December 6, 1894J 



NATURE 



143 



bronze strip, and to obtain a reading when it differs in potential 

 from the inHuctors by an amount which we have to measure, it 

 is brought back to its ordinary zero position by turning a torsion- 

 head to which the upper end of the suspending strip is fixed. 

 The potential difference is then proportional to the square root 

 of the angle through which the torsion-head has been turned, but 

 the E.M.F. of a moderate battery of accu-inilators can be read 

 with very fair accuracy. The authors have bestowed great care 

 on the design of the needle, so that, fur a given potential- 

 difference, the turning-moment divided by the moment of inerti.i 

 may be as great as possible. The whole instrument is pro- 

 tected from external inductive influence by having the inner 

 surface of its glass case coated with a transparent conducting 

 varnish, which Prof. Ayrton has described elsewhere. — Prof. 

 Ayrton also showed an idiostatic electrometer, whose needle, 

 instead of being suspended, was pivoted on an axle. The 

 instrument is rapid and nearly dead-beat in action, and gives a 

 scale-reading of about three inches for an E.M.F. of too volts. 

 Prof. S. P. Thompson expressed great admiration for the 

 instruments exhibited, but denied that the law which they 

 served to prove was Ohm's law at all ; and this led to some dis- 

 ■cussion as to what Ohm's law really is. Prof. Ayrton briefly 

 replied. 



Chemical Society, November l. — Dr. Armstrong, Presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — The following papers were read : The 

 electromotive force of alloys in a voltaic cell, by .\. P. Laurie. — 

 Determinations of the E.M.F. developed by sixteen alloys of 

 the heavy metals confirm Malthiessen's conclusion that the tin- 

 gold alloy is the only definite compound amongst them. — A 

 product of the action of nitric oxide on sodium ethylate, by 

 G. W. MacDonald, and O. Masson. Nitric oxide is absorbed 

 by an alcoholic solution of sodium ethylate with formation of 

 an explosive salt, probably the sodium salt of methylenedihy- 

 droxynitrosamine, CH2[N(NO)OH]„. The incomplete com- 

 bustion of some gaseous carbon compounds, by W. A. Bone 

 and J. C. Cain. When a hydrocarbon containing n atoms of 

 carbon is burnt with n atoms of oxygen, the interaction may 

 be represented by the following equation : C„Hv + 0„ = 



»C0 -f - Hj, — Derivatives of tetramethylene, by W. H. 



Perkin, jun. A number of halogen and hydroxy-deri- 

 vatives of tetramethylene and tetramethylenedicarboxylic 

 acid are described. Pentamethylenedicarboxylic acid, 



CH 



.CHj. CH.COOH 



, by E. Haworth and W. H. Perkin, 



"\cHj. CH.COOH 



jun. A number of derivatives of this acid are described. — 

 Substituted pimelic acids, by A. W. Crossley and W. H. 

 Perkin, jun. The authors have succeeded in preparing ethyl- 

 and methylethyl-pimelic acid, and also describe several other 

 new aliphatic acids. — Homologues of butanetetracarboxylic 

 acid and of adipic acid, by B. Lean. The disodio- 

 derivative of ethylic butanetetracarboxylate reacts readily with 

 the alkylic iodides or chlorides yielding derivatives which on 

 hydrolysis are converted into tetracarbo.xylic acids of the 

 constitution, CR(COOII)„ . CHo . CH, . CR(COOH)2; on 

 heating these acids, di-substituted adipic'acids are obtained. — 

 Contributions to the chemistry of cellulose. (l) Cellulose 

 sulphuric acid, and the products of its hydrolysis, by A. L. 

 Stern. Cellulose disulphuric acid, CgH^OatHSOj)™, is obtained 

 by dissolving cellulose in sulphuric acid ; on hydrolysis, it yields 

 first cellulose monosulphuric acid, and then products containing 

 less sulphur.— The chlorination of aniline, by J. J. Sud- 

 borough. —Condensation of benzil with ethyl malonate, by 

 F. R. Japp and W. B. Davidson. Benzil and ethylic malonate 

 condense yielding monoelhylic benzoinylmalonate COPh. 

 CPh(OH).CH(COOH)COOEt, and desylenemalonic acid 

 COPh. GPh:C(COOHV 



Linnean Society, November 15.— Mr. C. B. Clarke, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair.— Mr. J. E. S. Moore exhibited 

 preparations illustrative of his investigations concerning the 

 origin and nature of the achromatic spindle in the sperma- 

 tocytes of elasmobranch fishes. I lis results were approximately 

 in agreement with those arrived at by Hermann in regard to the 

 corresponding elements in amphibia, and more in accord with 

 those of Ishikawa relating to the division of noctiluca. As to 

 the spindle fibres themselves, it appeared that during the diastral 

 Stage of the division they were the optical expression of thick- 

 enings in the wall of a membranous cylinder stretched out 



NO. 13 10, VOL. 51] 



between the chromosomes. — The Rev. G. Henslow exhibited 

 some curious iron implements of somewhat varied pattern, used 

 in Egypt for cutting off the top of the Alexandrine fig, ficus 

 Sycamorus, Linn., the operation being necessary to render it 

 edible by getting rid of the parasitic insect Synofhaga eyas- 

 fipcs, Westwood, with which it is always infested. The prac- 

 tice was said to be very ancient, being described by Theo- 

 phrasles, and alluded to by the same word, KVi^aiv, in the 

 septuagint version of the Old Testament (Amos vii. 14) in 

 translating from the Hebrew.— Mr. H. N. Ridley showed some 

 drawings of the green larva of a sphinx moth mimicking a green 

 tree snake, Trimeresiiriis IVayleri, as well as a cluster of cater- 

 pillars mimicking a fruit, all of which were found in Singapore. 

 He also exhibited a drawing from life of the tan-producing 

 gimbir-plant (Ciicaria Gambir) in flower. — Mr. Thomas Christy 

 exhibited some germinating seeds of pepper showing the testa 

 being carried up by the cotyledons. — A paper was then read 

 by Dr. D. Prain, on the plant-yielding Bhang Cannabis saliva. 

 Illustrating by lantern slides the anatomy of flower and fruit in 

 Cannabis, he reviewed the theories propounded of theirstruc- 

 ture ; confirmed from teratology those of Payer (1857) and 

 Celakovsky (1S75), and refuted those of B. Clarke (1853) 

 and Macchiati (1889). He then explained (1) the preven- 

 tion of fertilisation for development of narcotic properties, 

 and (2) of the various forms of the narcotic to each other. 

 .\ series of monoKious conditions described in plants of both 

 sexes show that the so-called i flower is probably an inflores- 

 cence, the perianth segments being bracts, not sepals, while the 

 stamen is the homologue of the anterior sterile carpel of the 9 

 flower. — A paper, on the proposed revision of the British 

 Copepoda, by Mr. Thornas Scott, was, in the unavoidable 

 absence of the author, read by the secretary. 



Geological Society, November 21.— Dr. Henry Wood- 

 ward, F.R.S., President, in the chair. — The Pleistocene 

 beds of the Maltese Islands, by John H. Cooke. An especi- 

 ally noticeable feature of these beds is the absence of ordinary 

 anticlinal and synclinal folding, and the predominance of mono- 

 clinal faults, which largely affect the character of the surface. 

 These faults were formed prior to the deposition of the Pleisto- 

 cene beds. The plateaux of Malta, rising to a height of 600- 

 Soo feet above sea-level, occur south of the great east-and-west 

 fault, which has a downthrow to the north. They have no 

 Pleistocene deposits upon their summits. Three classes of 

 superficial deposits were described, namely : ( i ) Valley-deposits ; 

 (2.) agglomerates and breccias found along coast-lines and 

 fault-terraces, alwaje at the foot of the fault-terraces, or along 

 the lower slopes of the depressed areas ; (3) ossiferous de- 

 posits of caves and fissures. — Geological notes of a journey in 

 Madagascar, by the Rev. R. Baron. — On a collection of fossils 

 from Madagascar obtained by the Rev. R. Baron, by R. BuUen 

 Newton. 



Mineralogical Society, — Anniversary meeting, November 

 20.— Prof. N. S. Maskelyne, F. R.,S., President, in the chair — 

 The annual report of Council was read and adopted. — The 

 following were elected ordinary members of Council : Prof. 

 A. H. Green, F.R.S., Mr. A. Harker, Mr. A. E. Tutton, and 

 Mr. W. W. Watts, in place of the four retiring members; in 

 other respects the list of officers and Council remains unchanged. 

 The following papers were read ; On cone-in-cone structure, 

 by the Rev. Prof. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S. ; confirming and 

 extending the views previously published by Prof. Cole.— On a 

 basic ferric sulphate from Parys Mount, Anglesey, by Prof. 

 A. H. Church, F.R.S. ; containing the analysis of an earthy 

 mineral corresponding to a compound of one molecule of 

 coquimbite with five molecules of normal ferric hydrate.— 

 Augelite, by Mr. G. T. Prior and Mr. L. J. Spencer ; contain- 

 ing a full account of the|chemical, physical and crystallographical 

 characters of specimens fiom Machacamarca, Bolivia, of a 

 mineral previously described only from massive material found 

 in Sweden. — On the occurrence of delessite in Cantyre, by 

 Prof. M. F. Heddle and Mr. J. S. Thomson ; containing two 

 analyses of the mineral. — Specimens of augelite, and of a 

 beautiful opal cast of a bivalve from Australia, were exhibited. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, November 26.— M. Loewy in the 

 chair. —Photographic studies of some parts of the lunar surface, 

 by M M. Loewy and Puiseux. The need of care in interpreting 

 photographs takemi under ordinary conditions is emphasised ; 

 the many ways in which accidental circumstances may produce 



