420 
NATURE 
[JuNE 18, 1914 
solution, was prepared by repeated fractional pre- 
cipitation with brucine, followed by decomposition of 
the brucine salt with ammonia; but the separation of 
the substance in a state of optical purity presents 
great difficulty. It is remarkable that the optically 
active ammonium salt, which, containing only one 
carbon atom in the molecule corresponding to less 
than 5 per cent. of carbon, is the simplest optically 
active substance known, retains its activity with great 
persistence, and cannot be caused to racemise by any 
of the ordinary agents employed for that purpose.— 
Dr. Fenton: Note on the detection of malonic acid.— 
F. E. E. Lamplough and J. T. Scott: Some further 
experiments on eutectic growth. The method of 
‘‘guenching”’ an alloy during the solidification of the 
eutectic has been used to ascertain the character of 
the eutectic during its growth. Resulting from the 
investigation it has been possible to classify eutectics 
into two classes: (1) those of spherical radiating 
growth, (2) those exhibiting definite crystal contours. 
The former are always produced when both primaries 
are of rounded contour, the latter if one primary is 
of crystal shape. The cause of ‘‘halos’’ surrounding 
primary crystals has been demonstrated.—W. H. Mills, 
H. V. Parker, and R. W. Prowse: The resolution of 
5-nitrohydrindene-2-carboxylic acid. With the object 
of obtaining an optically active derivative of benzene 
in which to account for the optical activity it would 
be necessary to take into consideration the relative 
distribution in space of the groups attached to the 
benzene nucleus 5-nitrohydrindene-2-carboxylic acid 
(III) has been prepared, and has been shown to be 
resolvable into two optically active components.— 
R. D. Kleeman: (1) The nature of the internal work 
done during the evaporation of a liquid. (2) The work 
done in the formation of a surface transition layer 
of a liquid mixture of substances.—N. Wiener: A con- 
tribution to the theory of relative position. 
EDINBURGH. 
Royal Society, May 4.—Prof. James Geikie, presi- 
dent, in the chair.—Dr. D. M. Y. Sommerville: De- 
scription and exhibition of a four-dimensional model. 
The analogue of the icosahedron in three-dimensional 
space is the four-dimensional figure bounded by six 
hundred regular tetrahedra. The model showed a pro- 
jection of this figure in three dimensions, one vertex 
being used as the centre of projection. The model 
showed the successive zones of vertices which surround 
any vertex.—Dr. C. G. Knott: Changes of electrical 
resistance accompanying longitudinal and transverse 
magnetisation in iron and steel. |The experiments 
established for iron and steel results very similar to 
those previously obtained with nickel. Thin ribbons 
about 2 cm. wide were used. It was found that the in- 
crease of resistance under a given longitudinal field was 
diminished when this longitudinal field was superposed 
upon a steadily maintained transverse field. In high 
transverse fields the increase due to the superposed 
longitudinal field was barely measurable; but in no 
case did the change become a decrease, as was noticed 
in the case of nickel. Again, the diminution of resist- 
ance due to the action of a transverse field became 
markedly increased when the transverse field was 
superposed upon a_ steadily maintained transverse. 
This curious result had also been obtained 
with nickel.—Dr. R. Campbell: Rocks from Gough 
Island, South Atlantic (Scottish National Antarctic 
Expedition). The specimens, which were collected by 
Dr. J. H. Harvey Pirie, were, with the exception of a 
small piece of limestone, all igneous, being mainly 
soda trachytes, trachydolerites, basalts, an essexite, 
and tuffs. The collection showed that the rocks of 
Gough Island had all becn derived from a soda-rich 
NO) 2320, Vil. O32] 
alkali magma, and that in all probability they had had 
a common origin with the rocks of the other volcanic 
islands in the Mid-Atlantic. 
May 25.—Dr. B. N. Peach, vice-president, in the 
chair.—A. D. Darbishire and M. W. Gray: The in- 
heritance of certain characters of the wool of sheep. 
The results, which dealt chiefly with thickness of 
fibre, were obtained with two crosses: (1) between the 
Southdown and the wild sheep of the island of Soay, 
(2) between the Southdown and the black-face. With 
regard to thickness of fibre, Southdown was almost 
completely dominant over the Soay sheep; and in the 
second case the cross with the Southdown had the 
effect of entirely cutting out the long coarse fibres of 
the black-face fleece. The mean character of the first- 
cross wool was almost exactly intermediate between 
those of the two parents of the cross.—Dr. J. H. 
Ashworth : A new species of Sclerocheiius, with a revi- 
sion of the genus. There were only two known valid 
species, S. minutus, Grube, and §. antarcticus, the 
latter a new species represented by two specimens, 
one obtained by the Scottish National Antarctic Expe- 
dition at the South Orkneys, the other (Eumenia 
oculata, Gravier) by the second French Antarctic Ex- 
pedition at Petermann Island, Graham Land. The 
external features of both species were described and 
figured, and the diagnosis of the genus amended. 
S. minutus was recorded for the first time from 
Ireland, Blacksod Bay and Clew Bay, co. Mayo. 
Pazis. 
Academy of Sciences, June 8.—M. P. Appell in the 
chair.—G. Humbert and Paul Lévy: Singular Abelian 
functions of three variables——A. Haller and R. 
Cornubert: Syntheses by means of sodium amide. 
Derivatives of $-methylcyclopentanone. The pre- 
liminary introduction of an a-methyl group is neces- 
sary, before sodium amide can be usefully employed 
for further methylation. The final product is 
aaBa'a’-pentamethylcyclopentanone. — Charles Moureu 
and Georges Mignonac : The diagnosis of the primary, 
secondary, and tertiary bases. An ethereal solution of 
ethylmagnesium bromide serves as a reagent ; secondary 
and primary bases giving off a molecule of ethane for 
each replaceable hydrogen molecule, whilst tertiary 
bases give no gas evolution.—Amand Gautier and Paul 
Clausmann: Fluorine in mineral waters. Fluorine is 
present in all mineral waters, hot or cold, in amounts 
ranging from o-3 to 6-3 milligrams per litre. Waters 
of volcanic origin contain the largest proportion of 
fluorides.—André Blondel: The harmonic analysis of 
alternating currents by resonance.—A, Lacroix was 
elected perpetual secretary for the physical sciences in 
the place of the late Ph. van Tieghem.—M. Coggia : 
Observation of the comet 1914b (Zlatinsky) made at 
the Observatory of Marseilles. Position given for May 
28.—J. Guillaume; Observations of the sun made at 
the Observatory of Lyons during the first quarter of 1914. 
—Alex. Véronnet : Some causes explaining the heat of 
the sun. The hypotheses regarding the source of the 
sun’s heat—chemical action, radio-activity, attraction 
of meteorites—are critically examined and shown to 
be insufficient. The Helmholtz theory of the heat 
being due to the work of contraction is shown to be 
best in accord with facts, although even this view 
gives a shorter life for the sun than is required by 
geology.—Maurice Gevrey : The analytical properties of 
the solutions of partial differential equations.—Richard 
Suppantschitsch : A development in series of the powers 
of a polynomial.—Frédéric Riesz’: “Trigonometrical 
polynomials.—Serge Bernstein: The absolute converg- 
ence of trigonometrical series.—T. H. Gronwall : Some 
methods of -summation and their application to 
| Fourier’s series.—B. Bouliguine: A property of the 
