192 



NA TURE 



\Jtme 21, 1 683 



tions of the barometer, the conclusions of which were based 

 largely on the Challenger observations. It appeared that the 

 greatest diurnal oscillation occurred in regions over the sea 

 where the air was very moist, being least indeed in those oceanic 

 regions north and south of the equator where the average height 

 of the barometer was greatest ; whereas over land the contrary 

 was the case, the greatest oscillations occurring where the air 

 was' driest. The explanation given was that over the ocean, 

 whose surface changes very slightly in temperature through- 

 out a whole day, the main effect results from the direct heating 

 of the air and its contained moisture ; while over the land the 

 effect due to surface changes preponderates, being less, of course, 

 the better the air acts as a screen to the solar rays, that is, the 

 moisier it is. Mr. Bnehan then proceeded to account for the 

 double maximum in the diurnal oscillations of the barometer. 

 Beginning at six o'clock in the morning, an hour at which in 

 general the barometer shows its daily mean, we find that the first 

 effect of tlie sun is to heat the air, which lends to expand and 

 rise. This tendency is of c >urse somewhat resisted, so that the 

 pressure is in the first in-tance increased; but by and by this 

 resistance is overcome, the air Hows freely upwards, the morning 



maximum is reached, and the pressure begins to fall. After n 1 



this diminution in pressure is accelerated by the cooling of the 

 air, lor the same reason that the first effect of heating is to 

 increase the pressure. Hence the barometer falls to its after- 

 noon minimum. But as this is going on the region to the 

 west is in its turn being heated, and an eastward movement of 

 air overhead takes place towards the first locality, arresting the 

 diminution of pressure, and then bringing it to a second maxi- 

 mum. This action, however, ceases as midnight comes on, the 

 cooling of the air being then left to have its own effect, and the 

 pressure falling to its second minimum till the approach of the 

 sun on the east makes itself felt, and the same cycle of opera- 

 tions begins again. The modifications introduced by special 

 condition-, such as the distribution of land and water, were also 

 discussed, and explanations given of the retardation in certain 

 places of the maxima and minima in time, and of the very slight, 

 almost imperceptible, second minimum which in such cases fre- 

 quently is found. — In presenting the last report of the Boulder 

 Committee, Mr. Milne Home, the convener, intimated that the 

 Committee purposed giving a general report in a form in which 

 it could be readily compared with the British Association reports. 

 — Mr. W. E. Iloyle rea 1 a paper on a new Entozoon from the 

 mesentery of Proteles cristatus (Spairman). It is closely allied 

 to Pentastomum Dusingii described by Van Beneden, belonging 

 indeed to the same genus, but distinguished by its size, the number 

 of its segments, and a slight difference in shape. The most cm i ius 

 point in its anatomy is that when the animal is encysted in the 

 mesentery of its host the cirrus-sac is empty, and there is a 

 stoppage in the vas deferens. The name proposed for the para- 

 site is P. PioUlis, 



Mathematical Society, June 8. — Mr. J. S. Mackay, 

 F.R.S.E., president, in the chair. — Mr. Thomas Muir, F.R.S.E., 

 communicated some mathematical notes of interest to teachers 

 and a new proof of Prof. Tait's problem of arrangement. — Mr. 

 A. Y. Fraser read a paper on the fundamental notions of the 

 differential calculus; and Dr. C. G. Knott, F.R.S.E., discussed 

 the singularities of plane curves. 



Berlin 



Physiological Society, May 11. — Prof. Brieger reported on 

 the further results of his study of the violent poisons formed by 

 decomposition of animal bodies. In continuation of the com- 

 munication he made a short time ago to the Society he described 

 the process by which he had obtained from decomposing masses 

 of flesh a substance which crystallised in acicular forms, and 

 which he obtained by repeated crystallisation in such a degree of 

 purity that he was able to analyse it. It afforded the empirical 

 composition C 5 H 14 N„H„C1 2 , and consequently w as a hydrochloric 

 salt of a new base, which did not in its constitution resemble any 

 known combination. This diamin-base had no longer the toxic 

 properties of the extracts of the decomposition products. It 

 was extremely easily decomposed, and could only be prepared 

 from decomposing meat, and could neither be obtained in the 

 later stages of putrescence nor from decomposing fibrin or other 

 albuminous substances. Neither could it be demonstrated to be 

 a constituent of meat. A second substance was obtained from 

 the mother-liquor that remained after the crystallisation of the 

 diamin-salt. This body, after purification by recrystallisation, 

 showed the composition of C 8 H n NCl. This base proved to be 



a very virulent poison ; 1 mg. in solution injected subcutaneously 

 into a rabbit very soon produced the set of symptoms charac- 

 teristic of fish-poison, i.e. salivation, quickened respiration, and 

 diarrhoea, followed in a short time by death in convulsions. 

 Even after the isolation of these exceedingly poisonous bases the 

 mother-liquor contained other bases which have as yet not been 

 more closely studied, and which belong to the group denomin 

 ated by Prof. Brieger, " peptotoxine." They are more or less 

 poisonous in their action upon the living organism, are decom- 

 posed with extraordinary facility, and are not only formed in 

 the first stages of decomposition of masses of flesh, but are also 

 contained in neurin in peptones. — Dr. George Iloppe-Seyler, 

 who was present as a visitor, reported the results of the experi- 

 ments that he made, starling on the basis of the chemical rela- 

 tion of nitrophenylpropiohc acid to indigo, which was studied by 

 Herr Baeyer, in order to determine the physiological action of 

 this aci'l, hoping thus to advance a step in the comprehension 

 of the formation of indol and oxindol in the living organism. 

 He found that oxind 1 appeared in the urine of rabbits into 

 whose stomachs he had introduced solutions of nitrophenolpro- 

 piolate of soda, the animal in the meantime evincing no morbid 

 symptom. When the solution was subcutaneously injected, 

 blood appeared in the urine along with the oxindol, ami when 

 the treatment was continued for ;ouie time the Constitution of 

 the rabbits was injuriously affected so that they finally died, 

 without, however, manifesting any characteristic symptoms. 

 Dogs behaved quite otherwise when even a third part of that 

 which the rabbits bore without inconvenience was introduced 

 into their stomachs, increasing quantities of albumen and sugar 

 appeared in their urine, and the animals succumbed to emacia- 

 tion and lo s of power. This very remarkable difference in the 

 action of nitrophenylpropiolic acid on dog^ and rabbits was not 

 conditioned by the different diet, because when rabbits were 

 driven to lake to albuminous diet, by inanition or milk diet, until 

 the reaction of the urine was acid, or when, on the other hand, 

 the urine in dogs was made alkaline by giving them acetate of 

 soda, the differences of the action remained unaltered, and 

 their study promises a key to the comprehension of the origin of 

 albuminuria and glycosuria. 



CONTENTS page 



" The New Principles of Natural Philosophy " . . 169 



The British Museum Catalogue of Batrachia. . . 170 

 Our Book Shelf:— 



Owen's " Cinchona Planter's Manual " 170 



"Kallos" 171 



" The Nat Basket " 17! 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Deductive Biology. — W. T. Thiselton Dyer, 

 C.M.G., F.RS. ; Prof. E. Ray Lankester, 



F -R S 17, 



The Peak of Teneriffe not very Active again. — Prof. 



C. Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer-Royal lor Scotland 172 



" Devil on Two Sticks." — John Gorham .... 172 



Channel Ballooning.— W. de Fonvielle .... 177 



Geology of Cephalonia. — J. P. Licherdopol . . . 177 

 Lightning Phenomenon. — Lieut. -Colonel W. H. 



Godwin-Austen 173 



Waterspout. — D. Pidgeon {With Diagram) . . . 173 



Meteors of June 3. — W. W. Taylor ; P. F. D. . 174 



Intelligence in Animals. — P. Dudgeon 174 



American Ethnology. By Prof. A. H. Keane . . 174 



The Fisheries Exhibition 176 



The Scientific Work of the "Vega" 177 



Notes 179 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The Paris General Catalogue of Stars 181 



Encke's Comet in the Years 1871-1881 181 



Chemical Notes i8j 



Geographical Notes 182 



The Cause of Evident Magnetism in Iron, Steel, 

 and other Magnetic Metals. By Prof. [D. E. 



Hughes, F. R. S. ( With Diagrams) 183 



The Rede Lecture. By Prof. Huxley, F.R.S. . . 187 



University and Educational Intelligence .... 189 



Societies and Academies . . 191 



