May 3, 1883] 



NATURE 



2 1 



a tube was too slight to be amenable to direct chemical test, but 

 the change operated by the light could be clearly demonstrated 

 by passing an electric discharge through two similar tubes, one 

 of which had and the other had not been exposed to the radiant 

 energy from a source of high potential. If space could be 

 thought to be filled with such vapour, of which there was much 

 evidence in proof, solar rotation would necessarily have the 

 effect of drawing such vapour towards its polar surfaces and 

 emitting it equatorially by an action independent of solar gravity, 

 and which might be likened to that of a blowing fan. When 

 reaching the solar photosphere, this circulating dissociated 

 vapour would, owing to its accumulated density, flash into flame, 

 and could thus be made to account in great measure for the 

 maintenance of solar radiation, whilst its continual dissociation 

 in space would account for the continuance of solar radiation 

 into space with >ut producing any perceivable calorific effect. 



Time did not permit him to enier more fully on these subjects, 

 which formed part of a solar hypothesis which he had ventured 

 lately to bring forward, his main object on this occasion having 

 been to elucidate the point of cardinal importance to that hypo- 

 thesis, that of the solar temperature. 



The lecture was illustrated by several experiments, showing 

 the methods by which the dependence of radiation upon temper- 

 ature had been arrived at. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Cambridge. — Mr. H. Marshall Ward, M.A., late Scholar of 

 Christ's College, First Class in the Natural Sciences Tripos, 

 1879, Lecturer at Owens College, and Fellow of Victoria Uni- 

 versity, has been elected Fellow of Christ's Coll-ge. 



It is prDposed to appoint a Curator of the new Archaeological 

 Museum at Cambridge at a stipend of 150/ a year. Valuable 

 contributions towards developing the Museum in the direction of 

 ethnology have been promised. 



In a discussion on the proposed immediate appointment of a 

 Professor of Physiology, it was mentioned that enlarged class. 

 rooms and a lecture-room, which did not exist, would be needed. 

 A hope was expressed that the Profes-orship of Pathology 

 would be filled up as soon as there was a reasonable prospect of 

 sufficient appliances in the form of laboratory, &c., being pro- 

 vided for the Professor. 



Mr. W. N. Stocker, M.A., Fellow of Brasenose, has been 

 appointed Professor of Physics at the Royal Indian Engineering 

 College, Cooper's Hill. Mr. Stocker took a first-class in mathe- 

 matics and also in natural science, and has been for the last eight 

 years Demonstrator in the Clarendon Laboratory. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Journal of the Russian Chemical and Physical Society, vol. xv. 

 fasc. I. — Researches on the naphtha of Caucasus, by MM. 

 Beilstein and Kurbatoff. The naphtha from Bakou consists 

 mostly of hydrocarbons of the C n H„„ series, identical with the 

 products of hydro^enisation of the aromatic series C n H 2n _ 6 . 

 That of the Tzarskiye Kolodtsy has a different composition ; it 

 contains but little of the hydrocarbons of the C n H 2 „ series, but 

 chiefly those of the C„H 2n .)_, types, with a mixture of those of 

 the aromatic series C n H 2 „_ 6 . This analysis explains why the 

 petroleum derived fro n the Bakou naph'ha, although having a 

 greater density together with the same volatility, burns brighter 

 than the American, as also the higher qualities of the oils- 

 received from this naphtha. Its hydrocarbons being all liquid it 

 contains but little paraffin, and ihe greasing nils may be cooled 

 to lower temperatures, without liberating paraffin. — On the use of 

 hyposulphite of ammonium, instead of the sulphide of am- 

 monium, in qualitative analysis, by A. Orlovsky. — On the 

 hydrogenisation of turpentine and cymol. by P. Orloff. — Addi- 

 tions to the theory of the action of chloride of ammonium. — On 

 the evaporation of liquids, by B. Sreznewsky, being the conclu- 

 sion of a treatise which has appeared in several preceding 

 numbers of the Journal. The conclusions arrived at are : the 

 velocity of evaporation is not constant ; the velocity of evapora- 

 tion of drops depends upon their height, and increases as the 

 height diminishes ; at a height of an average size it is propor- 

 tioned to the periphery of the basis. — An aerial calorimeter (a 

 project of), by N. Hesehus. — Elementary demonstration of the 

 pendulum formula;, by V. Wolkoff. 



Vol. xv. fasc. 2. — On the transformation of the primary 

 radical of propyl into a secondary, being a continuation of the 

 researches undertaken by MM. Kekule and Schrbter, on the 

 transformation of bromide into isopropyl under the in- 

 fluence of alluminium bromide. — On the heat of dissolution of 

 mixtures of salts, and on the principle of maximum work, by 

 P. Chrustchoff. — Analysis of the mineral waters of Slavinsk, in 

 the Government oi Lublin, by M. Kondakoff. They may be 

 considered as one of the best iron mineral waters, as they con- 

 tain the least mixture of other mineral substance; that is, 019 

 to o'22 parts of carbonate of iron out of 3' 18 to 3-38 parts of 

 other salts, against 037 to 4-36, contained in the water of Spa, 

 or 0-45 to 6-14, and 0-24 to 5-45 in those of Altwasser and 

 Reinerz. — On the chloride of pyrosulohuryle, by D. Konovaloff. 

 — Analysis of sulphur concretions in the fireproof clay from 

 Bakhmut, by M. Kondakoff.— On the structure of nitric com- 

 pounds of the fatty series, by M. Kissel. — On the permutations of 

 bases in solutions of their neutral salts, by Prof. Menshutkin 

 (analysed elsewhere). — On the specific heat of several products 

 of distillation of naphtha, by E. Kuhlin. — On a secondary pro- 

 duct obtained during the preparation of allyldimethyl carbinol, 

 by W. Lieff; it distilled at 165° to 185°, and its structure may 

 be represented as C 9 H la O.— On the critical temperature of 

 isomeric and homologous series, by A. Nadejdine. The suppo- 

 sition formerly made by the author as to the critical temper- 

 ature increasing in the same proportion as the temperature 

 of boiling is confirmed by experiments with a sufficient degree 

 of accuracy ; it would result that the functions which express 

 the dependency of the critical temperature upon the molecular 

 structure are the same as those expressing the same dependency 

 of the temperature of boiling, and differ only by their constants. 

 — On comets and solar radiation, by M. Schwedoff. — Several 

 conclusions from the theorem of Carnot, by M. Sreznewsky, 

 being a confii mation of the formula of Kirchhoff (" Uebereinen 

 Satz der mechanischen Warmetheorie ") for the expression of the 

 absorption of heat during the formation of saturated solutions, 

 and a verification of it for a certain number of salts. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, March 8. — "Note on the Reversal ol 

 Hydrogen Lines ; and on the Outburst of Hydrogen Lines when 

 Water is dropped into the Arc." By Professors Liveing and 

 Dewar. 



The concentration of the radiation of hydrogen in a small 

 number of spectral lines would lead us to expect that the absorp- 

 tion of light of the same refrangibility as those lines would, at 

 the temperature of incandescence, be correspondingly strong, 

 and that therefore the hydrogen lines would be easily reversed. 

 The mass of hydrogen which can be raised to a temperature 

 high enough to show the lines is, however, so small that, not- 

 withstanding the great absorptive power of hydrogen for the 

 rays which it emits, the reversal of the lines has not hitherto 

 been noticed. In fact, the lines are very readily reversed, and 

 the reversal may be easily observed. 



When a short induction-spark is taken between electrodes of 

 aluminium or magnesium in hydrogen at atmospheric pressure, a 

 large Leyden jar being connected with the secondary wire of the 

 coil, the hydrogen lines show no reversal ; but if the pressure of 

 the hydrogen be increased by half an atmosphere or even less, 1 

 the lines expand and a fine oark line may be seen in the middle 

 of the F line. As the pressure is increased, this dark line be- 

 comes stronger, so that at two atmospheres it is very decided. 

 As the F line expands with increase of pressure, the dirk line 

 expands too, and becomes a band. It is best seen when the 

 pressure is between two and three atmospheres. When the 

 pressure is further increased, the dark band becomes diffuse, 

 and at five atmospheres cannot be distinctly traced. No definite 

 reversal of the C line was observed under these circumstances. 

 The dispersion used, however, was only that of one prism. 



By using a higher dispersion the reversal of both the C and 

 F lines may be observed at lower pressures. For this purpose 

 a Plucker tube was used, filled with hydrogen and only 

 exhausted until the spark would pass readily when a large jar 

 was used. 



The light of the narrow part of the tube is, under these cir- 



1 The metallic gauge connected with the Cailletet pump used is not at all 

 sensitive, so the pressures here mentioned are only approximate. 



