Jan. 8, 1885] 



NA TURE 



229 



inhabit Kilimanjaro up to 6000 feet, are fairly tractable, and 

 have a passionate love of trade, which with them is the great 

 pacifier. They go absolutely naked, or if any clothing is worn 

 in the way of ornament it rarely goes beyond leather capes for 

 the shoulders. They all speak dialects belonging to the great 

 Bantu group of languages. I have studied carefully several of 

 them, and have, I believe, discovered some most interesting 

 points in their construction likely to throw considerable light on 

 the archaic forms of Bantu prefixes. 1 may add that, after a 

 very happy sojourn in the lovely forest region of Tavcita at the 

 foot of the mountain, I was compelled to return most reluctantly 

 to the coast at the end of November owing to the exhaustion of 

 my funds. I left Kilimanjaro with great regret, and on my 

 homeward journey my thoughts were persistently directed to my 

 whilom African home, rather than to an unwilling and too early 

 return to civilisation. My collections have safely reached this 

 country, and will, I hope, be sufficient to indicate the true cha- 

 racter and relationships of the fauna and flora of Kilimanjaro." 



The death is announced at Lubeck of Dr. Robert Ave- 

 Lallemant, at one time a well-known traveller in South 

 America. He became surgeon to the Novara expedition, 

 which, however, he left at Rio, in order to devote himself 

 to exploration in Brazil. In 1858 he went to Rio Grande do 

 Soli where he commenced his journey into Southern Brazil, 

 during which he visited Bonpland, a few months before 

 his death, in his lonely ranche in Paraguay. He crossed the 

 Uruguay Allegrette, San Gabriel, and Cacupava to the Jacuy. 

 From San Jose he went along the coast to Laguna, visited the 

 sources of the Uruguay, and returned to San Jose through 

 forests still unknown to travellers. This journey lasted about a 

 year, and soon after his return he again set out to travel through 

 the northern provinces. Landing at Bahia, he followed the 

 coast to the Mucury river. Here he discovered the shocking 

 condition of some of the German colonies. Thence he went to 

 Pernambuco, and ascended the Amazon to Tabatinga, on the 

 Peruvian frontier. On these journeys he published two large 

 works (" Reise durch Slid Brasilien, 1859," and a similar work 

 on North Brazil), and numerous smaller ones. They give no 

 new geographical discoveries or exact measurements, or the 

 results of scientific investigation, but they contain valuable in- 

 formation respecting the country, the fauna and flora, and con- 

 dition of the people. The later years of his life were spent in 

 medical practice in his native city. 



According to V Exploration, the Argentine authorities are 

 sending an expedition to the Chaco. It consists of 200 men, 

 divide 1 into three columns, operating from different points, but 

 meeting at Cangaye, a centre almost equally distant from Salta 

 and Paraguay. The object is both military and scientific. It is 

 desired to secure the possession of this vast territory to the 

 Argentine Republic against the Indians, who are again masters 

 there. Six topographical commissions are attached to the ex- 

 pedition in order to study the country, prepare maps, and also, 

 it is said, to investigate the possibility of a railway as far as 

 Oran, in the province of Salta. The investigation of the rivers, 

 for which the gunboat Pilcomayo is sent, has been delayed by 

 the low state of the water, but recent rains will now enable that 

 work to be proceeded with. If the result should be the demon- 

 stration of the suitability of the Pilcomayo to navigation, not 

 only will a great service be rendered to topographical science, 

 but by assuring communications between Bolivia and the Rio 

 Paraguay, a great economical revolution will, it is expected, be 

 produced in these regions. 



EXPERIMENTS SUITABLE FOR ILLUSTRAT- 

 ING ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN 

 CHEMISTRY 



OROFESSORS SIR II. E. ROSCOE and W. J. Russell, by 

 - 1 direction of the Lords of the Committee of Council on 

 Education, have recently prepared, for the assistance of teachers 

 schools and clas-es, an outline of experiments in 

 chemistry. As this subject is now under discussion, we are glad 

 to be able to give the outline in ixtenso in Nature. 



The notes have been prepared a^ some guide to the teachers 

 as to the general character of the course of instruction expected 

 in the elementary stage ; they include instruction that should on 

 no account be omitted, but must be considered rather as 

 suggestive than exhaustive. 



I. — Combustion and Chemical Combination 



1. Burn a taper in a clean glass bottle. Show the presence 

 of a colourless gas, differing in properties from common air by 

 yielding a turbidity with lime-water. 



2. Hold a bright glass over a burning candle and show the 

 formation of water. 



Explain what is meant by chemical change, and state that 

 chemistry is an experimental science. 



3. Make similar experiments with a petroleum or paraffin 

 lamp. 



4. Show that coal-gas also yields the same products by passing 

 the products of combustion through lime-water and by collecting 

 the water. 



5. Explain the difference between mechanical mixture and 

 chemical combination ; and illustrate by a mixture of finely- 

 divided copper and flour of sulphur, and the effect of heat upon 

 the same. 



6. Experiment to show that chemical change consists of a 

 change in the properties of matter and that no loss of matter 

 takes place. Suspend lamp chimney, partly filled with lumps 

 of caustic soda, from the arm of a balance. Place short piece 

 of candle in the lower part of the glass and counterbalance. 

 Light the candle. Explain the increase in weight. 



7. Heat is evolved when chemical combination takes place. 

 Pour water on to quicklime. Refer also to experiments 1 and 3. 



8. Combustibles and supporters of combustion. The purely 

 relative character of these terms. Ordinary combustion the 

 union of atmospheric oxygen with a body termed the combustible, 

 or with one or more of its constituents, heat being developed, as 

 in all cases where two or more bodies combine. Illustrate by 

 showing that air will burn in coal-gas just as well as coal-gas 

 will burn in air. 



11.— Air 



1. Existence of atmosphere, felt in winds. 



2. Weight of air shown by means of a flask exhausted by the 

 air-pump. 



3. Burn phosphorus in air. 



4. Burn phosphorus in confined volume of air and show 

 diminution in bulk. 



5. Show that some diminution takes place slowly when a stick 

 of phosphorus is exposed to air at ordinary temperatures. 



6. Test residual gas (N) with a burning taper. 



7. Show that phosphorus burnt in air increases in weight. 



8. Allow iron borings moistened with sal ammoniac to rust in 

 a confined volume of air and introduce burning taper into residual 

 gas (N). 



9. Show that iron filings, suspended by a magnet hanging on 

 one scale of a balance, increase in weight on heating. 



10. Strongly heat the red substance which may be formed by 

 gently heating mercury in the air. Collect and test the gas (O) 

 with a glowing splinter of wood. 



11. Add the gas thus obtained to the residue obtained in 

 experiment 4 or 8 so as to make up the original volume of 

 air, and show that a taper burns in this mixture as in common 

 air. 



12. Refer to numbers giving exact analysis of air, calling 

 e-.peci.al attention to the fact that it varies slightly in com- 

 position. 



Also explain that no obvious change, such as increase of tem- 

 perature or alteration of bulk, occurs when oxygen and nitrogen 

 are mixed. Also that air has the properties of a mixture, and 

 that when water is shaken up with air a portion of that air dis- 

 - Ives, the residue being found to contain relatively less oxygen 

 than the original air, whilst the dissolved portion contains rela- 

 tively more oxygen, and that this could not be the case if the air 

 were a compound. Consequently it is a mixture and not a 

 chemical compound. 



13. It is important that these experiments should be made 

 and their explanation given so as to teach the student how the 

 composition of air is ascertained by experiment, and in a similar 

 manner how oxygen was discovered by Priestley, and how the 

 composition of the air and the part which oxygen play- in the 

 phenomena of combustion were experimentally demonstrated by 

 Lavoisier. 



III.— Effects of Animal and Vegetable Life upon the Atmosphere 

 I. Show that by drawing air into the lungs through lime-water 

 a very faint, if any, precipitate is produced ; but that on expiring 

 air from the lungs through another portion of lime-water a 

 copious precipitate is soon formed. 



