94 



A^.^ TURE 



[May 



190 1 



would be valuable to him and he would make use of them in 

 his calculations. He was soiry, however, that the authors had 

 dealt with empirical formula instead of rational formula; de- 

 ducible from the theory of gases. Dr. Chree asked how the 

 temperatures were measured. Mr. Rose-Innes said that re- 

 course had been had to empirical formula; because they found 

 theoretical formula; useless. He gave examples of the failure 

 of well-known equations to satisfy experimental results. The 

 temperatures were measured with a constant volume air ther- 

 mometer, a small correction less than the errors of experiment 

 being employed to reduce the readings to the thermodynamic 

 scale. — The Society then adjourned until May 31. 



Chemical Society, May 2.— Prof. Emerson Reynolds, 

 president, in the chair. — The following papers were read ; — 

 The synthetical formation of bridged-rings. Part I. Some 

 derivatives of bicyclopentane, by \V. H. Perkin, jun., and J. F. 

 Thorpe. Trimethylketobicyclopentanedicarboxylic acid, 

 .C(CO.,H).CMe.CO.,H 

 CMe.A I " I 

 \CH CO 



when digested with potash, yields the lactone of trimethyl- 

 hydroxybutanetricarboxylic acid. 



CO. 



O — C(CO..H).CHMe.CO„H 



I " 

 -CHo.CMe., 



the anhydride of which is converted into the anhydride of a 

 stereoisomeric acid by distillation. Ethyl dimethyldicarboxy- 



/C(C02Et).CH(CO,Et)., 

 trimethylenemalonate, CMe.,'^ i , is simi- 



'^CH.CO.,Et 

 larly hydrolysed by potash giving the lactones of the two isomeric 

 dimethylhydroxybutanetricarboxylic acids, 



.0 — C(CO.,H).CH„.CO,,H 

 CO< I " 



Cn„ CMe., 

 and 



CO.,H.CH.CMe., 



I ■ >CH.CH„.CO.,H. 



o— CO— ■ 



— Lead silicates in relation to pottery manufacture, by T. E. 

 Thorpe and C. Simmonds. Lead silicates or borosilicates, or 

 complex silicates of lead and other metals, can be used instead 

 of the oxides or carbonates as a means of introducing lead into 

 pottery glazes. It is generally recognised that the employment 

 of lead silicates for this purpose on the Continent has greatly 

 tended to minimise the risk of lead-poisoning ; this is due to 

 the fact that the lead silicates used in the continental factories 

 are of a high degree of insolubility so far as the lead is con- 

 cerned. On examining a number of lead silicates used or pro- 

 posed for use in England, many were found to be as easily 

 attacked by dilute acids as the oxides or carbonates. The con- 

 dition on which the insolubility of the lead depends was found 

 to be, primarily, the existence of a certain ratio betsveen the 

 whole of the base-oxides, on the one hand, and the whole of 

 the acid-oxides on the other. Provided that this ratio, 



number of acid molecules 



number of base molecules' 

 falls within certain definite limits, the amount of lead extracted 

 by dilute acids, such as the hydrochloric acid in the gastric 

 juice, is always small. — The preparation and properties of 2 : 6- 

 dibromo-4-nilrosophenol, by M. O. Forsler and W. Robertson. 

 This substance is prepared by the action of potassium hypo- 

 bromite on paranitrosophenol in potassium hydroxide solution ; 

 a number of its derivatives are described. — The chlorination of 

 toluene, by W. P. Wynne. 



Geological Society, April 24.— Mr. J. J. H. Teall, 

 V.P.R.S., president, in the chair. — Notes on two well-sections, 

 by the Rev. R. Ashington EuUen. The well-section at South- 

 wark passes through sand and gravel, &c., 34 feet, London 

 clay 75 feet, Woolwich and Reading beds 56 feet 9 inches, and 

 Thanet sand 36 feet 6 inches, into chalk which was bored to a 

 depth of 14S feet. The well-section at Dallinghoo post-office, 

 near Wickham Market (Suffolk), penetrated 53 feet of blue 

 chalky boulder-clay, into 20 feet of sand and gravel, water being 

 found at a dejjth of 79 feet. — On the geological and physical 

 development of Antigua, by Prof. J. W. Spencer. Antigua and 

 Barbuda rise from the bank which occupies the north-eastern 



NO. 1647, VOL. 64] 



portion of the chain of the Lesser Antilles. The pari of the 

 bank on which these two islands are founded is submerged to 

 the very uniform depth of about 100 feet, but from other island- 

 groups it is separated by depressions of 1800 to 2500 feet. It is 

 concluded from the erosion-leatures of the region that the region 

 was an extensive land-surface, probably at least 2000 feet higher 

 than now, during the Mio- Pliocene period, and was reduced by 

 denudation to a comparatively low elevation before the close of 

 that time. This was followed by a submergence (the Friar's 

 Hill) to a depth of 200 feet below the present altitude. At the 

 close of the Pliocene period there was another elevation to an 

 extent probably exceeding 3000 feet, as shown by the channels 

 on the submarine plateau between Antigua and Guadeloupe. 

 This did not continue sufficiently long to complete the dissection 

 of the tablelands, and consequently the Antigua- Barbuda mass 

 remains intact. Then followed a subsidence culminating in a 

 75-foot submergence, a re-elevation to 100 feet above the present 

 level, when the shallow channels in the submarine bank were 

 formed, and possibly one or two other small movements. — On 

 the geological and physical development of Guadeloupe, by 

 Prof J. W. Spencer. The Guadeloupe group is separated from 

 the Antigua and Dominica groups by depressions 2000 feet deep. 

 Much of Guadeloupe itself consists of eruptive rocks, evidently 

 as old as the igneous base of Antigua. The land-surface during 

 the Mio-Pliocene period appears to have been 2000 feet above 

 the present level, but it was submerged 200 feet at the close of 

 the Pliocene period during the accumulation of the Lafondeand 

 Lower Petit ISourg gravels and loams. There was a re-elevation 

 of about 3000 feet in the early Pleistocene period, and during 

 this epoch Elephas could have crossed from the continent. 

 This was followed by a depression to 100 feet or more below 

 the present level, a re-elevation to 150 feet, submergence below 

 the present level with growth of corals, and the elevation of 

 these to six or eight feet above the sea. — On the geological and 

 physical development of Anguilla, St. Martin, St. Bartholomew 

 and Sombrero, by Prof. J. W. Spencer. Deep channels, not 

 less than 1800 feet deep, separate the bank on which this group 

 is founded from the banks to the north and south. The St. 

 Martin plateau vvas a land-surface throughout the Mio-Pliocene 

 period, during the earlier part of which it appears to have stood 

 2500 feet above its present level, and was probably connected 

 with the now neighbouring insular masses, from which it was 

 disconnected by denudation during a very long period of atmo- 

 spheric activity, followed by a subsidence, so as to bring the 

 present surface of the submarine banks to a level so low that 

 the undulating features of a base-level of erosion could be formed 

 on them ; for, during the period when the deep and broad 

 depres.sions on the Antillean chain were being fashioned, the 

 now isolated island-groups stood out as table-mountains, which 

 were slowly being eaten away by atmospheric agents. There 

 was next a subsidence to about 200 feet below the present level, 

 about the close of the Pliocene period, followed by a re-elevation 

 to 3000 feet, as shown within the area, but in reality much 

 more. It was during this early epoch of the Pleistocene that 

 the great rodents described by Prof. Cope reached here from 

 South America, but the race continued to live here sufficiently 

 long to give rise to distinct species. — On the geological and 

 physical development of the St. Christopher Chain and Saba 

 Banks, by Prof. J. W. Spencer. The St. Christopher (St. 

 Kitts) ridge rises from 2000 to 2S00 feet above the submarine 

 Antillean plateau, and is for the most part covered with shallow 

 water, except between St. Kitts and Montserrat, where a 

 depression reaches 2592 feet, and between Statia iSt. Eustacius) 

 and Saba, where it reaches 1200 feet. Relics of old igneous 

 formations are found on the islands, but in most places they are 

 covered by more recent volcanic formations. The group appears 

 to have had the same physical history as the neighbouring 

 groups of islands. 



May 8.— Mr. J. J. H. Teall, V.P.R.S., president, in the chair. 

 — The influence of the winds upon climate during the Pleistocene 

 epoch ; a palxo-meteorological explanation of some geological 

 problems, by F. W. Harmer. The views taken in this paper 

 afi'ord a simpler explanation of geological facts than those 

 usually adopted. Instead of supposing that the climatic changes 

 of the Great Ice Age, several times recurrent at intervals of a 

 few thousand years, were due to astronomical or physical causes, 

 it is suggested that the climate of the northern hemisphere being, 

 from some unexplained cause, colder than that of our era, con- 

 ditions of comparative warmth or cold may have been more or 

 less local, affecting the great continental areas at difi'erent periods. 



