136 
NATURE 
[DEcEMBER 10, 1896 
and German East Africa—altogether twelve stations. The 
observations are made with trustworthy instruments, and by 
competent observers, and form a valuable contribution to 
meteorological knowledge. 
Pror. A. Kuossovsky, Director of the Meteorological 
Service of the South-east of Russia, has sent us a résemé of 
work done during the last ten years. The headquarters of the 
Service is established at the magnetical and meteorological 
observatory of Odessa; this institution was founded by the 
Minister of Public Instruction, and has an annual allowance 
from the local municipal authorities. The main credit for the 
establishment of the system is due to Prof. Klossovsky, who 
for some years maintained it by his own exertions, being of the 
opinion that in so large a country as Russia, investigations of 
this nature, intended chiefly for the benefit of agriculture, 
cannot be managed and controlled by the central office at 
St. Petersburg. At the present time Prof. Ilossovsky has 
enlisted the services of nearly 1000 observers, who deal more 
especially with rainfall, hail and thunderstorms. In addition to 
the yearly volumes of results, several investigations of con- 
siderable importance have been published. 
PHySICAL chemists have been anxiously awaiting the publica- 
tion of the sections on chemical affinity required to complete the 
second enlarged edition of Dr. Ostwald’s indispensable ‘‘ Lehr- 
buch der allgemeinen Chemie” (Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig). 
This branch of the subject has been left for the second part of 
the second volume ; and the first instalment of that part, dealing 
almost entirely with the history of chemical affinity, has just been 
published. It is expected that the treatment of the subject will 
occupy four or five instalments of about the same size as the 
present one, which runs into 208 pages, and all of them will be 
published in the course of next year. | We propose to await the 
completion of the work before reviewing it, and at present 
content ourselves with announcing the appearance of one 
instalment. 
THE December number of the Geographical Journal is full of 
interesting papers and notes. Mr. Montefiore Brice’s account 
of the work of the Jackson-Harmsworth polar expedition, read 
before the Royal Geographical Society on November 10, is 
printed in full with illustrations, and appended to it is a report 
by Mr. Harry Fisher, the botanist to the expedition, on the 
flora of the Franz Josef Archipelago. Prince Henri d’Orleans 
describes his journey from Tonkin by Tali-fu to Assam. The 
eruption of Ambrym Island, New Hebrides, South-west Pacific, 
in 1894, is described, and illustrated from photographs, by Com- 
mander H. E. Purey-Cust, R.N. Mr. John L. Myres’ paper, 
in which he gives an account of an attempt to reconstruct from 
the text the maps used by Herodotus, is very suggestive. 
Among the notes we observe the announcement that the Council 
of the Society not only intends to present Dr. Nansen with a 
special gold medal for his recent Arctic expedition, but also to 
award silver replicas of the medal to Captain Sverdrup, Lieut. 
Scott Hansen, Lieut. Johannesen, and Dr. Blessing, and replicas 
in bronze to the other members of the expedition. 
THE effect of pressure on the velocity with which acids bring 
about the inversion of cane-sugar has recently been the subject 
of several investigations. It is well known that, at atmospheric 
pressure, the velocity of inversion is very nearly proportional to 
the degree of electrolytic dissociation of the acid used. Further, 
the degree of dissociation of acids increases, in general, with 
increasing pressure ; it might thus be supposed that the rate of 
inversion of sugar under the influence of acids would do so also. 
R6ntgen found that with strong, z.e. almost completely disso- 
ciated acids, the contrary was the case. Rothmund confirmed 
this result, but showed that if ethyl acetate be substituted for 
NO. 1415, VOL. 55] 
sugar, the velocity of change is increased by pressure, pos- 
sibly owing to the sugar being changed into a less, and the 
ethyl acetate into a more easily hydrolysed modification. A 
further addition to our knowledge of the matter is made by 
O, Stern, in the current number of Jiedemann's Annalen. 
He finds that the rate of inversion of sugar by weak acids (acetic 
and phosphoric) is increased by pressure, while with strong 
acids (hydrochloric, sulphuric, and oxalic) it is decreased. The 
author gives his results without comment; it is, however, 
striking that an increase of velocity is found only with the 
weak acids, z.e. those which are dissociated into their ions, 
under ordinary pressure, to.a small extent only ; with these acids 
a considerable increase in the number of dissociated molecules 
is possible ; with the strong acids, however, this is not the case,. 
because they are almost completely dissociated at ordinary 
pressure. Taking into account the influence which the pressure 
has on the body undergoing hydrolysis, some sort of interpreta- 
tion of the results may be given. 
WITHIN the past few days, a number of new editions of scien- 
tific books have been received. Messrs. C. C. Hawkins and F. 
Wallis’s simple and accurate volume on the theory, design and 
manufacture of ‘* The Dynamo ” (Whittaker and Co.) has passed 
into a second edition. The book well combines the theoretical 
and practical sides of electricity. —‘‘ Select Methods in Inorganic 
Quantitative Analysis,” by Prof. Byron W. Cheever, has been 
revised and enlarged by Prof. Frank C. Smith, and the third 
edition is now published by Mr. William F. Clay, Edinburgh. 
In this volume the methods to be followed in the chemical 
analysis of a set of substances are described, and also the 
methods of calculating and preparing volumetric standard solu- 
tions. The contents thus provide a beginner’s course of gravi- 
metric and volumetric analysis.—Another, but much _ larger, 
manual to assist beginners in the practice of quantitative 
analytical chemistry, is ‘‘ A Manual of Quantitative Chemical 
Analysis ” (Henry Holt and Co., New York), by the late F. A. 
Cairns, the third edition (revised and enlarged) being by Prof. 
Elwyn Walker. The book was first published in 1880, and the 
important changes and advances which have been made since: 
then have necessitated a very thorough revision. The chief 
feature of the work is mineral analysis, and in the treatment of 
this branch of analytical practice, as well as of others, students 
will find very helpful instructions, whilst from it professional 
chemists will derive useful suggestions.—Messrs. Longmans, 
Green, and Co. have just published a new and enlarged edition 
of Mr. G. S. Newth’s excellent volume on ‘* Chemical Lecture 
Experiments.” The work contains full directions for the pre- 
paration and performance of experiments for illustrating, in lec- 
tures, the properties of the non-metallic elements and their more 
important compounds. Most teachers of chemistry know Mr. 
Newth’s very serviceable volume; those who do not, should 
hasten to make themselves acquainted with it. 
ALL the physical geography required by pupil-teachers and 
masters in elementary schools is set forth in an orderly manner 
in ‘* Graphic Lessons in Physical and Astronomical Geography,” 
by Mr. Joseph H. Cowham. The book, which is published 
by the Westminster School Book Depot, and by Messrs. 
Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., is now in its sixth edition. The 
lessons in it are admirably arranged, the important points 
in each of them being given prominence. The illustrations 
are very instructive, and most of them are suitable for sketch- 
ing upon the blackboard. In fact, the book furnishes 
strong evidence of the attention paid by the author to the 
methods of teaching his subject, as well as to the subject 
itself.—The tenth edition of ‘‘The Pocket Atlas of the 
World,” by Mr. J. G. Bartholomew, comes to us from Messrs. 
John Walker and Co. The “Atlas” has been greatly ampli- 
