i 
Wie 5, 1870 | 
NATURE 
19 
of the phosphorus-bases, by MM. A. Cahours and H. Gall; on 
. the utilisation of the secondary products obtained in the manu- 
facture of chloral, for the preparation of the «thylamines on a 
Targe scale, by M. A. W. Hofmann ; thermical investigations 
of iodic acid, by M. A. Ditte, communicated by M. H. Sainte- 
Claire Deville ; and thermical investigations of the states of sul- 
phur, by M. Berthelot, presented by M. Balard.—M. A. Béchamp 
communicated a memoir on geological “ microzymas ” of various 
origin, in which he described the action of different rocks in pro- 
ducing alteration and fermentation of starch-paste, and sugar. 
He maintained that in all limestones, from the Great Oolite to 
the most recent Tertiaries, there exist living organisms 
(for which he has proposed the name of ALicrozymas), of 
the nature of the molecular granules observed in certain fer- 
mentations, and that these are the agents which produce the 
changes described by him. He stated that pure carbonate of lime 
has no such action.—M. Milne-Edwards presented a note 
by M. Jourdain on the mode of action of chloroform, upon the 
irritability of the stamens of Afahonia. Exposure for from 1 to 3 
minutes to the vapour of chloroform was said to destroy tem- 
porarily the irritability of the stamens ; exposure for 10 minutes 
or a quarter of an hour kills the portion of the plant subjected 
to it.—A note on the primitive type of the mammalia, by M. A. 
Roujou was read.—M. C. Robin communicated a note by M. 
Girard-Teulon on the law of the rotations of the eye-ball in the 
associated movements of the eyes, in which the author supported 
the views of Donders, in opposition to those of Helmholtz and 
Listing, and indicated what, in his opinion, had led the latter 
writers to a false conclusion.—The Abbé Richard communi- 
cated an account of the discovery of a workshop for the manu- 
facture of flint instruments in Palestine. —This workshop is 
near the village of El-Bire (the ancient Beéroth), about twelve 
kilometers from Jerusalem; the author found aches, scrapers, 
Knives, and saws, the last said by him to be very remarkable. — 
Besides these, and two papers on medical and surgical subjects, 
seyeral notes were read of which the titles only are given. 
VIENNA 
Imperial Academy of Sciences, Feb. 3.—Prof. P. Red- 
tenbacher presented on the part of Prof. H. Will, ‘‘ An investi- 
gation of white mustard seed.” In place of the myronate of 
potash of black mustard seed, the white mustard contains si7- 
albine, decomposable into sugar, a sulphocyanic compound 
and an acid sulphate. The sulphocyanic compound contains 
the radical akrinyle C7 H? O, and when freed from sul- 
phur and treated as nitryle with alkali furnishes ammonia and 
the salt of an acid = C8 H8 0%, which melts at 277° F., and is 
not identical with any known acid of the same formula. The 
acid sulphate contains sinapisine, and the author contrasts the 
products of black and white mustard as follows :— 
Myronate of Potash. Sugar. Mustard Oil. Sulphate of Potash, 
be to H78 N'S? KO = C6 H** O06 +. C+ HS NS SO+ K H 
esi: ume Salsintect 
2. C3° H#4 N? S? O0'6 = C6 H*? O6 + C2 H7 NOS + SO4 (C6 H™ NOS) H 
February 10.—Mr. Joseph Rauter forwarded a memoir on 
the ‘‘ Developmental history of some of the hairy structures of 
plants belonging to various families of Dicotyledons.” He 
noticed that insome cases the hairs are simple products of the 
epidermal cells; whilst in others, although the first rudiment 
of the hair takes its origin from an epidermal cell, at a later 
period the subjacent parenchyma and the neighbouring epider- 
mal cells take part ints structure ; and in others, again—such 
as the spines and glandular hairs of roses—the first rudiment of 
the structure springs from the subcuticular tissue. As examples 
of the first mode of development, he cites the woolly hairs of 
Ribes, Rosa, &c., the stellate hairs of Hieracium pilosella, and 
the glandular hairs of Aieracium, Azalea, &c. ; of the second, 
the stings of the nettle, the clinging hairs of the hop, and some 
other forms.—Dr. Boué presented the first portion of his minera- 
logico-geognostic observations made during his travels in Turkey 
in Europe, and relating to North Albania, Bosnia, Hergezo- 
wina, and Turkish Croatia.—Prof. J. Redtenbacher communi- 
nicated the results of an investigation of some Austrian 
hydraulic magnesian lime which had been made in his labora- 
‘tory by M. P. G. Hauenschild. The material contained about 
“sixty per cent. of carbonate of lime, and thirty per cent. of car- 
bonate of magnesia; when burnt at about 752° F. it furnished 
an excellent hydraulic cement.—Prof. Hlasivetz made a preli- 
Minary communication ‘* Upon a new acid from grape sugar.” 
He referred to his discovery of lactonic acid by the treatment 
+ 
of sugar of milk with bromine, and indicated that the only 
difference between the two bodies consists in the presence of 
one more atom of oxygen in the acid. A _ similar acid was 
produced by treating other sugars with bromine, but the hydro- 
bromic acid formed in the reaction prevented its separation. 
The author induced M. Habermann to treat grape sugar with 
chlorine instead of bromine, and he has obtained the expected 
acid, having the formula C°H!O7.—Dr. S. L. Schenk commu- 
nicated a memoir “On the distribution of gluten in the wheat- 
grain,” and Prof. Lang some ‘ Crystallographic-optical deter- 
minations” relating to thirteen substances, chiefly of organic 
origin. 
Imperial Geological Institution, April 5.—Th. Fuchs 
on the fossil shells of the Congeria-beds from Radmanest, near 
Lugas (Banat). A comparatively large number of species (48, 
32 of them hitherto unknown in Austria), but of small size, 
characterise this fauna, and correspond to the fauna of the so- 
called Upper Steppen-Kalk (limestone of Odessa) in southern 
Russia. The small amygdaloid Congeria simplex, recently 
described by Barbot de Marny, which alone forms whole beds of 
the Odessa-limestone, is also found abundantly in Radmanest. 
Among the small Cardiadz of the Odessa-limestone, some species 
differ from the usnal type of the genus by possessing a sinuated 
pallial line. Very interesting is therefore the discovery of a new 
species of Congeria at Radmanest, which differs in the same way 
from the generic type of Congeria.—Ch. v. Hauer on the coking 
of brown coal. A series of experiments with the brown coal 
from Fohnsdorf (Styria) gave very sati factory results. Cokes 
were obtained with a heating power equal to that of the cokes of 
good black coal; the proportion of sulphur was essentially 
diminished, and the cokes are firm enough to support the pressure 
of a high furnace. V. Hauer thinks that, mixed with cokes ot 
black coal, they would be applicable to the smelting of iron, 
a problem the solution of which would be of the utmost impor- 
tance for the iron manufacturers in the Alpine iron districts. 
April 23.—Ferd. Baron y. Andrian on the Volcanic Rocks or 
the Bosphorus. An accurate investigation of the geological 
relations, the mineralogical characters, and the chemical consti- 
tution of these rocks, which border the mouth of the Bosphorus 
to the Black Sea, served to distinguish a series of different 
varieties which in part are almost perfectly identical with the 
trachytic rocks of Hungary and Transylvania. In both coun- 
tries generally three types may be distinguished, viz. : green 
andesites and dacites ; black augit-andesites, and rhyalithes.— 
Prof. Ch. Zittel from Munich contributed some remarks on 
the tithonic strata. His important memoir on the fossils of the 
Stramberg limestone will be followed within a few weeks by 
another on the fossils of the cliff limestone (Klippenkalk) otf 
the enyirons of Rogoznik and Csarsztyn (Galicia), and the 
tithonic cephalopod-limestone of Southern Tyrol and Italy. 
His studies have brought him to the conclusion that an 
exact line of demarcation does not exist between the Jur- 
assic and the Cretaceous formation. Prof. Ch. Hoffmann 
of Pesth announced the discovery of ‘Triassic fossils in 
the older Dolomite—and limestone-rocks of the environs of 
Ofen, which had formerly been thought to belong to the Rhaetic 
series. M. Ch. Paul has examined the Lignite-beds of 
western Slavonia. In a thickness of more than 6 feet they are 
to be found along a line of 15 German miles in length, they 
belong to the upper Miocene formation (Congeria or fresh- 
water beds of the Vienna Basin), which contains many fossils, 
among them chiefly to be noticed a very large new species of 
Unio.—Dr. Em. Tietze, of Breslau, spoke about the fossils 
of the carboniferous limestone of Silesia. Nearly two hundred 
different species have been found therein, they will be described 
in a special memoir.—M. Fr. Posepny on the lead-mines of 
Raihl in Carinthia. The ores are imbedded in irregular masses 
in a stratified limestone of Triassic age. They form neither 
layers nor true veins, but are dependent on dislocations in the 
limestone-strata, and the over-lying schists, 
BERLIN 
German Chemical Society, March 28.—M. G. Kramer 
has investigated the products accompanying the formation of 
chloral from alcohol. Besides chloride of ethyl already recog- 
nised by Hofmann, both chloride of ethylene, and chloride of 
ethylidene, as also the monochlorinated substitution compound of 
both have been isolated. Chlorinated chloride of ethylene 
C, H, Cl, boils at 115° and yields with potash C, H, Cl, boiling 
at 37° and transforming itself into a solid polymeric modification, 
