a plant, want to know its place in the flora of 

 France. By means of it, local botanists will be able to deter- 

 mine easily the species of plants in their districts, and thus a 

 large amount of useful material with regard to geographical 

 distribution may be got together. Another flora lately published 

 is that of " Nordwestdeutchen Tiefebene " (Engelmann, Leip- 

 'ig). by Prof F. Buchenau. This, however, is not so much 

 a work to assist amateur botanists as a work of reference in 

 which all the plants in the region covered are systematically 

 arranged and described. 



Three iodo-sulphides of pho.sphotus have been prepared by 

 M. Ouvrard, and are described in the June issue of the Annates 

 tie Chiinie et Je Physique. The iodide of phosphorus P.JI4 is 

 not attacked by sulphuretted hydrogen at the ordinary tempera- 

 ture, but at a temperature slightly higher than the melting point 

 of the iodide, about 115', hydriodic acid is slowly produced, 

 and after a couple of days' heating at this temperature the re- 

 action is usually complete. The product is readily soluble in 

 carbon bisulphide, and the solution deposits crystals of an iodo- 

 sulphide of the composition P^SjI^. The reaction proceeds in 

 accordance with the equation, 2P„l4 -F 31105 = P4S3I.J -t- 6HI. 

 This new substance forms very well-developed yellow crystals 

 of high refractive power. They are permanent in dry air, but 

 slowly alt.icked by moisture with elimination of sulphuretted 

 hydrogen. They melt about 106 to a viscous liquid, and about 

 300' they inflame with evolution of iodine vapour and white 

 fumes of phosphoric anhydride. Cold water only slowly attacks 

 them, but they arc rapidly decomposed by hot water. Fuming 

 nitric acid at once induces an explosion accompanied by incan- 

 descence. The compound may more easily be prepared by 

 dissolving the constituents in the correct proportions in carbon 

 bisulphide, evaporating and heating to 120' in a current of inert 

 g.as, and .again dissolving in carbon bisulphide ; the .solution 

 deposits crystals of the new substance upon evaporation. It 

 may also be at once obtained by dissolving iodine in a solution 



