4i6 



TA TURE 



[March 2571875 



now was foremost with all polar expeditions, must recede before 

 the far more important scientific questions. But these questions 

 cannot be answered before all nations that claim a place at the 

 head of civilisation leave aside all national rivalry, and resolve 

 to make progress together in this direction. To obtain decisive 

 scientific results, a number of simultaneous expeditions are abso- 

 lutely necessary, and their object must be to collect or construct 

 tables of yearly observations at different points round the pole, 

 but their instruments and method of observation should be ex- 

 actly alike. Only when this is done will the materials be fur- 

 nished for the solution of those great problems of nature which 

 are now mysteriously enwrapped by Arctic ice ; only then will 

 we reap the benefit of that enormous capital of labour, efforts, 

 sufferings, and money which until now have been wasted in the 

 polar district. 



With regard to the means to reach the highest latitude, the 

 camp of explorers is divided into two ; some are in favour of 

 ships, others expect everything from sledges. As long as it is 

 the principal object of an expedition to reach high latitudes, 

 sledges are doubtless preferable, but when higher results are 

 aimed at, only ships can give the necessary basis to work upon. 

 It is a great illusion to imagine that both can be perfectly united ; 

 on the contrary, one will always have to be subservient to the 

 other, and they will generally be hindrances to each other. 



Finally, Lieut. Weyprecht tendeis his thanks to the officers of 

 the expedition, whose untiring efforts and energy, frequently 

 under the most difficult and sometimes the most dangerous cir- 

 cumstances, alone made it possib'e to present the scientific world 

 at home with the above data of observations and results. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The Journal of the Chemical Society for February 1875 con- 

 tains two original papers by Mr. A. H. Church. The first is on 

 the composition of autunite. The recent di-covery of a new 

 locality in Cornwall for autunite induced Mr. Church to make a 

 fresh examination of this mineral species. The quantity at his 

 disposal was rather small, Ijut as a remarkable peculiarity con- 

 cerning the condition of the water in this mineral presented 

 itself, the author availed himself of two fine French specimens. 

 The Cornish specimens occurred in thin isolated rhombic tables, 

 translucent to sub-transparent, and were sulphur-jellow. We 

 then have a minute description of the analysis made, and in con- 

 clusion Mr. Church finds the formula of autunite, as it exists in 

 the unaltered crystals, to be ^^q» | P2O5 . loII„0, whereas au- 

 tunite diied in vacuo is ^2^3 | p^Q,, . 2ll.p. Upon examination 

 of the closely allied uranium copper phosphate, torlicrnile, it did 

 not show analogous results, and the author found the formula of 

 torbernite to be ^'^g^ j P.O^ • 8H,,0 and J^^On j p^Q, . 2ll,0 

 respectively ; the latter, if the mineral is dried at 100°. Mr. 

 Church considers, in conclusion, that there are cases in which 

 the drying of minerals in vacuo removes essential water, and not 

 accidental moisture only ; and he further believes that absolutely 

 dry air does, in still rarer instances, effect a similar alteration. — 

 The second paper is on the action of baryta on oil of cloves. 

 Considerable differences existing amongst chemists on the action 

 of caustic baryta on eugenol, the author repeated experiments he 

 had made some time ago on a larger scale, and with eugenol 

 from oil of cloves of ascertained genuineness. The author first 

 gives a description of experiments as to the physical characters 

 of pure eugenol itself, and of the terpine with which it is asso- 

 ciated in clove oil. We then come to the experiments with 

 baryta, and their result was the conclusion that the action oT 

 baryta on eugenol is not a precise or definite one ; that a greater 

 part of the eugenol is carbonised and destroyed, and that from 

 the products of such destruction a minute proportion of the 

 remaining eugenol receives an addition of CHj, becoming 

 thereby converted partly into methyl-eugenol and partly into 

 another body of the same empirical formula, and possibly iso- 

 meric with the ether. It is clear, therefore, that none of the 

 former conclusions as to the nature of the action of baryta on 

 eugenol are correct. — The remainder of the journal is dedicated 

 to abstracts of papers published in other journals, many of which 

 have already been noticed in these columns. 



American Journal of Science and Arts, February. — The first 

 paper in this number is Prof. Asa Gray's address on Jeffries 



Wyman at the Memorial Meeting of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History, Oct. 7, 1S74, to which, as well as to the subject 

 of it, we have already referred. — On some points in the geology 

 of the Blue Ridge of Virginia, a paper by iVIr. W. M. Fontaine, 

 is concluded in this number. — Mr. J. D. Dana reviews Dr. 

 Sterry Hunt's " Chemical and Geological F.ssays," and Prof. 

 Asay Gray contributes a short paper on the question, *' Do vari- 

 eties wear out .' " The conclusion which he reaches we gave in a 

 recent number (vol. xi. p. 334). In " Communications from the 

 laboratory of Williams College," Mr. Ira Remsen treats of (i). 

 the formation of paratoluic acid from parasulphotoluenic acid ; 

 {2) nitro-parasulphobenzoic acid ; and (3) the action of potas- 

 sium on ethyl succinate. — Another ch-mical paper is by Mr. M. 

 Carey Lea on the detection of hydrocyanic acid. — M. A. E. 

 Vernll sends his thirtieth contribution to zoology, from the 

 museum of Yale College ; it treats of the gigantic ceplialopods of 

 the North Atlantic, and is illustrated with some good cuts. — ■ 

 Among the smaller notes is a useful summary ot the results 

 obtained at twenty-six transit stations, twenty in the northern 

 and six in the southern hemisphere. 



Transactions of the Geological Society of Alanchester, vol. xiii., 

 part 7. — The papers in this part are— the President's (Prof. W. 

 Boyd Dawkins) address on the most important additions during 

 1873-74 to *^"^ knowledge in those departments of geology that 

 relate to mining, engineering, and terrestrial physics ; " Fish 

 Remains from the Coal Measures," by Mr. John Aitken, F.G.S. ; 

 " Geology of the Pari-h of Halifax," by Mr. James Spencer, 



Mcmcrie delta Soc eta degli Spcttrocopisti Ilaliani, Dec. 1874.— 

 Father Secchi writes on the physical study of the comets Coggia 

 ant Tempel 1S74. He appears to have spectroscopically exa- 

 mined these comets on every opportunity, and to have compared 

 their spectra with a Geissler's tube in front of the object-glass. 

 He found the spectra of a hydrocarbon gas did not correspond 

 with that of the comet ; the brightest band of the spectrum of 

 HC J is in the blue, while that of the gas CO or COo is in the green, 

 just as in Coggia's comet. On the other hand, the blue band is 

 the brightest in the spectrum of Tempel's comet ; and Secchi 

 therefore attributes its light to a hydrocarbon. The nucleus 

 appears to have given off polarised light, and also the suirounding 

 portions of the comet. On July 9 the continuous spectrum of 

 the nucleus appeared broken lor a short distance on the red side 

 of each of the hydrocarbon bands. On Sept. 5 Borrelly's comet 

 appeared to have a number of bright points ot nuclei dispersed 

 throughout the comet. 



Astrouoinische KacJirichtcn, No. 2,02I. — Julius Schmidt com- 

 municates the observations on the number of sun-spots seen every 

 available day at Athens. The average number of groups in 

 January seems to be about five; inApril it had decreased to two, 

 and this average remained nearly constant throughout the re- 

 mainder of the year. Position observations of Coggia's comet, 

 by J. Dreyer, of Birr Castle, and the discovery of Planet 141, by 

 Paul Heniy, appear in this number. The transit of Venus 

 appears to have been seen well at Java, by Metzger; the different 

 appearances at various times during the transit are given. The 

 eclipse of the sun was observed at Leipzig in January. It 

 appears from the observations of the ends of the eclipse that the 

 last contact was seen with the larger apertures before it was sj 

 seen with the smaller one. 



Zeitschrift der Ocsterrcichischen Gesellschaft fiir Meteorohgie, 

 Jan. 15. — The first paper is a contribution by Dr. Hildebrands- 

 Eon to the question of the condition of vapour in the atmosphere, 

 founded on researches made by him and Prof. Rosen some years 

 ago, and not before published, to his knowledge, beyond Sweden, 

 Le Roy started, and Saussure accepted the theory, that air 

 dissolves water or vapour as a fluid dissolves a salt. Wallerius, 

 de Luc, and DaUon, on the other hand, were of opinion that 

 vapour is formed ihrough the action of heat exactly in the same 

 way in a vacuum as in air. Since the demonstrations of 

 Regnault, the latter view has been generally adopted. By 

 experiments resembling those of Rudberg and Regnault, Dr. 

 Hildebrandsson and ProC Rosen came to the following conclu- 

 sions : — I. If a gas or vapour of water be brought (mecha- 

 nically or by evaporation) into a volume of gas, this volume is 

 immediately compressed or shoved aside until the difference in 

 pressure is annulled, 2. If a gas or vapour of water be taken 

 (mechanically or by condensation) from a volume of gas, this 

 volume of gas rushes in from all sides to fill np the vacuum or 

 equalise pressure. The condensation of vapour therefore doubt- 

 less plays a large part in the origin and propagation of storms, 



