366 
NATURE 
N.E. to N.N.E. The point of radiation was very difficult to 
determine owing to the small number of meteors. The con- 
stellations in which most appeared were Perseus, Cassiopeia, 
Camelopardus, and Aquila, Correcting the number observed for 
the influence of the moon, we get a mean at midnight of fifty-six 
shooting-stars per hour in a clear sky, or three more than last 
year; so that the phenomenon may be considered stationary. At 
1 A.M. the sky was completely obscured, and the exact hour of 
maximum cannot be indicated ; but during the time observed the 
phenomenon proceeded at the rate of ‘6 stars per minute. -M. 
Avezac presented, in the name of the author, Don Salvador 
Clavijo, a general in the Spanish army, resident at the Canaries, 
a work entitled Reflexiones sobre el sistema planetario, on the rota- 
tion on their axis of the bodies comprising the solar system, 
planets and comets. 
BERLIN 
German Chemical Society, July 25.—M. Kiichenmeister 
has obtained two different naphthoic acids corresponding to the 
two naphthols, by treating the two naphthylsulphates with cyanide 
of potassium and the cyanides with potash. One of the acids 
melts at 217°, the other at 230°. —C. Grabe has continued his re- 
searches on the higher hydrocarbons of coal tar. After treating 
them with sulphide of carbon, which dissolves chrysen, there re- 
mains an impure substance which, when acted on by picric acid, 
forms a combination crystallising from alcohol in red needles. 
Pecomposed with ammonia, they leave white scales of py77/en. 
“Lo thishydrocarbon Laurent allotted the formulaC,; H,,. Grabe’s 
determinations lead to the formula C,, H,, borne out by the 
picrate Cy, Hy. Cg Hy (NO,), OH. Oxidation with bi- 
chromate of potassium and acetic acid yields the chinone 
Cy, Hg Og, from which zine separates the hydrocarbon C,, Hg. 
Lhe nitro-compound Cy, Hy (NOx), and the two bromides in which 
two and threeatoms of bromine take the place of hydrogen, have 
also been investigated. The author considers his hydrocarbon 
as phenylen naphthalin, Cy, Hy) = Cy) Hg + Cg Hg— Hy.— 
Messrs. Grabe and Caro have investigated the base contained 
in impure anthracene, to which, on account of its action on the 
mucous membrane, they have given the name of acridine. To 
obtain its sulphate, the impure hydrocarbon is treated with sul- 
phuric acid, and some bichromate of potassium added to the 
filtrate. It shows a blue fluorescence, and its composition corre- 
sponds to the formula C,, H, N, or a multiple of it.—M. 
Hofmeister publishes researches on phenylic ether and 
diphenylenic oxide. The former body is obtained by treating sul- 
phate of diazobenzol with phenol, adding potash and distilling 
the insoluble residue, or by heating together sulphate of aniline, 
phenol, and nitric acid. It melts at 28°, distils at 240°, 
is not attacked by zinc, yields with PCl; a chloride (not 
yet analysed), and with sulphuric acid a conjugated acid 
(C, H 5,0, H), O.—Lesimple has described a body obtained by 
disulling phosphate of phenyl, under the name of phenylic ether, 
ascribing to it the melting point 80° and the boiling point 
273°. Hofmeister proves the real formula of this body to be 
not (C,; H;), O but (C, Hy), O.—M. Beer has trans- 
formed benzophenon (C, H;), CO into the chloride (C, H;), 
C Cl,, and this by finely divided silver into the hydrocarbon 
(Cg H5)o C = C (Cy H5), tetra-phenylated ethylene. Pro- 
ducts of substitution have been formed with NO,, HSO, 
and Br. The bromide has the composition C,, H,, Br;.— 
M. Schone has obtained a combination of peroxide of barium 
— O - OH 
— 0 - OH 
is formed by mixing peroxide of barium with a solution of } per 
cent. of peroxide of hydrogen in water. At 10° it forms colour- 
less monoclinohedric crystals resembling heavy-spar. At ordi- 
nary temperatures it becomes yellow, and yields water, oxygen, 
and peroxide of barium. This explains why alkaline solutions 
of peroxide of hydrogen are unstable. —V. Meyer communicated 
his views on the constitution of gallic acid. —Professor Hofmann 
then rose to report in his name and that of several of his pupils 
on the following researches partly unfinished, the war having 
called assistants and pupils from the laboratory into the field.—M. 
Bischoff, passing chlorine through an alcoholic solution of prussic 
acid, has ob‘ained two crystalline substances Cy Hy, Cl, Ny Ow 
already obtained by Stenhouse, anda new body C, H,; Cl N, O,. 
‘Treated with acids or alkalis, they yield carbonic acid, 
ammonia, hydrochloric acid, and also ethylenic ammonia 
and a brown substance probably containing very complicated 
bases.—M. Melens, by treating acrolein with cyanic acid, 
and peroxide of hydrogen. This compound Ba 
has trans‘ormed it into a kind of trigenic acid,—M. Judson ! 
has transformed crotonchloral by oxidation into trichlo- 
rocrotonic acid and the salts and ethers of the same, The 
silver-salt boiled with water yields carbonic and hydrochloric 
acids, and the chloride C,H,Cly, identical or isomeric with 
chlorinated allylene. This body can also be obtained by 
treating crotonic chloral with alkalis. By treating the chloral 
with perchloride of phosphorus, O is replaced by Cly, hydro- 
chloric acid being eliminated at the same time: Cy Hy Cl3 Cl, = 
H Cl = C, H, Cly.—M. Reimer has studied the isu!) lamines. 
The bromide of tetrabutylamine can not be obtained. It 
yields at once butylene and hydrobromide of tributylamine, 
—M. Reiss has prepared butyl-benzol and but)! anisol.—Pro- 
fessor A. W. Hofmann reported on his protracted researches 
on the green colouring substance obtained from rosaniline by 
the action of aldehyde and hyposulphite of sodium. Not 
forming any combinations and not erystallising, this substance 
could only be purified by frequent solution and_reprecipi- 
tation. Numerous analyses lead to the formula C,, Hy, N35, 0 
corresponding to one molecule of rosaniline, one of alde- 
hyde, and two of hydrosulphurie acid combined. Rosaniline 
treated with hyposulphite without the intervention of aldehyde 
yields a similar product from which acids reproduce rosaniline, 
—The same chemist, in treating bromide of ethylene with am- 
monia, has observed the formation of an insoluble white amor- 
phous powder, exhibiting the strange property of absorbing large 
masses of water and swelling up to a voluminous gelatine. The 
substance (probably a mixture) corresponds to the formula 
(Cy Hada N, combined with H Br, H, Br, or H, Bry. But 
triamines being soluble, it is very likely that the formula should be 
multiplied.—The same chemist, when preparing cyaniline 25 years 
ago, observed that the mother-liquor treated with hydrochloric acid, 
yields dark red crystals. He has at last succeeded in purifying 
them, and establishing their formula = C,, Hy, N;. HCl—a 
triphenylated guanidine N;. C'*. (Cg H;)3 Hy, in which two mole- 
cules of cyanogen have combined with two molecules of phenyl. 
If, however, triphenylated guanidine is treated with cyanogen, a 
body is formed of exactly the same composition, but of very dif- 
ferent properties. The latter is colourless, and is transformed 
by acids into aniline, carbonic oxide, hydrogen, diphenyl oxamide, 
and diphenylated parabanic acid; whereas the former, when _ 
treated with acids, yields aniline, oxalic acid, and ammonia. 
—The same chemist has studied the action of triethyl phosphine 
on cyanate of phenyl, and found the resulting body to be nota 
cyanurate, but anew substance combining with alcohols, am- 
monia, &e.—A. Baeyer reported on some further derivatives 
of mellitic acid.—Mesohydro mellitic acid appears to be the 
first aldehyde of hydromellitic acid, and derives from it by the 
action of sulphuric acid and bromine. It is tetrabasic and beauti- 
fully crystallised. Only one acid is now wanting to complete 
the series, beginning with benzoic and ending with mellitic 
acid. The clue to obtain this acid appears to have been found. 
The same chemist has obtained a derivative from tetrahy- 
drophthalic acid, which appears to be quinic acid.—Professor 
Rammelsberg then concluded the meeting by expressing his 
fervent hopes that a speedy victory of the German arms would 
allow all members of the society to resume their peaceful pur- 
suits before ‘he reassembling of the society in October. 
New York 
Lyceum of Natural History, April 4.—The President in 
the chair.—Dr. J. S. Newberry “On the Earliest Traces of 
Man found in North America.” Dr. Newberry stated that the 
human relics for which the highest antiquity had been claimed 
were the Natchez bone and Table Mountain (California) skull. 
If it could be shown beyond question, that these bones really 
occurred in the positions to which they have been referred, we 
should have evidence that man existed on this continent as a 
contemporary with the mammoth, mastodon, and other extinct 
mammals, and at a period so remote that all the topographical 
features of the surface have since changed—in the case of Table 
Mountain the bottom of a valley having become a mountain 
summit. As regards the Natchez bone, geological changes have 
been effected since the date assigned it, which, in Sir Charles 
Lyell’s judgment, must have required a hundred thousand years, 
In neither of these instances were the human remains actually 
found by credible persons in strata of high antiquity, and no 
dependence whatever can be placed upon inferences made from 
this material in the solution of the question of the antiquity of 
man. We may to-morrow obtain indubitable evidence of the 
Occurrence of the remains of man in the Table Mountain 
[Sepé. 1, 1870. 
