128 



NATURE 



[April 6, 191 6 



West, had been accepted for publication. Prof. 

 Mcintosh was re-elected president, Dr. F. DuCane 

 Godman treasurer, and Mr. John Hopkinson secre- 

 tary. 



The anjiual general meeting of the Chemical Society 

 was held at Burlington House on March 30, Dr. 

 Alexander Scott, president, in the chair. A discussion 

 took place with regard to the removal from the list 

 of those honorary and foreign members who are alien 

 enemies, and it was decided to refer the matter to the 

 council for further consideration. It was with great 

 pleasure the president announced that the following 

 donations had been made to the research fund : — 

 (a) loooi. from Dr. G. B. Longstaff, whose father, by 

 his gift of a similar amount, was largely Instrvrfhental 

 in founding the research fund forty years ago ; (b) 

 loooZ. from Mrs. and Miss Miiller, in commemoration 

 of the late Dr. Hugo Miiller's long connection with 

 the society ; (c) 500/. from Dr. Alexander Scott, to 

 mark his appreciation of the valuable work done by 

 the research fund, and in commemoration of the 

 seventy-fifth anniversary of the society. Prof. G. G. 

 Henderson and Prof. A. Lapworth were elected new 

 vice-presidents, and Mr. A. Chaston Chapman, Mr. 

 C. A. Hill, Dr. R. H. Pickard, and Dr. F. L. Pyman 

 were elected as new ordinary members of council. 

 The delivery of the president's address, entitled " Our 

 Seventy-fifth Anniversary," was postponed until to-day, 

 April 6, at 8 p.m. 



Sir Richard Redmayne, in his presidential address 

 delivered recently before the institution of Mining 

 and Metallury, took as his main theme a consideration 

 of the mineral resources of the United Kingdom. Coal, 

 as the most important mineral asset, came in for the 

 principal treatment, which consisted in a survey of 

 possible extensions of coal-fields and the prevention of 

 waste in the acquisition and utilisation of coal. Iron 

 ore and limestone were next reviewed, and, finally, the 

 resources of non-ferrous metals, with the last of which 

 the institution is by its constitution principally con- 

 cerned. This gave the president the opportunity of 

 explaining to members in some detail the scheme of 

 research which is about to be undertaken by the 

 institution in co-operation with the Royal Cornwall 

 Polytechnic Society, and with the aid of a financial 

 grant from the Advisory Council to the Committee of 

 Scientific and Industrial Research of the Privy Council. 

 The research will deal with the economic extraction of 

 tin and tungsten from Cornish ores, and its objects 

 are : — (a) To review the evidence upon which estimates 

 of the total contents and recovery of tin and tungsten 

 are based ; {h) to co-ordinate and complete the re- 

 searches already begun, and if necessary to institute 

 other researches on new lines ; and (c) to suggest new 

 or improved methods of treatment indicated by the 

 results of the researches. It is remarkable that in 

 spite of the antiquity of this industry the precise per- 

 centage of recovery now being obtained of cassiterite 

 from the tinstone is not known, though there is a 

 consensus of opinion that it certainly does not exceed 

 75 per cent. 



The name of Auguste Rosenstiehl, whose death is 

 announced, is indissolubly linked to that period of 

 chemistry which inaugurated the great colour in- 

 dustry. Born at Strasburg in 1839, he completed 

 his studies in the university of his native town, where 

 he remained as lecture assistant from 1857 to 1865. 

 Having chosen the study of tinctorial chemistry as a 

 career, he was appointed to the chair of chemistry 

 at the technical school at Mulhouse, of which he was 

 afterwards director. Subsequently he acted as colour 

 chemist to a firm of dyers. In 1877 he accepted a 

 post in the celebrated colour works of Poirrler and 



NO. 2423, VOL. 97] 



Dalsace, of Saint Denis, with which the names of 

 Lauth, Gerard, Roussin, Bardy, and many other dis- 

 tinguished chemists are connected. It is to Rosenstiehl 

 that the elucidation of the formation of fuchsine, dis- 

 covered by Verguin, is due. He also studied the 

 chemistry of alizarine and the other colouring prin- 

 ciples associated with the madder root, among the 

 derivatives of which nitroalizarin soon received prac- 

 tical application in the dyeing industry. In collabora- 

 tion with Noelting, director of the School of Chemistry 

 of Mulhouse, Rosenstiehl prepared Saint Denis red, 

 an azo-colour which led the way to the manufacture of 

 numerous derivatives of the same group. The chemistry 

 of dyestuffs and dyeing were not the only subjects- 

 which absorbed Rosenstiehl's attention, for he was 

 also interested in the study of physics and the 

 physiology of colour. Later, Rosenstiehl was appointed 

 to the chair of colour chemistry at the Conservatoire 

 des Arts et Metiers. His views on osmosis, which 

 he attributed to osmotic pressure, were confirmed 

 some years later by Van't Hoff, who pointed out the 

 analogy with gas pressure. Among the honours 

 conferred upon him, the Academy of Sciences awarded 

 him a few years ago the Jecker prize for his services 

 to colour chemistry. 



The prevalent belief that immature veal is far less 

 nutritious food than beef is examined by W. N. Berg 

 in a recent paper in the Washington Journal of Agri- 

 cultural Research (vol. v., No. 15). He finds that no 

 chemical difference of physiological importance can 

 be detected between the two kinds of meat, nor does 

 artificial digestion work more rapidly on beef than on 

 veal, while kittens in the diet of which immature veal 

 was the only source of nitrogen grew normally into 

 healthy cats, the offspring of which, in their turn, 

 throve also on the same food. 



In a recent issue (February 3, p. 630) we alluded to 

 the important part played by the Benedict calorimeter 

 in the investigation of metabolism. A striking illus- 

 tration of this is afforded in a recent publication by 

 Prof. Benedict (" The Physiology of the New-born 

 Infant," by F. G. Benedict and F. B. Talbot; Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington, No. 233, 1915). Normal 

 infants only have been studied so far as a preliminary 

 to a more extended pathological investigation ; the 

 Boston Lying-in Hospital provided the material (100 

 babies), and a constant routine was adhered to in all 

 cases. The data obtained show that on the first day 

 of life there are important disturbances of the regula- 

 tion of temperature which result either in a decreased 

 metabolism, or, when the infant makes efforts to com- 

 pensate for the loss of heat, there is increase in the 

 metabolism. After the second day there is a fair 

 uniformity in the heat production per square metre 

 of body surface, and a remarkable uniformity per 

 square metre of body surface per unit of length. This 

 constancy is such as to permit the establishment of 

 a factor which indicates that when the square metre 

 as computed from the body weight is divided by the 

 length, the metabolism per unit is 1265 calories. The 

 practical outcome of this is the following : — From a 

 study of the effect of temperature changes on the 

 basal metabolism and the amount of available breast 

 secretion in the first week of life, it is possible to 

 indicate what procedure should be adopted for the 

 conservation of energy and supplemental feeding. 



In the March number of the Zoologist Miss Frances 

 Pitt discusses the habits of the yellow-necked mouse, 

 both in a wild state and in captivity. One of its 

 most striking characteristics seems to be its pug- 

 nacity. As she remarks, we have yet much to learn 

 in regard to the range of this handsome mouse in 

 England, but it occurs so far north as Northumber- 



