Oo>- 



NA TURE 



[September 27, 1894 



The rollowing ode to Helmholti appeared in Punch of last 

 week, and seems to us so admirable that we reprint it : — 

 HELMHOLTZ. 



What matter titles ? Helmholtz is a name 

 That chillenges, alone, the award of Fame '. 

 When Emperors, Kings, Pretenders, shadows all, 

 Leave no! a dust-trace on our whirling ball, 

 Thy work, oh grave-eyed searcher, shall endure, 

 Unmarred by faction, from low passion pure. 

 To bridge the gulf 'twixt matter-veil and mind 

 Perchance to mortals, dull sensed, slow, purblind. 

 Is not permitted — yet ; but patient, keen, 

 Thou on the shadowy track beyond the Seen, 

 Didst dog the elusive truth, and seek in sound 

 The secret of soul-mysteries profound. 

 Essential Order, Beauty's hidden law '. 

 Marvels to strike more slugijish souls with awe. 

 Great seekers, lonely-souled. explore that track, 

 We »-elcome the wild wonders they bring back 

 From ventures stranger than an earthly Pole- 

 Can furnish. Distant still that mental goal 

 To which great spirits strain ; but when calm Fame 

 Sums its bold seekers, Helmholtz. thy great name 

 Among the foremost shall eternal stand, 

 Science's pride, and glory of thy land. 



From time to time paragraphs appear in the daily papers 

 informing the public that a cure for consumption has been dis- 

 covered. The last of these so-called discoveries has been 

 heralded in the Times (September 14), where it is stated on the 

 authority (?) of the Havas Agency, that a Genoese physician 

 has been able to cure twenty-five out of twenty-seven hopeless 

 cases of consumption by the subcutaneous injection of asses' 

 blood. Strangely enough, the medical papers have remained 

 silent, and we cannot help thinking that it would have been 

 well had the Tiims not been so eager to advertise this mode of 

 treatment before it had gone through the ordeal of medical 

 criticism. The subcutaneous injection of serum of animals into 

 phthisical patients has been extensively tried already and has 

 failed, and it is not likely that asses' serum would have more 

 therapeutic properties than lint of dogs or goats, which has 

 proved a failure. It is likely, moreover, that such a premature 

 announcement will do a great deal of harm by raising the 

 hopes of patients and their friends — hopes which are almost 

 sure to be disappointed. 



According to news received by the Agent-General for 

 Tasmania, the whale fishery industry of that colony, which 

 for some years past has been in a feeble condition, has recently 

 undergone a revival, whales having been frequently seen on 

 the Tasmaniin coasts within the last month or so. 



The third annual report of the Department of Agriculture o( 

 the Yorkshire College, Leeds, has reached us, and tells of a 

 vast amount of work accomplished during the period under 

 review, — 1893-94. The courses of lectures for farmers, &c., and 

 clasiei for elementary teachers and dairy teachers, and the 

 travelling dairy school*, teem, on the whole, to hive been well 

 attended, and the committee his reason for the feeling of 

 sitiifaction to which It givet expre«ion. A pro<pe:tus of the 

 courses in agricjilure for the session 1^94-95 is now ready, and 

 may be had of the secretary. 



A sFRlESof new boron compounds containing fluorine and 

 alcohol radicles, derived from the interaction of boron fluoride 

 and alcohols, are described by M. Ga«sclin in the September 

 number of the Atinalti iiV C/iimit tt Je Physiijiie. The mono- 

 and difluorine compounds derived from methyl and ethyl 

 alcohol have been isolated In the pure state, and prove to be 

 suliSlances of great chemical activity, affording numerous 

 interesting reactions. When boron trinuoiidc gas it passed 

 into methyl or ethyl alcohol, strongly cooled by a freezing mix- 



HO. J 300, VOL. 50] 



ture, the gas is rapidly absorbed and the liquid becomes con- 

 siderably heated. The reaction occurs in exactly equal moleculir 

 proportions, and upon subsequent distillation of the liquid 

 product two main substances are eventually isol.ited. The first 



or B; , while 



\OC.,H. 



^OCH, 



is the di-fluorine compound Bc 



the second is a remarkable molecular compound of boron triflu- 

 oride with methyl or ethyl ether, BFj.(CH.,(;Oor HF3.(C.H;\0. 

 The reaction is quantitatively expressed by the following equa- 

 tion, in which R represents the alkyl radicle : 



7 BFj -I- 7 ROH = B,'^ -1-3 (BF3 . R..0) -I- 2 BF.U 



OR 



-f2HF-HB{0H),. 



/F. 

 Di-fluor methvl borate B^ distils over as a colourless 



\OCH3 

 liquid boiling at So . It solidifies in the receiver in the form of 

 long crystals which melt at 41 '5. The analogous ethyl com- 

 pound boils at 82', and the crystals melt at 23°. The liquids 

 fume strongly in the air, -disseminating suffocating vapours. 

 Water decompose: them with great energy, producing boric 

 acid, tluoboric acid, and the free alcohol. They are insoluble 

 in hydrocarbons, but dissolve with decomposition in alcohol. 

 They are quite permanent in contact with metallic solium, even 

 under pressure at 100. Sodium methylate or ethylate, how- 

 ever, react with great energy when brought in contact wiih 

 them, and if equal molecular proportions are employed, the 

 mono-fluorine compounds are produced. 

 F., . P 



B 



/' 



^OR 



+ ROXa = B ' 



The methyl compound B 



(OCH-Oj 



+ NaF. 

 ''{OR, 



boils at 53 , and is a 



particularly mobile and strongly fuming liquid, which burns 

 with a brilliant green llame, surrounded by a dense while cloud 

 The ethyl compounrl is a liquid of similar properties, which 

 boils at 78. Water decomposes both compounds with some 

 violence and considerable evolution of heat. The molecular 

 compounds of boron trifluoride wilh methyl and ethyl ether 

 arc fuming liquids boiling, respectively, st 126" and 123 , which 

 are likewise energetically decomposed by water. They have 

 been independently prepared by direct union of gaseous boron 

 fluoride with gaseous methyl ether in the one case, and ordinary 

 ethyl ether in the other. The union is ins'.antaneous, and 

 accompanied by considerable rise of temperature in e.ich case. 

 In the case of the formation of the methyl compound a dense 

 cloud is produced the moment the constituent gases come in 

 contact, and the sides of the vessel becom; covered by hot 

 drops of liquid which rapidly .coalesce to form a considerable 

 bulk of the new substance. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during 

 the past week include a Sykes's Monkey {Cercopilhcms 

 alhigiitaris, i ) from East .\frica, presented by Miss Marion I.. 

 Lcitch ; a M.ic.aque Monkey (Ma,ii:iis cynomolpis, ?) from 

 India, presented by Captain W. Townsend ; two .Mligators 

 (.Uligalor misiisiipfiensii) from the Mississippi, presented by 

 .Mr. L. Watson ; two Giant Toads (Piifo marhiiis) from Brazil, 

 presented by F. E. Blaaw, Esq. ; twenty European Tree 

 Frogs (ffyla arlwrea) European, presented by Mr. G. B. 

 Coleman ; an < Istrich (Struthiocamclm, i )from Africa, a Greater 

 Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacaclua galerita) from .\ustralia, 

 deposited ; a Red-sided Eclectus (E,leelus pteloralis) from 

 New Guinea, a Toco Toucjn {/i'/ia//i/>//(ij/w /i7i-(7) from Guiana, 

 a Diamond Snake Af.^relit ipihlis) from New South Wales, 

 received in exchange ; an African Wild \is) Ei/iiiis tiriiiopiis, i ), 

 an Axis Deer (Cfmiif axis, S ), born in the Gardens. 



