Fan. 25, 1883] 
NATURE 301 
valuable, from its containing a large number of measures of 
double stars made by Mr. S. W. Burnham during his temporary 
connection with the Observatory, from April 23 to September 
30, 1881, The measures are contained in three catalogues : (1) 
a list of sixty new double stars discovered in the zone observa- 
_ tions, chiefly by Prof. Holden; (2) a list of eighty-eight new 
double stars discovered and measured by Mr. Burnham ; and (3) 
measures by the same eminent observer of 150 double stars from 
his manuscript general catalogue. A number of difficult objects 
are included in the third series. 8 Sextantis was not elongated 
with the highest powers at the epoch 1881°34, nor did yy Coronz 
show any sign of duplicity ; as Mr. Burnham remarks, “it has 
been apparently single with all apertures since about 1871.” 
Among the more difficult binary stars there are measures of 
- 0.3. 235, & 3123, 42 Comex, = 2173, B Delphini, & Equulei, 
and 85 Pegasi. There are also positions and descriptions 
of eighty-four red stars, of which twenty-seven are stated 
to be new, and a list of new nebulz and clusters discovered in 
the zone-observations at the Washburn observatory. 
The position of the observatory is in latitude 43° 4’ 36"°6 N., 
and longitude 89° 24’ 28’""3 west of Greenwich. Piof. Watson, of 
Ann Arbor, Michigan, was first appointed to the superintendence, 
but at his premature death in November, 1880, he had not been 
able to commence astronomical observations. Prof. Holden 
gives some account of the preparations he was making for 
scientific activity, as the only way of associating his name with 
the observatory, 
CHEMICAL NOTES 
HERR LELLMANN (Berichte, xv. 2835) describes an interesting 
case of physzcal tsomerism. Dibenzyl-diamido dibromdiphenyl 
melts at 195°; if the liquid so produced is quickly cooled, the 
solid now melts at 99°, but on heating again solidifies at 125° to 
130°, and melts a second time at 195°; if the substance melting 
at 195° be slowly cooled and then again heated, the melting 
point now observed is 195°. 
BERTHELOT AND VIELLE (Comet. vend. xcy. 129) sum up 
the results of their researches regarding explosive waves. The 
propagation of an explosive wave occurs when the ignited 
stratum of gas exerts the maximum pressure on the adjacent 
stratum; increase of pressure is accompanied by increased 
velocity of propagation. To produce an explosive wave it is 
necessary that a considerable mass of gas should be employed 
and that the cooling by radiation and conduction should not be 
great; if the temperature fall below 1700°-2000°, or if the 
volume of the products of combustion is less than one-fourth, or 
in some cases one-third of the total volume of the final mixture, 
the propagation of the wave ceases. 
ACCORDING to the experiments of M. Corne (¥. Pharm. 
Chim., [5] vi. 17) the glowing of phosphorus is due to volatilisa- 
tion of the phosphorus and subsequent production of ozone by 
electrical energy generated by the volatilisation of the phos- 
phorus. Phosphorus does not glow in pure oxygen at high 
pressures because, says M. Come, volatilisation is impeded and 
at a certain limit becomes too slow to ozonise the oxygen. 
Gases which hinder the formation of ozone also prevent 
phosphorescence. 
BAEYER (Berichte, xy. 2856) has obtained nearly pure 
indigo blue by acting on a solution in acetone of ortho-nitro- 
benzaldehyde. Acetone and nitrobenzaldebyde react to form a 
condensation product, C,;)H,,NO,, from which alkali withdraws 
te elements of acetic acid with production of indigo-blue, 
thus— 
2C,,H,,NO,+2H,0=C,,H,)N,0, + 2C,H,O, + 4H,O. 
J. Horsaczewski (Berichte, xv. 2678) has obtained uric 
acid by heating together glycocoll and urea to 200°-230” ; details 
of the reaction are promised. 
THE working of the Food Adulteration Act for the year 1881 
is considered in a Report of the Local Government Board lately 
issued in a Blue Book, and published in 7%e Analyst (vii. 218). 
The total number of districts in which analysts were acting at 
the close of December 1881, was 260 ; during the year 17,823 
samples were analysed, of which 2613, equal to 14°7 per cent. 
were reported as adulterated; in 1877, 14,706 samples were 
analysed, and 19°2 per cent. reported as adulterated. More 
than a third of the samples analysed, and more than a half 
of those reported against, were of milk, Birmingham still 
‘‘maintains the distinction which it has for some years 
enjoyed, of having a larger proportion of its milk reported 
as adulterated than any other great town in the kingdom,” 
The adulteration of bread and of butter seems to be steadily 
on the decrease; in coffee the proportion of adulteration is 
rather less than last year; chicory is still the commonly used 
adulterant. The adulteration of sugar is practically a thing of 
the past. More than one-fourth of all the samples of spirits 
examined were reported as adulterated, chiefly with water: a 
good deal of gin is sold containing not much more than 20 per 
cent. of alcohol. 
PROF. HOFMANN describes in the Berichte (xv. 2656) a number 
of interesting lecture experiments. To determine that no loss of 
matter occurs during combustion, he employs a two-litre flask 
fitted with a cork carrying a small manometer, a glass tube with 
stopcock, and a straight piece of rather wide tubing to the 
under-end of which a small porcelain crucible is attached. The 
wide tube is closed by a cork, about half a gram of dry phos- 
phorus is placed in the little crucible, a portion of the air in the 
flask is pumped out, and the flask—and also a little bit of stout 
copper wire—is counterpoised ; the little bit of copper wire is 
heated and dropped down the wide tube, from which the cork is 
withdrawn for a moment; the phosphorus is thus ignited ; after 
the combustion, which proceeds slowly, is completed, the flask 
is found to weigh the same as before; the stopcock is now 
opened, air rushes in, and the flask now weighs more thanit did 
at the beginning of the experiment. 
To illustrate the great difference between the volumes of equal 
weights of liquid and gaseous water, Dr. Hofmann employs a 
glass bulb of about 309 c.c. capacity, with a narrow glass tube 
at each end, the upper tube being fitted with a stopcock. This 
apparatus is supported so that the lower tube reaches to about 
I centim, from the surface of the mercury ina basin; a rapid 
current of steam is passed into the apparatus ; after five minutes 
or so, when every trace of air is expelled, the stopcock is closed, 
and at the same moment the lower tube is pushed beneath the 
mercury, which at once begins to rise into the bulb; after a 
little time the bulb is almost filled with mercury, on the surface 
of which the condensed water appears as a thin layer. 
VeERY simple apparatuses are also described for containing 
considerable quantities of liquefied gases : e.g. SO, : for exhibit- 
ing quantitatively the reactions on which the manufacture of 
sulphuric acid is based; and for demonstrating the law of Dalong 
and Petit. For descriptions of these, and for other experiments, 
reference must be made to the original paper. 
THE HYPOTHESIS OF ACCELERATED DE- 
VELOPMENT BY PRIMOGENITURE, AND 
ITS PLACE IN THE THEORY OF EVOLU- 
TION * ie 
‘THE problem before which we are here placed may be formu- 
lated as follows :—How is it, that while the tendency to 
vary which obtains in all organised beings, and which forms one 
of the foundation stones of the theory of evolution, how is it that 
this tendency has exerted upon a number of living beings a so 
much less considerable influence than upon others, so that even 
in the present day numerous representatives are found of the 
most primitive animal groups which belong to the oldest known 
in the geological succession ? 
Still more, why are there certain genera which, since the 
Silurian period, appear to have undergone a stagnation in their 
development, in their advance towards higher differentiation, 
whereas within a much shorter period the whole of the living 
mammalian fauna has developed out of more primitive verte- 
brates and the important modifications have taken place among 
these mammalia which have finally led to the appearance of the 
elephant on the one hand, and of the shrews on the other ? 
In other words, can it be assumed that this tendency to vary 
could be totally and persistently neutralised by other causes 
amongst whole series of living beings during thousands of years, 
whereas during the same number of years this tendency, aided 
by natural selection, could lead other series of animals along 
roads where they have advanced with gigantic strides ? 
Ineed not remind you that this objection against the theory of 
* By Prof. A. A. W. Hubrecht. Inaugural Address delivered in the 
University of Utrecht. September, 1882. Continued from page 281. 
