January 24, 1895] 



NATURE 



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present, Characese, Desmidieae, and Diatomaceae), from the 

 Arctic Ocean to the Isthmui of Panama, including the West 

 Indies. Each number will include fifty species, and the price 

 will be five dollars. Subscriptions and offers of con'.ributions are 

 to be addressed to Mr. Frank S. Collins, 97 Dexter Street, 

 Mass., U.S.A. 



Fro.m a note in the Botanical Gazette we learn that the fo.t- 

 tail grass or sriuirrel-tail grass, Hordeitvi itibatum, is a serious 

 pest to stock in the Western States of America. The barbed 

 awns break up into pieces, penetrate the gums, especially near 

 the teeth, producing swelling, and ultimately suppuration, of the 

 gums, and ulceration of the jawbones and leeth, the latter being 

 so loosened as to drop out. If the animal continues to eat hay 

 containing this grass, the disease progresses till the bony tissue 

 of the jaws is disarranged, the ulcers extend to all parts of the 

 jaw bone, and it becomes distorted and enlarged. The marrow- 

 filled interior is changed into great cavities filled with the 

 broken awns. This condition may continue till the cavities 

 extend entirely through the jaw, and the tightly-packed awns 

 protrude till they maybe pulled out with forceps or fingers. 



The completeness of the series of Eocene and Cretaceous 

 strata exposed along the great central river system o'' Alabama, 

 is well known to American geologists. A report on the geology 

 of the coastal plain of Alabama, just issued by the Geological 

 Survey of that State, shows that, on account of the fine exposures 

 along the river banks, and the great number and perfection of 

 the fossils, the region presents the most complete and varied 

 series of Eocene and Cretaceous strata known in the United 

 States. All that relates to Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Post- 

 Tertiary formations in the vicinity of the Alabama and Tom- 

 bigbee rivers, is described in the first part of the report. The 

 second part contains all the data of practical value concerning 

 the various phosphatic marls, greensands, &c., occurring in the 

 region surveyed, and the third part includes a number of geo 

 logical details referring to the different counties of the State. 

 Prof. E. A. Smith, the State Geologist, and those who have 

 assisted him, may be congratulated upon the publication of this 

 important account of the stratigraphy of the Cretaceous and 

 Tertiary formations of the Gulf region of Alabama. 



An inorganic mode of preparing hydrazine, NjHj, is de- 

 scribed by Dr. Duden, of the Jena University Laboratory, in the 

 latest issue of the Berichte. Hitherto the numerous methods of 

 formation of this important hydride of nitrogen, described by its 

 discoverer. Prof. Curlius, and his assistants, and by Thiele 

 and von Pechmann, have all been based upon the decom- 

 position of more or less unstable organic compounds of 

 the diazo, nitrosamine, or nitramine types. Dr. Duden has 

 succeeded in an inorganic synthesis by use of a singular 

 compound, discovered by Davy and further investigated by 

 Raschig and by Divers and Haga, which is produced by the 

 action of sulphurous acid upon potassium nitrite. This 

 compound, whose composition is represented by the formula 

 KjSOj . N.,Oj, is now found to yield hydrazine upon careful 

 reduction in alkaline solution. Divers and Haga showed 

 that the ordinary products of reduction of the compound with 

 sodium amalgam in concentrated alkaline solution are mainly 

 potassium hyponitrite IvNO and hydrogen potassium sulphite 

 HKSO3, smaller quantities of hydroxylamine and ammonia 

 being likewise produced. Dr. Duden finds that if the reduction 

 with sodium amalgam, or zinc dust and ammonia or soda, is 

 carried out at a low temperature, the solution produced 

 possesses very strong reducing properties, and after acidification 

 deposits the salt of hydrazine corresponding to the acid em- 

 ployed. The freshly prepared compound of potassium sulphite 

 NO. 1317, VOL. 51] 



and nitric oxide is suspended in water cooled by ice, and sodium 

 amalgam is gradually added with further extraneous cooling hy 

 means of a freezing mixture, until the liquid is found to strongly 

 reduce Fehling's solution and yields, after acidification and 

 warming to expel sulphur dioxide, a precipitate of benzalazine 

 upon the addition of benzaldehyde. The benzalazine so ob- 

 tained is found to exhibit all the properties of the compound as 

 described by Prof. Curtius ; it melts at 93'' and yields numbers 

 on analysis exactly agreeing with the formula (CcH.-,CHN)„. 

 With sulphuric acid it yields hydrazine sulphate (N„H4).> . H.SOj, 

 identical in melting point (256') and all other properties with 

 that derived from the organic methods of preparation. The 

 formation of hydrazine from the compound of nitric oxide and 

 potassium sulphite would appear to occur in two stages, an 

 intermediate reduction compound being first produced of 

 analogous constitution to Davy's salt in accordance with ihe 

 following equation : 



^KO/^ • ^^ ^ ^" = ^^^'\V, . NH„ -f H„0 -1- KOH. 



A further reaction then occurs between the intermediate com- 

 pound and the alkali, with production of potassium sulphate and 

 hydrazine 



^5°3\n . NHj + KOH = K.,SOj + HoN . NH.. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardensduring the 

 past week include a .Macaque Monkey (Mataciis cynomolgus, 9 ) 

 from India, presented by Mr. H. Ralls ; a Black-backed 

 Jackal {Canis niesomelas) from South Africa, presented by 

 Mr. Fred Bissmire ; a Dusty Ichneumon {flerfestes pulveru- 

 lentits), a White-throated Monitor ( / 'aranus albigularis) from 

 South Africa, presented by Mr. J. E. Matcham ; a Derbian 

 Wallaby (Halmatitrus dcrliianus) from Australia, presented by 

 Mr. Joseph Palmer ; a Jackal Buzzard {Biitco Jacal) from South 

 Africa, presented by Mr. E. Wingate ; a Yellow-headed Conure 

 (Coiiurus jendaya) from Southeast Brazil, a Biown-throated 

 Conure {Conttrus icniginosiis) from South America, presented 

 by Mrs. Hankey ; three Eroded Cinixys (Cinixys erosa), two 

 Home's C\n\\ys (Cinixys homeana) from West Africa, presented 

 by Mr. J. Banks Elliot ; a Lesueur's Water Lizard (Physigna- 

 thus lesueuri) from Australia, deposited ; a Rosy-billed Duck 

 {Metopiana peposaca), a Garden's Night Heron {Nycticorax 

 gardeni) from South America, purchased. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



The Perseid Meteors. — This well-known shower of 

 meteors should be of the greatest interest to the mathematician, 

 as well as to Ihe observer. At Pulkova, in 1S93, the shower 

 was observed from Juh 22 to September 12, and a discussion of 

 the 563 paths recorded forms the subject of an interesting paper 

 by Dr. Bredichin (Bull. Imp. Acad. Sc, St. Petersburg, 

 September 1894). It has long been known that the Perseids 

 are not as other regularly recurring meteor showers, and Dr. 

 Bredichin explains their peculiarities by supposing that they are 

 not produced by a swarm of meteorites, in the true sense of the 

 word, but by particles circulating in difl'erent orbits. These 

 orbits have widely differing inclinations, and the other elements 

 also show striking departures from each other. One gets a good 

 idea of the system which is suggested, by imagining a bundle of 

 materialised orbits crossing the earth's orbit at the points which 

 the earth occupies during August, and for some days before 

 and after. The particles with long periods correspond to the 

 meteors at the beginning of the showers, and to the primitive 

 position of the comet from which the meteors are supposed to be 

 derived, which, having a moderate period, has left these meteors 

 behind. The position of the node of the comet is not symme- 

 trical with reference to the nodes of the meteors, but appears to 

 be nearer the beginning than -the end of the showers. This con- 



