38o 



NA TURE 



[February 15, 1894 



C^Hi^ by reiuction wiih H[ at 280°. It boils at I32°-I34° 

 and has the sp. gr. 0783 at o^ It is saturated and very in ert ; 

 it yields trinitropseudocumene with difficulty when treated with 

 fuming nitrosulphuric acid. It is identical with the hexahydro- 

 pseudocumene obtained from Baku petroleum. — Attenuation of 

 viper poison by he.-it and vaccination of the guinea-pig against 

 this poison, by MM. C. Fhisalix and G. Bertrand. The 

 authors conclude that the toxic substances present in the poison 

 cf the viper include (i) a diastasic substance — echidnose ; (2) 

 a nr.rve poison — echidnotoxine. These are considerably modi- 

 fied if not destroyed by a temperature of 75°, and the product 

 acquires vaccinating properties. — On the utilisation of ligneous 

 products for the feeding of cattle, by M. Emile Mer. — Physio- 

 logical observations on ihe kidney of the snail {Helix pomaiia, 

 L.), b'' M. Paul Girod. Tbe snail possesses, in its urinary 

 vesicule, a special alkaline gland which transforms the uric acid 

 excreted by the kidney into sodium urate. — On the salivary 

 glands oi Hymenoptera, by M. Bordas. — On an aquatic stridu- 

 lating Hemipteron, Sigara viimitissima, L., byM. Ch. Bruyant. 

 — On the relation between marine ercroachments and the move- 

 ments of the earth-crust, by M. A. de Grossouvre. The move- 

 ments occurring in Europe during the secondary era are traced. 

 — On the chances of obtaining artesian waters along the Wady 

 Ighargar and the Wady Mya, by M. Georges Rolland. — On a 

 possible relation between the frequency of storms and the posi- 

 tion of the moon. A letter from M. A. Barrey pointing out 

 the relation between the age of the moon and the frequency of 

 storms in France, in which the possibility of a connection be- 

 tween the perturbations of the earth's path due to the moon and 

 the frequency of stormsis shown. 



Berlin, 



Physiological Society, January 12. — Prof, du Bois 

 Reymond, President, in the chair.— Dr. D. Hausemann, on the 

 various forms of mitotic nuclear divisions, which he divided 

 into two groups, pathological and physiological. The first kind 

 he further divided into three classes, according to the behaviour 

 of the chromosomata, viz. hyperchromatic, normochromatic, 

 and hypochromatic, of which examples are found in carci- 

 nomata and sarcomata. He had also observed differences of 

 the chromosomata in physiological cell division, according to 

 the tissue from which they were taken. — Piof. Munk spoke on I 

 the tactile areas of the cerebral cortex, which he had found in 

 the well-known motor areas, whereas other observers had 

 located them either in the hippocampal convolution (Ferrier) or 

 the gyrus fornicatus (Horsley and Schiifer), or in the parietal 

 regions (many clinicians). The hippocampal convolution had 

 been soon given up as the seat of the tactile areas for the skin. 

 The speaker had shown that it is impossible to operate on the 

 gyrus fornicatus, owing to its position, without injury to the 

 motor regions, and since the localisation of the tactde areas for 

 the skin in the motor regions of the brain can only be deter- 

 mined by extirpation ot the latter, he regarded the experiments 

 of Horsley and Schafer as inconclusive. With regard to the 

 parietal lobes, experiments on monkeys and dogs showed that 

 its removal did not upset their tactde sensibility. It is important 

 in these observations to discnminaie sharply between touch, 

 perception of contact, pressure, &c. ar.d the general sense of 

 pain. The perception of the cuiicular sense is connected with 

 the motor regions, and is permanently lost when these are 

 destroyed, whereas, on the other hand, general sensibility can 

 be done away with by many different injuries to the brain, but 

 reappears after a short time. The tempi.rature sense of the skin 

 belongs to the sense oigan, and is permanently destroyed by 

 removal of the motor areas. 



Amsterda.m. 

 Royal Academy of Sciences, January 27. — Prof, van de 

 Sande Bakhuyzen in the chair. — Messrs. Hoogewerff and van 

 Dorp gave the results of their investigations on some derivatives 

 of camphoric acid. They succeeded in isolating two camphor- 

 amic acids, which are formed according to ihe equations : 

 /CO\ /CONII2 



C«Hi4< >0-t-2NH3=.C8H / 



^rc\/ \COONII4 



plained by the authors in the following way. Camphoric acid 

 being dissymmetrical, the atom of oxygen, linking together the 

 two groups of carbonyl in the camphoric anhydride, and also 

 the group NH, linking together the two groups of carbonyl in 

 the imide, will not be attracted with equal force by the two 

 carbonyls. The carbonyl exerting the smallest attraction 

 towards the O in the anhydride, will also exert the smallest 

 attraction towards the NH in the imide. In the reactions, 

 represented by the above equations, the rings in the anhydride 

 and imide will therefore be opened in corresponding places, 

 whereby two camphoramic acids must be formed. — Mr. Fran- 

 chimont communicated a paper in his name and that of Mr. H. 

 van Erp. The authors have compared the zinc and copper 

 salts of the dinitromelhylic acid of Frankland with the corre- 

 sponding salts of the methylnitramine, because it seems that 

 many chemists think the two bodies were identical. Treated 

 with dilu'ed sulphuric acid and ether, the methylnitramine salts 

 yield the methylnitramine with the known properties ; thesalts 

 of the diniircmethyhc acid yield in the same manner an acid 

 body, which melts ± 20" higher than the methylnitramine, and 

 differs in form and solubility. The authors intend to investi- 

 gate the chtmical structure of the dinitromelhylic acid. 



BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS RECEIVED. 



Books. — The Mean Density of the Earth : Prof. J. H. Poynting 

 (Griffin). — Economic Geology of the United Slates : R. S. Tarr (Macmillan). 

 — Materials for the Study of Variation : W. Bateson (Macmillan) — Ihe 

 Theory of Heat : T. Preston (Macmillan).— Annuaire de' L.'Observatoire 

 Royale de Belgique, 1894: F. Folie (Bruxelles). — Faraday as a Discoverer: 

 J. 1 yndall, 5th edition (Longmans). — Statistique de la Production des Gites 

 Metalliferes : L. de Launay (Paris, Gauthier-Villar>). — Construction du 

 Navire : A Croneau (Paris, Gauthier-Villars). — Tree Pruning : A. des Cars, 

 translated by Prof. C S. Sartient (Rider). — Practical Forestry : \. D. Web- 

 ster (Rider). — Tobias Mayer's Sternverzeichniss (Leipzig, Engelmann). — 

 Wood Working Positions, sheets i to 12 (large and small sizes): (Chapman 

 and Hall). — Annuaire pour I'an 1894 publi6 par le Bureau des Longitudes 

 (Paris, Gauthier-Villars). — Ostwald's Klassiker derExakten Wissenschaften, 

 Nrs. 43 and 45 (Leipzig, Engelmann). —Gestaltung und Vererbung ." Dr. W. 

 Haacke (Leipzig, Weigel). — Beni-Hasan : P. E. Newberry, part 2 (K. 

 Paul). — Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition, 1876-8, xxii., Zoology, 

 Ophiuroidea : J. A. Grieg (Low). 



Pamphlets. — Scarlatina and Scarlatinal Sore Throat : Dr. A. K. Chal- 

 mers (Glasgow). — Researches on Matr.ces and Quaternions : Dr. Th. B. 

 van Wettum (lleyden. Brill). — A Short History of Astronomy : G. Knight 

 (Philip). 



^CO^ 

 .CO 



\ 



XOOK 



CgHii^ >NH-t-KH0 = C8lIi/ 



^CO^ \CONH2 



These substances are both derivatives of the same camphoric 



The formation of these camphoramic acids v\as ex- 



acid. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Recent Researches in Electricity and Magnetism. 



By Prof. A. Gray 357 



Greenhill's Elliptic Functions. By H. F. Baker . 359 

 The Dispersal of Shells. By Clement Reid . . .361 

 Our Book Shelf:— 



" The Wilder (Quarter-Century Book " 362 



Jones: " Machine Drawing " 362 



Pinkerton : " Hydrostatics and Pneumatics " . . . . 362 

 Bottone : " How to Manage the Dynamo " .... 363 

 Letters to the Editor : — 



The Cloudy Condensation of Steam.— Dr. Carl 



Barus 363 



The Origin of Lake Basins.— Dr. A. M. Hansen ; 



T. D. LaTouche . . 364 



A Plausible Paradox in Chances.— Francis Galton, 



F.R.S 365 



Clerk Maxwell's Papers.— Prof. Oliver J. Lodge, 



F.R.S 366 



Abnormal Eggs.— W. B. Tegetmeier ; E. J. 



Lowe, F.R.S 366 



The Pleiades 366 



Notes 367 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



A Tempered Steel Meteorite 37^ 



Astronomy in Poetry 372 



Nova Auriga; 373 



Agricultural Experiment Stations 373 



The Spencer- Weismann Controversy. By P. 



Chalmers Mitchell 373 



Ancient Egyptian Pigments. By Dr. W. J. Russell, 



F.R.S 374 



University and Educational Intelligence 37^ 



Scieniific Serials 37^ 



a >cieties and Academies 377 



Books and Pamphlets Received 3^° 



NO. 1268. VOL. 49] 



