May 28, 1914] 
NATURE 
228) 
to October, 1913, has recently been issued, and 
its chief contents are here summarised. 
The first paper is a contribution by Dr. Beckmann 
on the use of various solvents, 
(SO,, SO,(OH)CI, CrO.Cl,, SO.Cl,), 
for ebullioscopic determinations. He finds that many 
organic compounds give normal results in sulphony! 
chloride; but that for one reason or another the 
others are unsuitable. In a second paper the same 
author describes a Bunsen burner of porcelain, its 
object being to prevent the coloration of the flame 
by metallic incrustations in analytical examinations, 
and so masking the presence of small quantities of 
salts. In a third paper the constant for iodine when 
used as a solvent in cryoscopic determinations, was 
estimated, the value found for a large number of metals 
and metallic iodides, varying between 200 and 211. 
As an ebullioscopic solvent iodine gave a constant of 
102 to 107. Taking 105 as the mean, the formule 
for aluminium and ferric chloride were found to be 
Al,I, and Fe.I,. As in the case of the cryoscopic 
method, the alkaline iodides gave abnormally high 
molecular weights. 
In a further paper a new sodium lamp is described. 
It is so constructed that a spray of sodium hydroxide 
or carbonate is driven into a bunsen burner supplied 
at the orifice with oxygen. The spraying is produced 
by nickel electrodes let into the vessel near the bottom 
of the burner. In another paper which is in reality 
a continuation of the above, a method is described for 
spraying salt solutions by dropping the solutions on 
to a horizontal revolving disc, and has been utilised 
for obtaining a steady colour intensity in the flame. 
In collaboration with R. Hauslian, Beckmann has 
studied the molecular weight of selenium, which had 
been previously found to correspond to Se., as deter- 
mined by its cryoscopic effect on iodine, whereas in 
methylene iodide and phosphorus it is Se,, and Se, 
respectively. They found that the dissociation of the 
molecule in iodine is not due to any thermal effect 
as sulphur has the molecular weight of S, under 
similar conditions, nor is-there any union with the 
iodine. — 
The series of papers published by Dr. R. Willstatter 
begins with an account of the interesting hydrocarbon 
cyclooctatetrene which he has recently prepared. 
It behaves like an ethenoid compound inasmuch as 
it is rapidly oxidised by permanganate; is readily 
reduced by hydrogen in presence of colloidal platinum 
to cyclooctane, and combines with.-a molecule. of 
bromine and hydrogen bromide. to-form C,H,Br,: and 
C,.H,Br respectively.. Moreover it cannot. be. nitrated 
either by nitric acid or. benzoyl nitrate. It therefore 
is very unlike an aromatic compound such as benzene. 
Like benzene, however, it exhibits no exaltation of 
molecular refraction nor of dispersion for Hg — H,, 
but, in consequence of a higher dispersion in the 
violet regions, shows. distinct exaltation. for. H,—~H,. 
It shows. no absorption bands but selective general 
absorption. The pure substance has a yellow colour, 
and solidifies . at to a pale yellow crystalline 
mass. In another paper Willstatter and King describe 
the preparation of dihydronaphthalene and its reduc- 
tion products with hydrogen and platinum. It be- 
haves like benzene with an unsaturated side-chain 
such aS styrene, C,H;.CH=CH., inasmuch as’ the 
partly reduced ring in dihydronaphthalene is much 
more rapidly reduced than the other. In this respect 
naphthalene is sharply distinguished. from. dihydro- 
naphthalene, for in the former case no tetrahydro- 
derivative is obtained at whatever stage the reduction 
is interrupted, but the decahydro-compound with 
larger or smaller quantities of the unaltered hydro- 
NO. 2326, VOL. 93] 
949 
oe 
carbon. They still leave the formula of naphthalene 
an open question. 
In conjunction with Wirth, Willstatter has further 
_ extended the method of exhaustive methylation which 
he has successfully used in the preparation of dihydro- 
benzene, dihydronaphthaiene, cyclobutene,  cyclo- 
heptene, and cyclooctene, to the formation of vinyl- 
acetylene, CH:C.CH:CH,., from the dibromide of 
butadiene. It is a gas boiling at 2-3°, and forms a 
greenish-yellow copper salt, and a colourless crystal- 
line silver salt. ; 
The memoir on chlorophyll by Willstatter and 
Forsén, which follows, has already been published 
in extenso in Liebig’s Annalen, vol. ccexcvi., and is 
a continuation of previous work on the same subject. 
It is concerned with methods for introducing mag- 
nesium into the porphyrin molecule by Grignard’s 
reaction and into other chlorophyll derivatives by heat- 
ing with magnesium oxide and an alcoholic potash 
solution under pressure. 
A memoir of equal importance and closely related 
to the one on chlorophyll is on the structure of haemo- 
globin, the red colouring matter of the blood,.-by 
Willstatter and M. Fischer. The subject. has already 
been studied by Kuster, Piloty, H. Fischer, and others. 
Haemoglobin readily breaks up into hamatin, which 
is a coloured body and globin, a- colourless. protein. 
From hematin by heating with hydrochloric acid, 
hemin is obtained in reddish-brown crystals having 
the formula, C,,H,;,0,N,FeCl, which loses its atom 
of iron on treatment with hydrobromic acid giving 
haematoporphorin, If the latter is treated with 
alcoholic potash it yields hamoporphorin, which with 
soda-lime loses carbon dioxide and forms aetio- 
porphorin, a substances identical with the product of 
disintegration of the chlorophyll molecule. The rela- 
tion of hamoporphorin to aetioporphorin is repre- 
sented by the formule, C,,H,,O,N, and C,,H,,N,. 
As Fischer stated in his inaugural address, “this 
fact denotes a species of consanguinity between the 
animal and vegetable kingdoms. This must, how- 
ever, be of great antiquity, that is to say, to date 
from remote times when the animal and vegetable 
kingdoms were as yet not distinct.’’ As aetioporphorin 
can be broken down in successive stages to dimethy] 
ethyl pyrrole, it is possible to devise a_ structural 
formula which, according to Willstatter, takes the 
following form :— 
CH: 
Fetal 
CHE GiGHs yl—C 
Pag se! 
GAs is C—€g >C—CH 
SC xe 
CAHEKG < JO.Cs 
NH IiN 
eich ut Soc 
Chi. C€—@- Gri. €rH,.€—E. CH. 
Aetioporphorin 
Other papers by Willstatter° and Zechmeister de- 
scribe the hydrolysis of cellulose by. strong hydro- 
chloric acid containing -40-42 per cent. of the gas 
(sp. gr. 1:2). The cellulose rapidly and easily dissolves 
in the strong acid, and after a time the solution con- 
tains only glucose. A meihod of oxidation of olefinic 
compounds such as_ tetrahydrobenzene, limonene, 
menthene, etc., by the use of osmium in presence of 
oxygen gas is the subject of a paper by Willstatter 
and Sonnenfeld. 
In the radio-active section of the institute Drs. Hahn 
and Meitner have studied the question of radio- 
actinium and its position in the periodic system. As 
the radio-element evolves both a and Bf rays, and there- 
fore indicates a mixture, an attempt was made, 
; though unsuccessfully, to discover the second con- 
