494 
iron with dilute sulphuric acid, and he proves that it is not a 
supporter of life. Pax. $244 , 
Mayow’s second treatise is on respiration, and he herein 
expresses views far in advance of any of his predecessors. He 
proved that the nitre-air is alone concerned in respiration, and 
he asserts that this is absorbed by the blood, while the rest is 
rejected. It unites with combustible particles in the lungs, and 
thus produces animal heat. The lungs consist of a number of 
minute sack-shaped membrattes through which the nitre-air 
passes to the blood. 
We add the following résumé of Mayow’s treatise, and of the 
position which it ought to occupy in the history of chemistry, 
from an article which we wrote on the subject a few years ago. 
Mayow’s work is remarkable in several respects. Init he con- 
clusively proved that respiration and combustion are analogous 
processes ; he upset the four-element theory by demonstrating 
the compound nature of air; and he recognised oxygen aud 
nitrogen as clearly and almost as notably as they were recognised 
a hundred years later—the one the supporter of lite and com- 
bustion, the principle of acidity, and th cause of fermentation 
and putrefaction, heavier than atmospheric air; the other in- 
capable of supporting life or combustion, and lighter than atmo- 
spheric air. We find, moreover, in this work the dawn of the 
idea of chemical affinity in the fermentation, which he speaks of 
as taking place between nitre-air and combustible particles, and 
extending to the production or destruction of things. Mayow 
even employs some of the terms in general use in the present 
day ; thus he speaks of affnitas, existing between acids, and 
earthy substances, and uses the words combinetur and combinentur 
in speaking of the congressus of different substances. 
The treatise is characterised by much clear and condensed 
thought, well-sustained argument, and accurate reasoning ; more- 
over, we seldom meet with instances of too hasty generalisation, 
always the dominant source of error in the early development of 
a science. We further observe a great advance towards that 
exact and discriminative mode of thought which is necessary for 
the investigation of chemical phenomena. The period in which 
Mayow wrote, was, as regards chemistry, a period of transition ; 
there was as yet no work on scientific chemistry, yet Mayow’s 
treatise approached more nearly to such a work than that of any 
of his predecessors. The works of previous writers in this 
direction belonged to one of the three following classes: they 
were either chemico-metallurgic, chemico- medical, or alchcemi-al 
treatises, or they partook of the nature of all three. The publi- 
cation of works on alchemy was fast waning beiore the advances 
ot the new philosophy ; for as superstition retreated, and as men 
began to devote their energies to the legitimate investigation of 
nature, a false and chimerical art must of necessity cease to find 
votaries. Mayow was the first to discuss the iutimate nature of 
an intangibie body ; other writers had treated of the arasa 
whole, but no oue had endeavoured to ascertain the nature of its 
internal constitution, or to determiue why. it produces certain 
changes in surrounding bouies, upon what these changes depend, 
and the nature of the consiitueut or constituents of the air pro- 
ducing them. The old dogma oi the elemental nature of the 
air was received as an absviute truth, although entirely unproven ; 
it was thought that a theory which had becn received since the 
earliest ages must of necessity be correct, and no attempt was 
maue to disprove it. 
We see from the above that it was the investigation of the 
nature of nitre which led to the knowledge ot the constitution 
of the air, and to the first experiments in pneumatic chemistry. 
Mayow remarks at the commencement of wis treatise, that so 
much had been written about nitre, that it would appear ‘‘ wt sad 
hoc admirabile non minus in philosophia, quam beilo strepitus 
ederet; ommniague sonitu suo impleret ;” and when he rememvers 
its connection with the foregoing results we are almost inclined 
to agree with him. G. F. RopWeLL 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
THE Journal of Botany for April commences with two useful 
papers on Cornish botany : Supplementary Contribuuons to 
the Flora ot North Comwall, a very little known district, by 
Mr. J. G. Baker, and another by Mr. T. Archer Briggs. — Mr. 
F. E. Kitchener contributes a very interesting noie on Cross- 
fertilisation, as aided by sensitive motion, in Musk and Achimenes, 
the former from observations of his own, the latter from those of 
Miss Dowson. The structure and motion of the sexual organs, 
which have long been known in both these flowers, are clearly 
NATURE 
ute 
Ss Pas at 
[April 24, 1893. 
shown to be contrivances for enstiring cross-fertilisation by ifséct- 
agency.— Dr. M‘Nab, in a short paper, suggests ths employment 
of the term ‘* pseudocarp,” to distinguish fruit-like structiires — 
from true fruits, such, for instance, as the apple, the strawberry, — 
the rose-hip, the mulberry, and the fig, into the composition of 
which other organs besides the true fruit enter. Among the 
short notes, the most interesting is one of the discovery of Achinm 
plantagineum in Cornwall, by M. Ralfs, the plant having been 
hitherto confined, as far as British botany is concerned, to the 
Channel Islands. There is a coloured illustration of four new 
Hymenomycetous fungi, by Mr. W. G. Smith. 
Pogsendorf’s Annalen, No. 1, 1873.—This number opens 
with the fourth of a series of papers, by Oscar Emil Meyer, 
on the internal friction of gases; he shows that Pois uille’s 
law for droppable fluids is verified for gaseous transpiration — 
through narrow pipes.—Dr. Hermann Herwig communicates 
an account of experiments made on the action of the induction 
spark in explosion of gaseous mixtures ; this action varying with 
pressure and concentration in the mixture, and with the quantity 
of elcctricity passed,—An apparatus of physiological interest, — 
termed the Physometer, is described by P. Hartwig. It is a 
refinement on Robert Boyle’s idea for examining the action of 
the swimming bladder in fish. The fish, enclosed in a wire 
cage, is elevated or depressed at will in a vessel filled with 
water, whiie the changes of volume in the animal are indicated 
by the rise and fall of water in a thin tube connected with the 
vesse].—Dr. Pfeffer, in a paper of the decomposition of carbonic — 
acid in plants by the different spectral rays, infers from his ex- 
periments that the ctirve représefilifig the decomposition mainly 
corresponds with the curve uf brighthess.—This papet is followed — 
by another on a sitnilar stibject, by E, Getland. Among the 
remaining articles may be tioted thuse on the Synaphy (or cohe- 
sion) of ethers, by Df: Séliolz, on the pe fisation and colour 
of light reflected in the atmosphere, by E, Hagetibach, and on 
the electromotive forte of very thin gaseous layéts on metallic 
plates, by F. Kolilratseh. e1 
No. 2 cotitaitis off@ 6f a series of papers, Lf Thonisen, — 
entitled Zhermo-chemische Untersuchungen, Ii 1 present num- 
ber he investigates the affinity of eh to the metalloids, 
chlorine, bromine, atid isditie —Oscar Meyer als6 continues his 
series on ifternal frictiei Of gases ; giving a délailed account of 
two kinds 6! apparatis fur estimating the influenéé of tempeta- 
7 
ture oii friction, atid adding some va uable obser a8 Of the 
dynatiieal theory Of gases.—Several new Loren de- 
scribed in this futiber; Prof. Mayer, of Hobo ‘ 
open 
method of observilig the phases and wave-lehuths ind- — 
vibrations in air, and also bis acoustic pyrefieter based Of this — 
method } while afi ifiproved deepssea t rivomelen, & form, 
of siphon, atid a photometer based of { Nigh “relief, 
are described by theif several iliveritets;:—A secutid paper on 
the physometer 15 als6 communicated by BP, Hartwig, in which 
the physiological aid other applications of the instrument are 
more fully discusséd:=W, Fe eofitfibtites an account of — 
a phenomenon which he proposes tv Gall Mermo-diffusion, and — 
which occurs when two poftiuns Of gas aFé separared by a porous 
diaphragm, the opposite sides of which have different tempera- 
tures. A diffusion 1s observed which, unlike the ordinary diffu- 
sion, takes place when, on both sides of the diaphragm, there — 
is the same gas with the same pressure.—Dr. Morton communi- 
cates a note on fluorescence, supplementary to Hagenbach’s res 
searches ; and there are, in addition, a few notes from English 
and other sources. . . 
4 
Revue des Sciences Naturelles, Nos. 1-3, 1872.—This few 
quarterly journal, published at Montpellier, is another proof « : 
the scientific activity which is now reviving in France. Liké a 
Lacage Duthier’s Archives de Zoologie, this provincial review 
will we trust exhibit what Prol. Jourdain calls in 6ne of t 
numbers ‘ces qualités éminemment frangaises : la méthode, la 
rigueur et la clarté,” combined with Deutscher Fleiss aha 
Unbefangenheit, which though of late years less commion 
in France may well be teclaimed as no alien virtues by 
the countrymen of Descartes, and Cuvier, and Laennee. 
The editor is M. Dubrueil, with whom Dr. Heckel was asso- 
cia ed in the first two numbers. Among the contributors aré 
the names of An ouard, Barthélemy, Boyer, Paul Gervais, Joly, 
Jourdain, Robin, Malinowsky. The first number opens with 4 
paper by Prot. Joly, on the development of the Axolotl, illus- 
trated with some good drawings. There follows a short com- 
munication on a new French mollusk (Pisidia Dubruent), at 
introductory lecture on botany, and an account of the geology of 
f 
