134 



NATURE 



[December 7, 1899 



production of this substance from the cambium of the larch 

 became an accompHshed fact. But Tiemann was not con- 

 tent with this merely material success ; in a masterly series 

 of researches, the constitution of vanillin and various allied 

 naturally-occurring compounds — the protocatechuic 

 series — was established. Fresh syntheses of vanillin — 

 from eugenol and from guaiacol — were also discovered. 



In 1893 he published, along with Kriiger, his well- 

 known paper " On the Aroma of the Violet." It was, 

 however, the aroma rather of the iris root or orris root 

 (with which that of the violet may or may not be iden- 

 tical) that he investigated. The quantity of the odori- 

 ferous principle contained in iris root is so infinitesimal, 

 and that of the root to be extracted, consequently, 

 so large, that, as he states, the resources of a mere 

 scientific laboratory proved unequal to the task, and 

 this preliminary part of the investigation had to be 

 carried out in the works at Holzminden. The substance 

 thus isolated was thoroughly investigated and its con- 

 stitution established. In order to indicate its origin and, 

 at the same time, its ketonic constitution, he termed it 

 iro7ie. His attempt to synthesise it was not, from the 

 point of view of the pure chemist, successful, although 

 for the manufacturing chemist it was of the utmost 

 value. Starting with citral, obtained from oil of lemons 

 or from lemon-grass oil, he condensed this substance 

 with acetone, converting it into a compound which he 

 termed pseudo-ionone ; this, when treated with dilute 

 sulphuric acid, yielded ionone, isomeric — not identical — 

 with irone, but so closely resembling it in smell that very 

 few people can detect the difference. For the purposes 

 of the perfumer, therefore, ionone is every whit as good 

 as irone. It is now manufactured, and the value of the 

 process to the patentees may be judged of from the 

 attempts that have been made to evade or to invalidate 

 the patent — attempts that have been foiled in courts of 

 law both in this country and in Germany. 



Amongst Tiemann's numerous other researches may 

 be mentioned his work on the terpenes, on camphor, and 

 on the synthesis of amido-acids. 



He was a brother-in-law of the late A. W. von 

 Hofmann. 



NOTES. 



At a general monthly meeting of the members or the Roya- 

 Institution, held on Monday, the following letter from the Clerk 

 of the Goldsmiths' Company, Sir Walter S. Prideaux, was 

 read : — " I am directed to inform you that the attention of the 

 Court of the Goldsmiths' Company having been drawn to the 

 fact that the Royal Institution of Great Britain has lately cele- 

 brated its centenary, they have, in order to mark their sense of 

 the importance of that event, been pleased to make to the 

 Institution the further grant of looo/., for the continuation and 

 development of original research, and especially for the prosecu- 

 tion of further investigations of the properties of matter at tem- 

 peratures approaching that of the absolute zero of temperature. 

 I enclose a cheque for this amount, and I shall feel obliged to 

 you to acknowledge the receipt." The following resolution, 

 proposed by the Lord Chancellor, and seconded by Sir A. Noble, 

 was then passed : — " That the members of the Royal Institution 

 of Great Britain, in general meeting assembled, having been 

 informed that the Court of the Goldsmiths' Company have made 

 a donation of lOOO/. to the funds of the Royal Institution in 

 commemoration of its centenary, and in aid of the investigations 

 which are being carried on in its laboratories into the properties 

 of matter at low temperatures, desire to express to the Court 

 their profound and grateful appreciation of this second munifi- 

 cent manifestation of their practical interest in the work of the 

 Institution — a manifestation which has been made on this 



r^o. 1 57 1, VOL. 61] 



occasion at once reminiscent of past services to science and \ 

 prescient of services yet to come." 



The Dover Town Council has received a letter from the 

 President of the French Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, enclosing a handsome silver medal, presented to the 

 municipality in commemoration of the Association's visit to the 

 town in September last. The Mayor, Sir William Crundall, 

 said the medal would be placed with the corporation plate. It 

 was decided to make a grateful acknowledgment of the gift. 



Dr. T. E. Thorpe, F.R.S., has been appointed to succeed 

 the late Sir Edward Frankland in the work of analysing the 

 water supplied by the London water companies. 



The death is announced of Dr. Birch-Hirschfeld, professor 

 of pathology in the University of Leipzig, at the age of fifty- 

 seven. Prof. Birch-Hirschfeld was one of the most distin- 

 guished pathologists in Germany. 



The British Medical Journal states that a State Institute of 

 Serumtherapy, Vaccination, and Bacteriology, to bear the name 

 of Alfonso XIII., has been created in Madrid. The new 

 institute is organised on the lines of the Institut Pasteur. 



An International Congress of Mining and Metallurgy will be 

 held in Paris on June 18-23 next year. The congress, like that 

 of 1889, will be under the direct patronage of the French 

 Government. In the provisional programme the following 

 subjects are down for discussion : — Mining : use of explosives 

 in mines ; use of electricity in mines ; mining at great depths ; 

 labour-saving methods as applied to mining. Metallurgy : 

 progress in the metallurgy of iron and steel since 1889 ; appli- 

 cation of electricity to metallurgy — (a) chemical, and (3) 

 mechanical ; progress in the metallurgy of gold ; recent im- 

 provements in the dressing of minerals. The general secretary 

 is M. Gruner, rue de Chateaudun, 55 Paris. 



A COURSE of twelve demonstrations will be given in the 

 psychological laboratory of University College during the Lent 

 Term, commencing on January 19, 1900, by Mr. W. McDougall, 

 Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. The Class will meet 

 once a week on the day and at the hour that are found to be 

 most convenient to the majority of the students. The methods 

 of investigating experimentally all the chief types of elementary 

 mental process will be demonstrated, and the students will be 

 afforded opportunities to practise the methods. The subjects 

 will include the several aspects of skin-sensibility and the 

 " muscular sense " ; the colour sense, visual distance and optical 

 illusions ; appreciation of tone-intervals and localisation of 

 sound ; sensibility to pain ; simple measurements of memory ; 

 estimation of periods of time, &c. Students should send in 

 their names to Mr. McDougall, St. John's College, Cambridge, 

 before Tuesday, January 16, 1900, when the Term begins. 



In the early part of last week a " Bottlenose " whale was re- 

 ported to have stranded on the river-bank at North Woolwich. 

 The animal was a female, and on Wednesday, November 29, it 

 was delivered, some time after death, of two young. On Friday 

 a visit was made to Woolwich to see if either of the specimens 

 were required for the Natural History Museum. That morn- 

 ing the carcase of the mother had, however, been towed out 

 to sea by the sanitary authorities ; but the body of a young 

 one (which measured sixteen feet in length) was on view in 

 front of the station, where it had attracted crowds the previous 

 day. A glance showed that, instead of being a " Bottlenose," 

 it was a " Finner " or Rorqual; and, since the mother was 

 stated to have measured over sixty feet in length, there could 

 be no doubt that it was the common species {Balaenopiera mus- 

 culus), of which there is now a life-sized half-model in the Natural 



