236 



NA TURE 



[January 4, ic,oo 



Vesuvius, but as it is staler! to be perfectly identical in this 

 region with that of argon obtained from air, and this again 

 with the spectra of gases from other fumaroli of Vesuvius, from 

 the rocks in the proximity of the crater, from the Grotta del 

 Cane, from the Acque Albule of Tivpli, from the Bulicame del 

 Viterbo, and from the carbon dioxide emanations of Pergine in 

 Tuscany, the authors think that these lines belong to argon or 

 to some gas accompanying argon in the air. The wave-lengths 

 of the new lines are estimated by exterpolation to be 798, 803, 

 814, 832, 845, and 857 '5, and Signor Anderlini has been able 

 to see the first three lines in the Grotta del Cane gas. It is 

 claimed that the lines in question have not been observed by 

 Crookes, Kayser, Eder, Valenta and others. 



In the Agricultural Gaze'te of New South Wales for Sep- 

 tember, 1899, are several papers of more than local interest ; 

 especially one on the timber trade of New South Wales, by R. 

 Dalrymple-Hay ; protective inoculation against anthrax, by 

 Dr. F. Tidswell, and entomological notes for 1S98, by W. 

 Froggatt. The last is illustrated by several excellent plates of 

 insects destructive to limber. 



We have received Bulletin 175 (July, 1899) of the Michigan 

 State Agricultural College Experiment Station (Entomological 

 Department), edited by Messrs. Barrows and Petlit, and con- 

 taining notes on about twenty species of insects observed 

 during 1898, including a new moth destructive to peach, 

 Depiessaria persicaeella, Murtfeldt. The species now dealt 

 with are different from those described in previous reports, 

 and it is intended that future reports shall give a further 

 selection, until all the more interesting or destructive insects 

 of the State have been discussed. The greater part of the 

 figures in this report are oiiginal. 



We are glad to notice that the first number of the second 

 series of The Library contains a short section dealing with the 

 progress of science, and some helpful notes for librarians on 

 scientific works recently published. The selection oi books is 

 by no means complete, nor is it as representative as could be 

 wished, but there seems no reason why this very useful part of 

 an exceptionally interesting magazine should not be developed 

 in future numbers. An excellent photogravure of Dr. Richard 

 Garnett forms a suitable frontispiece to this first number. 



Dr. J. Sanderson Chrisiison's little book "Crime and 

 Criminals" has reached a second edition. It has been enlarged 

 by the addition of an appendix containing analyses of the 

 "Luetgert" case, which caused so great an excitement in 

 America, and other noted crimes. The book is almost entirely 

 made up of a series of articles on "Jail Typas" which origin- 

 ally appeared in the Chicxgo Tribune. The photographs of 

 actual criminals illustrating the volume will be of interest to 

 students of criminology. 



The current number of the Berichle contains an important 

 contribution by Dr. R. SchoU to the theory of the constitution 

 of the fulminates. Of the numerous formulae put forward since 

 the first attempt of Kekule, the simplest is that proposed by 

 Scholl, and afterwards taken up by Nef, in connection with the 

 views of the latter on divalent carbon, namely, that fulminic acid 

 IS carbyloxim, C : N.OH. The fact discovered by Nef, that the 

 mercury salt of nitromethane on standing is partially converted, 

 with loss of water, into mercury fulminate, is in good agreement 

 with the above simple constitution. Further experimental sup- 

 port to this view is now given by Dr. Scholl in the present 

 preliminiry note, in which he aims at transferring the oximido 

 group to a stable hydrocarbon radical. Silver fulminate and 

 benzene react together in presence of aluminium chloride, form- 

 ing benzaldoxim. The conditions necessary for securing good 

 yields require very careful attention, and differ considerably from 

 NO. 1575, VOL. 61] 



those generally favourable to the Friedel and Crafts reaction. 

 Thus, with dry materials and freshly prepared aluminium chloride 

 the yield was very bid ; but the use of a commercial chloride 

 gave good results. It was then found that the presence of a cer- 

 tain amount of moisture was necessary to obtain good yields, the 

 highest being obtained when a mixture of pure, freshly prepared 

 AICI3 ^nd crystallised AICI3.6H2O was employed. These re- 

 sults are thus of interest from two points of view, the Friedel 

 and Crafts reaction and the constitution of the fulminates. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Black-backed Jackal {Canis mesomclai) 

 from South Africa, presented by Mr. J. E. Matcham ; a 

 Mozambique Monkey (Cercopithecus pygerythrus) from East 

 Africa, a Suricate {Suricata tetradactyla) from South Africa, two 



Chelodines {Chelodina, sp. inc.) from Australia, three' 



Speckled Terrapins {Cleimnys guttata) from North America, 

 two Black-headed Terrapins (Damonia reevesi unicolor) from 

 China, deposited. 



OUR AS TRONOMICAL COL UMN. 

 Holmes' Comet (189911. ). — M. H. J. Zwiers gives a nt-w 

 ephemeris for this comet in the Astronomische Nachrichten, 

 No. 3610. The object is getting so faint, however, that an 

 abridgement for every fourth day only is given here. 



Ephemeris for izh. Greentvich Mean Time. 



1899. 



R.A. 



Decl 



-f4i 52 40-2 

 41 25 46'8 

 41 o 58-5 

 40 38 1 6 '2 



40 17 384 



39 59 20 



39 42 23-0 



+ 39 27 366 



[an. 4 ... 2 10 23-50 

 8 ... 12 59-30 

 12 ... .5 58-86 

 16 ... 19 20-23 

 20 ... 23 1-71 

 24 ... 27 1-76 

 28 ... 31 19-04 

 Feb. I ... 2 35 52-32 

 Orbit of Eros. — Signor E. Millosevich, of Rome, has com- 

 municated to' the Astionotnische Nachrichten, No. 3609, an 

 ephemeris for facilitating observations of the minor planet Eros 

 during the coming opposition at the end of the present year. 

 The ephemeris extends over the period 1900 September 1-1901 

 January 31, the positions being computed from the following 

 el-ments : — 



Elements for Epoch 1900 October ■^i-'^ Berlin Mean Time. 

 M=304 23 59-7 



TT — 121 9 22 O 

 a,=I77 38 41-6 

 &> =303 30 40 '4 

 t — lo 49 38 9 



<p =: 12 52 48 2 



jx =20i5"-i2740 (period 643-i4d.) 

 log a = 0-1638027 



The Solar Parallax.— In Comptes lenJus (vol. 129, pp. 

 986-993), M. Bouquet de la Grye furnishes the result of his dis- 

 cussion of the facts obtained by the various French expeditions 

 sent out to observe the Transit of Venus in 1882. The reports 

 hitherto published of the expedition have only dealt with the 

 form of the planet's disc and the question of photography, ^he 

 calculations of the solar parallax from the tunes of contact of 

 the planet with the sun's limb have occupied several years. Tne 

 author states that the external contacts are influenced by the 

 size of the objectives of the observing telescopes, but the internal 

 contacts do not show any such connection. Using Halley' 

 method, and comt)ining the observations from the severa 

 stations in all possible groups, he finds that : — 



1 \ 



From observations with large telescopes 

 ,, ,, siiiall ,, 



•7996. 



p--. 



and gives mean parallax =8" 80 from the visual observations of 

 French parlies. A full discu.ssion of the measures of the photo- 

 graphic records obtained will be presented shortly. 



