iS2 



NA TURE 



[February 15, 1906 



hauls wen-' Sagitta macrocephala ana S. zetesios, known 

 only from deep water in the Atlantic, and Krohnia fyamata. 

 The species captured at the surface supported the alleged 

 uniformity of the Indn-Pacific epiplankton. A systematic 

 revision of all specie-, hitherto described left twenty-four 

 as valid. A revision of all captures of Cfuetognatha 

 hitherto recorded appeared to show one (hexaptera) as 

 cosmopolitan and paiuothermal, others as eurythermal, and 

 having a wide but not a universal range, others as con- 

 fined to a limited area and stenothermal. As regards 

 depth, four have been only recorded from the meso- 

 plankton ; two at the surface in polar waters seek the 

 mesi plankton in warm seas ; others are confined to the 

 epiplankton. According to temperature, species appear to 

 fall into live classes : — cold water species with a maxi- 

 mum of about 12° (.'., temperate species, warm water 

 spei tes with a minimum of about i6° O, species with a 

 wide range <»l temperature, and a single pantothermal 

 spei ies. I he writer also presented a note on Antarctic 

 and sub-Antarctic Chaetognatha taken on the Discovery 

 and Challenge! expeditions; these established Krohnia 

 hamata as truly bipolar, from 81° 30' N. to 77° 49' S., 

 and completed the cosmopolitan record of hexaptera ; they 

 also enabled the N. limit of hamata at the surface, and 

 the S. limit of serratodcntata, to be determined approxi- 

 mately. 



Chemical Society, February 1. — Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — I lydroxylamine-a^-disulphonates : 

 T. Haga. These salts, obtained by hydrolysis of Fremy's 

 m-sulphazilates, are decomposed by sodium amalgam, and 

 are proved by the nature of this change to be hydroxyl- 

 amine-a/3-disulphonates. This is believed to be the first 

 indisputable case of the occurrence of fundamental struc- 

 tural isomerism among inorganic compounds. — Studies in 

 the camphane series, pari xxi., benzenediazo-iJ/-semi- 

 carbazinocamphor and its derivatives : M. O. Forster. 

 Compounds of this class have been obtained from diazotised 

 aniline, /i-toluidine, &c. ; they are characterised by the 

 readiness with which dilute alkalis resolve them into 

 camphoryl- ^-carbamide and the corresponding phenylazo- 

 imide. — The relations between absorption spectra and 

 chemical constitution, part i., the chemical reactivity ol 

 the carbonyl group : A. W. Stewart and E. C. C. Baly. 

 It is pointed out that in certain cases the phenomena ol 

 tautomerism furnish an explanation of the exceptional re- 

 activity of the carbonyl group. From spectroscopic evidence 

 it appears that in the a-diketones a vibration is going on, 

 which, I" a certain extent, resembles that which was found 

 in the case of ethylacetoacetate and its derivatives. The 

 nature of this vibration cannot be easily expressed in the 

 ordinary structural formula? without the possibility of mis- 

 conception, but it may be indicated somewhat as follows: — 

 The vibration is brought about by some change in the 

 relations between the carbon and oxygen atoms, and in 

 some respects resembles the transition from the ketonic to 

 the enolic form and back again. Using this analogy, it 

 may be postulated that the two extreme phases of the 

 vibration can In- represented by the formulas 



-CO 



II I 

 -CO 



-CO 

 -CO 



It is proposed to call the general phenomenon " isorro- 

 pesis," and to call " isorropic " those radicals the activity 

 of which is thus produced. — The relation between absorp- 

 tion spectra and chemical constitution, part ii., the 

 quinones and a-diketones: E. C. ('. Baly and A. W. 

 Stewart. In this paper it is shown that isorropesis in 

 a-diketones results in the absorption of light in the visible 

 blue region, so that the substances are intensel} yellow. 

 Ibis is evidenced by camphorquinone and diacetyl. These 

 observations stronglj support Armstrong's theory that the 

 colour of certain benzene derivatives i^ due to the 

 quinonoid linking, for they show that the colour is caused, 

 not directly by this linking, but by the isorropesis between 

 the unsaturated atoms where this linking exist,. — The re- 

 lation between absorption spectra and chemical constitu- 

 tion, part in., the nilranilines and the nitrophenols : 

 E. ('. C. Baly, W. II. Edwards, and A. W. Stewart. 

 NO. 1804, VOL. 73] 



In this paper are described the absorption spectra of com- 

 pounds having the quinonoid linking and containing a 

 nitrogen atom in place of one or both of the quinone 

 oxygen atoms. In the discussion, Prof. Armstrong said 

 that Mr. Baly had put aside entirely the view which had 

 long been held that ketonic interactions were conditioned 

 by the combination of various substances with the carbonyl 

 group, and had adopted an entirely infra-molecular view 

 (if change, whether chemical or physical. He still adhered 

 to the opinion that three absorbing centres were required 

 t.. produce visible colour, i.e. that iodoform, not methylene 

 iodide, might be taken as typical of coloured substances. 

 The colour of compounds such as diacetyl might be 

 accounted for on the assumption that polymeric molecules 

 were present, formed by the association, through the 

 residual affinity of the oxvgen atoms, of the ketonic 

 groups, e.g. 



CH 3 .C— CCH 3 

 O O 



b b 



CH 3 .C C.CH,. 



This explanation might perhaps also apply to metanitro- 

 phenol and metaniti aniline. He remarked subsequently 

 that the blue colour of water might be accounted for 

 from this point of view, but not by Sir. Baly's hypothesis. 

 — The action of light on benzaldehydephenylhydrazone : 

 F. D. Chattaway. — The union of chlorine and hvdrogen : 

 ('. H. Burgess and D. L. Chapman. — Not" on the 

 molecular weight of epinephrine: <!. Bargrer and A. J. 

 Ewins. — The critical temperature and value of ME/0 of 

 some carbon compounds: J. C. Brown. Tb<" value of 

 ML/0 rises very slighfly with the increase of IIP. in the 

 aliphatic alcohols, acids, and esters, but is very constant 

 for the aromatic hydrocarbons. — Slow oxidations in the 

 presence of moisture: N. Smith. — Fischer's salt and its 

 decomposition by heat : P. C. Ray. — Action of quinones on 

 o-diamines, o-nitroaniline, m-nitroaniline, and 2-mtro-p- 

 toluidine. A preliminary note. — Some oxidation products 

 of the hydroxvbenzoic acids, ii. : A. G. Pcrkin. When 

 gallic acid dissolved in 70 per cent, sulphuric acid is 

 oxidised by means of potassium persulphate, a colouring 

 matter very similar to ellagic acid is produced. This sub- 

 stance, to which the name flavellagic acid is assigned, is 

 probably hexahydroxydiphenylmethylolid. — Contributions to 

 the chemistry of oxygen compounds, part i., the compounds 

 of tertiary phosphine oxides with acids and salts : R. H. 

 Pickard and J. Kenyon. — The rapid electro-analysis of 

 metals, preliminary note : H. J. S. Sand. 



Mathematical Society. Fehruarv S. — S'r W. D Niven, 

 vice-president, in the (hair. — The Eisenstein-Sylvester 

 extension of Fermat's theorem: Dr. II. I-'. Baker. 

 Sylvester gave in 1861 an expression for the residue, to 

 modulus p. where p is an odd prime, of the integer 

 (yp-1— j)j p % The result admits of simple proof and of 

 extension to the case where the modulus is not prime, and 

 1 be expression obtained for the residue is shown to be one 

 of a definite number of possible representations. — A chapter 

 of the present state in the historical development of the 

 elliptic functions: Prof. 11. Hancock. The paper deals 

 chiefly with the contributions of Cavlev and Fisenstein to 

 that method of developing the theory of elliptic functions 

 which is usually associated with the name of YVeierstrass. 

 — The reduction of the ternary quintic and septimic to their 

 canonical firms : Prof. A. C. Dixon and Dr. T. Stuart. 

 The method employed in the reduction is Sylvester's ex- 

 tended dialytic method of elimination. — The scattering of 

 sound by spheroids and discs: J. W. Nicholson. The 

 diffraction of plane sound waves by a very small spheroid 

 his been discussed by Lord Rayleigh. The paper is 

 occupied with the development of formula? suitable for 

 expressing the scattered waves in the case where the axis 

 of the spheroid is parallel to the direction of the incident 

 disturbance, and the dimensions of the spheroid are 

 sufficiently small compared with the wave-length for an 

 approximation proceeding by powers of the ratio of the 

 equatorial radius to the wave-length to be valid. — A pre- 

 liminary communication on partitions of numbers in space 

 ( f two dimensions was made by Major P. A. MacMahon. 



