306 
mimetic female form occurring, but in very small pro- 
portions, along the tropical west coast. The facts are 
best explained by supposing that hippocoon is a Men- 
delian recessive, dionysus a dominant, and that the 
male parent was a heterozygote. 
Dr. Vaughan Cornish: Photographs illustrative of 
landslides and upheavals on the Panama Canal. The 
photographs were taken in 1910, 1912, and Ig14. 
That of the Culebra Cut in 1910 shows: an upheaval 
of the solid rock of the canal bottom due to un- 
balanced pressure of the banks. That of the Naos I. 
breakwater, taken in 1912. shows the upheaval of the 
sea bottom at a distance from the subsiding mass of 
the breakwater. The photographs of the Cucuracha 
slide, in 1914, show the downward flow of inclined 
strata. The ground is broken for a height of 580 ft. 
above canal bottom. 
Mr. Charles Dawson: Lower canine tooth of the 
Piltdown man (Eoanthropus dawsoni). This canine 
tooth was found on August 30, 1913, near the spot 
where the right mandibular ramus of Eoanthropus was 
discovered in r912. As it is a lower canine of the 
right side, is of a new form, and has been much worn 
by mastication, it presumably belongs to the same 
jaw. It is relatively large, and is shown to have 
completely interlocked with the upper canine, as in 
the apes. Mr. R. Eliiot Steel: Paleolithic engraving 
of a horse on a bone from Sherborne, Dorset. The 
bone is part of the rib of a horse, and was found in 
an old heap of débris from a quarry in the Inferior 
Oolite, near Sherborne. It was probably derived from 
a rock-shelter destroyed by quarrying. Mr. W. N. 
Edwards: ‘“‘Paper coal’? from the Coal Measures of 
Central Russia. The ‘‘paper coal’’ forms a_ bed 
3-4 ft. thick, over an area of several square kilo- 
metres. It is composed exclusively of the practically 
unchanged cuticles of a Lepidodendroid plant, with a 
certain amount of carbonaceous matter. It has been 
suggested that the preservation of the cuticles alone 
was due to selective bacterial action, and Renault con- 
siders that a species of micrococcus is present. 
CATALYSIS’ IN ‘ORGANIC, CHEMISTRY. 
Y the invitation of the University of London, Prof. 
Paul Sabatier, of Toulouse, delivered two lec- 
tures on catalysis at King’s College on May 14 and 15. 
On Wednesday evening, May 13, he was entertained 
by the Faraday Society at a complimentary dinner, at 
which Prof. Arrhenius and Prof. Heyn, of Berlin, 
were also present as guests. The two lectures were 
delivered in French, and were illustrated by a series 
of experiments in which the catalytic action of nickel, 
of copper, of alumina, of zinc oxide, of titanium 
dioxide, and of thoria were shown in actual operation. 
Prof. Sabatier is a whole-hearted advocate of the chem- 
ical as opposed to the physical theory of catalysis. 
He holds that in all cases intermediate compounds are 
formed, e.g. PtO in catalytic oxidations in presence 
of platinum, and NiH, in catalytic reductions in 
presence of finely divided nickel. | He finds ample 
support for his views in the totally different effects 
that are often produced by catalysts which are almost 
identical in their physical properties. | Thus formic 
acid vapour is decomposed wholly into hydrogen and 
carbon dioxide when passed over zinc oxide, but into 
water and carbonic oxide when passed over titanium 
dioxide :— 
ZnO TiO» 
Ho+ €O;, ~—— H-€0.0H —— H,0+ CoO: 
Ethyl alcohol in like manner may be converted into 
aldehyde and hydrogen by finely divided copper, or 
into ethylene and water by alumina :— 
NO, 2325. sO 2) 
NATORE 
[May 21, 1914 
Cu Al203 
H, EGH..CHO <—— Cll, Ch,0H—— FO © re 
Different catalysts also differ very wideiy in their 
efficiency in promoting any given chemical change. 
Alumina can be used very effectively to convert alcohol 
into ethylene and water, but it becomes clogged with 
tarry matter which cannot be burnt off without 
destroying the catalytic properties of the oxide; thoria, 
on the other hand, becomes contaminated less readily, 
and can be purified by ignition without losing its 
activity. Again, thoria is a very useful catalyst for 
converting acids into ketones, e.g. :— 
2CH,.CO.OH —> CH;.CO.CH,+CO,+H,0O; 
but titanium dioxide is so efficient and acts at so low 
a temperature that it can also be used to prepare alde- 
hydes from mixtures of fatty acids with formic acid, 
and esters from acids (such as formic acid) or alcohols 
(such as the secondary and tertiary alcohols), which 
lose water so easily that it is difficult to esterify 
them without decomposition. On the other hand, 
the best catalyst for preparing ketones and other 
derivatives from benzoic acid is ordinary chalk. A 
very important catalyst is manganous oxide, which can 
be prepared easily and cheaply from manganous 
carbonate, and can be used in almost every case for 
the preparation of ketones in place of thoria_ or 
titanium dioxide. 
Prof. Sabatier laid stress on the reversibility of 
catalytic actions. Thus nickel will promote dehydro- 
genation as well as hydrogenation, and very small 
differences of conditions are required to cause the 
reversal of actions such as those which are shown by 
the equations :— 
C,H,O+ H, => C,H,O 
CoH¢ + 3H y= Ce Apo. 
An interesting account was given of the way in 
which acetylene in contact with nickel at different 
temperatures and in presence of varying proportions 
of hydrogen gives rise to complex products which are 
in every respect identical with natural petroleums. By 
varying the conditions the product can be made to 
resemble the four chief natural types as derived from 
North America, from the Caucasus, from Galicia, and 
from Roumania. These observations suggest a theory 
of the origin of petroleum that has a far higher claim 
to acceptance than most of those that have been put 
forward hitherto. 
Prof. Sabatier touched only lightly on the technical 
applications of his new methods. The vast industry 
which has sprung up within the last two or three 
years, in this country, on the Continent, and in 
America, was illustrated by two small samples of oils 
that had been hardened by the action of hydrogen in 
presence of finely divided nickel; reference was 
also made to the fact that in the process of hardening 
the disagreeable taste and smell of the fish-oils are 
completely removed. 
It is not too much to say that Prof. Sabatier has 
introduced a new era in organic chemistry. The ad- 
vantages of catalytic methods are obvious: the cata- 
lyst will last for an indefinite period unless its activity 
is destroyed by overheating, which is generally fatal, 
or by “poisonous ”’ impurities, such as sulphur or the 
halogens which quickly arrest the catalytic hydro- 
genation of organic compounds by nickel. The only 
materials required are those which are essential con- 
stituents of the products, and in almost every case 
the first effect of the successful introduction of catalytic 
methods is to bring about a great reduction in the cost 
of production. The rapid extension of these methods 
is therefore a matter of great scientific and technical 
importance. TM 
