July 5, 1894] 



NA TURE 



Mr. Tkbuuti's Observatory, New South Wales. — 

 The report of Mr. Tebbutl's Observatory, Windsor, New South 

 Wale', shows that there svas no relaxation in the observations 

 carried on during 1S93. The work done is quite equal in im- 

 portance and amount to that of previous years. In addition to 

 constant meridian work, a number ofoccultations were observed. 

 Interesting phenomena were noted at the disappearance of 

 t' Arietis on January 26, 1893, ^"<^ ^'i"- Tebbutt thinks that the 

 star should be examined with a powerful telescope, as it is pro- 

 bably a triple one. The conjunction of Saturn and V'irginis in 

 April was observed • also the occultaiion of .Saturn and Titan 

 on May 25. Brooks' Comet (1892 VI.) was followed from 

 November 2S, 1892, to Tune 19, 1S93, and the Kordame-Quen- 

 isset Comet (1892 II.) from July 29 to August 13, 1893. A 

 series of measures of the binary star a Cenlauri were also 

 made. When it is remembered that all the astronomical, and 

 nearly all Ihe meteorological, observations are made by Mr. 

 Tebbult himself, as well as the greater portion of the astrono- 

 mical reductions, it is impossible not to admire his devotion to 

 astronomical work. The smallness of the number of southern 

 aslionomers makes his observations all the more important. 



A New Spiral Nebula. — At arecent meeting of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society, Dr. Roberts exhibilpd a photograph of 

 a new spiral nebula in Perseus {^Monthly Notices K.A.S.. April 

 1894). The nebula is in R..\. 2h. 29m. 58>-. Decl. +38°3i'-4. 

 It is 3m. 5IS. l^readhr^, and 5''4 south of the nebula No. 1023 

 in the New General Catalogue. The accompanying cut, from 

 one of Dr. Roberts' photograph^, shows the latter nebula as a 



lenticular body a little below the centre, while the new object 

 appears as a faint patch almost directly above it near the top of 

 the figure. The illusiration will serve to indicate the position 

 of the nebula, but the spiral character has been lost in the re- 

 production. Dr. Roberts thinks that the nebula is new to 

 science, for it is not recorded in the New General Catalogue. 

 With ngard to its character he says: — "The convolutions of 

 the spirals are very faint, but clearly visible on the negative, 

 and involved in them are four 14-15 mag. stars, and six orseven 

 alars, or slar-like condensations, less bright than the :6lh mag. 

 The convolutions are symmetrical, and proceed from a very 

 faint star Irke nucleus." 



TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF CHEMISTRY IN 



RUSSIA. 

 JN Novenil'LT las', ilie Russian Chemical anil Physical Society 

 comrneirioiateil the iwenty-fiflh annivr-rsary of its founda- 

 tion, and the addresses delivered on this occasion are row 

 publishtd in a separate pnnii'lilet, as an nppemlin to iis jnurna'. 

 The activity of the Russian chemists having been chiefly centred 



NO. I 2SS, VOL. 50] 



round the Society, the addresses on the progress of physical 

 chemistry, by N. N. Beketoff ; of organic chemistry, by N. A. 

 Menshutkin ; on researches in the aromatic series, by Th. 

 Beilstein — all in connection with the Russian Chemical 

 Society — may be taken as so many excellent reviews of the 

 progress of these respective branches of chemistry in Russia. 

 The first two addresses are especially full of interest, as there 

 is not one of the great questions which have occupied the 

 attention of chemists during the last fiveand-twenty years 

 to which Russian chemists have not contributed some 

 work of importance. The researches in connection with the 

 periodical Law, by its discoverer himself, and later on by 

 BazarofTand Prof. Flavilzky ; the work of Prof. Gustavson, on 

 Ihe double substitutions of anhydrides ; the researches of 

 Prof. Potylitzin, into the mutual substitutions of haloids, also in 

 the absence of water and at a high temperature, which induced 

 Berthelot to make new researches in order to verify his law ; 

 and the discovery, by the same chemist, of the dependency 

 between the limit of substitution of chlorine by bromine and 

 their atomic weights, are passed in review. Next come P. D. 

 KhrushchofT's researches into the heat of solution of mixtures 

 of salts, which gave a further confirmation of the Berthelot, 

 Guldberg, and Waage's law ; the well-known exhaustive 

 researches of Prof. Menshutkin into the speeds of reactions ; 

 and those of Kajander (prior to those of Arrhenius), into the 

 dependency of these speeds upon the electrical conducti- 

 bility of the combining bodies ; the thermochemical work 

 of Lughinin and Werner, and other works of minor import- 

 ance. And, finally, the Russian chemists have contributed 

 many and varied researches into the dependencies of phy- 

 sical properties of bodies upon their chemical composition 

 and structure ; such, for instance, as Goldstein's, which have 

 led to the discoveiy of a law expressing the rise of the boiling 

 point of many hydrocarbons as a function of their molecular 

 weights ; while the important contributions of Mendeleef, 

 Konovaloff, Alekseeff, and also Scherbacheff, to the theory of 

 solutions, and Prof. Bunge's work in electrolysis, are well known 

 to West European scientists. 



The work done in Russia during the same period in organic 

 chemistry is, perhaps, even still more important ; but it can 

 hardly he dealt with in a few lines, although, out of more than 

 a thousand papers contributed in this department. Prof. 

 Menshutkin only mentioned those "ofwhich," he said, "the 

 history of chemistry will retain some impression." Many works 

 of importance have been grouped by the reviewer around 

 Butlerofl's researches into the tertiary alcohols — a whole 

 school of explorers of the fat series having been created by the 

 well-known Kazan professor; while another series of re- 

 searches into the aromatic compounds was made under 

 the impulse given 10 these researches by Zinin and Beilstein. 

 These last are so extremely valuable that they rightly form 

 the subject of another well-filled address, delivered by 

 the present leader of this school. Prof. Beilstein. Th. R. 

 Wreden, in Russia, was one ol the first to recognise the im- 

 portance of those organic compounds which stand between the 

 tat and the aromatic series ; and though his work, which went 

 against the then current opinions in science, did not attract the 

 attention it fully deserved, the ulterior researches of Beilstein, 

 KutbatofT, and MarkovnikolT into the compounds entering into 

 the composition of the Baku naphtha have shown that he was on 

 the right track, and fully confirmed his suggestions. The 

 existence of these intermediate forms, which have their rings 

 composed of atoms of carbon only, is now a recognised fact, and 

 their study has already l<d to many important discoveries, 

 while it promises many more. A short review of the work done 

 in Russia, in connection with stereo- chemistry, and with the rela- 

 tions between the physical properties of organic compounds and 

 their chemical composition and structure, concludes this most in- 

 teresting address. "Chemistry," Prof. Menshutkin says towards 

 the end of it, " is rapidly approaching the time when it will be 

 no more a descriptive science, but a mechanics of atoms, and the 

 history of the Russian Chemical Society is intimately connecteil 

 with that part of the history of science." 



THE LANDSLIP AT GOHNA, GARHIVAL 



CIR E. BUCK has sent to us, through Mr. E. D. Maclagan, 

 '-^ Under-Secretary to the Government of India, an advance 

 copy of a report, with maps and plates, by Mr. T. II. Holland, 



