April 30, 1903] 



NA TURli 



their capabilities and tastes. Prof. W. M. Wheeler showed 

 how large a part of the value of fellowships was lost to 

 research by expecting fellows to perform extraneous duties 

 and to do their research always at a given institution. 

 Prof. Miinsterberg insisted that the only two factors which 

 really count for research are to be found in the minds of 

 the men engaged upon it; they are, first, intellectual 

 quality, and secondly, the will to achieve. In these two 

 respects he maintained American research to be defective. 

 He urged the men of wealth who had millions ready for 

 endowment first to make the career of research attractive, 

 so that more men of first-class type may be tempted, and 

 to create great premiums by putting above the present 

 university system a still higher institution, an over- 

 university where the finest masters of research, chosen by 

 1 heir peers, are brought together for far-reaching work 

 which transcends the possibilities of the educational institu- 

 tions. Whatever can be done to give the career national 

 glory thus to attract the finest men will be productive for 

 the work of research. To secure that able men shall do 

 their best work he advised the following course : — Make 

 the academic career in the real universities, the promotion 

 to higher positions, dependent in first line upon research 

 work, as it is in Germany, and the work will be done, in 

 spite of all obstacles. There is at present no greater 

 educational need than to educate the trustees and benefactors 

 of universities. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, March 26. — " Some Physical Properties of 

 Nickel Carbonyl." By James Dewar, M.A., Sc.D., LL.D., 

 F.R.S., and Humphrey Owen Jones, M.A., 13. Sc. 



The authors' communication gives an account of the in- 

 vestigation of a number of the physical properties of nickel 

 carbonyl which have hitherto been investigated only to a 

 slight extent. 



It was found that the compound in the gaseous state was 

 much more stable than it had hitherto been supposed to be, 

 and that no explosion took place when the vapour was 

 suddenly heated, provided that oxygen was not present in 

 the surrounding gas. When the vapour was decomposed by 

 heat the products of dissociation were nickel and carbon 

 monoxide ; at temperatures below 180° C. only traces of 

 carbon dioxide could be detected, so that the decomposition 

 postulated by Berthelot to explain the explosion of the 

 vapour does not take place to any appreciable extent. 



A large number of vapour density determinations were 

 made by Victor Meyer's method at a number of tempera- 

 tures between 63° C. and 216° C. in an atmosphere of various 

 inert gases (hydrogen, nitrogen and ethylene), and also in 

 carbon monoxide. 



The effect of temperature, of rate of admixture of the 

 vapour with the surrounding gas by diffusion, and of the 

 presence of one of the products of dissociation on the 

 extent of the dissociation is very clearly seen from the 

 numerical values and the curves. 



A number of determinations of the vapour-density at 

 various temperatures under reduced pressure were made, 

 and also show the marked effect of temperature on the 

 dissociation. The dissociation becomes practically complete 

 onlv at the boiling point of aniline. 



The critical temperature was found to be about 200 C, 

 and the critical pressure was estimated to be about thirty 

 atmospheres. 



A number of vapour-pressure determinations were made 

 by the statical method over a range of temperature between 

 — 9° C. and + 30° C. From the values obtained, the Rankine 

 formula gives the following relation between the absolute 

 temperature T and the pressure p in millimetres of 

 mercury : — 



log /' = 73S5- I 4i5/T. 



The results are compared with those obtained by Mittasch 

 by the dynamic method. 



Various constants are calculated from the results obtained, 

 and these are found in several cases to be very similar to 

 the corresponding constants for ether. The latent heat of 

 vaporisation is 381 calories per gram, and .the Trouton 

 constant is 20'6. The molecule of nickel carbonyl appears 

 to be 4.2 times larger than that of carbon monoxide. 



NO 1748, VOL. 67] 



Some experiments which were made show that the re- 

 action between carbon monoxide and nickel is reversible, 

 and proceeds rapidly at the ordinary temperature, and with 

 a measurable velocity at very low temperatures. 



Royal Microscopical Society, April 15. — Dr. Hy. 

 Woodward, F.R.S., in the chair.— Mr. F. W. Millett's 

 report on the recent Foraminifera of the Malay Archipelago 

 collected by Mr. A. Durrand, part xiv., was taken as read. 

 — The secretary read a paper by Mr. E. B. Stringer on a 

 new method of using the electric arc in photomicrography. 

 The method consists in employing the radiation of the 

 electric arc itself altogether separated from the incandescent 

 carbons. This, modified by certain light filters, yields a 

 powerful violet monochromatic light on the extreme limit 

 of visibility. The separation is effected by the substage dia- 

 phragm, the opening in which is adjusted so as to allow 

 only the radiation of the arc to pass. A trough contain- 

 ing .1 solution of ammoniated sulphate of copper suppresses 

 all but the violet band, and the ultra-violet rays are inter- 

 cepted by another trough containing a solution of sulphate 

 of quinine. Lantern slides of Pleurosigma angulatum, dry, 

 and Coscinodiscus asteromphalus in styrax, taken with a 

 Zeiss 3 mm. oil immersion apochromatic objective of 1 4 

 N.A. and 8 compensating eye-piece giving a magnification) 

 of 2200 diameters, were shown upon the screen. The author 

 discussed the possibility of obtaining lenses corrected for 

 the ultra-violet rays which would enable photography to 

 do for the microscope what it had already done for the 

 telescope. Three slides of Navicula bombus were shown on 

 the screen to demonstrate the advantage of using the troughs 

 containing solutions of ammoniated sulphate of copper and 

 sulphate of quinine. — Dr. R. Hamlyn-Karris sent a de- 

 scription of an apparatus for facilitating the manipulation 

 of celloidin sections. The apparatus consisted of a circular 

 vessel 33" diameter a'nd |" deep outside. The body is made 

 of a non-corroding metal, and the bottom of brass. It is 

 divided into twenty compartments ; in each compartment are 

 perforations to allow fluid to escape when the transfer is 

 made from one fluid to another. The apparatus suggested 

 itself to the writer's mind in consequence of the difficulties 

 experienced by him in preparing, staining, and mounting 

 a series of celloidin sections in successive order. — Mr. C. F. 

 Rousselet exhibited about two dozen mounted slides of 

 Rotifers of the genus Brachionus. The specimens, besides 

 those collected in England, came from America, Asia Minor, 

 Bohemia, China, Germany, and Hungary, and comprised 

 sixteen species, including one not yet described, and a 

 number of varieties. The author mentioned that the 

 11. reubens exhibited was the true species of Ehrenberg, 

 and different from the one figured under that name in 

 Hudson and Gosse's monograph. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, Apiil 20. — M. Albert Gaudry in 

 the chair. — Statistics of the minor planets. The distribu- 

 tion of the elements taking the aphelia as the argument, 

 by M. O. Callandreau. The aphelia distances arrange 

 themselves symmetrically about their mean value in a 

 manner resembling the arrangement of accidental errors. 

 — On spirillosis in the Bovidae, by M. A. Laveran. An 

 account, with drawings, of the detailed examination of the 

 blood of Transvaal cattle infected with spirilla. These 

 parasites have always been found in the blood of cattle 

 associated with other organisms. At the present time only 

 two diseases are definitely known to be produced bv spirilla, 

 the relapsing fever caused by Sp. Obermeieri, peculiar to 

 man, and the spirillosis produced by Sp. anserinum. The 

 parasite described in the present paper forms a new species, 

 to which the name Sp. Theileri is given. — On the integra- 

 tion of differential equations of the second order with con- 

 stant coefficients, by M. E. Vallier. — The specific heats and 

 heats of vaporisation and of fusion of aniline and some 

 01 her organic compounds, by M. de Forcrand. The 

 spei itic heat of aniline in the solid and liquid state and of 

 the latent heat of fusion has been determined bv the 

 method of mixtures. Measurements are also given for 

 nitrobenzene, benzene, and acetic acid. — Photographic 

 observation of the eclipse of the moon on April 11, 1903, at 

 the Observatory of Toulouse, by M. Montangerand, The 

 atmospheric conditions on the night of the eclipse were 



