26o 



NATURE 



\7uly 26, 1877 



1873, the author adds a few general remarks thereon. Com- 

 paring together the dififerent months of the year, it is observed 

 that the morning minimum and the forenoon maximum both 

 occur earlier as the year advances ; they are earliest in summer, 

 and become later again on the approach of winter. Tlie after- 

 noon minimum and evening maximum, on the contrary, occur 

 later as the year advances ; are latest in summer, and become 

 earlier again towards the end of the year. They all change in a 

 certain degree with the changes in the times of sunrise and sun- 

 set. As a consequence of this the intervals between the morning 

 minimum and the forenoon maximum, and between the afternoon 

 minimum and evening maximum do not change very much 

 through the year, whilst that between the forenoon maximum and 

 afternoon mhiimum is much shorter in winter than in summer, 

 and that between the evening maximum and morning minimum 

 is much longer in winter than in summer. — On the rainfall of 

 Jamaica during the seven years 1870-76, by Griflith N. Cox. — 

 Contributions to the meteorology of Cannes, by William Marcet, 

 F.R.S. — Mr. Marriott exhibited and iescribed Bogen's hygrometer 

 and new standard siphon barometer. The barometer possesses the 

 following special features : — It is so constructed that it can easily 

 be put together and taken to pieces again. The long leg consists 

 of a tube of the same diameler throughout, and is supplied with 

 a glass stopper which has a very fine bore passing through its 

 centre, enabling one to fill the tube with mercury in one or two 

 minutes and to completely exhaust it of air in one or two minutes 

 more. The open end of the long leg is ground air-tight to the 

 short (curved) leg and can be instantaneously put together or 

 separated. The long tube alone is graduated so as to have only 

 one scale, but by a peculiarly-constructed screw of given length 

 placed on the short tube a precise and accurate reading can be 

 easily obtained. The barometer is mounted on a peculiarly- 

 shaped stand which has three adjusting screws by means of which 

 the perpendicularity of the instrument can be ensured. 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, July 16. — M. Peligot in the chair. — 

 The following papers were read : — Anthrax and septiciemia, by 

 MM. Pasteur and Joubert. Anthrax may be called the disease of 

 (what the authors call) bacteridie, as trichinosis is the disease of the 

 trichina. The blood of a healthy animal contains neither microsco- 

 pic organisms nor their germs. That of an animal having anthrax 

 contains no organisms but the bacUridic, which is aerobic, so 

 that the antliracic blood is imputrescible of itself. In the car- 

 case the blood putrefies through vibrios lodging in it. The 

 backridie disappears in liquid, in presence of COj. It is a 

 mistake that putrefaction, as such, destroys the anthracic 

 virulence. The development of the bactcridic takes place 

 difficultly when in the presence of other organisms. These 

 observations the au'.hors apply to certain facts of' practical 

 experience. They state that septiccemia is produced by a vibrio- 

 nien as anthrax is by a bactcridu: — Experiments, according to 

 which the fragmentary form of meteoric irons may be attributed 

 to a rupture under the action of strongly compressed gases, such 

 as arise from explosion of dynamite, by M. Uaubree. To steel 

 prisms were attached charges of dynamite, which were exploded in 

 clay pits, so that the parts could be brought together after rupture. 

 The alveoli produced (often grouped) with projecting rim, were of 

 more pronounced character than those from powder. The 

 surface was sometimes raised in long bulging ridges. The 

 surfaces of fracture were some of them polished, others striated. 

 — Researches on the tertiary strata of Southern Kurope, by M. 

 Hebert. This first paper relates to the eocene and lower 

 niiocene of Hungary. — M. Dumas, referring to a recent paper 

 by M. See, affirmed that the real inventor of salicylic acid was the 

 eminent Italian chemist M. Piria. — On a disease of the grape in 

 the vineyards of Narbonne (June and July, 1S77), ^y M. Circin. 

 ■ — Observations of D'Arrest's periodic comet at the Marseilles 

 Observatory, by M. Stephan. — Note on the theory of quadratic 

 forms with any number of variables, by M. Frobenius. — 

 Demonstration of two geometric laws enunciated by M. Chasles, 

 by M. Fouret. —On the division of the cucumference into equal 

 parts, by M. Lucas. — Researches on the compressibility 

 of liquids (continued), by M. Amagat. Inter alia, the co- 

 efficient of compressibility increases when the pressure in- 

 creases for aU liquids in which it increases with the 

 temperature. The compressibility of successive terms of 

 the family of formenic carburets decreases regularly as we 

 descend in the series, both at loo'" and at ordinary temperature. 

 The presence of sulphur, cldorine, or bromine, in liquid bodies, 



tends to render them less compressible. — On the electric and 

 capillary properties of mercury in contact with different aqueous 

 solutions, by M. Lippmann. When mercury is in contact with 

 pure or acidulated water, the addition of a small quantity of 

 certain substances to the water changes notably the capillary 

 constant and the electromotive force. M. Lippmann proves that 

 for each value of the latter the capillary constant has one, and 

 only one, determinate value independent of the chemical com- 

 position of the liquid. That is, if for two different combina- 

 tions the electromotive force is the same, the capillary constant 

 is also the same. — On the vapours of alcoholate .of chloral, by 

 M. Troost. — Action of light on hydriodic acid, byM. Lemoine. 

 Hydrogen and iodine do not sensibly combine in the cold 

 state under the influence of light. It may be inferred thit 

 the decomposition of hydriodic acid by the sun is unlimited. 

 The slow decomposition in light might be used to measure 

 the degree of illumination of the sky in large meteorological 

 observatories. In a month of insolation in the cold state 080 

 of gaseous hydriodic acid is decomposed, whereas heating one 

 month at 265° decomposes only o'o2, and even at 440° during a 

 few hours, only o'20. — Note on a new derivative of indigotine, 

 by M. Schutzenberger. — On the properties of resorcine ; thermo- 

 chemical studies, by M. Calderon. — On the reform of some 

 processes of analysis used in the laboratories of agricultural 

 stations and observatories of chemical meteorology ; second 

 memoir, acidimetry, by M. Houzeau. — On the nature of acids 

 contained in the gastric juice (continued), by M. Richet. There 

 is in gastric juice an organic acid soluble in ether, and it is 

 probably sarcolactic acid. — Note on numeration of blood cor- 

 puscles in diphtheritis, by MM. Bouchut and Dubrisay. In this 

 disease there is a considerable increase in the number of white 

 corpuscles, and a diminution of that of the red. — On the 

 influence of excitations of organs of sense on the heart and the 

 vessels, by MM. Couty and Charpentier. Such phenomena 

 seem to be produced, not by the sensorial perception itself but 

 by an ulterior cerebral work which might be called emotional. — 

 Experiments proving that neither pure air nor oxygen destroy 

 the septicity of putrefied blood, by M. Feltz. — Researches on a 

 case of congenital ectopia of the heart, by M. Fran^ois-Franck. 



CONTENTS Pack 



A Manchester Univbrsity 241 



Watson on the Kinetic Theory of Gases. By Prof. J. Clerk 



Maxwell, F.R.S 242 



Our Book Shelf : — 



" Report on the Progress and Condition of the Royal Gardens at 



Kew during the year 1876" 246 



" Natural History Transactions of Northumberland and Durham" 246 

 Letters to the Editor : — 



The " Inllexible," — Dr. Joseph Woollev 247 



The Manufacture of Leading Articles. — H. Baden Pritchaud . 24S 



The Fish-sheltering Medusa.— George J. Romanes 248 



Phyllotaxis.— W. E. Hart 248 



Printing and Calico-Pnnting. — Henry Cecil 248 



The Visit of the British Association to Plymouth 249 



I'liE Gorilla , 245 



Lrisinga {IVith Illustration) 249 



A Remarkable Deformity of the Teeth among the Inha- 

 bitants of the Admiralty Isles (f^iVA ///«j/rrt//twfj) . . . . 251 



Rainfall and Sun-Spots 251 



Geological Notes: — 



German Geological Surveys— (1) Austria 254 



(2) Province of Prussia 354 



Geological Survey of Newfoundland 254 



Chemical Notes : — 



New Chromium and Manganese Compounds 254 



Complex Inorganic Acids 254 



A Supposed new Melal " Davium 245 



Effect of Pressure on Chemical Action 255 



Amount of Oxygen contained in Sea-water at difTeient Depths . 255 

 Our Astrono.mical Column : — 



The Total Solar Eclipse of 1605, October 12 255 



The Binary Star a Centauri 256 



Mira Ccti 256 



D'Arrest's Comet 256 



Notes 256 



Astronomical Symbolism of the East 258 



The Norwegian Expedition to the North Sea 258 



University and Educational Intelligence 259 



Scientific Serials 359 



Societies AND Academies.' 359 



