April 5, 1906] 



NA TURE 



thrift, since they cannot yet count up quite two millions 

 of pounds ; and that of Johns Hopkins, briefer but also 

 great, has been achieved with an endowment of little above 

 one million. The Carnegie Institute at Washington has 

 two millions. Many of the other institutions of higher 

 learning are far less adequately provided for ; but in 

 general it may be said that the Republic is more liberal 

 with its schools than with anything else. In no other field 

 do its private citizens display more generosity, and as for 

 public expenditure, to give but one illustration, it may be 

 mentioned that the single State of New York spent in 1005 

 from the public treasuries, State and local, for its schools 

 in the neighbourhood of nine million pounds. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, December 7, 1905. — " On the Influence of 

 Bias and of Personal Equation in Statistics of Ill-defined 

 Qualities: an Experimental Study." By (.. Udn) Yule. 

 Communicated by Prof. O. Henrici, F.R.S. 



To attempt to answer the question raised bv the results 

 of the preceding investigation an experiment was conducted, 

 by asking observers to classify under such headings as 

 " light," " medium," " dark," scraps of photographic paper 

 printed to different depths of colour. The results show that 

 (1) personal equation in the use of such terms is very large 

 indeed ; (2) the majority of observers lend to return an 

 excess of pairs of tints of the same name; (3) the amount 

 of this excess is increased when different observers' results 

 are pooled, owing to their varying personal equations ; 

 (4) but it is markedly less than the excess of the number of 

 homonymous pairs (as compared with a normal distribu- 

 tion) in several of the tables for inheritance of qualities. 

 The answer to the question remains therefore somewhat 

 indefinite, and further investigation is required. 



Chemical Society, March 15.— Prof. R. MelHola. F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — The interaction of well-dried 

 mixtures of hydrocarbons and oxygen : W. A. Bone and 

 (i. \V. Andrew. The results of experiments carried out 

 chiefly with well-dried mixtures of ethylene and oxygen 

 indicate that steam is not essential to the combustion of 

 hydrocarbons. — The explosive combustion of hydrocarbons : 

 YV. A. Bone and J. Drugman. The results of this re- 

 search indicate that there is no essential difference between 

 the slow and rapid combustion of a hydrocarbon, and thai 

 explosive combustion probably involves the initial form- 

 ation of unstable hydroxylated molecules, which sub- 

 sequently undergo thermal decomposition into simpler pro- 

 ducts. — The occurrence of methane among the decompo- 

 sition products of certain nitrogenous bases as a source 

 of error in the estimation of nitrogen by the absolute 

 method : P. Haas. The author confirms and extends to 

 .1 large number of substances Dunstan and Carr's observ- 

 ation that in the Dumas method of determining nitrogen 

 in organic substances an error may be caused by the 

 inclusion of marsh gas in the gas collected and measured. 

 — Studies on comparative cryoscopy, part iv., the hydro- 

 carbons and their halogen derivatives in phenol solution : 

 P. W, Robertson. — The displacement of acid ions, 

 part i. : A. F. Joseph. The author describes his in- 

 vestigations on the quantitative action of hydrochloric acid 

 mi llie nitrates of potassium, sodium, and strontium, and 

 of nitric acid oh the corresponding chlorides. — Additive 

 compounds of arylamines with aromatic nitro-derivatives : 

 C. L. Jackson and L. Clarke. 4 : o-Dibromo-i : 3- 

 dinitrobenzene dimethylaniline, 4-chloro-i : 3 : 5-tribromo- 

 2 : b-dinitrobenzene dimethylaniline and other similar 

 additive products are described. — Influence of substituents 

 in the trinitrobenzene molecule on the formation ,of 

 additive compounds with arylamines: J. J. Sudborough 

 and N. Picton. The formation of additive compounds 

 between a- or /3-naphthylamine and s-trinitrobenzene 

 derivatives is completely inhibited by the introduction of 

 three methyl-, two methoxy-, or three bromo-radicals into 

 the trinitrobenzene molecule. — The relations between 

 absorption spectra and chemical constitution, part iv., the 

 re-activity of the substituted quinones : A. YV. Stewart 

 and E. C. C. Baly. An examination was made of the 



NO. 1 90I, VOL. 73] 



absorption spectra of various quinones, and conclusions 

 are drawn as to the conditions in which these substances 

 exist. — The constitution and properties of acyl thio- 

 cyanates : J. Hawthorne. — A mode of formation of 

 aconitic and citrazinic acids and their alkyl derivatives, 

 with remarks on the constitution of aconitic acid : H. 

 Rogerson and J. !•'. Thorpe. — Aromatic sulphonium 

 bases : S. Smiles and R. Le Rossignol. Two methods 

 of preparing aromatic sulphonium bases are described, 

 (1) from a sulphoxide and phenetole with a dehydrating 

 agent, (2) from a sulphinic acid and phenetole with strong 

 sulphuric acid. — A new form of calcium chloride tube for 

 combustion : A. E. Hill. This tube is described and illus- 

 trated in the current number of the Proceedings of the 

 Chemical Society, 1906, xxii., H~. — I he viscosity of liquid 

 mixtures, part iii. : A. E. Dunstan. — The action of 

 phenylpropiolyl chloride on the ketonic compounds, part ii. : 

 S. Ruhemann. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, March 26. — M. H. Poincare in the 

 chair. — The methods used in the search for luminous 

 particles mixed with the ga~ of the chromosphere and 

 the solar protuberances. Application during the eclipse of 

 1905 : II. Deslandres. The lines due to the gases are 

 readily observed, but the continuous spectrum due to the 

 presence of liquid or solid particles is much more difficult 

 to recognise. The author attacked this problem during 

 the last eclipse, making use of coloured screens to remove 

 the gaseous radiations. A preliminary account of the 

 results is given. — Observations on Gennadas : E. L. 

 Bouvier. The author draws the following conclusions 

 from his work in this and a preceding paper on the same 

 subject : the Gennadas are clearly bathypelagic, and do 

 not descend to live at great depths ; they do not rise to the 

 surface for reproduction, and are derived from Benthe- 

 sicymus by adaptation to a bathypelagic existence. — Quasi- 

 waves of shock in the midst of a fluid which is a good 

 conductor of heat : P. Duhem. — The Oligocene basin of 

 Ebro and the Tertiary history of Spain : Ch. Deperet and 

 I.. Vidal. — The total eclipse of the sun of August 30, 1905 , 

 solar protuberances of two colours : J. Esquirol. — A magic 

 square : G. Tarry. — The theory of characteristics : E. 

 Goursat. — Discontinuous ensembles : L. Zoretti. — The 

 development of non-integrable functions in trigonometrical 

 series : P. Fatou. — Hyperelliplic surfaces defined by inter- 

 mediate singular functions : Louis Remy. — The deform- 

 ation of the metals of a railway : G. Cuenot. — A mode- 

 of construction of aeroplanes allowing of an increase, in 

 notable proportions, of their sustaining power : E. Seux. — 

 The evaluation of the power of microscopic objectives : L. 

 Malassez. — The variations of the absorption bands of a 

 crystal in a magnetic field : Jean Becquerel. The spec- 

 trum of xenotime, a uniaxial crystal giving fine absorption 

 bands, was obtained with a Rowland grating, and the 

 effect of placing the crystal in a magnetic field examined. 

 The resulting displacement of some of the bands was much 

 greater than would be expected from the magnitude of the 

 ordinary Zeeman effect in metallic vapours. — Gaseous 

 osmosis through a colloidal membrane : Jules Amar. A 

 perfectly dry colloidal membrane is impermeable to carbon 

 dioxide ; the gas diffuses through only when the membrane 

 is moist, and the amount diffused diminishes progressively 

 as the membrane dries. — A contribution to the study of the 

 intermittent discharge : G. Millochau. — New researches 

 on bulbs producing X-rays : M. Nogier. — The use of the 

 Cooper-Hewitt lamp as a source of monochromatic light : 

 Ch. Fabry and H. Buisson. This mercury arc lamp, 

 which is now made commercially, gives a light of uniform 

 intrinsic lustre. The yellow and green rays are so fine 

 as to give interference phenomena with a difference of 

 path of 22 cm., that is to say, of an order of about 

 400,000. The yellow rays give particularly fine results. — 

 The isolation and some atomic characters of dysprosium : 

 G. Urbain. The author has isolated 50 grams of an 

 earth the spectral characters and atomic weight of which 

 show such constancy among the different fractions that it 

 is impossible to imagine that it is a mixture. Details of 

 the methods of separation used and the spectrum observed 

 are given. — The commercial preparation of calcium 

 hydride : Georges F. Jaubert. The product, as put on the 



