NATURE 



{July 20, 1882 



as mentioned in the former communication, that Mornvjrus was 

 an electric fish, he thoroughly examined its central nervous 

 system. He found the spinal marrow, when in a iresh state, to 

 be a soft mass, which could be hardened by no medium so as to 

 be made accessible for examination. On the other hand, the 

 brain was of so high a degree of development, tbat it is even 

 beyond that of the birds, and has a resemblance to that of a 

 rabbit. Furthermore, Prof. Fritsch has examined a great num- 

 ber of Torpedoes from the Mediterranean, and he had made 

 out four distinct species with their respective varieties. Into the 

 specific diagnoses he introduced the number of the columns or 

 pillars in the electric organs, and this because he found— as the 

 result of a long series of careful countings — that the proposition 

 as to the pre-formation of the electric organs {i.e. the doctrine 

 that in the electric organs, after their first formation, no new 

 elements are added), was true. The opposite view, that durin ; 

 growth new pillars were continually being formed, until very 

 lately was almost universally held, and seems to have rested on 

 Hunter's authority, who, towards the end of the last century, 

 had made two series of countings, one on a common Torpedo, 

 eighteen inches long, in which were 470 pillars, and one on a 

 giant Torpedo, caught at Torbay, four feet in length, which 

 contained 11S2 columns. Hunter seeui-. to have taken it for 

 granted thai the larger animal was but an older specimen of the 

 same species, ami had thence concluded that the pillars had 

 increased during growth." 



June 3c. — Prof, du Bois-Reyvnond in the chair. — Dr. G. 

 Salomon read a pa] er on his attempt to investigate more exactly 

 the xanthin bodies of urine. He especially investigated the 

 hypo-xanthin and its reactions, and in doing so found a new 

 substance which oa -ily crystallised, and which for the present he 

 called para-x: mhio, from its relation to xanthin. From the 

 y it was as yet not p Ice an accurate 



analysis ol it, even though 500 litre ; been used in 



the in -Dr. A. Baginski spoke of the anatomy of 



the colon in children. He endeavoured to find in the minute 

 anatom; : :olon in infants, an explanation of the well- 



known fad thai children during the first few years of their life 

 can ei 1 fooil containing starch, or at least do so 



with greater difficulty than adults. He found on the examina- 

 tion of tl e colon 1 f the bun. an embryo, and of infants np to 

 their fourth year, that in the foetus, anel even after birlh, there 

 were no diua.' as \et in the mucous men brane of the stomach 

 and colon, while in the infant the deeper lymphatic vessels were 

 more strongly developed than in the adult. 



PARIS 

 Academy of Sciences, July 10. — M. Blanchard in the 

 chair.— The following papers 'we're read 1— On the differential 

 equation which tion of the problem of 



three bodies to quantities of the second order inclusively, by M. 

 Gykleii. — On various hydrates formed by pressure and release 

 from pressure, by MM. Cailletet and Border. They compressed 

 phosphuretted hydrogen in presence of water; on sudden release, 

 crystals of what is doubtless a hydrate of phosphoniuui were 

 formed wi bin the tube. The critical point was + 28°. Other 

 hydrates were had on treating similarly equal volumes of carbonic 

 acid and phosphuretted hydrogen with water, dry phosphuretted 



en, and sulphide of carbon, and ammoniac gas in pri 

 of a sati 1 hydrate of ammonia 



was formed in the latter case on the admission of seme air). — 

 Note on Brisinga, by M. Terrier. The Travailleur expeditions 

 have m sixteen well- 



preserved discs, two very young individuals, and a great many 

 isolated arms. They are mostly B. coronata, the large one 

 B. endecacnemes. A distinct form got in the Atlantic in 1880 is 

 named B. Edwardsii. The development of Brisinga, bordering 

 with that ol crinoids on the one hand, is singularly like that of 

 Ophiurides and Stellerides on the other.— Researches on the law 

 of activity of the heart, by M. Dastre. He gives experimental 

 proof that the law of periodic variation of the excitability 

 (Man 1 of muscle, and that the law of uniformity 



of work or of rhythm (E. Cyon, Marey) is an attribute of the 

 nervous apparatus. — Generalised and contagious acni indurata, 

 having for origin varioliform or varioloid acne, by M. Brame. — 

 On a linear equation w ith partial derivatives, by M. Parboux. 

 — On the ratio of the circumference to the diameter, and on the 

 Napierian logarithms of commensurable numbers or of algebraic 

 irrationals, by M. Lindemann. — Rectification, by M. Tannery. — 

 On the conditions of achromatism in phenomena of interference, 



by M. Hurion. — Apparatus,' with which may be recorded, in 

 the form of a continuous curve, the liberation or the absorption 

 of gases, and specially those which result from phenomena of 

 fermentation and of respiration, by M. Regnard. Briefly, the 

 gas from a vessel of liquid in fermentation acts on mercury in 

 one arm of a manometer, a float in the other arm rises and 

 pushes up one arm of a balance, making a platinum wire on 

 the other arm dip in mercury and close a circuit. The current 

 passes through two electro-magnets, one of which affects a style 

 on a rotated blackened cylinder (through a ratchet and screw 

 arrangement) ; the other, by raising a small bell out of mercury, 

 releases the gaseous tension, so that the circuit is broken, and so 

 on. The second apparatus, for respiration, is a slightly modified 

 form. — Reply to M. llerthelot on the subject of the note "On 

 the electromotive force of a zinc-carbon couple," by M. Tomm'asi. 

 — On basic salts of manganese, by M. Gorgeu. — Action of 

 bromine on quinoleine and pyridine, by M. Griniaux. — Researches 

 on the curves of solubility in water of the different varieties of 

 tartaric acid, by M. Leidie. — Botanical, chemical, and thera- 

 peutical researches on globularia, by MM. Heckel, Mourson, 

 and Schlagdenhauffen. They differ from Walz about the chemical 

 nature of the glycoid globularini, obtained (along with tannin, 

 colouring matter, and cinnamic acid) by means of boiling water 

 from the leaves. Instead of two products of decomposition 

 under acids, they obtain only one, for which they keep the name 

 globularetine ; it is oily and resinous-looking after preparation, 

 and becomes a transparent uncrystallisable mass. In hot caustic 

 alkalis it dissolves, fixes the elements of water, and is trans- 

 formed into cinnamic acid. Globularine contains also a little of 

 a very volatile aromatic substance, which seems to be partly 

 formed of cinnamate of benzyl. — On the presence of glycol in 

 wine, by M. Henninger. — On the duration of the luminous per- 

 ception in direct and indirect vision, by M. Charpentier. The 



gave an electric signal on perceiving light through a hole 

 in the bottom of a dark lined box, when a shutter fell from it. 

 The interval studied (duration of luminous perception) varies in 

 the same individual under like conditions, from simple to double, 

 but a constant mean may be reached (e.g., 13 hundredths of a 

 sec, with daylight). It varies with different persons; is about 

 the same with both eyes ; is notably increased by other brain 

 occupation ; is greater in indirect than in direct vision ; exercise 

 attenuating but not suppressing the difference. Exercise for many 

 clays lessens the duration, but in certain curious ways for different 

 parts of the retina. — Regeneration of peripheric nerves by the 

 of tubular suture, by M. Vanlair. — Experimental re- 

 searches on the contractility of the uterus under the influence 

 of direct excitations, by M. Dembo. The remarkable uterine 

 excitability of the rabbit, may be connected with the fecundity 

 of that animal. Dogs and cats gave slight contractions. — Analysis 

 of the waters of the isthmus of Panama, by M. Aillaud. The 



■1" the Rio Grande, at a certain height, and before entrance 

 into the marshy region, are potable. — On the coal basins of Tong- 



- M . Fuchs. The workable coal, to only 100 m. below the 

 sea level, is estimated to be over five million tons. There are 

 four different species in distinct groups of beds. 



CONTENTS Page 



lotion. By Dr. George J. Rio 



F.R.S 2< >S 



ORAPHY =66 



Ouk Book Shelf: — 



Smith's "Dictionary of Popular Names of the Plants which 



furnish the Natural and Acquired Wants of Man'' 267 



Smith's " Induction " *°7 



Lettei.s to the Editor : — 



The Mount Pisgah (U.S.) Stone Carvings.— Mann S. VALENTINE 267 



Movable Coils.— I ir. W. H. StOUK 268 



The Analysis of the Tuning Fork.— George Rayi.eigh Vicars 268 

 The Chemistry of the Plant* and Fame Cells.— Prof. Oliver J. 



Lodge 2 <>8 



A Curious " Halo."— Prof. J. P. O'Reilly 268 



The Transit of Venus 269 



Atomic Weights. By M. M. Pattison Muir 271 



Fire Risks from Electric Lighting *W 



J'iui. Haeckel in Ceylon. II 273 



Konig's Experiments in Acoustics, II. (With Illustrations) ■ ■ 275 



Honour to M. Pasteur 2 7 8 



Notes 79 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Daylight Observations of Wells' Comet 281 



Gpographical Notes 'J 1 



Barometers. ByjAS. T Brown "a 



On Monostroma, a Genus of Alg«. By Mary P. Merripield . a8« 



Scientific Serials 2 °° 



Societies and Academies - 1 " 



