128 
property of showing in benzene or alcohol solution 
molecular weight of its optical isomer. The racemic 
compound can be resolved into its optically active 
components by means of d-tetrahydroquinaldine.— 
R. F. Gwyther: The specification of stress. Part iv., 
The elastic solution, the elastic stress relations, ques- 
tion of stability, struts, ties, and test-pieces. The 
author proposed a géheral dynamical solution of the 
elastic problem, but admitted that there are special 
cases. Certain hypotheses are made in the solution 
which from the dynamical point of view seem reason- 
able. Treating the statical case, the solution is found 
without the necessity of employing these hypotheses. 
If the statical result is a special case of the general 
dynamical result no question arises. But on intro- 
ducing time-factors into the statical solution, the ques- 
tion arises whether the dynamical equations are gener- 
ally satisfied, whether they are satisfied in some special 
way or whether they cannot in any circumstances be 
satisfied by the variation of the statical solution. The 
relations of stresses when all direct reference to strains 
is eliminated is considered, and it is shown how each 
element of stress can be represented in terms of the 
invariant of the three longitudinal stresses. 
March 24.—Mr. Francis Nicholson, president, in the 
chair.—Faunal survey of Rostherne Mere, Cheshire. 
(1) Dr. W. M. Tattersall and T. A. Coward: Intro- 
duction and methods. The authors gave an account 
of the formation of the mere and its physical char- 
acteristics, pointing out that the mere was a dissolu- 
tion basin formed as the result of subsidence of the 
earth’s surface, consequent on the action of under- 
ground water in dissolving and carrying away rock- 
salt from the underlying strata. Accounts of the tem- 
perature of the lake and of the chemical composition 
of the water were given.—(2) R. S. Adamson: Pre- 
liminary account of the flora. A description of the 
marginal vegetation of the lake.—(3) T. A. Coward : 
Vertebrata. A list was given of the vertebrates which 
occurred in and round the mere. The author included 
only those vertebrates which were in one way or 
another influenced by the presence of the water, and 
were therefore factors in the ecology. Five mammals, 
seventy-six birds, and eleven fish were enumerated.— 
(4) A. W. Boyd: Preliminary list of lepidoptera. One 
hundred and forty-four species, found by the author 
during the last three years, were recorded. Three 
species were new to the Cheshire list. The tendency 
towards melanism, as is usual in the north of Eng- 
land, was noted in a number of species. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, March 23.—M. P. Appell in the 
chair.—A, Haller and Ed. Bauer: Syntheses by means 
of sodium amide. The preparation of allyl ketones 
derived from the alkylacetophenones and_pinacoline. 
It has been shown in a_ previous paper that 
the interaction of sodium amide, iodide or 
bromide of allyl, and acetophenone does not 
give allylacetophenones but only condensation pro- 
ducts. With mono- and di-alkylacetophenones, how- 
ever, the reaction goes normally, and allyl deriva- 
tives are formed. Details of numerous examples of 
this reaction are given.—Paul Sabatier and A. Mailhe : 
The use of manganous oxide for the catalysis of acids. 
The preparation of fatty and aryl ketones. The oxides 
of calcium or of iron, although giving satisfactory 
results in many cases, do not give satisfactory yields 
of ketones from isobutyric and isovaleric acids. A 
study of various oxides from this point of view has 
shown that manganous oxide, MnO, acts well as a 
catalyst, is not expensive, preserves its catalytic pro- 
perties nearly indefinitely, and can be utilised for the 
production of aldehydes as well as ketones. The 
NO. 2318, VOI: 193) 
NATO TES 
[APRIL 2, 1914 
vapours of the acids are carried over a 60 cm. column 
of the MnO maintained at a temperature of 400° to 
450° C. Numerous examples of the excellent yields 
obtained are given.—A. Lacroix: The laterites of 
Guinea.—Charles Moureu and Adolphe Lepape: Crude 
nitrogen (nitrogen and rare gases) in natural gas 
mixtures (see p. 120).—R. de Forcrand; Potassium 
tetroxide. The pure K,O, has been prepared by two 
methods, and its thermochemical constants determined. 
The results are compared with those previously 
obtained for rubidium and czsium.—A. Calmette and 
A. Mézie: The treatment of epilepsy by snake poison. 
The snake poison used was extracted from Crotalus 
adamanteus, injected in gradually increasing doses. 
The number of fits per annum was reduced in all the 
cases detailed, and this improvement was maintained 
after the treatment was stopped.—Lucien Godeaux ; 
Involutions having only a finite number of points be- 
longing to an algebraical surface.—M. Gunther: The 
general theory of systems of partial differential 
equations.—E. Baticle: The partial differential 
equations of the limiting equilibrium of a sandy mass, 
comprised between two surfaces of rectilinear profile. 
—Louis Benoist and Hippolyte Copaux : Application of 
the laws of transparency of matter to the X-rays to 
the determination of some contested atomic weights. 
The case of beryllium. The transparency of beryllium 
to X-rays corresponds to the atomic weight 9-1.— 
Georges Claude: The absorption of gases by carbon 
at low temperatures. (see page 120).;4,A. Leduc: 
The density and atomic weight of neon. Eighteen 
litres of neon containing some helium and nitrogen 
as impurities were purified by treatment with charcoal 
cooled with liquid air. The density found was 0-696, 
or nearly 3 per cent. higher than the value found by 
Ramsay and Travers (0-674). From this is deduced 
that the atomic weight of neon is exactly twenty times 
that of hydrogen, or 20:15 for O=16.—Jean Bielecki 
and Victor Henri: Contribution to the study of 
tautomerism. The quantitative study of the absorption 
of ultra-violet light by the derivatives of acetoacetic 
acid._—L. Moreau and E. Vinet: A method of deter- 
mining traces of arsenic of the order of a thousandth 
of a milligram. The method is based on the produc- 
tion of a silver mirror in a small glass U-tube con- 
taining silver nitrate.—Mil. Z. lovitchitch: The ab- 
sorption of carbon dioxide from the air by chromium 
hydroxide.—A. Joannis ; The constitution of potassium 
carbonyl. By the controlled action of water vapour 
upon the compound KCO obtained by the interaction 
of potassium and carbon monoxide, glycollic acid was 
obtained, according to the reaction, 
K.CO—CO.K+ H,.O=CH,.OK—CO.OK. 
—Félix Bidet: The hydrates of the primary amines. 
Normal and isoamylamines and isobutylamine com- 
bine with water vapour from the air and form well- 
crystallised hydrates, fusible below 100° C., and 
possessing high vapour pressures.—Const. A. Ktenas : 
The petrographical relations existing between the 
island of Seriphos and the neighbouring formations.— 
J. L. Vidal: The adaptation of the vine to the different 
conditions of life created by pruning at different periods 
and its consequences on the evolution of the reserve 
carbohydrates.—M. Marage: The action on certain 
organisms of an artificial current of water. An 
account of some experiments with the divining rod, 
in which the flow of water was controlled. For water 
flowing in pipes the experiments failed, as the person 
holding the divining twig was unable to detect the flow 
of water with certainty.—H. Coutiére: The ‘ocular 
tubercles *’ of podothalmic Crustacea.—P. Benoit : The 
formation of the gonophore in Tubularia indivisa.— 
Bernard Collin: The involution forms of ciliated Infu- 
soria in the renal organ of a Cephalopod.—Theodor 
