June 28, 1877] 



MATURE 



175 



flank of Mauna-Loa, had become active. On the 4th rather 

 severe shocks of earthquake vfere felt at the Volcano House. 

 At 3 P.M. that day a jet of lava was thrown up to the height of 

 about 100 feet, and afterwards other jet-, to the number of fifty, 

 perhaps were in operation. .Subsequently jets of stexm issued 

 along ihe line formed by a fissure four miles in length, down 

 the mountain side. On ihe 5th, an observing party finding the 

 disturbance lessened, descended into the vast crater. On the 

 plain which forms ihe fl >or of the crater a mamelon had been 

 thrown up 1,400 feet in diameter and 700 feet in height. Fire 

 and scoria spouted up in variou; places. Pele's hair, vitrcouj 

 filaments formed in the volcano, abounded. Things leturned to 

 a quiescent state. Between 4 and 5 A.M. of the loth an cscil- 

 lation of the sea was observed at Hilo, on the east coast of the 

 great southern ishind of Hawaii. At a quarter before 5 the 

 great " earthquake wave " struck the village. Tlie greatest 

 difference between the crest and the trough of the wave was 

 here, and it measured 36 feet. On the opposite side of tlie 

 island, in Kealakekua Bay, where Cook died, the measurement 

 was 30 feet. In other localities tlie diflference varied down to 

 3 feet. The regurgitations of the sea were violent and complex, 

 and continued through the day. The great wave seems to have 

 struck all the islands at the same time without reference to posi- 

 tion. The height of the waves was nowhere so great as at 

 Hilo. In 186S a great earthquake wave destroyed Arequipa 

 and Arica ; 30,000 lives were lost at that time. Allowing 

 five hours for the difference of longitude between those ill-fated 

 towns and Honolulu, and supposing , tliat the centre of the 

 seismic action was rightly placed, the wave on that occasion. 

 1.S6S, was calculated to have travelled the 5,000 miles between 

 Arica and Honolulu in twelve hours, or at the rite of 446 miles 

 an hour. 



The shock of an earthquake visited the district between Ai.'c- 

 la-Chapelle and Cologne at about 9 A.M. on Sunday. The 

 movement was from south-west to noith-east, and lasted from 

 three to fifteen seconds. The vibration resembled that caused 

 by a heavy goods train. The Colo^n; Gazelle remaiks that the 

 last earthquake in the Rhine di.trict occurred on November 17, 

 1S6S, two days after a considerable eruption from Vesuvius had 

 cOTimenced 



At a recent meeting of the Christchurch (N.Z.) Philosophical 

 Institution, Dr. Haast gave an account of the discovery of 

 remarkable ancient rock paintings in the Weka Pass Ranges. 

 Some of them are fifteen feet long ; they represent animals of 

 foreign countries, weapons and dresses of semi-civilised people ; 

 underneath are characters like those of the Tamil language, and 

 those on the ancient hill found in the North Island. 



The great Moscow Polytechnic Museum was opened on June 12 

 by an extraordinary meeting of the Society of Fi lends of Natural 

 Science. 



The Irkutsk newspaper Siieria announces that on April 28, 

 at 9.30 A.M., an earthquake was felt at Irkutsk. The shock was 

 veiy short and rather strong. 



The second fascicule of the sixth volume of the Munoirs of 

 the Kazan Society of Naturalists contains the annual report of 

 the Society. The most important work done by the Society 

 was a geological exploration of the permian an 1 carboniferous 

 deposits along the banks of the Volga, between Stavropol and 

 Syzran, by M. Stuckenberg, and of the banks of the Kama in 

 the Vyatka government, by M. Zaytseff. 



The additions to the Ziiolo{;ical Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Patas Monkey {Cercopillucus ruber) from 

 West Africa, presented by Mr. Edwaid Poulson ; a Yellow 

 Baboon {Cynocephalus babouin) from West Africa, presented by 

 Mr. H. E._ Walters; a Purple Kaleege (Euplocamus horsfiddi) 



from the North-west Himalayas, presented by Mr. John Ditmas; 

 an Imperial Eagle (Aqiiila iiiifcrialis), European, a Barrabands 

 Parrakeet (Polyteiis barrabandi) from New South Wales, depo- 

 sited ; seven Spotted-billed Ducks (Anns pccctlorhyncha), seven 

 Chilian Pintails (Dajila spinicauJa), eight Summer Ducks (Aix 

 spoiisa), two Bronze-winged Pigeons (Phafs chalcoptera), a 

 Geoffroy's Dove {Peristera gcffroii), bred in the Gardens; a 

 Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus aniphibius), born in Holland, 

 purchased. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 

 -Royal Society, May 31. — "The Physical Properties ol 

 Homologues and Isomer?," by Frederick D. Brown, B.Sc. 



When we attempt to compare the physical properties of a 

 series of compounds presenting very similar chemical properties, 

 we find, that although our knowledge regarding one or two 

 members of the series is tolerably complete, it is very restricted 

 concerning the others. 



Among the alcohols of the C„H5„+iOH series, for example, 

 there are two — methyl and ethyl alcohols — with whose physical 

 properties we are well acquainted, but when we pass to the other 

 members of this series we find, that with the exception of nume- 

 rous determinations of density and boiling-point, experiments 

 have been limited to the measurements of expansion which have 

 been carried out by Kopp, Pierre and Puchot, and others. 



In order to supply this want, I have undertaken a series of 

 experiments, the first of which are here noticed. 



The density, expansion, and vapour-tension of propyl and 

 isopropyl iodides have been measured with the greatest care ; 

 the chief difficulty to be overcome being the impurity of the 

 liquids themselves, more than a kilogramme of each was specially 

 prepared and dried by means of phosphoric anhydride ; it was 

 then submitted to fractional distillation, about 500 grammes of 

 perfectly pure iodide being thus obtained ; this was again dis- 

 tilled and collected in about four portions, each of which formed 

 the subject of a series of experiments. The results obtained with 

 all these portions agreed most satisfactorily, showing that when 

 the substance is prepared with care, the error due to impurity is 

 well nigh obviated. 



The following table gives the results in such a form as to show 

 that when the tensions of the saturated vapours of both iodides 

 are equal, the densities and consequently the molecular volumes 

 are unequal. 



It will be seen that this is in contradiction to Kopp's law, but 

 that it is in accordance with the modern d)namical hypotheses 

 on the constitution of matter, since the instability of the secondary 

 iodide may be due to the greater vis viva of its molecules, which 

 in turn would cause an increase of the mean distance between 

 the molecules. 



I may here mention that I have made a very complete 

 series of experiments on the vapour-tension of normal propyl 

 alcohol. The curve representing these observations intersects that 

 which expresses the tensions of normal propyl iodide, so that 

 wheieas at 760 millims. the iodide boils at 102" -5 and the alcohol 

 a' 97°-3. at 370 milhms. they boil at the same temperature, viz., 

 79° -5, and at 120 millims. the boiling-point of the iodide is only 

 49° 5, whilst that of the akohol is 56°. 



This fact, which probably arises irom the much greater latent 

 heat of propyl alcohol, obviously renders useless al! attempts to 

 derive the boiling-points from the con.stitulion of chemical com- 



