54^ 



NA TURE 



[Oct. 2, 1; 



At aphelion in this orbit the comet would be distant from the 

 orbit of Jupiter O'503, but there is a very much closer approach 

 to the orbit of Mars, at a true anomaly of 37 13', corresponding 

 to heliocentric longitude 343° 25', where the distance of the two 

 orbits is only o-ooSS, and it is worthy of note that between 

 April 5 and 10, 1S6S, both Mars and the comet would pass that 

 point, and if Dr. Berberich's period is approximately correct, 

 there must have been a close approach of the two bodies, pos- 

 sibly a closer one than calculation assigns. The following 

 positions are deduced from the elliptical orbit : — 

 At Berlin, Midnight 

 R.A. Dec! 



October 5 ... 20 33 51 



9 ... 20 46 54 



13 ... 20 59 26 



17 ... 21 n 2S 



21 ... 21 23 4 



25 ... 21 34 14 



29 ... 21 45 1 



Log Distance 

 from Earth. 

 22 30-1 ... 9833I 

 21 2'5 ... 9-8536 

 19 35'6 ... 9-8746 



18 io-o ... 9-8960 



16 45-9 ... 99175 



l 5 2 3 5 •■ 9'939i 

 - 14 2-9 ... 99608 



The comet is rapidly growing fainter, but it is obviously of 

 portance for its theory that observations should be continued as 

 long as possible. 



Comet 18S4 c. — A new comet was discovered by Heir Wolf 

 at Heidelberg on September 17, and was observed at Strasburg 

 on September 20. It was also independently detected by Dr. 

 Copeland at Dun Echt on September 22, the night before the 

 telegraphic notice from Kiel arrived at that Observatory. Prof. 

 Tacchini has favoured us with the following observations made 

 by himself and Prof. Millosevich at the Observatory of the Col- 

 legia Romano in Rome: — 



Rome M I R.A Decl. 



h. in. s. h. m. s. , „ 



Sept. 21 ... 9 24 47 ... 21 15 46-00 ... + 21 59 22-6 

 _ 2 3 ... 7 39 ' 2 - 211644-33 ... +21 7 4S7 

 This comet is likely to remain visible for several months, ac- 

 cording to the orbits yet calculated, but a somewhat wider extent 

 of observation than is now available will be required to predict 

 its track in the heavens with any degree of certainty. 



The Lunar Eclipse on October 4. — We gave last week 

 the times of occultations of two stars during the totality of 

 this eclipse, of which accurate positions are found in our 

 catalogues. A somewhat extensive list of starsliable to occulta- 

 tion has been determined at Pulkowa with sufficient precision 

 for the predictions of the times of immersion and emersion, 

 which have been communicated to various observatories. 

 Several stars rated higher than the ninth magnitude appear 

 on this list, where the Durchmustei ung magnitudes are followed. 

 Our remark last week should have been explained as referring 

 only to stars of which accurate places are found in the catalogues. 



HYDROXYLAMINE AND THE ASSIMILA TION 



OF NITROGEN BY PLANTS 

 THE researches of V. Meyer and E. Schulze on the action of 

 hydroxylamine salts upon plants (Berl. Ber., xvii. 1554) 

 were undertaken with the a priori probability of showing that 

 this base plays an important part in the synthetical activity of 

 the plant : and although they have not succeeded in establishing 

 the experimental fact, the results obtained are of great interest, 

 and the whole is eminently suggestive of future possibilities. 

 The supply of nitrogen to plants takes the form of nitrates ami 

 ammoniacal salts, and these classes of compounds being destitute 

 of synthetical activity, we are driven to assume that the earlier 

 stages of nitrogen assimilation consist in the conversion of these 

 comparatively inert substances into derivatives having the "che- 

 mical tension" necessary to synthetic activity. Hydroxylamine 

 and its salts, which occupy in point of oxidation a position 

 intermediate between ammonia and the nitrates, are bodies 

 possessing this character in the highest degree. To use the 

 author's words, " the behaviour of this base towards the organic 

 oxy-compounds is most aggressive : it is indeed astonishing with 

 what facility it converts carbonyl-compounds intoazotised deriva- 

 tives." This is notably the case with the ketones and aldehydes 

 of the fatty series, the products of the union being oximido- 

 derivatives, e.g. aldoxime, acetoxime, isonitroso acids; in these 

 the characteristic C = NO._, group easily undergoes reduction, 

 with formation of the corresponding amido derivatives ; and 

 upon the hypothesis of the formation of hydroxylamine in the 

 plant as the first stage in nitrogen assimilation, it is easy to see 



in what manner its non-nitrogenous constituents, which for the 

 most part possess the characteristics of aldehydes and ketones, 

 would contribute to the further stages in its elaboration. 



To test this hypothesis, in the first instance, the authors insti- 

 tuted parallel experiments on the culture of maize, to which 

 the nitrogen was supplied in the form of ammonium sulphate, 

 hydroxylamine sulphate, and hydrochlorate and potassium ni- 

 trate, respectively. The result was, in a word, to show that the 

 hydroxylamine salts act as direct poisons to plant life, as indeed 

 they have already been shown by Bertoni to act towards animal 

 life. Having established this fact, the authors inferred their 

 probable action a. antiseptics, and experiment showed that they 

 possess this property in a remarkable degree. This result, as 

 they contend, does not negative the original hypothesis, as the 

 occurrence of the base in the plant would necessarily be 

 transitional. 



It seems to us that the antiseptic properties of hydroxylamine are 

 a dire t consequence of its synthetical activity ; and further that 

 antiseptics fall into three classes according to their disturbance of 

 one of the three essential conditions of cell life, which are : (1) 

 hydration ; (2) oxidation ; (3) the synthetical activity of alde- 

 hydes (Low and Bokorny), chiefly in the direction of condensa- 

 tion. In illustration of this classification we may cite as typical 

 members of group (1) common salt, (2) sulphurous acid in its 

 various combinations, (3) phenols. 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 

 REPORTS 



Second Report of the Committee, consisting of Prof. A. W. 

 Williamson, Chairman, Profs. Sir H. E. Roscoe, Dewar, Frank- 

 land, Crum-Brovm, OJling, and Armstrong, Messrs. A. Vernon- 

 Harcourl, J. Millar Thomson, V. H. Veley, F. Japfi, H. Forster 

 Murley, and II. B. Dixon (S cretary), appointed for tke purpose of 

 drawing up a Statement of the Varieties of" Chenrcal Names" 

 which ha::- come into use, for indicating the causes which have 

 led to their adoption, and for considering what can be done to 

 bring about some Convergence of the Vieies on Chemical Nomiu- 

 clature obtaining among English and Foreign Chemists. — The 

 Report is somewhat lengthy, and includes some long tables of 

 varieties of names for common chemical substances. It com- 

 mences with historical notes on chemical nomenclature. No 

 attempt was made until about 100 years ago to name chemical 

 substances in a way which would indicate their composition ; 

 alchemistic or "culinary" names being given to substances in 

 many cases. Macquer is credited with being the first to intro- 

 duce generic names like vitriol and nitre to indicate sulphates 

 and nitrates. The term salt was used to indicate almost any 

 substance soluble in water and affecting the sense of taste, and 

 in the eighteenth century acids, salts, and bases began to be distin- 

 guished. Rouelle was the first to define a salt from its chemical 

 properties, and distinguish it from acids and bases (see Kopp's 

 "History of Chemistry," hi.). Bergmann and Guyton de 

 Mouveau separately proposed systems of nomenclature, many 

 terms of which are still in use. De Mouveau made the termina- 

 tions of names of acids uniform, and the names of salts to indi- 

 cate their composition from bases and acids. In 17S7 Lavoisier, 

 De Mouveau, Berthollet, and Fourcroy prepared a scheme of 

 naming compounds which is practically that in common use 

 now, introducing the terminations "ate" and "ic," "ite" and 

 "ous, " in acids and salts. But higher and lower oxides are not 

 distinguished by generic names. Berzelius made a more elabo- 

 rate classification of salts, and added some names. He distin- 

 guished the halogen compounds of hydrogen as hydracids, and 

 distinguished clearly between "neutral," "acid," and "basic" 

 salts. The views now held of acids, salts, and bases are prac- 

 tically those of Gerhardt and Laurent, who first recognised the 

 part pla; ed by hydrogen in acids and salts. The Report then 

 goes on to consider the tables, which give the number of times a 

 substance has been distinguished by any particular name. 

 Table I. deals with the names of oxides of carbon from 1755 to 

 1882. By far the greater number of sources give the names 

 carbonic oxide to CO and carbonic acid to CO., ; systematic 

 names like carbonous oxide and carbonic oxide only occurring 

 two or three times, the terms carbonic oxide and carbonic 

 anhydride or dioxide being next in frequency. In France and 

 Germany the names oxide de carbon and acide carbonique, 

 Kohlenoxyd and Ko'hlensaure have been much more frequently 

 used. But in several instances the same names have been used 

 ;n a different sense ; the term carbonic oxide being some- 



