476 



cVA TURE 



[March 19, 1908 



the Chancellor directed attention to the fact that at present 

 .there is in the University no provision for post-graduate 

 Irainintf, which, in Japan, can be carried on for live years. 

 The University at present receives immature students, and 

 iias been unable to utilise the best of its teaching powers 

 , and to train up to the high standard now required to 

 produce leaders of original research and professors in the 

 great departments of knowledge. The institute which the 

 munificence of the late Mr. Tata is providing will afford 

 facilities for post-graduate courses in science, and Sir 

 ■George Clarke expressed the hope that the University will 

 ■be able to move in this direction in the future. India, 

 1ie continued, is crying aloud for science, but in the last 

 vears only twenty-five degrees of Bachelor of Science were 

 ■conferred as compared with 132 1 Bachelorships of Arts. 

 The Bombay system is defective in regard to scientific 

 training. The inculcation of scientific ideas does not begin 

 early enough, and cannot be carried far enough, for. want 

 ■of adequately equipped laboratories. In Japan science is 

 taught in the upper primary courses, but does not appear 

 until a much later stage in Bombay, and may almost be 

 ■said to be confined to the colleges, which cannot all be 

 ■equipped with the expensive appliances necessary for the 

 training they ought to be able to impart. The attempt 

 to make each college into a complete teaching university 

 must, the Chancellor said, necessarily fail, and concentra- 

 tion, in the case of science training especially, appears to 

 Ije essential. A beneficent patron of learning could render 

 no better aid to the advancement of science than by pro- 

 viding the University with first-class physical and chemical 

 laboratories. Principal Sharp has pointed out that expendi- 

 ture on education in India would have to be increased from 

 about four millions sterling to twenty-seven millions to 

 provide an amount per head equal to that available in 

 Japan. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, February 20. — " Notes on the Application 

 ■of Low Temperatures to some Chemical Problems : (i) Use 

 of Charcoal in Vapour Density Determinations ; (2) Rota- 

 tory Power of Organic Substances." By Sir James Dewrar 

 and Dr. H. O. Jones. 



(i) In a recent paper (Phil. Mag., 1907, vi., 14, 408) 

 Barkia and Sadler describe the investigation of the pene- 

 trating power of secondary Rontgen radiations emitted by 

 different elements, which they find to be dependent on the 

 atomie weight of the elements. The behaviour of nickel 

 could only be reconciled with that of other elements by 

 assigning to it an atomic weight of 614, a value con- 

 siderably higher than the accepted value, s8'7. 



Determinations of the vapour density of nickel carbonyl 

 made by the authors (Proc. Roy. Soc, 1903, Ixxi., 427) 

 had given no indication that the accepted value for the 

 atomic weight of nickel was too low, but it was con- 

 sidered of interest to make further determinations at low 

 pressures, when the vapour would approximately obey the 

 gas laws. 



A new method of manipulation was devised for this 

 purpose depending on the use of charcoal at low tempera- 

 tures for absorbing gases. 



A large flask, the volume of which with the connect- 

 ing tubes was 2163-2 c.c, was connected to a mercury 

 manometer and exhausted by means of a Fleuss pump 

 followed . by charcoal in liquid air. The flask was sur- 

 rounded by melting ice, and the vapour admitted to any 

 iJcsircd pressure. The mass of gas was finally collected in 

 a weighed charcoal reservoir by immersing this in liquid 

 air. Thus the weight of vapour filling the flask at 0° C. 

 under a known pressure was easily determined. The 

 accuracy uf the method is dependent on the determination 



f pressure, since the errors in the other operations are 



omparatively negligible. 



In order to test the method the vapour densities of 

 carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and ether were deter- 

 mined, and the following results (referred to i c.c. of 

 hydrogen as 000009 gram) show that the method readily 



gives results sufiiciently accurate for the purpose in 

 liand ; — • 



CO., SO., Ether 



115-4 

 206-5 



21-91 

 21-93 



76-1 

 19S-5 



31-81 

 31 '94 



31-4 ... 3690 

 63-9 ... 36-9I 



The theoretical values of these vapour densities are 21.83, 

 31^79, and 36-76 respectively. 



Determinations of the vapour density of nickel CEirbonyl 

 were then made, with the following results : — 



i6-6 ... 84-67 



417 



84-69 



46 8 ... 84-79 



Taking the atomic weight of nickel as 58-3 (H = i), the 

 theoretical density is 8473, whereas on the assumption of 

 the atomic weight suggested by Barkia and Sadler, 60-95 

 (H = i), the vapour density would be 86-05. Tliese experi- 

 ments therefore show that it is impossible that the atomic 

 w-eight of nickel should be as high as 60-95. 



The accuracy of the method used could be greatly 

 improved by the use of a larger vessel and more delicate 

 manometric measurement, and if the charcoal condenser 

 was made of metal instead of glass the method might be 

 applied 10 the more volatile gases. 



(2) A preliminary account is given of the results Obtained 

 in determining the rotatory power of optically active carbon 

 compounds at low temperatures. Two substances, /-nico- 

 tine and "bitter orange oil," were selected as suitable 

 for examination, because their solutions in ethyl alcohol 

 could be solidified without losing their transparency, and 

 on account of their high rotatory powers. Up to the 

 present it has only been found possible to make observa- 

 tions down to about —100° C, since below this double 

 refraction interferes with the reading of the polarimeter. 



A solution of nicotine (21-2 grams in 100 c.c.) -which 

 gave a rotation of —30° at +20° C. gave a rotation of 



— 22° at —120° C. 



The relation between temperature and rotatory power 

 is approximately linear, and shows that nicotine behaves 

 below 0° C. just as it does above that temperature. The 

 specific rotatory power at —115° C. is calculated to be 



— 99°, and, assuming the linear relation to hold, would 

 be about —54° at —273° C. 



The rotatory power of bitter orange oil increases with 

 diminishing temperature below 0° C. as it does above that 

 temperature. 



A 20 per cent, solution in alcohol, which gave a rota- 

 tion of 4-i8°-5 at -(-8° C, gave a rotation of -f-2S°-S at 



— 95° C. The relation between temperature and rotatory 

 power is linear, and the calculated specific rotatory power 

 at —273° C. would be about -(-156°. 



Similar results have been obtained with other substances, 

 and these show that the molecules of optically active 

 carbon compounds would exhibit in all probability con- 

 siderable rotatory power at the lowest temperatures w-e 

 can command. 



Linnean Society, February 20. — Lieut. -Col. Prain, F.R.S., 

 vice-president, in the chair. — Wild types and species of the 

 tuber-bearing Solanums : A. W. Sutton. Many hundreds 

 of attempts were made to fertilise Solamim Maglia with 

 the cultivated potato, but only one hybrid seedling resulted, 

 from a cross made in July, 1887, and though cultivated for 

 twenty years it has shown no superiority to ordinary 

 potatoes. The so-called " Solatium Commersonii, Violet," 

 was statedNto be a mutation obtained through bud variation 

 from the wild Solanum Commersonii, Dunal. In opposi- 

 tion to this claim, many growers assert that it is identical 

 with a German potato, the " Blue Giant," raised by Herr 

 Paulsen. Many wild types of tuber-bearing Solanums have 

 been experimented with during the last few years. All 

 these wild types flower freely, but in every case where a 

 wild type produces fruit it has, with the exception of 

 Solanum. etuberosum, reproduced itself absolutely pure from 

 seed, whereas all varieties of the cultivated potato which 

 produce seed give rise to the greatest possible variation in 

 the seedlings, none corresponding exactly to the parent. 

 There is also a striking difference in the form of the pollen- 

 grains of the wild types of tuber-bearing Solanums com- 



No. 2003, VOL. yy] 



