February 8, 1906J 



NA TURE 



357 



Zoological Society, January 16. — Mr. Howard Saunders, 

 vice-president, in the chair. — Some bones of the lynx (Felix 

 lynx) found in a limestone cavern in Cales Dale, Derby- 

 shire : W. Storrs Fox. This was only the third record of 

 remains of this species having been met with in the 

 British Islands. — Mammals recently collected in the Malay 

 Peninsula by Mr. C. B. Kloss, and presented to the 

 National Museum : J. L. Bonhote. The collection con- 

 tained examples of seventeen species, chiefly rodents, of 

 which two, representing well known Bornean species, were 

 described as new. There was also a series of Mus jarak, 

 a species hitherto known from one specimen only, and 

 recently described by the author. — The minute structure 

 of the teeth of the creodonts : C. S. Tomes. The author 

 stated that suggestions which had been made as to a 

 possible relationship between the creodonts and the poly- 

 protodont marsupials had rendered it interesting to see 

 how far the structure of their teeth either supported or 

 tended to disprove such speculations. Marsupial teeth 

 possessed in the structure of their enamel a well marked 

 peculiarity, namely, the free penetration of the epiblastic 

 enamel by tubes continuous with those of the mesoblastic 

 dentine, and it happened that recent Carnivora, the de- 

 scendants, more or less direct, of the creodonts, also pre- 

 sented a disposition of the prisms of their enamel somewhat 

 unusual amongst Mammalia. Teeth of Hyaenodon, Sinopa, 

 Oxyaena, Pachyaena, Borhyaena, Didynictis, and Cynodictis 

 had been examined, and in none of them were marsupial 

 characters observed ; on the contrary, in most of them 

 characteristic carnivorous patterns were found, so that in 

 Oligocene and Eocene times their enamel had already 

 attained to its full specialisations. — Contributions to the 

 anatomy of the Ophidia : F. E. Beddard. — Synopsis of 

 the toads of the genus Nectophryne, with special remarks 

 on some known species and description of a new species 

 from German East Africa: Dr. J. Roux. 



Royal Meteorological Society, January 17. — Mr. Richard 

 Bentley, president, in the chair. — Annual general meeting. 

 — Address on meteorology in daily life : R. Bentley. The 

 president referred to the increasing interest shown lately 

 throughout the country in the study of meteorology, and to 

 the recent advances which had been made in it — more 

 especially in the analysis of the composition of the atmo- 

 sphere — and in the investigation of the upper currents of 

 the air. He also laid stress on the increasing urgency of 

 safeguarding the water supply, and gave various illustra- 

 tions of the effects of weather on human life, on the land, 

 on navigation, on transit, &c. 



Royal Microscopical Society, January 17. — Dr. D. H. 

 Scott, F.R.S., president, in the chair, annual meeting. — 

 Annual address, the subject being " The Life and Work of 

 Bernard Renault " : President. 



Chemical Society, January iS.— Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — The refractive indices of crystal- 

 lising solutions, with especial reference to the passage from 

 the metastable to the labile condition : H. A. Miers 

 and F. Isaac. The authors found that the refractive index 

 of a strong solution of sodium nitrate, measured at intervals 

 while the liquid cools, rises to a maximum value and then 

 falls, crystals appearing before the maximum is reached. 

 There are always two periods of crystallisation : a first, 

 in which a few crystals are growing gradually ; a second, 

 in which many crystals appear spontaneously. The authors 

 regard these as being undoubtedly the metastable and labile 

 states. — The effect of constitution on the rotatory power of 

 optically active nitrogen compounds, part i. : M. B. 

 Thomas and H. O. Jones. The resolution of a set of 

 optically active nitrogen compounds and the examination 

 of the rotatory power of their salts in dilute aqueous solu- 

 tion have been made in order to find the rotatory power 

 of the ions. The values of [M] D for some of the principal 

 alkyl radicals are given. — The determination of available 

 plant food in soil by the use of weak acid solvents : A. D. 

 Hall and A. Amos. The authors have investigated the 

 effect of repeating the attack of weak acid solvents on 

 soils of known history derived from the Rothamsted ex- 

 perimental plots. In the case of soils continuously 

 manured with superphosphate, the phosphoric acid goes 

 into solution at a rate which decreases logarithmically, but 



NO. 1893, VOL. 73] 



soils which have received complex manures do not show 

 the same regular decrement in the amounts of phosphoric 

 acid passing into solution. — The action of ammonia and 

 amines on diazo-benzene picrate : O. Silberrad and 

 G. Rotter. — The preparation of bistriazobenzene : O. 

 Silberrad and B. J. Smart. — Gradual decomposition of 

 ethyl diazoacetate : O. Silberrad and C. S. Roy. — Studies 

 on nitrogen iodide, iii., the action of methyl and benzyl 

 iodides : O. Silberrad and B. J. Smart. — Action of 

 bromine on benzeneazo-o-nitrophenol : J. T. Hewitt and 

 N. Walker. — The condensation of dimethyldihydroresorcin 

 and of chloroketodimethyltetrahydrobenzene with primary 

 amines, part i., monamines, ammonia, aniline, and 

 />-toluidine : P. Haas. — Silicon researches, part x., silicon 

 thiocyanate : J. E. Reynolds. The author found that 

 silicon thiocyanate, Si(SCN),,, is best prepared by pro- 

 longed digestion of excess of pure lead thiocyanate in a 

 benzene solution of silicon tetrachloride. — Halogen deri- 

 vatives of substituted oxamides : F. D. Chattaway and 

 W. H. Lewis. A number of substances obtained by the 

 action of halogens on substituted oxamides are described. 

 — Menthyl benzene-sulphonate and menthyl naphthalene-0- 

 sulphonate : T. S. Patterson and J. Frew. — Some re- 

 actions and new compounds of fluorine : E. B. R. 

 Prideaux. The fluorine prepared by the electrolysis of 

 anhydrous hydrogen fluoride, contained in a copper vessel, 

 was found to contain oxygen produced at the anode even 

 after the current had passed for a considerable time. 

 Liquid fluorine has no solvent or chemical action on iodine 

 or solid bromine. Bromine fluoride, BrF 3 , was prepared 

 for the first time. Gaseous fluorides of selenium, SeF 6 , and 

 tellurium, TeF 6 , were prepared by direct combination. The 

 vapour pressure curve of SF C was compared with those of 

 SeF„ and TeF 6 , and shown to be similar. — Contributions 

 to the chemistry of the rare earths, part i. : M. Esposito. 

 The various methods advocated by Watts, Brauner, Popps, 

 Mosander, Debray and others for the separation of cerium, 

 lanthanum, and " old didymium " have been examined 

 comparatively.— A synthesis of aldehydes by Grignard's 

 reaction : G. W. Monier-Williams.— The action of ultra- 

 violet light on moist and dry carbon dioxide : S. Chad- 

 wick, J. E. Ramsbottom, and D. L. Chapman. — A 

 contribution to the study of stable diazo-compounds, pre- 

 liminary note : G. T. Morgan and W. O. Wootton.— 

 Triarylsulphonium bases : S. Smiles and R. Le Rossig-nol. 

 — An improved apparatus for the continuous extraction of 

 liquids with ether: R. S. Bowman. In this apparatus, 

 which comprises a simple system of tubes, a condenser, 

 and two ordinary flasks, the extraction is effected by pass- 

 ing cool liquid ether through the solution. 



Physical Society, January 26.— Prof. J. H. Poynting, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The isothermal distilla- 

 tion of nitrogen and oxygen and of argon and oxygen : 

 I. K. Inglis. Mixtures of liquid nitrogen and oxygen are 

 particularly suitable for an exact study of the relations 

 obtaining during isothermal distillation, for the distillation 

 bulb being the coldest instead of the hottest part of the 

 apparatus, errors due to back condensation, &c, can be 

 eliminated. In addition, the vapour can easily be circu- 

 lated and passed time after time through the liquid until 

 equilibrium is complete. Experiments were carried out in 

 this way in a specially designed apparatus, and the results 

 showed that the ratio of nitrogen to oxygen in the vapour 

 was not in a constant proportion to the same ratio in the 

 liquid. When, however, the partial pressures of nitrogen 

 and oxygen were plotted against the concentrations in the 

 liquid a straight line was obtained in the case of nitrogen 

 and a curve in the case of oxygen. This indicated that 

 nitrogen obeyed Henry's law of solubility, and the devi- 

 ation in the case of oxygen pointed to its being slightly 

 associated in the liquid state when mixed with nitrogen. 

 A few experiments were also carried out with mixtures 

 of argon and oxygen. At the temperature used, argon was 

 a volatile solid, and therefore the greatest concentration 

 of argon that could be obtained was that of the saturated 

 solution in oxygen. Argon seemed to agree with nitrogen 

 in obeying Henry's law. — The use of chilled cast iron for 

 permanent magnets : A. Campbell. The present investi- 

 gation was made on rings in addition to rods of the 

 standard dimensions usual in testing magnet-steels. All 



