November i6, 1899] 



NATURE 



The industry of the production of low temperatures is due to 

 the energy of, and was initiated by, Dr. Carl Linde, who in 

 1 88 1, with the help of the Polytechnic Society, started the 

 famous works, where successful experiments were carried out 

 with the " high pressure and low temperature system," and 

 with the happy combination of Siemens' alternating principle 

 with the Joule-Thompson "cooling effect," produced by the 

 streaming of gases from high to low pressures. The following 

 are the chief industrial and scientific uses of low temperatures : 

 manufacture of ice in the brewing industry ; preservation of 

 meat and alimentary products generally ; preservation of anat- 

 omical specimens ; in the morgues ; the arrestation of the de- 

 velopment of the silk cocoon ; arrestation of the growth of 

 bulbs (making the same independent of their accustomary 

 flowering season) ; in the testing of meteorological instruments ; 

 and in scientific research generally ; the preparation of explosives, 

 the fractionation of liquid air, and consequent preparation of 

 mixtures rich in oxygen ; the manufacture of ozone. 



The Cold Air Storage Installation at Munich is the most 

 complete building of the kind at present erected ; the cells are 

 kept constant at 3" C, and the air contains 60-70 per cent, of 

 moisture. 



The second general meeting was also held in the Royal 

 Theatre, and the addresses on this occasion were delivered by 

 Trof. Boltzmann (Vienna) on the course of the development of 

 modern physical methods; by Prof. Birch-Hirschfeld on 

 science and therapeutics; and by Prof. Klemperer (Berlin) on 

 Justus von Liebig and medical science. 



The last-named speaker showed that Liebig initiated the use 

 of chemical preparations of known composition in the place of 

 those plant infusions of doubtful consistency, which formed the 

 staple drugs of the older physicians. Prof. Klemperer declared 

 that the days were drawing near when such extracts would 

 disappear from pharmacology, and chemistry would be entirely 

 substituted for botany. 



In another, less direct, way Liebig was the means of enrich- 

 ing our pharmacopoeia, for it is by the method of organic analysis 

 he perfected that the composition of the numerous synthetic 

 remedies of to-day is -determined. Chloroform and chloral were 

 discovered by him, and, working in a somewhat different region 

 of thought, Liebig exploded the theory that the warmth of the 

 animal organism was in part due to electricity and the action 

 of the nerves, showing that all animal warmth was produced 

 by the chemical processes continually taking place within the 

 organism. 



The Chemical Section. 



This Section was presided over by Prof. Adolf von Baeyer, 

 Professor of Chemistry at the University of Munich, who 

 welcomed the members of the section, and spoke a few words in 

 memory of Bunsen ; the following passage deserves to be 

 quoted : — 



"Bunsen's value as a teacher and master lay not so much in 

 the lectures he delivered as in the example he set. He was 

 always working himself, and worked in the presence of his 

 pupils."^ 



Prof. Wislicenus, sen., was elected president for the first day, 

 and won general approval by keeping the speakers strictly to the 

 twenty. minute time limit. 



The proceedings were opened by Prof, van t' Hoff (Berlin), 

 who showed that the formation of the Stassfurt salt beds by the 

 evaporation, at 25" C. , of a solution of common salt, borates, and 

 calcium and magnesium sulphate and chloride, could be 

 ^graphically represented on a diagram. 



Richard Meyer gave an account of his experiments on the con- 

 densation of aromatic diamines with dibasic acids of the oxalic 

 series); he showed that in the series : 



. ,X„-CO /NH-CO /''"-'^° 



. ■/' I {\ I 1^ 



NH— CO 



NH— CO 



^NH— CO 



the ortho-derivative aione was stable ; further, that with malonic 

 ether an amino acid ether (I.) was obtained, but with succinic 

 ether a ring (II.) 



1 This seems an important pronouncement in view of the disputed ques- 

 tion of the efficacy of private-research rooms as compared with large 

 laboratories. 



NO. 1568, VOL. 61] 



< 



NH-CO.CH,.COOQH, 



/ 



NH-CO 



II. 



\ 



CH, 



NH— CO.CH2.COOC2H3 



I 

 CH, 



\nh-coj 



the difference being possibly due to the greater length of the 

 succinic acid chain lessening the tension. 



Dr. H. Stobbe (Leipsig) described the condensation products 

 of benzaldehyde with succinic ether, and showed that such a 

 body as dibenzal succinic acid 



C6H5.CH=C— COOH 



I 

 CeH5.CH=C— COOH 



which yields a colourless anhydride is converted by means of 

 iodine into a stereoisomeric acid giving a bright yellow an 

 hydride. 



Dr. Kramer (Berlin) advanced certain views as to the form- 

 ation of petroleum by the decomposition of diatoms ; he found 

 that the wax contained in diatomaceous mud jconsisted largely 

 of decane. 



In the subsequent discussion a geologist pertinently remarked 

 that though it was possible that petroleum was formed to a 

 certain extent in this way, yet much larger quantities must be 

 formed by the decomposition of fish and marine animals gener- 

 ally ; in confirmation of the animal origin of petroleum he 

 mentioned the fact that many fossil bivalves contained, on 

 opening, drops of oil ; he also suggested that the oil in the 

 Caucasus was formed to some extent by the large number of fish 

 that were killed yearly by passing from the fresh water into the 

 strong brine of the lagoons. 



The animal origin of petroleum was acknowledged by all 

 speakers. 



J. Tafel followed with a paper on the course of electrolytic 

 reduction. The experiments were carried out with a solution 

 of caffeine, and the rapidity of the reaction measured by the 

 evolution of hydrogen at the kathode as compared with the 

 evolution of hydrogen in a similar cell containing dilute sulphuric 

 acid. 



In order to effect reduction Tafel showed that the kathode 

 must be of lead, and, moreover, must be coated by spongy lead, 

 the use of a polished lead pole giving a bad result, immediately 

 rectified by the introduction of a little lead acetate solution. 

 The introduction of copper and the noble metals stopped the 

 reaction, which, in the case of these metals, recovered its normal 

 course ; if platinum had been introduced, there was no recovery. 



In the discussion Drs. Bodlander, Nernst and Arendt took 

 part, the latter remarking that the anode also should be of lead. 



Richard Meyer read a second paper on the thio-derivatives of 

 the di- and tri-phenylmethane series, and the influence on the 

 fluorescence of the substitution of sulphur for oxygen in such 

 bodies as 



.C«H 



/QHj 



co<"""'>o csC"'>o coC y-. 

 \c.h/ Xh/ N;,h/ 



the results were, however, conflicting. 



R. Schenck read a paper on the two kinds of dimorphism 

 and their mutual relationship, describing the course of the 

 change (in the case of para-azoanisole) from enantiomorphism to 

 monotropism. 



Dr. Bachhold (Frankfort) gave a short account of the work 

 done by bacteria in the disposal of sewage— in one experiment 

 he took mud from the filter-beds in July and found it to contain 

 1 4 "60 per cent, of fats ; on preserving this, moist, in a corked 

 flask till November, he found it contained only 5 82 per cent, of 

 fats ; if the mud was previously dried, the percentage, naturally, 

 did not alter. 



Prof. Bamberger's (Ziirich) address was of especial interest to 

 organic chemists, and was also remarkable in introducing a 

 new expression, which should be welcomed by chemical philo- 

 logists. He used the expression "torso" to describe the 

 molecular aggregate or residue which had been bereft, so to 



