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NA TURE 



[April 19, 1894 



Mr. Victor Collins has compiled a catalogue of the library of 

 the late Prince Louis- Lucien Bonaparte, and it has just been pub- 

 lished by Messrs. H. Sotheran and Co. Prince Bonaparte's col- 

 leccicn of linguistic works is regarded by many authorities as the 

 finest in the world. From his youth upwards, he devoted his 

 best energies and talents to the formation of his library. His high 

 social position and rare literary attainments allowed him 

 to give full scope to his philological enthusiasm, and assisted 

 largely in the attainment of his ambition. According 

 to Mr. Collins, the primary object of the Prince was the ac- 

 quisition of works on every language and dialect represented in 

 Europe ; but in the course of years his ambition went further, 

 and he collected specimens of every known language which 

 possessed even the most rudimentary literature. Though it 

 must always be a matter of regret that Prince Bonaparte did 

 not carry out his intention of compiling a catalogue of his 

 library on a scientific basis, Mr. Collins' compilation will be of 

 considerable assistance not only to the bibliophile, but also to 

 the philologist. The books are classified into three divisions, 

 dealing respectively with monosyllabic, agglutinative, and in- 

 flectual languages ; and the list of them covers more than 

 seven hundred pages. We have previously noted that these 

 linguistic treasures are for sale en bloc. It is to be hoped that 

 they will be acquired by some learned institution, where they 

 may be studied at leisure by experts, for they afford a unique 

 means of research on the relations of languages and dialectal 

 connections. 



During the year 1892, Mr. W.B. Evermann spent six months 

 on board the U.S. Fish Commission steamer Albatross, and 

 made some interesting observations on the Ptarmigan of the 

 Aleutian Islands {Proceedings Indiana Acad. Sci. 1892, p. 78). 

 Among the birds collected were Willow Ptarmigan [Lagopus 

 Jagopus) and Rock Ptarmigan (Z^. rnpestris) from Kadiak Island. 

 The former ranges near the bases of the mountains and among 

 the sparse willow growth of the lower portions of the island. 

 At the time of Mr. Evermann's visit, the snow had melted from 

 considerable areas frequented by this species, while higher up 

 the mountains, where the Rock Ptarmigan was found, and where 

 there was little or no woody vegetation, the snow covered 

 everything completely. The principle of adaptation to environ- 

 ment was clearly illustrated by these itwo species. The one 

 which ranged in the region still covered entirely with snow had 

 not begun to change from winter to summer plumage ; not one 

 of the sixty odd specimens collected showing a single brown 

 feather; the plumage of every one was a solid white. This 

 was not so, however, with the Willow Ptarmigans. Their 

 plumage had began to change with the slowly melting snow, 

 and in most cases the head and neck had almost completely 

 changed to the summer brown, while brown feathers were 

 scattered here and there through the rest of the plumage. It is 

 easy to see, Mr. Evermann points out, that it is greatly to the 

 advantage of each of these species to change from winter to 

 summer plumage synchronously with the melting snows ; too 

 rapid or premature change, as well as change too long delayed, 

 would defeat the object of protective colouration. 



During the last few days Mr. Rowland Ward has had 

 on view, in his Piccadilly establishment, a remarkably fine 

 specimen of the so-called white rhinoceros {Rhinoceros 

 simus). The late Mr. Burchell described this rhinoceros 

 many years ago, and reported it as very numerous at 

 that time at Latakoo. It is the largest of the genus, 

 and has now become nearly if not quite extinct. Some ten 

 years since Mr. F. C. Selous shot a specimen in Mashonaland, 

 which he gave to the Cape Town Museum, and beyond one 

 other which was shot by the late Mr. J. S. Jameson whilst hunt- 

 ing with Mr. Selous, no authentic records of any specimen of this 



NO. 1277, VOL. 49I 



rare animal have been published. Mr. R. T. Coryndon shot two 

 specimens early in July 1893, both of which have been modelled 

 by Mr. Ward. On account of the weight of the specimens the 

 skins were cut up into several pieces, which has made the work 

 of modelling them one of the greatest difficulty. The largest 

 rhinoceros is to form part of the Hon. Walter Rothschild's 

 collection at the Tring Museum ; the remaining one, which is 

 not yet completed, has been acquired by the trustees of the 

 Natural History Museum. The specimens are adult males, and 

 the two skeletons are being macerated. Mr. Coryndon is leaving 

 England again in a few days, his object being to travel to the 

 northern end of Lake Tanganyika, in Central Africa, and to 

 station himself there, build a permanent station, and collect 

 insects, moths, butterflies, birds and small mammals for several 

 English collections and museums. He hopes to gain some 

 definite information in regard to the supposed new species 

 of rhinoceros, and to determine the exact geographical district 

 of the square-mouthed rhinoceros, the animal exhibited by 

 Mr. Rowland Ward. 



Dr. K. von Chrustschoff, of St. Petersburg, has recently 

 succeeded in preparing artificially the cubic modification of 

 silica, which was discovered some years ago by Von Rath, and 

 called christobalite. The manner in which the substance has 

 been formed is as follows : Dry crystals of boric acid are satu- 

 rated with dry silicon-tetrafluoride gas, when it is found that the 

 boric acid crystals swell up and give rise to a very voluminous 

 white mass, which is a combination of boric acid and silicon- 

 tetrafluoride. This substance being thrown into an excess of 

 dilute ammonia, gives rise to borate of ammonia, which is 

 easily dissolved, and a white residue, and must be repeatedly 

 washed with ammonia, water and alcohol, till every trace of 

 the ammonia and boric acid is removed. The snow-white 

 granular mass, which is not in the least gelatinous, is soluble to 

 such an extent in pure water that aqueous solutions containing 

 from 5 to 7 per cent, of silica can be obtained. Once dried, 

 however, the solubility of the silica is completely destroyed. 

 The silica thus prepared, with water containing a slight trace of 

 hydrofluoric and boric acids, is introduced into the platinum 

 apparatus used by the author in his previous experiments in 

 mineral synthesis, and is heated to 200° C. for two hours, under a 

 pressure of from fifteen to twenty atmospheres ; when clear and 

 colourless crystals from o"l to o'3 mm. in diameter make their 

 appearance. These crystals were isolated by treating the mass 

 with alkalies and dilute hydrochloric acid. The crystals are 

 found to be various combinations of the octahedron, cube and 

 rhombic dodecahedron ; they are completely isotropic, and 

 show no trace of the anomalous double refraction described by 

 Mallard and others in the natural crystals. On analysis they 

 yielded 9978 per cent, of silica. 



A NEW mode of demonstrating the electrolysis of hydro- 

 chloric acid upon the lecture table is described by Prof. Lothar 

 Meyer in the latest issue of the Berichte. As the late Prof von 

 Hofmann himself pointed out, in describing the well-known ap- 

 paratus for this purpose which bears his name, the electrolysis 

 of hydrochloric acid is not a very satisfactory experiment, as it 

 invariably happens, even when the acid has been previously 

 saturated with chlorine gas, that the volumes of hydrogen and 

 chlorine obtained are unequal, the hydrogen being considerably 

 in excess. A somewhat nearer approximation to equality is ob- 

 tained by employing, as recommended by von Hofmann, a con- 

 centrated solution of common salt mixed with ten per cent, of 

 the strongest hydrochloric acid, but even in this case the volume 

 of the chlorine is always less by some few cubic centimetres than 

 that of the hydrogen. This discrepancy is due to the fact that 

 after closing the taps of the collecting tubes, the liberated gases 



