Jan. 



1885] 



NA TURE 



283 



School, Staffs., and A. E. Potter. Yorkshire College of Science, 

 to Entrance Scholarship-, at Christ's College ; Ii. Bury, third 

 vear, and F. W. Oliver, second year, to Foundation Scholar- 

 hips 11 Trinity < '■ llegi 



S. F. Dufton, Grammar School. Bradford, has been elected 

 to an Open Exhibition for Natural Science at Trinity College, 

 and A. E. Mayeur, St. Paul's, to an additional Exhibition. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 

 Journal of the Franklin Institute, 708, December, 1884. — G. 

 nam p-electric machinery ; a full report of the lecture 

 given by Prof. Forbes at the Philadelphia Exhibition. — R. H. 

 as magazines of explosive energy. This 

 1 tins lengthy numerical tables of the energy, expressed 

 both in foot-pounds and in kilogrammetres, stored up in boilers 

 containing given weight of water or steam at given pressures. 

 According to these calculations a Lancashire two-flue boiler 

 holding three tons of water working at 37 lbs. of steam pressure 

 would, oy its explosion, liberate sufficient energy to blow itself 

 nearly 2i miles high, with an initial velocity of 900 feet per 

 second. — E. J. Houston, glimpses of the International Electrical 

 Exhibition, Nos. 2 and 3. These papers give accounts of 

 vstem of telephony, and of Gray's tele- 

 phonic inventions, with numerous illustrations. — L. d'Auria, 

 the earth's ellipticity ; a reply to Prof. Chase. — Standard sizes 

 of belt heads and nuts, a reply by Mr. Coleman Sellers to Mr. 

 Simmonds. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 

 Royal Society, Nov. 27, 1884. — "Notes on the Microscopic 

 Structure of some Rocks from the Andes of Ecuador, collected 

 by E. Whymper. No. V. (conclusion). Altar. Illiniza, Sincho- 

 lagua, Cotocachi, Sara-urcu, &c." Bv Prof. T. G. Bonney, 

 D.Sc, F.R.S. 



The microscopic structure of rocks from the first four of these 

 was described, the specimens being less numerous 

 than in some of the former cases. Altar, Sincholagua, and 

 Cotocachi furnished augite-andesites, mostly hyperstheniferous ; 

 Illiniza, micaceous and hornblendic augite-andesites. Sara-urcu 

 was nol a volcanic mountain, the specimens all being meta- 

 morphic rocks, varieties of gneiss and schists, similar to those 

 which occur among the less ancient melamorphic rocks of the 

 Vlps and the Scotch Highlands; hence, probably, Archaean, 

 but not the very oldest Archaean. A few miscellaneous speci- 

 mens were also described, and the paper concluded with some 

 general . m 1 ait I a summary of results. 



January 15. — " On the Chemical Composition of the Carti- 

 lage occurring in certain Invertebrate Animals." By W. D. 

 Halliburton, M.D., B.Sc. (l.ond.l, Sharpey Physiological 

 scholar, University College, London. Communicated by Prof. 

 1.. A. Schafer, F.R.S. (from the Physiological Laboratory, 

 University College, London). 

 At Prof. Lankester's suggestion I have submitted to chemical 

 'he cartilages occurring in Sepia and in Limulus. 



he cartilage i, a chondrin-like body which gives 

 ions of mucin and gelatin (indeed, chondrin, as it occurs 

 linary hyaline cartilage of Vertebrates, is now regarded 

 by many a I mixture of these two bodies). But in 



the cartilages of the two Invertebrates in question the gelatinous 

 element is exceedingly small, and no gelatinisation occurs on the 

 cooling of the hot watery ext: 



In Mm 11 10 this, however, the cartilage of both these 



litters from that of Vertebrates in containing a certain 



small percentage of chitin. In the case of Limulus roi per 



cent., and of Sepia 122 per cent., of chitin, in the dry state is 



present. 



I have also demonstrated that chitin exists in the liver of the 

 king crab, though whether in the connective tissue or in the 

 liver cell I cannot say. (The connective tissue 



element is very abundant in the liver of this animal, and it 

 ;it the part that chitin plays as a sup- 

 porting structure in these animals, that it really forms in this 

 instance a partial basis for the connective tissue.) 



II., way in which chitin was demonstrated to exist was the 

 same in all three case--, viz. : — 



(1) After digesting with pol 1 insoluble in boiling 



alkalies remains behind. 



(2) This residue, which, when washed and dried, is obtainable 

 in a white amorphous condition, is insoluble in weak acids ; but 

 in concentrated mineral acids it is soluble in the cold. 



(3) On boiling the solution in sulphuric acid, a body which 

 has the power of reducing cupric salts is formed. 



(4) On boiling the solution in hydrochloric acid it turns 

 brown, and on evaporating this solution to dryness a body crys- 

 tallises out which has all the properties of hydrochlorate of 

 glycosamine. 



(I prepared some of this body from the chitin contained 

 in the exoskeleton of cockroaches, and also obtained from 

 Prof. Lankester some crystals of the same body which Prof. 

 Gamgee had kindly sent him.) 



I was (thus) enabled to compare the crystalline body I had 

 obtained fro 11 the invertebrate cartilage with that of the pure 

 hydrochlorate of glycosamine, and they were found to agree in 

 the following points : — 



(a) Crystalline form : rhombic prisms of the monoclinic .sys- 

 tem ; measurement of the angles gave the same result in all 

 cases. 



(If) Action of polarised light : nil. 



(c) Solubilities : easily soluble in water, soluble with difficulty 

 in alcohol. 



These results are especially interesting as showing that chitin 

 is not a body which is exclusively epiblastic in origin, but in 

 these three instances at least occurs in mesoblastic structures. 



Mathematical Society, January 8. — J. W. L. Glaisher, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair.— Messrs. F. R. Barrel!, S. O. 

 Roberts, and Prof. M. N. Dutt, St. Stephen's College, Delhi, 

 were elected members. The Rev. T. C. Simmons was admitted 

 into the Society. — Prof. M. J. M. Hill read a paper on the differ- 

 ential equations of cylindrical and annular vortices. — The Rev. 

 R. Harley, F.R.S., spoke on criticoids. — The following further 

 communications were made : — Multiplication of symmetric 

 functions, by Capt. Macmahon, R.A. — Note on symmetrical 

 determinants, by A. Buchheim. — Results in elliptic functions, 

 by the President (J. J. Walker, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the 

 chair). — Mr. Tucker read a second note by Prof. Cayley, 

 F.R.S., on the binomial equation x* — 1 = 0: quinquisection, 

 and communicated a second paper, by II. MacColl, on the limits 

 of multiple integrals. 



Victoria Institute, January 19. — A paper on the historical 

 evidences of the Abramic migration was read by Mr. W. Bos- 

 carven, in which he gave extracts from the new translations of 

 some tablets which had been discovered by Mr. Rassam during 

 his last visit to the East. These extracts contained a large 

 number of names of persons and cities mentioned in the Bible 

 record of the times to which they referred. 



Edinburgh 



Royal Society, January 5. — E. Sang, LL.D., Vice-Presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Mr. Harvey Gibson submitted a paper on 

 the anatomy of Patella vulgata. — Mr. W. W. J. Nicol read a 

 paper on a theory of solution. Solution of a salt in a liquid 

 results from the attraction of the molecules of the liquid for a 

 molecule of the salt exceeding the attraction of the molecules 

 of salt for one another. Saturation ensues when these attrac- 

 tions are balanced. The theory explains variation of solubility 

 with rise of temperature. Mr. Nicol brought forward experi- 

 mental evidence in support of his views. — Mr. H. R. Mill, 

 chemist to the Granton Marine Station, read a paper on the 

 salinity of the water of the Firth of Forth. Results were given, 

 showing the variation of salinity along the Firth for high and 

 low water. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, January 12. — M. Bouley, Presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Thermo chemical experiments with phos- 

 phorous fluoride, a new gas recently discovered by M. Moissan, 

 by M. Berthelot. — Anatomical description of Ganidia Garnotii, 

 Payrandeau, a species of Ganidia very abundant on the coast of 

 Algeria, by M. de Lacaze-Duthiers. — Report on M. Luvini's 

 two memoirs dealing with the formation of hailstones and the 

 development of electricity during thunderstorms, by the Com- 

 missioners, MM. Becquerel and Faye. — On the formation of 

 toxic alkaloids in cholera patients, by M. A. Villiers. Experi- 

 ments made on two victims of cholera soon after death 

 enabled the author to determine the presence of an alkaloid 

 clearly characterised by its alkaline and chemical reactions. It 

 is found chiefly in the intestine, and also in small quantities 



