Fune 3, 1886 | 
NATURE 
Itt 
At Greenwich on Fune 6 
Sun rises, 3h. 47m. ; souths, rth. 58m. 23°3s.; sets, 20h. 9m. ; 
decl. on meridian, 22° 41’ N.: Sidereal Time at Sunset, 
13h. rom. 
Moon (at First Quarter on June 9) rises, 8h. 10m. ; souths, 
15h. 49m. ; sets, 23h. 17m. ; decl. on meridian, 15° 7’ N. 
Planet Rises Souths Sets Decl. on meridian 
h. m. h. m. h, m. canoes 
Mercury <.. 325 ... rr 29 19 33 21 45 N. 
Wenuss.. <. 2) HO! s.. "ON 7 TOME4@ ..0) LO" ZOE 
Mars meen Tr Te Aye een TGrse cy O40! 22. 5h SUN 
upiters=, s.. 82-30 -.. “1S: 48)... } 1’) 5* 2 43N. 
Saturn... 5 26 13 37 21 48 22 43 N 
* Indicates that the setting is that of the following morning. 
Occultations of Stars by the Moon (visible at Greenwich) 
Corresponding 
angles from ver- 
June Star Mag. Disap. Reap: Hesito right for 
inverted image 
h. m. h. m. Cc a 
TOMO eA. 4O4'3\ A. Ob}... Ob Si... O50 74 325 
It... 38 Virginis ...6 ... I © near approach 200 — 
June h. 
0) re) Mars in conjunction with and o° 6’ north 
of the Moon. 
@) gio Jupiter in conjunction with and o° 1’ north 
of the Moon. 
mie: Ss Mercury at least distance from the Sun. 
EQWees <2 Mercury in superior conjunction with the 
Sun. 
Variable Staxs 
Star R.A. Decl. 
My feet, oo h. m. 
WaGephet <0). 0) 52°52... 81 16 N. ... June; 9) 2) 1697 
SaCanisMinons).... 7 2675... S$ 34.N.... 5, 1% m 
WaWarcinisi..) =. 83 20:2... 2747'S -.. 5, 820,40 2% 
8 Libree ato WE Ly Reyes te 2S co pp | Op @ Lol 772 
WiCorone!...) 2... 15 1376... 32) 4N... 33» eeaeLowere 
WOphiuchi-=. “:... 17 10:8)... 1 20,N. ; yo: ll, © 42 m 
X Sagittarii... ... 17 404... 27 47S. » 914 220M 
W Sagittarii a5 877 Busine OS) So coo pp eNO Ar 
Sberlercolish ss... IS 4c... 20 ON. ... 45 IT; mt 
7 Aguile Sos LO) LUOY/ cos TO ZIGINIs Goa HH MING sowie 
R Sagittee 2OF S:Oleres Lona EN 59. dt}, m 
6 Cephei 22124: Opes 517) SOUN) 6 bh © Ov 
Pye a Bt) 21h 
M signifies maximum ; 7 minimum. 
Meteor Showers 
Radiants near B Ophiuchi, R.A. 261°, Decl. 5° N., from 
Sagitta, R.A. 292°, Decl. 55° N., and frony Vulpecula, R.A. 
312°, Decl. 24° N., are represented at this time of the year, 
as well as the Cygnids I/., R.A. 319°, Decl. 32° N. 
GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 
Tue French forces in Tonquin having now succeeded in oc- 
cupying Lao-Kai, near the Chinese frontier, the capital of the 
Black Flag State, the whole course of the Red River in Tonquin 
is for the first time open to exploration. Accordingly two flat- 
bottomed gunboats with an exceedingly small draught have 
been built and equipped and left Hani on A\pril’ 3 to ascend 
the river, having on board officers whose duty it is to survey the 
river and the adjacent country, to fix the positions of the most 
important points, and to produce a map of the whole. 
AT the meeting of the Geographical Society of Paris on the 
21st ult., M. de Lesseps referred to the works on the Panama 
Canal, and argued that locks or dams were unnecessary. M. 
Aubry gave a summary of a journey which he made in 1883 and 
1884 to Choa and the Gallas countny in pursuit of a mission with» 
which he was charged by the Minister of Public Instruction. 
He collected a large number of mineralogical specimens, and 
studied the region fromia geological and paleontological point 
of view. He also surveyed’ the courses. of two rivers. 
THE Government of British North Borneo has secured’ the 
services of Capt. Beeston for the purpose of making a minera- 
logical and geographical survey of the country. He has started 
for the Segama River,. which has alreadty been visited! by Franlk 
Hatton, to investigate the localities in which gold is said to have 
been found. 
AT the instance of the Société de Géographie Commerciale 
of Nantes, a Commercial-Geographic Exhibition will be held in 
that city between June 15 and August 15 next. According to 
the programme the Exhibition will be divided into five classes : 
(1) scientific geography ; (2) ethnography ; (3) travelling and 
means of communication; (4) French and French-Colonial 
produce ; (5) educational material. 
ON RECENT PROGRESS IN THE COAL-TAR 
INDUSTRY? 
HOSE who have read Goethe’s episodes from his life, known 
as ‘Wahrheit und Dichtung,” will remember his descriptiom 
of his visit in 1741 to the burning hill near Dutweiler, a village 
in the Palatinate. Here he met old Stauf, a coal philosopher, 
philosophus per ignem, whose peculiar appearance and more 
peculiar mode of life, Goethe remarks upon. He was engaged 
in an unsavoury process of collecting the oils, resin, and tar 
obtained in the destructive distillation of coal carried on ina rude 
form of coke oven. Nor were his labours crowned with pecu- 
niary success, for he complained that he wished to turn the oil 
and resin to account, and save the soot, on which Goethe adds 
that, in attempting to do too much, the enterprise altogether 
failed. We can scarcely imagine, however, what Goethe’s feel- 
ings would have been could he have foreseen the beautiful and 
useful products which the development of the science of a century 
and a half has been able to extract from Stauf’s evil-smelling 
oils. With what wonder would he have regarded the synthetic 
power of modern chemistry, if he could have Jearnt that not 
only the brightest, the most varied colours of every tone and 
shade can be obtained from this coal-tar, but that some of the 
finest perfumes can, by the skill of the chemist, be extracted from 
it. Nay, that from these apparently useless oils, medicines which 
vie in potency with the rare vegeto-alkaloids can be obtained, and 
lastly, perhaps most remarkable of all, that the same raw mate- 
rial may be made to yield an innocuous principle, termed saccha- 
vine, possessed of far greater sweetness than sugar itself. The 
attainment of such results might well be regarded as savouring 
of the chimerical dreams of the alchemist, rather than expres- 
sions of sober truth, and the modern chemist may ask a riddle 
more paradoxical than that of Samson, ‘* Out of the burning 
came forth coolness, and out of the strong came forth sweetness” ; 
and by no one could the answer be given who had not ploughed 
with the heifer of science, ‘‘ What smells stronger than tar, and 
what tastes sweeter than saccharine?” That these are matters 
of fact we may assure ourselves by the most convincing of all! 
proofs—their money value, and we learn that the annual value 
of the products now extracted from an unsightly and apparently 
worthless material amounts to several millions sterling, whilst the 
industries based upon these results give employment to thousands 
of men. 
Sources of the Coa!-tar Products.—In order to obtain these 
products, whether colours, perfumes, antipyretic medicines, or 
sweet principle, a certain class of raw material is needed, for it is 
as impossible to get nutriment from a stone as to procure these 
products from wrong sources. All organic compounds can be 
traced back to certain hydrocarbons, which may be said to form 
the skeletons of the compounds, and these hydrocarbons are 
divisible into two great classes : (1) the paraffinoid, and (2) the 
benzenoid hydrocarbons. The chemical differences both in pro- 
perties amd constitution between these two series are well marked. 
One is the foundation of the fats, whilst the other class gives rise 
to the essences or aromatic bodies. Now all the colours, finer 
perfumes, and antipyretic medicines referred to, are members of 
the latter of these two classes. Hence if we wish to construct 
these complicated structures, we must employ building materials 
which are capable of being cemented into a coherent edifice, and 
therefore we must start with hydrocarbons belonging to the ben- 
zenoid series, as any attempt to build up the colours directly 
from paraffin compounds would prove impracticable. Of all the 
sources of hydrocarbons, by far the largest is the natural petroleum 
oils. But these consist almost entirely of paraffins, and hence 
this source is commercially inapplicable for the production of 
colours. We have, however, in coal itself, a raw material which 
1 A Discourse by Prof. Sir Henry E. Roscoe, M P., LL.D, F.R.S. 
deliverediat the Royal Institution, Friday, April 16, 1886. 
