March 7, i«95] 



NATURE 



455 



Ramagc. Schneider's process for the delertnination of man- 

 ganese may he rendered much more accurate by substituting 

 sodium bismuihate for bismuth peroxide.— Bromocamphnric 

 acid, an oxidation product of ■jr-dibrcmocamphor, by F. S. Kip- 

 ping. .'V bromocami horic acid is obtained by oxidising ir-di- 

 bromocamphor ; its anhydride has been prepared together with 

 a new hydroxy-acid and a niirobromocamphnr. — Note on the 

 action of diastase on cold starch-paste, by H. T. Brown and G. 

 H. Morris. — On the magnetic rotation of some unsaturated 

 hydrocarbons, by W. H. Petkin. The magnetic rotations of a 

 number of unsatura'ed open chain hydrocarbons have been 

 determined ; a comparison of hexane, hexylene, dialiyi, and 

 dipropargyl shows that the differences bet«een ihe latter pair 

 are of a different order to those of the former pair. 



Linnean Society, February 7.— Mr. C. B. Clarke, F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair. — Mr. Thomas Chiisty exhibited a dried 

 specimen ot Aplopafpits Llaret,t and samples of the so-called 

 Gum Kino, Plerocarpiis eriiiaceiis, of which some account was 

 given by Mr. E. M. Holmes. Mr. George Murray exhibited a 

 number of lantern slides of floating Algu, of which he gave 

 brief descriptions referiing to the localities in which they had 

 been found and the literature relating to them. — By permission ! 

 of the Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, Mr. \V. B. Hem- 

 sley exhibited dried specimens of a number of new plants from 

 Eastern Asia. Conspicuous amongst these was a new genus of 

 Sci/nmine,,- from the mountains of Northern Siam, charac- 

 terised by having minute unisexual flowers destitute of stamin- 

 odia, a one-celled ovary with parietal placentation, and two 

 filiform stylodia ; a remarkably broad-leaved Lysiniachlcx from 

 the same region : new j-pecies of llypcriium, I'entilago, 

 Mesona, and Uelicia from !• ormosa ; and a new genus of Cyr- 

 tandrt:. From a collection made in Yunan, Western China, 

 by Mr. W. Hancock, of Hong Kong, came a new /asmimim, 

 allied to /. nudifloritm, with primrose yellow flowers an inch 

 and a half in diameter ; an elegant species of Petrocosmca 

 (Cyrlandreae), and a showy Braiiiiisia (Scrophularinese) with 

 long racemes of crimson flowers, which were much admired. — 

 Mr. Thomas Hanbury exhibited a beautiful collection of fresh 

 fruits of the Auitintii.;, grown in his own garden at La Mor- 

 tola, Mentone, and gave an account of some of the more 

 remarkable varieties, their mode of growth, and the conditions 

 under which they had been grown. — A paper was then read by 

 Mr. H. M. Bernard, on the comparative morphology of the 

 GaltoditL . Having described a possible origin for the Crustacea 

 from a ch^topod annelid by an adaptation of the anterior seg- 

 ments To a method of feeding, whereby the parapodia would 

 function as jaws, the author attempted the same for the Arach- 

 nida vith a view to solve the question of their relationship with 

 Merostomata. The Galeodid.,: were chosen for special study 

 . ^cause, unlike other arachnids, they have retained some seg- 

 ments of the cephalothorax as free movable segments, and 

 hence might he expected to throw light on the subject. The 

 author believed that he had solved the question of the primitive 

 specialisation of the arachnid phylum from their annelidan 

 ancestors, and expressed the opinion that as arthropods they 

 are not related either to the Crustacea (including Limuliis) nor 

 to the Hexapoda ; but that all these are distinct derivations of 

 the Annelida. In an interesting discussion which followed, the 

 paper was criticised at some length by Mr. A. U. Michael, Prof. 

 Howes, and Mr. R. I. Pocock. 



Paris, 



Academy of Sciences, February 25. — M. Lccwy in the 

 chair.^On the penetration of a projectile in .'emi-fluids and 

 solids, byM. H. Kesal. — On a class of tquations of which the 

 general integral is unifoim, by M. I'.miie Picatd. — On the 

 raeasuiement of time in astronomy by a method independent 

 of personal equation, by M. G. Lippmann. The author em- 

 ploys a photographic method. A platinum wire is rendered 

 incandescent for a very short time at the commencement of each 

 second by mechanical means. The light from the wire is, t^y 

 Ihe aid of arrangements described, thrown on to a photographic 

 plate in such a way that the image formed corresponds precisely 

 with the meridian of the place of observation. By suitable 

 exposure a phoirgtaph is obtained of a portion of the heavens 

 on the same jilate. The time of transit of a given star can 

 then be easily deduced from the horary circles photographed as 

 above. M. d'Abbadie remarked with reference to an altetna- 

 ive micrometric method proposed by M. Lippmann, that Bre- 



guet had used a moving wire grating for measurement of the 

 same quantities fifty years previously. — On the mutual relations 

 of potential determinants, byM. de Jonquieres. — Ebullioscopic 

 study of certain colouring mauers from triphenylmethane, by 

 MM. A. Haller and P. Th. Muller. The conclusion is drawn 

 that, under the given experimental conditions, the hydro- 

 chlorides of the colouring substances of the triphenyl- 

 methane amido group are not dissociated, whereas the 

 chlorides of ammonium bases and nitrosodimethylaniline 

 hydrochloride are most clearly dissociated. Hence an 

 argument may be drawn in favour of formula of the 

 type of CIC ; (C,;Hj NH.)^ due to M. Rosenstiehl. 

 — M. Sappey gave a short description of the "Atlas of De- 

 scriptive Anatomy, " presented byM. Laskowski. — TheAcademy 

 elected ^L Weierstrass as foreign associate, the votes given 

 being: ^L Weierstrass 43, Prof. Frankland i. Prof. Huxley I.— 

 .\ closed communication from M. E. Carvallo, accepted May 2, 

 I S92, was opened. It gave the theory of the laws of crystalline 

 absorption. For uniaxial crystals these are: (it For the 

 ordinary ray, the index of refraction and the coefficient of ab- 

 sorption are constant, whatever may be the angle between the 

 luminous ray and the crystallographic axis. (2) The law of the 

 index of the extraordinary ray is not altered sensibly by absorp- 

 tion. (3) The absorption of the extraordinary ray is repre- 

 sented by the formula 



'^'a = -jcos^e-h^.sin-e, 



where /■, 11, © represent the coefficient of absorption, the index 

 of refraction, and the angle between the normal to the plane of 

 the wave and the crystallographic axis. \ memoir will shortly 

 be brought out dealing with these results and their develop- 

 ments. — M. L. L. de Koninck claims priority for the pro- 

 perties of nickel and cobalt sulphides. — Spectrum researches 

 on the rotation and movements of the planets, by M. H. 

 Deslandres. (See "Our Astronomical Column.")— Observa- 

 tions on the subject of the preceding communication by M. 

 Deslandres, by M. II. Poincate. The theoretical views which 

 have been confirmed by the foregoing results. — Determination of 

 the position of the pole by photography, by M. C. Flamniarion. 

 By exposure of a fixed plate, circular traces of the circumpolar 

 stars are obtained as shown in the figure given with the paper. 

 Hence the position of the pole can be obtained with great 

 accuracy. — On a surface of the sixth order which is connected 

 with Kummer's surface, by M. G. Humbert. — On functional 

 equations, by M. Lean. — On the exact invariants of an or- 

 dinary differential equation of the second order, by M. Tresse. 

 — On some theorems of Arilhiuology, by M. N. Bougaief. — 

 Lowerirg of the freezing point and relative diminution of 

 vapour pi essure in dilute solutions, by M. A. Ponsot. The 

 author deduces formulae differing somewhat from those given by 

 Wvillner and Raoult, and agreeing with those of van t'Hoffand 

 Duhem, with the exception that a different meaning is given to 

 one of the terms. — On the lowering of the freezing point of very 

 dilute solutions, by M. A. Leduc. The author proposes the 

 substitution of the measurement of a considerable pressure for 

 a small temperature difference. A theoretical demonstration. — 

 On a sensitive pressometer, for the measurement of fluid pres- 

 sures, by M. PaulCharpentier. — The measurement of the inten- 

 sity of light by the chemical action produced ; experiments with 

 mixtures of ferric chloride and oxalic acid, by M. Georges 

 Lemoine. — On some combinations of lead iodide with other 

 metallic or organic iodides, by M. A. Mosnier. A number of 

 new double salts have been obtained and their composition 

 determined. — On some combinations of nitric oxide with the 

 chlorides of iron, by M. V. Thomas. The substances: 

 (i) FeXl^.NO, (2) 2FeXIa.NO, (3) FeCl;.N0.2H20, and 

 (4) FtCLj.NO, have been obtained and their compo-ition 

 determined by analysis. — Action of formaldehyde on hy- 

 droxylamine hydrochloride and on methylamine hydrochloride, 

 by MM. A. Biochet and R. Cambier. — .\ctive amyl ethereal 

 salts, by MM. Ph. A. Guje and L. Chavanne. A paper 

 on the product of asymmetiy. — New researches on the corre- 

 lative variations of the intensitv of thermogenesis and respira- 

 tory changes, by M. Laulanie. — " .-tutonarcose carbonict- 

 acitoncmique," or winter sleep of the marmot, by M. 

 Raphael Dubois. — On the Khitiatnma bhittatum, Cuvier, by 

 M. Leon Vaillant.— Evolution of the nervous system and of 

 the vibtatile organ in the larvse of compound ascidians, by M. 

 Anipire Pizon, — On the lule of Anuebocyles in the Annelids, 

 by Emile G. Racovitza. Amxbocytts serve not only to deposit 



NO, 1323, VOL. 51] 



