April 27, 1899] 



NA TURE 



62- 



able. By adding a third circle, the advantages of both methods 

 may be combined. The crystal is adjusted once for all, and 

 measurements may be made in any zone at will. One circle 

 gives the angle in this zone, the second the angle this zone 

 makes with a fixed zone, and the third the pole in which this 

 zone intersects the fixed zone. A short description was given of 

 the apparatus necessary to convert an ordinary goniometer into 

 the three-circle form, which is now under construction by 

 Messrs. Troughton and Simms. 



Royal Meteorological Society, April 19. — Mr. F. C. 

 Bayard, President, in the chair. — Mr. H. Mellish read a paper 

 on soil temperature, in which he discussed the observations 

 from the thermometers at various depths in the soil which have 

 been made at the stations of the Royal Meteorojogical Society. 

 These records have been carried on at many of the stations since 

 1881, and observations have been made at the following depths 

 in the soil : 3 inches, 6 inches, i foot, 2 feet, and 4 feet. It 

 appears that in nearly all cases the annual temperature of the soil 

 at the depth of : foot is slightly higher than that of the air. In 

 winter lime the air and the soil at i foot have about the same 

 temperature, the soil being often a little warmer till about the end 

 of January, after which, for the next two months, the air has a 

 small advantage ; but in the summer months the soil at i foot 

 is generally warmer than the air, the difference exceeding 3° at 

 several stations. Mr. Mellish shows that on the mean for the 

 year the light soils are i°'o warmer than the air, while the 

 strong ones are only o°'2 warmer ; and he is of opinion that 

 near the surface we may expect to find wider extremes of tem- 

 perature in light soils than in strong ones ; but that the heavier 

 soils are better conductors of heat, and that consequently the 

 extremes are propagated to greater depths in heavy soils than in 

 light ones. — A paper on some phenomena connected with the 

 vertical circulation of our atmosphere, by Major-General H. 

 Schaw, C. B., R. E. , was read by the Secretary. The author has for 

 some time past been studying the circulation of the atmosphere 

 over Australasia, and in this paper gives the results of his examin- 

 ation of the weather charts, chiefly in regard to the interaction of 

 cyclones and anticyclones upon each other. 



P.ARIS. 



Academy of Sciences, April 17. — M. van Tieghem in the 

 chair. — On the transformation of surfaces of total constant 

 curvature, by M. Gaston Darboux. — New researches on the 

 heats of formation and combustion of several nitrogen com- 

 pounds, by MM. Berthelot and G. Andre. Determinations are 

 given for cholesterine, glycollic and lactic nitriles, xanthine, 

 paraphenylene-diamine, nicotine, pyrrol, carbazol, indol, scatol, 

 oxindol, and o-methylindole. — On the applications of aluminium, 

 by M. A. Ditte. A reply to some observations of M. Moissan 

 on the same subject. — Remarks by M. Berthelot on his work 

 " Animal Heat." — Observations on the planet E L Coggia made 

 at the Observatory of Toulouse with the Brunner equatorial of 

 23 cm. aperture, by M. F. Rossard. — On some ancient showers 

 of shooting-stars, by M. D. Eginitis. — On the periodic integrals 

 of linear partial differential equations of the first order, by M. 

 Levi-Civita. — Extension of the theorem of the mean to dif- 

 ferential equations of the first order, by M. Michel Petrovitch. — 

 On the theory of fundamental functions, by M. W. Stekloft". — 

 Improvements in the electrolytic interrupter of Wehnelt, by 

 M. J. Carpentier. By carefully insulating thermally the 

 electrolytic cell, the temperature is allowed to rise from So" to 

 100° C. ; as the temperature rises, a smaller voltage is required 

 in the primary circuit. If the length of platinum wire exposed is 

 capable of adjustment, more control is obtained over the work- 

 ing of the coil. — Contribution to the study of the Wehnelt 

 interrupter, by M. H. Armagnat. — On the decomposition of a 

 high potential current into a series of disruptive discharges, by 

 M. H. Abraham. — A cathodic rectifier for induced currents, by 

 M. P. Villard. A Crookes' tube has one bulb of 400 cc. 

 capacity, carrying a large wire spiral as electrode, the other 

 electrode being very small, a few millimetres only in diameter, 

 placed in a narrow tube which is slightly contracted 

 just in front of the disc. This tube, when con- 

 nected to an induction coil round the primary of which 

 an alternating current is passing, allows only one alter- 

 nation of the two induced currents to pass, thus acting as a 

 rectifier. — On silver suboxide, by M. Guntz. When Ag._>0 is 

 heated in a strong sealed tube at 358°, there is a certain equi- 

 librium (about 49 atmospheres) corresponding to the dissociation 

 tension of AgjO. That this pressure corresponds to the sub- 



NO. 1539, VOL. 59] 



oxide was shown by the following experiment. Into a glass tube 

 of known volume is placed sufficient KMn04 to give off at 358° 

 oxygen at a pressure just above 50 atmospheres, and two glass 

 tubes containing known weights of silver and silver oxide respec- 

 tively ; and the whole is heated for three days to 358' C. 

 Analysis of the products showed that the Ag„0 had lost weight 

 and the silver had gained weight, and that the gain and loss 

 corresponded exactly in both cases to the formation of AgjO.^ 

 On the solubility of the normal acids of the oxalic series in 

 water, by M. F. Lamouroux. The acids of the oxalic series, 

 both of odd and even numbers of carbon atoms, are in general 

 slightly soluble in water, the only exceptions being malonic and 

 glutaric acids, which are very soluble. — On the solubility in 

 water of the substituted malonic acids, by MM. G. Massol and 

 F. Lamouroux. Various mono- and di- substituted malonic 

 acids were examined up to acids containing eight atoms of 

 carbon, but no regularities could be deduced.- — Action of ethyl, 

 isobutyl, and isoamyl alcohols upon their sodium derivatives, by 

 M. Guerbet. By heating pure inactive amyl alcohol at 150°- 

 160' with its sodium derivative, a new alcohol, diamyl alcohol, 

 CjnHooO was obtained, from which various derivatives were 

 obtained, including the chloride, acetate, isovalerate, and 

 benzoate. Bisulphate of potassium gave a hydrocarbon C]rtH2o, 

 and oxidation with chromic acid a new acid CioH„„Oo. Ethyl 

 alcohol studied in a similar fashion, gave at 210° hydrogen and 

 ethylene, but no product corresponding to the diamyl alcohol. — 

 Action of very dilute acids upon the phosphates of the soil, by 

 M. Th. Schlcesing, jun. — On a simple measuring apparatus for 

 use in stereoscopy, the stereometer, by MM. T. Marie and H. 

 Ribaut. — General considerations on the defensive glands in the 

 Coleoptera, by M. L. Bordas. — On the Trias of the neighbour- 

 hood of Rougiers (Var), and on the existence in this region of 

 phenomena analogous to the peperites of Auvergne, by M. J. 

 Repelin. — On the origin of the siliceous and quartose grains 

 found in chalk, by M. Stanislas Meunier. 



Amsterdam. 

 Royal Academy of Sciences, February 24. — Prof. Van 

 de Sande Bakhuyzen in the chair. — Prof. Schoute reported, in 

 the name of Prof. Korteweg and himself, upon a paper of Mr. 

 S. L. van Oss, entitled "Das regelmassige Sechshundertzell 

 und seine sellstdeckenden Bewegungen." The paper will be 

 published in the Academy's Transactions. — Prof. Jan de Vries, 

 on orthoptic circles belonging to linear systems of conic sections. 

 — Prof. Bakhuis Roozeboom, on solubility and melting point as 

 criteria for the distinction of racemic compounds, partially 

 racemic compounds, pseudoracemic mixture crystals and inactive 

 conglomerates. — Prof. Schoute, on a geometric interpretation 

 of the generalisation of Sylvester's catalecticant. — The above 

 three communications will be inserted in the report of the meet- 

 ing. — Prof. Haga made, both on behalf of himself and Dr. C. 

 H. Wind, a communication on the diffraction of Rontgen rays. 

 Diffraction of X-rays was proved by an experiment arranged as 

 follows : The Rontgen-tube was placed behind a slit i cm. 

 high and 14 microns wide, at 75 cm. from the latter was the 

 diffraction slit, which gradually diminished in width from 17 to 

 about 2 microns. The photographic plate was placed at 75 

 cm. from the diffraction slit. Time of exposure from 100 to 

 200 hours. The image of the slit first became narrower, and 

 then showed an unmistakable broadening. From the width of 

 the part of the diffraction slit, corresponding to this broadening 

 and the character of the broadening, an estimation can be made 

 of the wave-length. It appeared that X-rays exist of about o'l 

 to 2i Angstrom-units, comprising four octaves. — A detailed 

 paper will appear in the report of the next meeting. — Prof. 

 Stokvis presented for publication in the Proceedings a short 

 account of experiments, made by Dr. G. Bellaar Spruyt in his 

 laboratory, on the physiological action of methylnitramine. 

 From these experiments it appears that the nitramines show no 

 nitrite actions whatever in the animal organism, and that, con- 

 sequently, as homologous chemical structure necessarily brings 

 with it homologous physiological action, in accordance with 

 Franchimoiit's view, they must be considered substances in 

 which nitrogen is most probably cyclically combined. — The 

 following papers were presented for publication in the Proceed- 

 ings : — Two communications by Prof Lorentz(a) on a simplified 

 theory of the electrical and optical phenomena in moving bodies 

 [h) Stokes's aberration theory presupposing an ether of unequal 

 density. Two communications by Dr. J. Verschaffelt, presented 

 by Prof. Kamerlingh Onnes, and entitled («) measurements on 



