July 28, 1904] 



NATURE 



anhydrides, which have the general formula R.CO.O.NO, 

 are obtained by the interaction, at the temperature of a 

 mixture of ice and salt, of nitrosyl chloride with the silver 

 salts of the acids named. They form yellowish oils which 

 may be distilled in a current of carbon dioxide at tempera- 

 lures not exceeding 70°. On being heated, the vaporised 

 anhydrides explode with violence, so that especial methods 

 had to be devised for their analysis. By water the anhy- 

 drides are decomposed into nitrous anhydride and the corre- 

 sponding organic acid. 



Is' the same number of the Gazzetta L. Francesconi and 

 \. Sciacca establish the remarkable result that, at the 

 temperature of liquid air, nitric oxide cannot be made to 

 combine with a larger proportion of oxygen than that corre- 

 sponding with the production of nitrous anhydride. Only 

 at temperatures above —110° does nitrous anhydride com- 

 bine with oxygen to form the peroxide N,Oj. .\t —150° 

 nitric oxide readily reduces the peroxide to nitrous anhydride, 

 whilst the latter is stable, under the ordinary atmospheric 

 pressure, at all temperatures below -21°. The pure 

 anhydride is, at —185°, a dark blue solid which on being 

 melted forms a dark blue liquid. 



To part iii. of vol. i. of Records of the Albany Museum 

 Dr. R. Broom contributes four short papers on reptilian 

 and amphibian remains from the Karoo series. Special 

 interest attaches to an anomodont hind foot on account of 

 the mammalian affinities exhibited by the tarsus. A new 

 genus of labyrinthodont (Cyclotosaurus) and one of an 

 endothiodont anomodont (Chelyoposaurus) are described. 



The Annual Report and Transactions of the Manchester 

 Microscopical Society for 1903 has just been issued, and is 

 of an encouraging nature. The society has now 181 

 members as compared w-ith 170 at the end of 1902, and the 

 financial statement is of a satisfactory character. The 

 address which was delivered in December by Prof. S. J. 

 Hickson, F.R.S., as president, on " \'ariations " is printed 

 in the volume. 



In the Physikalische Zeitschrift (No. 14) W. Seitz j 

 describes a method of measuring the intensity of the rays 

 given off by radio-active bodies, in which the converse 

 principle to that adopted by Strutt and by Paschen is made 

 use of. Instead of measuring the positive charge which 

 accumulates on a radio-active body in a vacuum, the magni- 

 tude of the negative charge produced by the impact of the 

 rays themselves on an insulated metallic disc suspended in 

 an exhausted glass vessel is determined. The apparatus 

 used lends itself particularly well to the study of the absorp- 

 tion of the rays caused by the interposition of thin sheets 

 of various materials. It is shown that the law found by 

 Lenard to govern the absorption of the kathode rays roughly 

 applies also to the $ radiations, namely, that for unit surface 

 the same absorption is caused by equal " masses " of the 

 different materials, these masses being measured by the 

 product of thickness and density. But the law is only 

 approximately true, and, in the case of the elements, there 

 is an increase in the absorption, for equal masses per unit 

 of area, with an increase in the atomic weight. 



-Vmo^'O papers in the Verhandhmgen der k.k. geologischen 

 ReichsanstaU for 1904, we note a study by Father R. Hand- 

 mann of the Congeria-fauna of Leobersdorf, near Vienna 

 (p. 48). The author sustains the view of Dr. Brusina, that 

 this fauna is a northern offshoot from a Croatian centre 

 of development. Dr. O. .\mpferer (p. 73) describes in detail 

 the relics of great landslips from the mass of the Tschirgant 

 above the valley of the Inn. These probably occurred in 

 late Giacial times. Travellers by road in this district will 

 NO. 18 I 3, VOL. 70] 



know how to this day the hillsides are in a state of unrest 

 and instability. Herr C. von John (p. 104) furnishes a paper 

 of interest to chemists and engineers on the different deduc- 

 tions that may be arrived at as to the heating power of 

 coals, according to the condition and treatment of the 

 sulphur present. This element may exist in organic com- 

 bination, or in iron pyrites, or in a sulphate, and the mode 

 of calculation adopted may seriously affect the statement of 

 the oxygen present. 



In the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society for 

 June, Dr. A. E. Wright discusses the following four 

 methods of measuring the magnification of a microscope 

 and its elements : — (i) use of a focusing lens placed above 

 the ocular for bringing the emergent rays to a focus in 

 the plane of a suitable measuring scale ; (2) separate 

 measurements of the magnifying powers of objective and 

 ocular; (3) measurements depending on Helmholtz's for- 

 mula ; and (4) methods involving the production of a 

 fiduciary phenomenon by means of a diffraction grating. 



The Royal Engineers' Journal for June contains the 

 description of a new form of slide rule invented by Major 

 F. J. Anderson. The advantages claimed for it appear, so 

 far as can be judged from the description, to consist in 

 the fact that it can be used with a duodecimal instead of 

 a decimal scale of notation, and that the numbering of the 

 lines is made absolute, there being separate and parallel 

 scales on the upper limb for numbers from i to Vio, Vioto 

 10, and so forth, and on the lower limb for the square roots 

 of these numbers. Those interested in slide rules will 

 doubtless compare the present instrument with the circular 

 slide rule and the form proposed some time ago, in which 

 the graduations formed a spiral line on the surface of a 

 cylindrical ruler. 



In the Parents' Review for July, Prof. J. Arthur Thom- 

 son gives a suggestive paper on " Nature and Nurture," in 

 which he discusses some of the problems of inheritance and 

 shows that much may be done to mould the young in 

 spite of the factors of inheritance. Dr. Leslie Mackenzie 

 discusses normal growth in the school ages, dealing with 

 such subjects as work, play, sleep, and diet ; Dr. Clouston 

 gives some useful hints on nervous diseases and symptoms 

 of the school age, and Mr. George Smith discusses develop- 

 mental exercise at school. If parents and others in charge 

 of the young would study such articles as these and put 

 into practice what they teach, the race would grow up 

 healthier and happier. 



The last three numbers of the Bulletin of the St. Peters- 

 burg Society of Naturalists (2, 3, 4, for 1904) contain a 

 number of interesting communications : — " On the Respir- 

 ation and the Biology of Enzymes," by I. Warschawsky, 

 S. Kostytschew, N. Maximoff, and M. Lestsch ; " On the 

 Tertiary Formations of Crimea and Western Caucasus," 

 by V. Bogatscheff and J. Mikhailovsky, both giving ex- 

 tensive lists of the fossils they have found; "On the 

 Geology of Samara," by W. Lehmann ; "On the Peat- 

 bogs of Novgorod," by W. Sukatcheff ; " On the Lichens 

 in the Sayans, " by A. Elenkin ; "On the Volcanic Rocks 

 of the Trialet Mountains in the Caucasus," by B. Kolenko ; 

 " On the Fossils Found in the Bolshezemelsk Tundra 

 (North-eastern Russia)," by W. Chitrowo ; "On the Sur- 

 vival of the Heart in Mammals," by Th. Thur ; " On the 

 Morphology of the Phagocyte Organs of Insects," by 

 O. Dawydoff; "On the Influence of Quinine on the Re- 

 spiration of Germinating Seeds," by J. Smirnoff; "On 

 the Morphology of the Rust-fungi," by W. Tranzschel ; and 

 several smaller notes. All of them are summed up in 

 French or in German. 



