May 2 2, 1890] 



NATURE 



89 



found existing on reaching their future home. Dr. Macgowan 

 remarked that the philosopher of Universal Love, Motzu, proto- 

 altruist and arch-heresiarch — whose sun was rising when the sun 

 of Confucius was setting — enunciated views on the evolution of 

 the state and family which are in accord with those of modern 

 anthropologists. Men at first were in the lowest slate of 

 savagery : there was no Golden Age as depicted by sages and 

 political philosophers until men felt the necessity of a remedy for 

 the anarchy that prevailed. Practices of self-deformation were 

 some of them remarkably curious, such as those of drinking 

 through the nostrils, extracting front teetii and substituting dogs' 

 teeth, head-flattening, &c. ; the most striking was the attempt 

 to raise a polydactylous race, by destroying all children who 

 came into the world with the usual number of fingers and toes, 

 and thus a tribe had a dozen fingers and as many toes. The 

 writer then described a number of instances of rule by Amazons, 

 and observed that it is chiefly among the aboriginal inhabitants 

 that the chieftaincy of women obtains to this day. There is 

 seldom an age in which one tribe or another does not afford 

 examples ; the more primitive the condition of these tribes the 

 slighter is sexual differentiation as regards public governmental 

 affairs, both civil and military. It was owing to rumours respect- 

 ing tribes of this kind that fables and myths in Greece arose 

 regarding Indo-Scythian Amazons. The paper, which is full of 

 valuable ethnological matter, will be published in the Journal of 

 the Society. 



A PAPER upon the spontaneously inflammable liquid hydride 

 of phosphorus, P2H4, is communicated by Drs. Gattermann and 

 Haussknecht, of Heidelberg, to the new number of the Berichlc 

 (p. 1 1 74). Owing to the disagreeable and highly dangerous 

 properties of this substance, its chemical history has never been 

 completed ; very little, indeed, has been hitherto added to our 

 knowledge concerning it since its discovery by Thenard in 1845. 

 The Heidelberg chemists have devised a much better mode of 

 preparing the liquid from phosphide of calcium, by means of 

 which it is obtained in a state of almost perfect purity. A 

 Woulfe's bottle with three necks and of about two litres capacity 

 is three parts filled with water. The central tubulus serves to 

 introduce a wide tube of 15 mm. diameter expanded into a 

 funnel at the top and passing down to about three centimetres 

 beneath the water. One of the side necks is fitted with a cork 

 and a bent tube just dipping beneath the surface of the water, 

 through which a current of hydrogen gas can be driven. The 

 tliird tubulus carries the delivery tube which permits of the 

 escape of first the hydrogen, and afterwards the products of the 

 reaction between the calcium phosphide and the water, into a 

 special form of condensing arrangement. The Woulfe's bottle 

 is placed in a capacious water-bath, which is heated to 60° C. as 

 soon as all the air is expelled by the current of hydrogen. The 

 calcium phosphide is then introduced through the central wide 

 tube in pieces about two grams in weight, until, in about 15-20 

 minutes' time upwards of 50 grams have been added. The 

 escaping gases pass first through an empty wide test-tube in 

 which most of the admixed water-vapour is condensed, then 

 into an upright tube, narrowed in its lower half, and closed 

 at the bottom, which forms a suitable receptacle for the 

 liquid hydride. By means of an exit-tube the remaining gases 

 are permitted to escape ; owing to a little admixed and uncon- 

 densed vapour of the liquid, they burn spontaneously at the 

 mouth of the tube. The condenser is surrounded with iced water 

 instead of a freezing mixture, so that the condensation may be 

 observed. In about five minutes after commencing the opera- 

 lion clear colourless highly refractive drops of the liquid form 

 .ind run down into the narrower portion of the condenser, about 

 2 c.c. being obtained from 50 grams calcium phosphide. The 

 experiment must not be performed in sunlight, otherwise the 

 liquid rapidly decomposes, in the manner described by Thenard, 

 NO. 1073, VOL. 42] 



into gaseous PH3 and solid P4H^ By a slight addition to the 

 above arrangement, all three hydrides of phosphorus may be 

 simultaneously prepared. The escaping gases are allowed to^ 

 pass through a large flask containing hydrochloric acid, which 

 decomposes the vapour of the remaining liquid hydride, and 

 large quantities of the yellow solid P4H2 separate out. The 

 escaping gas, which may be collected over water, is non-spon- 

 taneously inflammable, and consists of practically pure PHg. 

 Liquid PoH^ boils constantly and without decomposition when 

 not suddenly heated at 58° under a pressure of 753 mm. Its 

 specific gravity at 12° is i'007, nearly the same as that of water. 

 Exposed to sunlight it becomes yellow in half an hour, due to 

 the formation of solid P4H0, which remains at first dissolved j 

 after 2-3 hours' exposure, the yellow solid begins to separate 

 out, and in i^ days o"2 gram is totally decomposed, in accord- 

 ance with the equation sPoH^ = 6PH;, -t- P4H.>. Consequently, 

 sealed tubes containing this substance exposed in daylight are 

 very dangerous articles. Owing to the accumulation of PH, 

 gas, they are apt to explode with deafening concussion and pro- 

 duction of a wide-spreading and very brilliant flame, especially 

 if the drawn-out end becomes accidentally broken off'. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Wanderoo Monkey {Macacus silenus ? ) 

 from the Malabar Coast of India, presented by Miss Eileen 

 Martin ; two Leopards {Fclis /ara'us) from India, presented by 

 Mr. — Egerlon ; two Yellow-winged Blue Creepers {Cccrebd 

 cyanea) from South America, presented by Mr. H. E. Blandford ; 

 two Mandarin Ducks {Aix galericulata <J ? ) from China, pre 



sented by Mr. C. J. Kingzett ; two Touracous (Coryihaix 



sp. inc.) from South Africa, presented by Mr. C. W. Burnett ; 

 two Undulated Grass Parrakeets (Melopsitlacus nndulatus) from 

 Australia, presented by Mr. A. Golden ; two Common Vipers 

 ( Vipera bcrus), British, presented respectively by Mr. W. H. 

 B. Pain and Mrs. Mowett ; an Australia Peewit {Lobivancllus 

 lobatus) from Australia, presented by Capt. Shepherd ; a Hima- 

 layan Bear {Ursus iibetauiis i), two Bengal Foxes {Cam's 



liengalcnsis), two Hares {Lepiis macrolis) from India, a 



Ruff'ed Lemur (Lemur variiis) from Madagascar, deposited > 

 two Bar-tailed Pheasants {P/iasianus reevesi ? ? ), an Amherst 

 Pheasant (77/ a!«///a/^a amhersticc <J ) from China, a Variegated 

 Sheldrake ( Tadoriia variegata 9 ) from New Zealand, two 

 Black-headed Conures {Corntrus nanday) from Paraguay, pur- 

 chased ; a Crested Porcupine {Hystrix crislata), born in the 

 Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Objects for the Spectroscope. 



Sidereal Time at Greenwich at 10 p.m. on May 22 = 

 I4h. im. 54s. 



(i)G.C. 3770 



(2) 69 Virginis 



(3) B.A.C. 4699 



(4) 20 B>.otis ... 



(5) n Bootis ... 



(6) U Cygni ... 



Mag. 



IR.A 1890. Dec!. 1890. 



White. 



Yellowish-white. 



Yellowish red. 



Yellow. 



Yellowish-white. 



Very red. 



+ 52 5* 

 -IS 24 

 +44 23 

 + 1649 

 + 18 ST 

 +47 33 



Remarks. 



(i) This very large nebula (loi M Bootis) has not yet been 

 sp'ictroscopically examined. According to the Parsonstown ob- 

 servations, it is at least 14' across, and exhibits a spiral structure 

 with arms and knots. It is everywhere faint, except in the 

 middle. In the General Catalogue it is described as : " Pretty 

 bright ; irregularly round ; at first gradually, then very suddenly 

 much brighter in the middle to a small bright nucleus." The 



