January 2; 1908J 



NATURE 



.Sj'5 



view. — A deep channel of Drift at Hitchin (Hertford- 

 shire) : W. Hill. Evidence is given, from nine borings 

 running along a line slightly west of north from Langlev 

 through Hitchin, of the existence of a channel of con- 

 siderable depth, now filled with Drift, occupying the centre 

 of an old valley in the Chalk-escarpment, which may be 

 called the Hitchin Valley. 



P.iRIS. 



Academy of Sciences, Decemberl6, 1907. — M. A. Chauveau 

 in the chair. — The action of nitrous acid upon allylaniine : 

 Louis Henry. The interaction of allylaniine hydrochloride 

 and sodium nitrite gives allyl alcohol only. Acetone was 

 looked for, but no trace of any isomer appears 10 be 

 formed in this reaction. — Report by M. Bertin upon a 

 memoir entitled " The Study of the Movements of Water 

 which can be produced in Contact and in the Neighbour- 

 hood of a PJane Vertical Wall," by MM. Fortant and Le 

 Besnerais. — Observations of the phenomena of Saturn's 

 ring made with the bent equatorial of 32 cm. aperture 

 at the Observatory of Lyons: J. Guillaume. — Laplace's 

 iransforniation and persistent conjugate systems : D. Th. 

 Egorotr. — The theory of matrices : M. de Seguier. — 

 Infinitesimal transformations and adjoint functions: N. 

 Saltykow. — Differential equations of the third order with 

 fixed critical points : J. Chazy. — Flame spectra obtained 

 bv the electrical method : G. \. Hemsalech and C. de 

 Watteville. The present paper deals with an application 

 of a process previously described, and is especially adapted 

 for the examination of salts of the rare earths. The salt 

 is incorporated with either boric acid or a mixture of 

 asbestos and sodium silicate, and the whole placed in the 

 hollow of a carbon rod forming the positive pole of an 

 electric arc, the arc being enclosed in a glass globe. A 

 current of air is led into this vessel, and is then allowed 

 to flow to the burner. Finely divided particles of the salt 

 are thus introduced into the flame of a Bunsen burner, and 

 I gram of the salt is sufficient to show the flame spectrum 

 for five hours continuously. — The Audiffren refrigerator : 

 MM. Audiffren and Singrun, A suitable gas is liquefied 

 ill the compressor, and the liquid allowed to evaporate in 

 the refrigerator, the special advantage of the arrangement 

 (a diagram of which is given) being that both the rom- 

 pressor and refrigerator are enclosed in an air-tight vessel, 

 only a single stuffing box carrying the pulley through 

 which the whole is driven cornmunicating with the outside 

 air. The pump is driven by the action of gravity on a 

 heavy piston, and it is impossible for the pressure to rise 

 above a figure fixed by the weight of the piston. — Phos- 

 phorescence at low temperatures : Joseph de Kowalski. 

 Solutions of nitrates of the rare earths in alcohol become 

 strongly fluorescent at the temperature of liquid air. For 

 the erbium solution the tint is green, greenish-yellow for 

 the samarium solution, and violet for the solution of 

 nitrate of neodymium. Alcoholic solutions of phenanthrene, 

 anthracene, and anthraquinone behave similarly. In all 

 cases the substance was previously exposed to a strong 

 ultra-violet light from a quartz mercury arc lamp. — The 

 formation of ozone bv the action of the silent discharge at 

 low temperatures : E. Eriner and E. Durand. .At the 

 temperature of liquid air the vapour pressure of liquid 

 ozone is practically zero, and it has been found possible 

 integrally to transform oxygen into ozone. For a given 

 expenditure of electrical energy the ma.ximuni yield of 

 ozone was obtained with a pressure of oxygen of 100 mm. 

 of mercury. The authors point out that the dangers of 

 explosion of the liquid ozone are much reduced if care is 

 taken to remove all traces of grease from the ozon'ser 

 by washing with chromic acid mixture before use. — The 

 hydrolysis of iron perchloride. The function of hydrochloric 

 acid : G. Malfltano and L. Michel. The experiments 

 described by the authors appear to be best explained by 

 the hypothesis that the constitution of the colloid is formed 

 at the expense of the products of hydrolysis or of complex 

 ions. — The solubility of graphite in iron : Georges Charpy. 

 The results given in this paper form an additional argu- 

 ment for considering that the solubility of graphite in iron 

 decreases regularly with the temperature, and give a value 

 of I per cent, as the most probable value for the solu- 



NO. T992, VOL. 77] 



bility in pure iron at 1000° C. — .An attempt at proving 

 certain relations between the atomic weights of the 

 elements : M. Delauney. The values of the atomic 

 weights may be represented in the form A"/»i, where A and 

 n are two whole numbers. ^The gases occluded in steels': 

 G. Belloc. The amounts of gas given off are in close 

 relation with the critical points of iron. The gases consist 

 of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen and 

 nitrogen, and each gas is characterised by a particijiar 

 temperature of evolution. The distribution of the gases 

 is very irregular in the different layers of the metal. — The 

 extraction of the gases contained in nietails' : O. 

 Boudouard. 'It is an extremely diflicidt matter to'exttact 

 the whole of the gases contained in iron and stfeel, a' third 

 heating to 1100° C. in a vacuum still yielding some gas. 

 The accidental breakage of a porcelain tube in these 

 experiments showed that iron clearly commences to volati- 

 lise in a vacuum at 900° C, this effect being quit'e marked 

 at 1100° C. — The qualitative examination of ciders for 

 tartaric acid: G. A. Le Roy. The method is based on 

 a colour reaction with a solution of rcsorcinol and sul- 

 phuric acid. — Syntheses by means of the mixed organo- 

 metallic derivatives of zinc. The constitution of the 

 j3-acetoxyl-ketones : E. E. Blaise. — The preparation of the 

 cyanides of methyl and ethyl : M. Auger. An aqueous 

 solution of potassium cyanide can be employed with advan- 

 tage as regards yield in the preparation of the nitriles. — 

 Aromatic alcohols. Some new reactions : R. Fosse. — 

 Some new Euphorbiacete from central and western Africa 

 collected by M. Auguste Chevalier : M. Beille. — \'ariations 

 in Papaver Rhoeas : L. Blaringhem. — The existence of a 

 peroxydiastase in dried seeds : Brocq-Rousseu and 

 Edmond Gain. One or more, peroxydiastases have been 

 found to be generally present in a large number of dried 

 seeds examined by the authors. This peroxydiastase does 

 not exist in the seed indefinitely, but depends on the age 

 of the seed. — ^The action of a magnetic field of high fre- 

 quency on Penicillium : Pierre Lesage. In magnetic 

 fields of high frequency the growth of the mould is 

 accelerated, but this effect is indirect, since it is due,' at 

 any rate to a large extent, to the heating of the wires of 

 the solenoid. — The origin of anthocyanine deduced from 

 the observation of some parasitic insects of leaves : Marcel 

 Mirande. — The marine migrations of the common trout : 

 A. Cligny. — The parasitic castration of male star-fish by 

 a new infusoria, Orchitophrya stellarum : Casimir Cep^de. 

 — The variations of the length of the intestine in the 

 frog : Emile Yung. — The action on the heart of certain 

 metallic ions introduced into the organism by electrolysis : 

 Jean Gautrelet. — The presence of Schaudinn's treponemes 

 in the appendix of a hereditary syphilitic fcetus : Ch. 

 Fouquet. — The possibility of establishing a true diagnosis 

 of death by radiography : Ch. Vaillant. — A case of modifi- 

 cation of a thalweg by the intervention of a volcanic 

 intrusion (Sardinia)' : M. Deprat. 



December 23, 1907. — M. A. Chauveau in the chair. 

 — The president announced the deaths of M. Janssen 

 and Lord Kelvin. — Observation of the transit of 

 Mercury across the sun, November 13-14, 1907, at the 

 Observatory of Aosta, Italy : M. Amann. Times of the 

 four contacts are given, with remarks on the formation of 

 the black ligament, luminous point, and rings. — The com- 

 pensation of an electromagnetic compass for armoured 

 iilockhouses and for submarines : Louis Dunoyer. — Liquid 



dielectrics : Louis Malcles The conditions of maximum 



yield for telephonic apparatus : Henri Abraham and M. 

 bevaux-Charbonnel. The problem attacked in the pre- 

 sent paper is as follows. Accepting the telephonic 

 apparatus at present in use, are the various elenients,_ the 

 transformer, the resistance of the bobbin of the receiver, 

 &c., chosen so as to furnish the maximum effect in the 

 transmission of speech? The theoretical investigation leads 

 to the conclusion that the receiving instruments should 

 have a resistance of 100 to 200 ohms, and the trans- 

 formation ratio should be near 6 or 7. An examination of 

 the transformers in actual use in telephone work showed 

 an efficiency of only 60 per cent., and with this efficiency 

 the transformers are too small for the work. — The applica- 

 tion of the method of limiting densities to organic vapours : 



