November i6, 1899J 



NATURE 



71 



uneron, entitled " Hymenoptera Orientalia ; or, contri- 

 itions to a knowledge of the Hymenoptera of the Oriental 

 )ological region. Part ix. The Hymenoptera of the 

 Khasia Hills. Second paper." — A paper "On the question 

 of Irish influence on early Icelandic literature, as illustrated 

 by the Irish MSS. in the Bodleian Library," was read by Miss 

 Winifred Faraday (communicated by Mr. F. J. Faraday). 



Paris, 



-M. van Tieghem in 

 piperazine, by M. 



Academy of Sciences, November 6.- 

 the chair. — Researches on the diamines 



Berthelot. The heats of solution of anhydrous diethylene- 

 diamine and its hydrate are given ; and also the heats of com- 

 bustion and formation, and of neutralisation with hydrochloric 

 acid. — On some characters of the diamines deduced from their 

 neutralisation, by M. Berthelot. — Preparation and estimation 

 of glycogen, by M. Armand Gautier. The author had observed 

 that when a slight excess of mercuric acetate is added to an 

 animal or vegetable extract, dilute potassium carbonate solution 

 being added at the same time to keep the liquid neutral, the nitro- 

 genous bodies are nearly wholly precipitated. Liver or muscle 

 is treated with boiling water, and the liquid pressed out on 

 cloth. The neutralised liquid is concentrated by rapid boiling 

 to half its bulk. The exact quantity of mercury solution is 

 then added, the precipitate separated by a centrifugal machine. 

 The clear liquid is acidified with acetic acid and poured into 

 alcohol, when crude glycogen is precipitated. The method is a 

 quantitative one, icxxj grams of fresh human liver giving 20*5 

 grams of glycogen, and of rabbit's liver i 4-0 grams. Glycogen is 

 apparently dissolved by water, but filtration through porcelain 

 shows that the glycogen is not really dissolved, as the whole of 

 the sugar is found on the outside of the filter, pure water only 

 passing through. Its copper reducing power is slightly less 

 than that of anhydrous glucose (97 8 : 100). — On the theory of 

 the hydraulic brake in guns, by M. Vallier. — On the mass of 

 the cubic decimetre of water, by MM. Ch. Fabry, J. Mace de 

 Lepinay and A. Perot. The authors have shown in previous 

 papers how to measure the dimensions of a quartz cube in terms 

 of a wave-length of light as a unit of length, and now give a 

 method for obtaining, by a photograph of the fringes, the 

 exact deviations of opposite faces from parallelism. These 

 curves, together with the absolute thickness at one point, give 

 the mean thickness corresponding to the pair of faces considered. 

 The results of measurement of the mass of water at 4° C. dis- 

 placed by this cube show that the mass of 1000 c.c. at 4° is 

 2i'4mgr. less than i kilogram, showing a remarkable agree- 

 ment with an unpublished result of M. Chappuis (i kgr. -24 

 mgr.) obtained by a different method. — Microphonic registra- 

 tion of the beat of chronometers, by M. Alphonse Berget. The 

 apparatus described, consisting of a small Hughes microphone 

 working a relay, gave clear curves very easily read. The 

 method has the advantage of suppressing the personal error in 

 reading the chronometer, and also renders it possible to apply 

 the method of coincidences with great accuracy to the com- 

 parison of a chronometer and a pendulum. It is also possible 

 m this way to make one chrcnometer govern several pendulum 

 clocks. — On the radio-activity induced by the Becquerel rays, 

 by M. P. Curie and Mme. M. P. Curie. A disc of an inactive 

 substance, placed immediately over a radio-active substance 

 (polonium or radium), acquires the property of emitting 

 Becquerel rays, and rendering air capable of conducting. The 

 activity so induced increases with the time of exposure 

 to the radium, but tends to a limit. Discs of various 

 substances were tried — zinc, aluminium, brass, lead, platinum, 

 bismuth, nickel, paper, barium carbonate, bismuth sulphide — 

 but the effects produced were all of the same magnitude. Ex- 

 periments were made showing that these results cannot be 

 explained by the assumption of an actual transference of the 

 radio-active material, either as powder or vapour, but that there 

 really exists an induced radio-activity. — Remarks by M. Bec- 

 querel on the preceding paper. — On the spectrum of radium, 

 by M. Eug. Demar9ay. As the barium chloride gained in radio- 

 activity new rays appeared in the spectrum, which it would 

 appear reasonable to attribute to the radiating element. In the 

 latest specimens prepared by M. and Mme. Curie, besides the 

 spectra of barium, platinum, lead and calcium, were fifteen 

 new lines, the most marked being one A = 38i47, 4683"0, and a 

 nebulous band having \ = 4627"4 as a centre. — Electrical repro- 

 duction of Savart's figures, obtained by the aid of liquid layers, 

 by M. P. de Heen. — Transformation of styrolene into meta- 



NO. 1568, VOL. 61] 



styrolene under the influence of light, by M. Georges Lemoine. 

 A quantitative study of this isomeric change, including the 

 effect of the thickness of liquid layer, nature of the radiations, 

 temperature. — On molybdenum dioxide, by M. Marcel Guichard. 

 Pure MoOj can be prepared in .several ways, by the action of 

 molybdic anhydride upon ammonium molybdate, by heating 

 ammonium molybdate alone, or by the electrolysis of fused 

 molybdic anhydride, in all cases the final purification from un- 

 changed molybdic anhydride being, effected by washing with 10 

 per cent, soda solution, which gives much better results than 

 the ammonia solution used by previous workers. — On rham-' 

 ninose, by MM. Charles and Georges Tanret. Xanthorham- 

 inose, which on hydrolysis gives ultimately rhametine, rham- 

 nose and galactose, by careful treatment with very dilute 

 sulphuric acid gives an intermediate sugar, rhamninose, besides- 

 galactose and rhamnose. The ferment rhamno.se gives better 

 yields of the new sugar, whose composition is C18H32.O14, its 

 hydrolysis being represented by the equation 



C18H32O114 + 2H2O = aCgHiaOsCrhamnose) -I- C8H„Og(galactose). 



Rhamninose is laevorotatory, \o.\o — -41°, and melts with some 

 decomposition at 140°. Its reducing power is one third that of 

 glucose, and it is not fermentable by yeast. With sodium 

 amalgam it gives rhamninite, C1SH34.O14, from which dulcite and 

 rhamnose are obtained by hydrolysis. Galactonic and mucic 

 acids are produced on oxidation by nitric acid. — Researches on 

 the progressive development of essence of bergamot, by M. 

 Eugene Charabot. — On a new disease of carnations, by M. 

 Louis Mangin.— On the actual state of the volcanoes of 

 Southern Europe, by M. Matteucci. — On the innervation of the 

 pancreas, by MM. E. Wertheimer and L. Lepage. 



Amsterdam. 

 Royal Academy of Sciences, September 30. — Pro.. 

 Van de Sande Bakhuyzen in the chair. — Prof. Beyerinck, on 

 the production of indigo from woad ( Tsatis tinctoria). The 

 generally accepted opinion that woad contains the glucoside 

 indican is erroneous. The chromogene, present in all growing 

 parts of this plant, is indoxyl CgH-NO in the free state. Poly- 

 gonwn tiiictorittm and Indigofera leptostachya on the other hand 

 contain indican, which can be split up into indoxyl and sugar by 

 a peculiar enzyme, present in the species, but absent in the 

 woad, by certain bacteria and yeasts and by boiling with acid.s. 

 The woad, as an " indoxyl plant," when exposed to the vapour 

 of ammonia in a confined atmosphere, at once produces indigo 

 blue, whereas Indigofera leptost. and Polyg. tinct. as " indican 

 plants" do not become blue by the action of ammonia, the 

 indigo enzyme being destroyed by it. "Indican plants" can, 

 however, be converted into dead "indoxyl plants" when 

 slowly killed by the exclusion of air, which is best performed by 

 complete submersion in mercury. If then exposed to alkaline 

 vapour and extracted with alcohol, which dissolves the 

 chlorophyll pigment, they become dark blue. Indigo plants 

 do not contain a peculiar oxydase, but produce some alkali when 

 slowly dying in the air. — Prof. Bakhuis Roozeboom communi- 

 cated the results of an inquiry, made by Dr. W. Reinders, con- 

 cerning the mixture crystals of Hglowith HgBr.^. The melted 

 mixtures of these substances solidfy into a continuous series of 

 rhombic mixture crystals. No chemical combination takes place. 

 The temperatures of solidification show a minimum at 59 per 

 cent. Mol. Hg.Br.^. Below 127° the mixture crystals change from 

 rhombicyellow ones into tetragonal red ones. Moreover, the tran- 

 sition temperature varies within a transition interval, which has 

 been studied down too" partly in the optical way, partly through 

 crystallisation of the mixture crystals out of solutions. With 

 due allowance for the composition of the two kinds of co- 

 existing mixture crystals, the fall of the conversion temperature 

 is in accordance with the laws of diluted solutions. Prof. 

 Bakhuis Roozeboom also presented, on behalf of Dr. Ernst 

 Cohen and Dr. C. van Eyk, a paper entitled " The enantio- 

 tropy of tin (H.)."— Prof. Lobry de Bruyn presented, on behalf 

 of Mr. H. Bijl and himself, a paper on isodialdane, a substance 

 analogous with cane sugar. (These communications will be 

 inserted in the Pro(eedings.)—1\ie: following were further pre- 

 sented for publication in the Proceedings : (a) by Prof. Bakhuis 

 Roozeboom, on behalf of Dr. Ernst Cohen, a paper entitled, 

 " On a new kind of transition elements (sixth kind) " ; (d) by 

 Prof. Kamerlingh Onnes, on methods and apparatus employed 

 in the cryogen laboratory," and (i) on behalf of Mr. Fritz 

 Hasenoehrl, " Die Dielektricitats constante von verfliissigtem 



