NoveEMBER 26, 1896] 
WMA TORE 
93 
nitrogen iodide is NIIsI, ; it is decomposed by excess or water, 
giving iodine and ammonium iodide and hypoiodite. The 
author has examined its reactions. —The carbohydrates of barley 
straw, by C. F. Cross, E. J. Bevan, and C. Smith. Evidence 
is adduced which points to the gradual transformation in barley 
straw, of a hexose into a pentose derivative ; a transition form 
oO. 
of the constitution CHOC SCH, appears to exist.—The 
O 
direct union of carbon and hydrogen, by W. A. Bone and D. S. 
Jerdan. Much acetylene and some methane are found in dry 
hydrogen gas in which an electric arc has burnt between carbon 
poles.—The explosion of acetylene with less than its own volume 
of oxygen, by W. A. Bone and J. C. Cain.—The refraction 
constants of crystalline salts, by W. J. Pope. The molecular 
refractions of crystalline salts, calculated from the several prin- 
cipal refractive indices, is an additive property.—Compounds 
of metallic hydroxides with iodine, by T. Rettie.—Economical 
preparation of hydroxylamine sulphate, by E. Divers and T. 
Haga. Sodium nitrite, sulphonated with sodium sulphite and 
hydrolysed, yields nearly its own weight of hydroxylamine sul- 
phate.—The reduction of nitrososulphates, by E. Divers and T. 
Haga. Potassium nitrososulphate, when reduced with sodium 
amalgam, yields hyponitrite, sulphite, sulphate, amidosulpho- 
nate, nitrous oxide, hydrazine, ammonia and_nitrogen.—Imido- 
sulphonates, Part ii., by E. Divers and T. Haga.—Amido- 
sulphonic acid, by E. Divers and T. Haga. An economical 
method of preparing this acid is given, and its properties and 
reactions are described.—Molecular conductivity of amidosul- 
phonic acid, by J. Sakurai.—The physiological action of amido- 
sulphonic acid, by O. Loew. The salts of this acid seem 
poisonous only to pheenogamous plants, and not to other forms 
of vegetable or to animal life-—How mercurous and mercuric 
salts change into each other, by S. Hada.—The effect of heat 
on aqueous solutions of chrome alum, by Miss M. D. Dougal. 
Experiments on the diffusion of violet and green chrome alum 
solutions harmonise with the view that the green solutions con- 
tain sulphuric acid and a colloidal chromylsulphuric acid.—On 
the hydrolysis of ethylic dicarboxylglutaconate, by H. W. 
Bolam.—The periodic law, by R. M. Deeley.—The colouring 
matters occurring in various British plants, by A. G. Perkin 
and J. J. Hummel. The colouring matter of the yellow wall- 
flower (Chetranthus cheirt) consists of quercitin and a new sub- 
stance, isorhamnetin, C,,H,,O-; ; the colouring matter of white 
hawthorn blossoms ( Cretagus oxycantha) is quercitin. — Position- 
isomerism and optical activity ; the comparative rotatory powers 
of the dibenzoyl- and ditoluyl-tartrates, by P. Frankland and 
F. M. Wharton.—Researches on the terpenes. VII. Halogen 
derivates of camphor, by J. E. Marsh and J. H. Gardner. 
Bromine and phosphorous trichloride convert camphor into two 
isomeric tribromocamphene hydrobromides, C,)H,,Br,; they 
are both convertible into the same tribromocamphene, C,)H,,Brs. 
A number of bromo- and chloro-camphene derivatives have been 
obtained. —Derivatives of camphenesulphonic acids, by A. Lap- 
worth and F. S. Kipping.—Preparation of dimethylketohexa- 
methylene and experiments on the synthesis of dimethylhexa- 
methenylmalonic acid, by F. S. Kipping and W. B. Edwards. — 
Sulphocamphylic acid, CyH,,SO;, with remarks on the con- 
stitution of camphoric acid and of camphoronic acid, by W. H. 
Perkin, jun. The further study of the decomposition products 
of a- and B-camphylic acids leads to results which can be ex- 
plained on the assumption that camphoric acid has the con- 
CMe,. CH,. CH, 
stitution | | 
CMe(COOH)CH . COOH 
formula for camphoronic acid.—On Pettenkofer’s method for 
determining carbonic anhydride in air, by Prof. Letts and 
Kk. F. Blake. By employing precautions suggested by the 
authors, Pettenkofer’s method can be made of great accuracy 
and delicacy. 
; this view supports Bredt’s 
Geological Society, November 4.—Dr. Henry Hicks, 
F.R.S., President, in the chair.—The President referred to the 
loss which the Society had sustained by the decease of Prof. 
A. H. Green, F.R S., who had served for some years on the 
Council, and was Vice-President at the time of his death.—The 
President announced that Lady Prestwich, in fulfilment of the 
terms of a bequest of her Jate husband, had offered to the 
Society 260 bound volumes of geological tracts from his library. 
Also that a sum of £800 had been bequeathed to the Society 
NO. 1413, VOL. 55] 
by Sir Joseph Prestwich, the interest to be applied to the 
triennial award of a medal and fund : this bequest to take effect 
subsequent to the decease of Lady Prestwich —Additional note 
on the sections near the summit of the Furka Pass (Switzer- 
land), by Prof. T. G Bonney, F.R.S. The author, during a 
visit to Switzerland in 1895, had taken the opportunity of com- 
pleting the examination of the sections on the western side of 
the Furka Pass, and of glancing again at those previously 
studied. His observations support the view that the white, 
sometimes slightly quartzose or micaceous, marble which crosses 
the summit of the Pass is a rock much older than the Mesozoic 
era. Dr. J. W. Gregory thought that Prof. Bonney’s mainten- 
ance of his former conclusion after a third study of the relations 
of the saccharoidal and the Jurassic limestones would lessen the 
value attached to the difficulties of his theory. Neither explan- 
ation is free from ditfculty, but the constant differences now 
found between the two rocks greatly increase the probabilities 
in favour of the fault-theory. In reply the author said they 
must either assume very peculiar faulting or very sporadic and 
inexplicable metamorphism—seeing that the marble was totally 
different from the adjacent Jurassic rocks, was exactly like the 
marbles elsewhere members of the crystalline schists, and evi- 
dently had been affected by pressure after it had become a 
marble, while the other was simply a limestone affected by 
pressure. Hence he thought that the hypothesis of faults 
offered the fewer difficulties: —Geological and petrographical 
studies of the Sudbury Nickel District (Canada), by Dr. T. L. 
Walker. Sudbury is a small town situated in Northern Ontario, 
in the centre of the nickel-mining district. North of the Great 
Lakes granite and gneiss form almost boundless terranes, 
interrupted only by belts of Huronian rocks, which are in turn 
associated with post-Huronian eruptives, the most important of 
which are the large nickel-bearing massives. The nickel-bear- 
ing rocks, which are eruptive, form long elliptical stocks 
which conform to the strike of the Huronian rocks containing 
them. Contact-action indicates that they are younger than the 
rocks previously referred to. The smaller eruptives are com- 
posed of greenstone, which appears to have been formed from 
norite or gabbro. Some of the larger eruptives, however, have 
been highly differentiated on cooling, as they are now composed 
of granite and greenstone with gradual transitions from the one 
to the other. The greenstone generally forms one side of the 
eruptive, and on the outer border is often characterised by large 
masses of nickeliferous pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and nickel- 
iferous pyrite, with frequent smaller masses of magnetic iron ore 
rich in titanic acid. The author regarded these mineral masses 
as genetically related to the greenstone and granite, in that they 
appear to be the extreme products of differentiation. About 
half the world’s nickel supply is drawn from these deposits.— 
On the distribution in space of the accessory shocks of the 
great Japanese earthquake of 1891, by Dr. Charles Davison. 
The object of the author in this paper is to consider the geo- 
graphical distribution of the numerous shocks which preceded 
and followed the great earthquake of 1891. Reasons were 
given for believing that the distribution of earthquakes in 1890- 
91 was little, if at all, due to the marked shock of May 12, 
1889, but that the earthquakes of these years were preparatory 
to the great earthquake, the consequent relief at numerous and 
widely distributed points equalising the effective strain along 
the whole fault-system, and so clearing the way for one or more 
almost instantaneous slips along its entire length. This outlining 
of the fault-system points to the previous existence of the 
faults, and implies that the great earthquake was due not to 
the rupturing of the strata, but probably to the intense friction 
called into action by the sudden displacement. The distribution 
of the after-shocks was then discussed, and it was maintained 
that the after-shocks of the Mino-Owari earthquake for the first 
fourteen months were subject to the following conditions : 
decline of frequency, decrease in the area of seismic action, 
and a gradual but oscillating withdrawal of that action to a 
more or less central district. Prof. Milne said that the Mino- 
Owari earthquake had furnished a greater number and a more 
varied series of seismic phenomena for analysis than had been 
noted in connection with any disturbance previously recorded. 
When this earthquake took place an enormous fault, which can 
be traced over a length of more than forty miles, appeared 
upon the surface, and it was usually supposed that the sudden 
rupture and displacement of vast masses of material along this 
line were the cause of the earthquake. On account of a peculiar 
distribution of shocks which took place prior to 1891, Dr. 
