574 
NALORE 
[APRIL 14, 1904 
resistance of each metal at o° C. is reduced on cooling it 
to the boiling point of hydrogen. This seems to be a 
quantity showing no connection with other properties of 
metals. 
While the results obtained may be considered from the 
point of view of metals as thermometers, yet the question 
of the general relation between resistance and temperature 
in metals is of greater importance. 
The temperatures at which liquid oxygen and hydrogen 
boil under atmospheric pressure are known to within one- or 
two-tenths of a degree, namely, —182°-5 C. and —252°-5 C. 
Further observations made with the constant-volume 
hydrogen gas thermometer lead to the conclusion that 
hydrogen freezes about 5° below its boiling point. In the 
present experiments the author has been able to get eight 
observations in liquid hydrogen boiling under pressures 
varying from 5-50 mm., and the temperatures of these 
observations may be taken as (say) 4° below the boiling 
point. If the law connecting resistance with temperature 
be parabolic, the very gentle curvature at the boiling point 
of hydrogen will allow the rate of drop in resistance per 
degree of temperature for the 4° below the boiling point of 
hydrogen to be considered as roughly the same as that 
between the boiling points of oxygen and hydrogen (70°), 
so that the ratio of these two drops on this supposition 
should be about 4: 70, or say one-eighteenth. 
These ratios all prove to be much smaller than one- 
eighteenth, hence it is inferred that the curves have taken 
a more or less quick turn in the neighbourhood of the boil- 
ing point of hydrogen, or perhaps above it. 
The observed resistances are displayed graphically in the 
paper, and the curves thus obtained show some instructive 
peculiarities. The magnetic metals present the most 
striking curves, being at first sight quite unlike any of the 
others. But closer inspection shows that this is not so, 
and in fact they give the clue to the general connection 
between resistance and temperature in metals. The curves 
of the other metals are all concave towards the axis of 
temperature, for the arcs extending from the boiling point 
of water, through the freezing point, down to the boiling 
point of oxygen; while below the boiling point of oxygen 
these curves are convex to this axis. On the other hand, 
gold and the magnetic metals are already convex to this 
axis from the boiling point of water to the lowest tempera- 
ture reached. 
It appears that in no case can anything parabolic connect 
resistances and temperatures ranging from the boiling point 
of water to that of hydrogen. The two parabolas for high 
and low temperatures are not only different, but also may 
differ from each other by any amount, within certain limits 
depending on the nature of the unknown curve of tempera- 
ture and resistance. 
Entomological Society, March 16.—Prof. E. B. Poulton, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Mr. G. T. Porritt ex- 
hibited a pair of A%schna isosceles, taken by him with 
others in the Norfolk Broads last summer. ‘The species had 
been regarded as almost lost to the British list for many 
.—Mr. J. E. Collin exhibited Phora formicarum, 
., Which is parasitic on the ant Lasius niger, obtained 
by sweeping the herbage in a paddock at Newmarket. 
These flies belong to the genus Phora and to a hitherto 
unnamed species which has not been found or recognised 
by Continental dipterologists. He also exhibited Phora 
sp. found in a garden at Newmarket, running about at 
the entrance to the nest of a species of Bombus. Specimens 
received from Dr. Sharp, labelled ‘‘ from Bombus nests,’’ 
are also the same species. It is evident that its life-history 
is in some way connected with that of the Bombus, but 
because of the different shape and form of the female ovi- 
positor, it is probably not parasitic on the bee like P. formi- 
carum is on the ant, but acts as a scavenger by living on 
the dead pupz in the nest.—Commander J. J. Walker 
exhibited a series of Buprestidae from Sydney, N.S.W., 
comprising about 120 species, of which 70 belonged to the 
genus Stigmodera. Also a cried specimen of Angophora 
cordifolia, Cav., a small tree of the natural order Myrtacee, 
the flowers of which are the great attraction in New South 
Wales for ihe Buprestidae, as well as for very many other 
Coleoptera; specimens of the “‘ bugong’’ moth, Agrotis 
spina, Guenée, from Jervis Bay, N.S.\V. (referred to at the 
No. 1798, VOL. 69| 
.oxide.—Note on 
previous meeting); and Carthaea saturnoides, Walk., a re- 
markable moth from Perth, W.A., referred to the Geometrina, 
but possessing an extraordinary superficial resemblance to a 
Saturniid.—Mr. A. J. Chitty exhibited a specimen of 
Peribalus vernalis, Wolff., a rare bug of which only five or 
six specimens appear to have been taken, and pointed out 
that as the records in Saunders’s ‘* Hemiptera ’’ included 
Cumberland and Weston-super-Mare, and his own specimen 
was taken at Huntingfield, Kent, it was probably over— 
looked.—Dr. F. A. Dixey exhibited a remarkable pale form 
of Mamestra brassicae, taken by Dr. G. B. Longstaff and 
himself at Morthoe, North Devon, on July 16, 1903.—The 
president, Prof. Poulton, read some observations on the 
gregarious hybernation of certain Californian insects, com- 
municated to him by Prof. Vernon L. Kellog, of the 
Leland Stanford Junior University, California. He also read 
a paper on the hill-top habit of some insects.—Mr. O. E- 
Janson contributed on-behalf of Mr. F. P. Dodd a note 
upon maternal instinct in Rhynchota, and Mr. H. Rowland- 
Brown read a note on Oncoptera intricata, a moth extremely 
destructive to pastures in Tasmania, by Mr. F. M. Littler, 
of Launceston, Tasmania. He also exhibited examples of 
the imago and larva of the species, the latter closely re- 
sembling that of a Hepialid. 
Chemical Society, March 16.—Pro.. W. A. Tilden, F.R.S... 
president, in the chair.—The following papers were read :— 
Mercuric nitrite and its decomposition by heat: P. C. Ray. 
Mercuric nitrite, obtained by evaporating in vacuo the solu- 
tion left by decomposing mercuric chloride with silver nitrite, 
occurs in groups of light yellow needles. The solid salt 
is largely decomposed by water. When heated it decom- 
poses for the most part into mercurous nitrate and nitric 
the higher glycerides: J. B. Hannay. 
The higher glycerides, as represented by purified stearin, 
olive oil, linseed oil, castor oil, cotton-seed oil, rape oil, and 
earth-nut oil, are all capable of entering into direct com- 
bination with lead oxide, forming new compounds of wax- 
like consistence and character. In the case of the olein 
derivative, the composition may be represented by the 
formula C,H,O,:Pb,(C,,H,,0.,),, the three atoms of lead 
replacing six atoms of hydrogen, three in the alkyl and 
three in the acyl portion of the molecule.—Isomeric change 
of diacylanilides into acylaminoketones: transformation of 
the dibenzoyltoluidines into the isomeric benzoylamino- 
methylbenzophenones: F. D. Chattaway and W. H. 
Lewis.—The action of ethyl §$-iodopropionate on ethyf 
disodioethanetetracarboxylate : O. Silberrad.—The heat of 
formation of glucinum chloride: J. H. Pollok. A sample 
of ground beryl from Limoges was employed in the pre- 
paration of pure glucina and ultimately of the metal. On 
dissolving the latter in hydrochloric acid it was found that 
the heat of formation of glucinum chloride in solution was 
199-5 calories, whence that of anhydrous glucinum chloride 
was found to be 155 calories.—A note on the composition 
of distilled oil of limes and a new sesquiterpene: H. E. 
Burgess and T. H. Page. ‘This oil was found to contain 
l-terpineol, an isomeric terpineol of lower boiling point, and 
a new sesquiterpene, limene.—The nature of a solution of 
iodine in aqueous potassium iodide: C. H. Burgess and 
D. L. Chapman. The authors confirm Jakowkin’s state- 
ment that in such solutions a dissociable compound KI, 
exists.—The reduction of 2: 6-dinitrotoluene with hydrogen 
sulphide: J. B. Cohen and J. Marshall. In the course of 
an experiment in which 2: 6-dinitrotoluene was reduced by 
hydrogen sulphide in alcoholic ammonia, a quantity of 
2-nitro-4-amino-m-cresol was obtained, together with 
6-nitro-o-toluidine.—Acid esters of methylsuccinic acids : 
W. A. Bone, J. J. Sudboreugh, and C. H. G. Sprank- 
ling. An enumeration of the principal physical constants 
of these esters is given.—A note on phenyldimethylallyl- 
ammonium compounds: A. W. Harvey.—Estimation of 
hydrogen peroxide in the presence of potassium persulphate 
by means of potassium permanganate: J. A. N. Friend. 
It is shown that fairly accurate estimations may be obtained 
if (1) the time of titration is short, (2) the volume titrated 
is small, and (3) the concentration of the sulphuric acid is 
fairly great.—A comparison of the products of the hydrolysis 
of potato starch with those obtained from cereal starches : 
J. O'Sullivan. It is shown that the products of the hydro- 
lysis of potato starch by diastase bear no quantitative re- 
lationship to those yielded by the cereal starches. 
