March 8, 1894] 



NA TURE 



437 



given, which serves to show that whereas Dalton and 

 Magnus definitely asserted that such a difference existed, 

 Regnault, on the other hand, although he held it to be 

 theoretically possible, found that it could not be detected 

 in the case of pure substances. Regnault's observations, 

 however, were not made at very low pressures, and his 

 observations on water seemed to indicate that in this 

 region a difference really existed. To test this point, the 

 author carries out dynamical observations on water and 

 mercury at pressures below 60 mm., and ascertains that 

 they are in perfect accord with published statical observa- 

 tions. He next repeats Landolt's statical observations 

 on the fatty acids, taking elaborate precautions to intro- 

 duce dry and air-free substances into the barometer tube, 

 and obtains results agreeing with those given in 1885 by 

 the dynamical method. Landolt's results are thus held 

 to be inaccurate, the presence of moisture in the liquids 

 used being regarded as the disturbing factor. This as- 

 sumption is shown by Konowalow's observations to 

 explain why the differences varied, as already indicated, 

 with the chemical nature of the acids. 



It is therefore concluded that statical and dynamical 

 methods give the same results even at the lowest pressures. 

 This could hardly be otherwise, however, from the fact 

 that in the dynamical method employed a current of air 

 bubbles is allowed to pass continually through the liquid, 

 ample free surface being thus allowed for evaporation. 



As the dynamical method is the more easily carried 

 out, and as the results obtained by it are affected to a 

 much less extent by traces of moisture, &c., than those 

 given by the statical method, it is adopted for the exam- 

 ination of pure and mixed substances. The apparatus 

 here employed consists of a Beckmann's boiling-point 

 flask which is connected up with a large air reservoir 

 fitted with a manometer. The reservoir maybe exhausted 

 either by a water pump or by an automatic mercury 

 pump. The liquid is made to boil in the flask, which, as 

 usual, contains glass beads, and a current of air-bubbles 

 is allowed to pass through the liquid. The thermometer 

 is immersed in the liquid, preliminary observations with 

 a pure substance having shown that the same results 

 were thus obtained as when the thermometer was sus- 

 pended in the vapour. On account of the high efficiency 

 of the mercury pump, observations could be taken when 

 the liquid was boiling into almost a perfect vacuum. 



The substances operated upon are the first ten normal 

 fatty acids, the first three iso-acids and monochloracetic 

 acid, together with mixtures of the acids themselves, 

 and of formic acid and acetic acid, with varying amounts 

 of water. Excellent drawings of the apparatus used, 

 including the various pumps employed, mercury joints, 

 &c., and curves representing the results obtained, in 

 which I cm. corresponds with i mm. and i°are supplied 

 separately along with the volume. The graphical repre- 

 sentation of the results, and indeed the whole contents 

 of the book, indicate that the research has been carried 

 out with the greatest care. 



As the numbers obtained are to be discussed and com- 

 pared with those of other observers in a second volume, 

 which has not yet appeared, it is perhaps out of place 

 to say much by way of criticism at this stage. It is to 

 be hoped, however, that in vol. ii. Ramsay and Young's 

 work will be more fully considered, for in the present 

 volume, especially when dealing with the identity of the 

 values given by statical and dynamical methods, it 

 receives anything but its fair share of recognition. 



J. W. Rodger. 



NOTES. 

 At the coming meeting of the British Association, which will 

 be held at Oxford, under the Presidency of Lord Salisbury, 

 Prof, A. W. Rlicker will preside in Section A (Mathematics 



NO. I 27 I. VOL. 49] 



and Physics) ; Prof. H. B. Dixon in Section B (Chemistry) ; 

 Mr. L. Fletcher in Section C (Geology) ; Prof. Bayley Balfour 

 in Section D (Biology) ; Captain Wharton in Section E (Geo- 

 graphy) ; Prof. Bastable in Section F (Economic Science and 

 Statistics) ; Prof. Kennedy in Section G (Mechanical Science) ; 

 Sir W. H. Flower in Section H (Anthropology) ; and Prof. 

 Schafer in the new Section I (Physiology). The evening dis- 

 courses will be delivered by Prof. J. Shield Nicholson and Mr. 

 W. H. White. Sir Douglas Gallon will be proposed as Presi- 

 dent for the meeting in 1895, 3-t Ipswich. 



Prof. Burdon Sanderson, F.R.S., and Mr. T. Pridgin 

 Teale, F.R. S., have been selected by the University Board o 

 the Faculty of Medicine to represent the University of Oxford 

 at the International Medical Congress to be opened at Rome 

 on March 29. 



The annual Congress of the British Institute of Public 

 Health will be held in London, from July 26 to 31, 1894, under 

 the presidency of Dr. W. R. Smith. It will be arranged in five 

 sections : Preventive Medicine, Chemistry and Climatology, 

 Engineering and Building Construction, Municipal and Parlia- 

 mentary, and Naval and Military Hygiene. 



An imperial irade has been issued, a Turkish paper says, 

 ordering the establishment in the chief town of each province 

 of an antirabific laboratory similar to the one which has been 

 working for some time in the capital. These Pasteur institutes 

 will be established first of all in the chief towns of the most 

 distant provinces of the empire, such as Yemen, Bagdad, 

 Damascus, Er2eroum,and Monastir. 



Mr. Karl Pearson has resigned his appointment as Gresham 

 Lecturer on Geometry. 



Severe earthquake shocks were felt in Odessa and other 

 parts of Southern Russia on Friday and Sunday last. 



Dr. Elbs, Professor of Physical Chemistry in Freiburg 

 University, has been appointed Professor in Giessen University. 



Mr. Peter Jamieson has resigned his position on the 

 scientific staff of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



The death is announced of Emeritus Professor Swan, who 

 held the Chair of Natural Philosophy in St. Andrews' University 

 for twenty years. 



M. Eugene Catalan, whose death we announced last week, 

 was inadvertently stated to be connected with the Paris instead 

 of the Brussels Academy of Sciences. Though born in Bruges 

 eighty years ago, he was educated in Paris, and accepted French 

 naturalisation. He entered the Polytechnic School in 1834, and 

 was afterwards admitted into the civil engineering service, but 

 gave up his post in order to devote himself to the teaching of 

 mathematics, in which vocation he was very successful. He ob- 

 tained a Professor's Chair at Charlemagne, and, at a later period, 

 one at St. Louis College, and was also a repetiteur in the Poly- 

 technic School. When the revolution of 1848 broke out, he 

 ranked with the Republican party. After the coup d'etat, how- 

 ever, he refused to take the oath of office, and returned to his 

 native country, resuming his Belgian citizenship, and accepting 

 a professorship in the School of Mines at Liege. He was the 

 author of a large number of books on mathematics, and pub- 

 lished many interesting theorems, principally relating to 

 geometry and the theory of numbers. 



The Allahabad Pioneer says that the prize given by Sir 

 Charles Elliott for scientific research in India has been awarded 

 to Babu Chandra Kanta Basu, Madripur. His essay deals 

 with the phenomenon known as the Barisal Guns. 



