January ii, 1894J 



NA TURE 



255 



We have received No. 8 of the first volume of " Contribu- 

 tions from the U.S. National Herbarium." It is chiefly 

 •occupied by the description of American grasses, a large number 

 of new species being described. 



The current number of the Asdepiad {\o\. x. No. 39), edited 

 by Sir B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., contains a good account of 

 the works of Robert Boyle, and an autotype of that eminent 

 investigator, from an engraving by R. Woodman. 



The second edition of Clowes' and Coleman's " Quantitative 

 I Analysis" (J. and A. Churchill) is about to be issued. The 

 * authors have thoroughly revised the book, and have introduced 



many recent modifications in processes, as well as new methods 



of analysis. 



The yottrnal of the Royal Statistical Society (part iv. vol. Ivi.) 

 has been received by us. It contains, among other papers, the 

 presidential address delivered by Mr. Charles Booth in Novem- 

 ber last, and that given by Prof. Nicholson before the Economic 

 Science and Statistical Section of the British Association at the 

 Nottingham meeting. 



We have received " Eau Sous Pression," by M. F. Bloch, 

 being a new volume in the Aide-Memoire Series published by 

 ■Gauthier-Villars, Paris. The early chapters in the book are 

 devoted to enunciating hydrostatic and hydrodynamic principles, 

 and stating the general theory of pumps, hydraulic rams, and 

 -accumulators. The subject is then treated from a practical 

 point of view. The book contains thirty illustrations in the 

 "text, and does credit to an excellent series. 



The Technical Instruction Committee of the County Council 

 of Cumberland has issued a Directory of the Science and Art 

 Classes, &c. , under its control. We learn from this source that 

 the average attendance of students at science classes held under 

 the committee's jurisdiction is 1328. The subject that obtains 

 the highest average is theoretical chemistry ; then come agricul- 

 ture, mathematics, plane and solid geometry, and physiography. 

 Sound, light, and heat shows, by far, the lowest number of 

 students, the average attendance for the whole county being 

 only eight. 



The third volume (Series 3) of the International Journal of 

 Microscopy and Natural Science has been published. The 

 journal is the organ of the Postal Microscopical Society of 

 London, which has for its object the circulation, study, and 

 ■discussion of microscopic objects. The volume just received 

 ■contains a large amount of information of use to microscopists, 

 and several excellent papers, notably one on polarised light and 

 its applications to the microscope, by Mr. G. H. Bryan, and a 

 translation Uom La Diatomiste of Dr. Miquel's long article on 

 the artificial cultivation of diatoms. The journal is well illus- 

 trated and does credit to the society the proceedings of which it 

 reports. We have noticed two misprints, one on p. 8, where 

 ^^Leek'' is printed instead of Lick, and on p. 69 "Wills" is 

 printed instead of Wells. 



A useful series of "Handbooks of Commercial Products" 

 has been provided to the Imperial Institute by the Government 

 ■of India. The books contain descriptions of the economic 

 products of India, and among several of them recently re- 

 -ceived is one on Indian coal, in which a large number of facts 

 concerning the geology and working of the coal districts are 

 brought together. The iron resources and iron industries of 

 the southern districts of the Madras Presidency are described 

 in another of the handbooks, the account being accompanied 

 by a plate showing the process adopted for the manufacture of 

 wrought iron. The furnace employed is roughly circular in 

 horizontal section, four feet high, two feet in diameter at the 

 NO. 1263, VOL. 49] 



base, and only nine inches in diameter at the throat. Two 

 other handbooks of interest to us summarise the present state of 

 knowledge concerning the characters and occurrence of Indian 

 micas and steatite. 



A NUMBER of new reactions of f ormaldehyde, resulting in 

 the preparation of several new compounds, are described by 

 M. Henry in the Bulletin de V Academic Royale de Belgique. 

 This lowest number of the series of aldehydes, HCHO or 

 O^CHj, appears to be endowed with very considerable chem- 

 ical energy, as indicated by the readiness and frequently the 

 violence with which it reacts with a large number of substances. 

 The reactions now described are those which occur between 

 formaldehyde and the primary and secondary amines. If a 

 solution of methylamine is added to one of formaldehyde, in 

 small portions at a time, a very energetic reaction occurs with 

 evolution of so much heat that great loss occurs unless the vessel 

 in which the operation is performed is surrounded by a freezing 

 mixture. When the reaction is complete, the two substances 

 being then present in equivalent quantities, the addition of solid 

 potash precipitates methyl methylenamine, H^C— N-CH3, 

 from the solution. This substance is readily purified, and proves 

 to be a colourless mobile liquid, readily soluble in water, and 

 boiling at I66^ At the temperature of a freezing mixture of 

 ether and solid carbon dioxide it solidifies, and may be melted 

 again at -27°. The ethyl compound maybe similarly obtained, 

 and is likewise a liquid ; it boils at 207-208", and melts after 

 solidification by ether and solid carbon dioxide at - 45°. Two 

 molecular equivalents of dimethylamine react with even greater 

 avidity in aqueous solution with one molecular equivalent of 

 formaldehyde, and the reaction can only be safely carried out at 

 a very low temperature. The product is tetramethyl methylene- 



/N(CH3), 

 diamine CHo\ , a colourless and very mobile liquid 



' ^N(CH3), 

 which fumes strongly, dissolves in water, and boils at 

 85°. Ether and solid carbon dioxide will not solidify it. 

 The tetraethyl compound, prepared in an analogous 

 manner, is also a fuming liquid ; it boils at 168°. All 

 these compounds are insoluble in strongly alkaline liquids. 

 They readily absorb water, like the amines, formaldehyde and 

 the substituted ammonia being regenerated. A somewhat 

 curious fact is observed in connection with the boiling-points. 

 Methyl methylenamine CHo : NCH3 boils at 166 , and methyl 

 isocyanate CONCH^, the analogous oxygen compound, at 43^ ; 

 so that the replacement of two atoms of hydrogen by one of 

 oxygen is accompanied in this case by a reduction of the boiling 

 point by 123 . On the other hand, while the compound 



.N(CH3)., 

 CH„ boils at 85°, the corresponding oxygen com- 



' \N(CH3). 

 pound tetramethyl urea boils at 177', nearly a hundred degrees 

 higher. 



In a further communication to the Bulletin of the Belgian 

 Academy, M. Henry describes a new mode of preparing halogen 

 substitution products of the oxides (ethers) of the alkyl radicles. 

 The raonochlorine derivative of methyl ether CH._.Cl'0CH3 

 was prepared in 1877, by Friedel, by chlorination of the ether. 

 It is now shown to be much more readily obtained by mixing 

 a concentrated aqueous solution of formaldehyde with methyl 

 alcohol and saturating the cooled solution with hydrochloric acid 

 gas. The compound separates as a colourless liquid layer at 

 the surface of the solution, and by distillation the pure substance 

 is at once obtained, boiling at 60°. The monobromine derivative 

 may be obtained in a precisely similar manner, and proves to 

 be a pungently-fuming liquid, boiling at 87°. The iodine com- 

 pound is also afforded by the analogous reaction with hydriodic 

 acid, the pure liquid boiling at 1 24",-;but, in addition, the di-iodine 



