I90 



NA TURE 



[December 21, 1899 



died in 1897, left his property, amounting to 300,000 dollars, to 

 Union College, Schenectady. Suit was brought on behalf of 

 his wife and children, and half of the estate has been awarded 

 to them, while the remaining 150,000 dollars goes to Union 

 College.— Vassar College has received a gift of 5,000 dollars 

 towards the proposed biological laboratory, for which 25,000 

 dollars has been promised on condition that an equal additional 

 sum shall be raised. — The University of Pennsylvania has re- 

 ceived a gift of 250,000 dollars for the construction and equip- 

 ment of a laboratory of physics. — Wesleyan University has 

 received a gift of 38,000 dollars from Miss Elizabeth A. Mead, 

 subject to an annuity during her lifetime. — St. Lawrence 

 University has received 34,000 dollars from various sources. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journal of Science, December. — The highest aim 

 of the physicist, by H. A. Rowland. Physics is the science 

 above all sciences which deals with the foundation of the 

 universe, with the constitution of matter from which everything 

 in the universe is made, and with the ether of space by which 

 alone the various portions of matter forming the universe afifect 

 each other, even at the greatest distances. He who makes 

 two blades of grass grow where one grew before is the bene- 

 factor of mankind ; but he who obscurely works to find the 

 laws of such growth is the intellectual superior as well as the 

 greater benefactor of the two. — Notice of an aerolite that 

 recently fell at Allegan, Michigan, by H. L. Ward. The mass 

 in question, about 20 inches long and 10 or 12 inches thick, was 

 seen to fall, and dug up a few minutes alter it was buried. It 

 was reported to be hot all through, and not cold at the centre 

 as might have been suspected. The stone is very chondritic in 

 structure. It is of a light ash-grey colour, and exceedingly 

 friable, with a black crust averaging i mm. in thickness. 

 Optical examination reveals the presence of enstatite, chrysolite, 

 felspar, troilite and iron, the two last being distributed evenly 

 and thickly as small irregularly shaped grains. — A new meteoric 

 iron found near Iredell, Bosque County, Texas, by W. M. Foote. 

 The meteoritic iron in question was not seen to fall. The three 

 best instances of cleavage are exhibited in one specimen. These 

 are three pairs of perfect adjacent planes forming angles of 

 120°. The fracture presents a glistening tin- white finely crystal- 

 line surface. Grains and plates as much as 2 mm. thick, of a 

 brittle magnetic mineral of pyritiferous aspect are common. A 

 qualitative examination showed the presence of iron, phos- 

 phorus and nickel, indicating it to be schreibersite. — Some of 

 Ihe results of the international cloud work for the United States, 

 by F. H. Bigelow. The penetration of ordinary cyclones into 

 the higher regions of the atmosphere is slight. They are only 

 two or three miles deep. Hurricanes are five or six miles deep. 

 The anticyclonic and cyclonic areas are hardly to be considered 

 as centres of motion except in the very lowest strata, since cur- 

 rents of air blow directly across them from west to east, even in 

 the cumulus region of the Rocky Mountain districts. The 

 ordinary circulation theory does not hold good. In each stratum 

 from the surface to the cirrus level about as much air moves 

 north as south, for there are enormous counter currents passing 

 by each other at the same level, and not over one another at 

 different elevations. This puts a new aspect upon the entire 

 problem of the general circulation, 



Wiedemamt's Annakn der Physik and Chemie, No. 11. 

 — Moving bodies in the electric field, and the electric 

 conductivity of air, by A. Heydweiller. If a sphere rotates 

 uniformly in a medium of different conductivity and in an 

 electric field, and the conductivity of the medium is negligible 

 in comparison with that of the sphere, a couple acts upon the 

 sphere tending to stop its motion. If the conductivities are 

 reversed, the couple tends to accelerate the motion. The 

 author shows that this may account for the stoppage of the 

 moon's original rotation. — Ratio of the electric charge of 

 kathode particles to their mass, by S. Simon. Using Kauf- 

 mann's method of magnetic deflection, the author determined 

 the ratio ejm as accurately as possible. He found it to be 

 1-865 X lO^CG.S. units, or slightly higher than Kaufmann's 

 value. — On the highest audible and inaudible notes, by R. 

 Konig, The author investigates notes of pitches ranging from 

 4095 to 90,000 vibrations per second, produced by bowed 

 tuning-forks. The method of beats is useful for estimating 

 pitches up to the limits of audibility, but the method of Kundt's 

 dust figures is available up to the highest pitches, and is easy 



NO. 1573, VOL. 61] 



to apply and to deduce results from. — Origin of frictional 

 electricity, by C. Christiansen. A mercury jet was surrounded 

 by twelve jets of zinc amalgam, and both were made to fall 

 side by side through oxygen. As long as the oxygen was 

 somewhat moist, the normal difference of potential of 0'88 volt 

 was indicated between the amalgam and the mercury. But 

 when the moisture was gradually reduced the difference of po- 

 tential steadily decreased, and finally was reversed in sign at a 

 point where the vapour pressure was about 0*5 mm. — Influence 

 of Becquerel rays upon electric sparks and brushes, by J. Elster 

 and H. Geitel. A spark gap i cm. wide, between a positive 

 knob and a negative disc, was exposed to the influence of a 

 radium preparation. The sparks or brushes were immediately 

 converted into a glow dicharge, a violet glow surrounding the 

 knob. When the disc was made of cardboard instead of metal, 

 the gap became so sensitive that the radium affected the dis- 

 charge at a distance of over a metre. — Behaviour of the brush 

 discharge in a magnetic field, by Mr. Toepler. The stratifica- 

 tion of the brush discharge is considerably modified by a strong 

 magnetic field. The latter has the effect of crowding the 

 stratifications together, and also of displacing them laterally 

 with respect to each other. An unstable brush discharge is 

 converted into a spark discharge. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Chemical Society, December 7. — Prof. Thorpe, President, 

 in the chair. — The following papers were read. — The oxidation 

 of certain organic acids in presence of ferrous salts, by H. J. H. 

 Fenton and H. O. Jones. The authors have examined the 

 oxidation products ot a number of carboxylic acids and of 

 picric acid by hydrogen peroxide in presence of ferrous salts. — 

 Oxalacetic acid, by H. J. H. Fenton and H. O. Jones. Free 

 oxalacetic acid, C4H4O5, is obtained on oxidising malic acid in 

 presence of ferrous salts. — Determination of the constitution of 

 fatty acids (Part ii.), by A. W. Crossley and H. R. Le Sueur. 

 Ethylisopropylmalonic acid yields ethylisopropylacetic acid, 



C2Hg.CH(C3H2).COOH 

 by elimination of carbon dioxide. Ethylic abromethylisopro- 

 pylacetate yields, on treatment with diethylanihne, a mixture 

 of ethylic dimethylethylacrylate and ethylic melhylisopropyl- 

 acrylate. — The reaction between sulphuric acid and potassium 

 ferrocyanide, by R. H. Adie and K. C. Browning. The action 

 of acid of the composition H2SO4 or H2S04,H20 upon potass- 

 ium ferrocyanide consists in the formation of potassium sul- 

 phate and hydroferrocyanic acid and in a partial evolution of 

 carbon monoxide ; all the cyanogen in potassium ferrocyanide 

 is converted into carbon monoxide by acid of the composition 

 H2S04,2H20. Acid of the composition HijS04,4H20 to 

 H2S04,ioH20 similarly converts the salt into hydrocyanic acid 

 and Everitt's salt, K2Fe2Cy6 —The sulphates of bismuth, by 

 R. H. Adie. By the action of sulphuric acid of different con- 

 centrations, the author has obtained solid salts of the following 

 compositions : 

 5Bi203,iiSO„i7H„0 ; Bi203,4S0s,7H20 ; Bi203,4S03,3H20 ; 



Bi203,4S03,HoO ; 61203,4803, loH.p. 

 —On sulphates of the form R2S04,2MS04, especially those 

 of isometric crystallisation, by F'. R. Mallet. By fusing the 

 constituent salts together, the author has obtained cubic double 

 salts of the following compositions : 



K2S04,2MgS04 ; K2S04,2ZnS04; K2S04,2MnS04 ; 



K2S04,2NiS04; K,S04,2CoS04 ; Rb.,S04,2MgS04. 

 — Reactions of the so-called dibenzylamarine, by F. R. Japp 

 and J. Moir. The authors describe the chemical behaviour of 

 dibenzylamarine, which they have previously shown to be 

 benzoyl-i^-dibenzyl-/-diphenylethylenediamine.— Note on iso- 

 amarine, by H. L. Snape. The author has resolved isoamarine 

 into its optically active components, thus confirming Japp and 

 Moir's view of its constitution. — On the preparation of benzene- 

 azoorthonitrophenol, by J. T. Hewitt. Benzeneazophenol is 

 converted into benzeneazoorthonitrophenol by dilute nitric acid. 

 — Some new osazones and tetrazones, by H. A. Auden. — A 

 series of substituted nitrogen chlorides. Part ii. The trichloro- 

 phenylacyl chlorides, by F. D. Chattaway and K. J. P. Orton. 

 — The reaction between cupric sulphate solution and magnesium, 

 zinc and iron, by R. M. Caven. 



