February 4, 1909J 



NA TURE 



405 



young in science as Japan. This was the proffer by 

 Sakiirai's chemical coUeag-ues of a number of original 

 papers, some ready and others nearing completion, 

 to be published together as a festal number of the 

 Journal of the College of Science in honour of the 

 event. Together they form nearly half of vol. xxv. of 

 the journal, the rest of the volume, it is of interest to 

 state, consisting of a botanical paper in Latin by 

 B. Hayata, entitled " Flora Montana Formosae," and 

 illustrated bv forty-one exquisite plates. Prefixed to 

 the copies of the chemical part of the volume which 

 have been issued separately for presentation purposes 

 is a biographical sketch of Sakurai, by Prof. N. 

 Matsui, director of the College of Agriculture. 



The contents of this publication are ample evidence 

 of the striking and wonderful success, in the course 

 of relatively few years, of Japan's venture into the 

 field of chemical research. There are seventeen 

 [lapers, touching nearly all parts of present chemical 

 investigation, all of them of value as original con- 

 tributions, some of verv considerable value, and most 

 of them fixing the attention. In abstract they are 

 now .ippcaring, or have already appeared, in Euro- 

 pean journals ; any one of them would have been 

 accepted for publication here or in Germany (two are 

 in German). One was partlv published at the time 

 of the jubilee in the B. i. deutschen chcm. Gcsell- 

 scliaft. 



" The Viscosity of Dilute Alcoholic Solutions," bv T. 

 Hirata; " Die .Vnomalie der starkeneinwertigen Elec- 

 trolyte," by !\I. Katayama ; and " Coagulation of Col- 

 loidal .-Muminium Hydroxide bv Electrolytes," by S. 

 Kawamura, are three examples of excellent work. 

 Two other papers, " The Fusion Curves of the Svstem, 

 Naphthalene-phenol," and "The Fusion Surfaces of 

 the System, Naphthalene-chlorobenzene-phenol," the 

 post-graduate work of two of Prof. K. Ikeda's pupils, 

 T. Vamamoto and H. Hirose, are also of high excel- 

 lence. The paper by Prof. Ikeda himself, on " The 

 Chemical Theory of Solutions," part i., which covers 

 eighty quarto pages, is particularlv worthv of atten- 

 tion. It is, in fact, a short treatise which, when 

 part ii. can be added to it, should have publication in 

 book form, so valuable does it appear to be. It is an 

 exceptionally clear exposition of the subject in admir- 

 able English, showing marked originality of treatment, 

 fully illustrated by curves, and mathematically dis- 

 cussed, altogether a most interesting paper. 



"The Inversion of Cane-sugar," by Y. Osaka; 

 "Complex Ferri-malonates," bv M. Matsui; "Con- 

 stitution of Elseomargaric Acid," by T. Kametaka ; 

 " Japanese Oils," by the same; " Ueber den Haupt- 

 bestandteil des japanischen Lacks," bv Majima and 

 Cho; " Oximes and Imides of Benzenedisulphonic 

 .Acids," by T. Suzuki ; " Formation of ^-Oxvcarbostyril 

 from o-\itrobenzoylacetic .Acid," by K. Matsubara ; 

 and " Molecular Re-arrangement of N-Benzylbenzald- 

 oxime," by M. Kuhara, are also interesting contribu- 

 tions. 



There is a paper by, like Prof. Kuhara. another 

 well-known chemist, Prof. T. Haga, entitled " .\ 

 .Simple Method of preparing the Imides of the 

 .Aromatic .Sulphojiic .Acids," which is a perfect little 

 piece of work of its kind, admirably written. 

 There are still to be noticed two papers by Prof. 

 M. Ogavi-a which, from their subjects, will be 

 of greater general interest than any other member of 

 this group of Japanese papers, for they seem to estab- 

 lish the existence of two new elements among the 

 metals, nipponium, and another not vet named. These 

 papers recently appeared in full in the Chemical 

 News. Mr. Ogawa was, two or three vears ago, in 

 London, working upon the new mineral, thoriaintc, 

 placed in his hands by Sir Willi.am Ramsav. Some 

 NO. 204Q, VOL. 79] 



of this mineral he took back with him to Japan, where 

 he has discovered other mineral sources of both these 

 elements. 



Besides the contents of Sakurai 's jubilee part 

 of the Journal of the Tokyo College of Science, 

 other important chemical papers have, from time to 

 time, appeared in that journal, and in English and 

 (lerman journals. But the appearance of this budget 

 of papers on chemical research offers itself now as a 

 striking proof of the remarkable progress which has 

 taken place in the pursuit of chemistry by a nation 

 which, thirty years ago, was nearly ignorant of anv 

 significant part of it. That in physics and in the 

 biological sciences the Japanese have equally advanced 

 under similar conditions is, of course, familiar to 

 many of the readers of Nature. 



Edward Divers. 



THE AGEING OF STEEL. 

 A MEMORANDUM, by Mr. C. E. Stromeyer, the 

 -^*- chief engineer of the Manchester Steam Lasers' 

 .Association, just issued, deals with the important 

 question of the ageing of steel, especially that used 

 for steam boilers. It is now twenty-five years since 

 mild steel began to come into use for boilers, and 

 some definite conclusions have been reached as to 

 its behaviour with time. Tensile and bending tests 

 of steel, cut from boiler plates which have been in 

 use for many years, show that the tenacity has re- 

 mained practically unaltered, while the ductility, as 

 measured by the elongation, has not been affected. 

 It is known that even the best Lowmoor iron boiler 

 plates become brittle with long-continued use, and it 

 is important to know if this happens with steel 

 plates, but no very definite conclusions appear to 

 have been reached, although it was found that the 

 effect of an injury, such as a chisel nick, or a serious 

 deforming pressure, is not an immediate one, except 

 as regards local alteration of i-hape, but that after 

 the lapse of many weeks the neighbourhood of the 

 injured region gets somewhat brittle. 



.A very complete account is also given of the causes 

 which produce water-hammer in steam pipes, and 

 the pressures reached in various cases are worked 

 out in some detail, showing verv conclusively the 

 superiority of mild steel over cast iron for steam 

 pipes, not only on account of its superior tenacity, 

 but also by reason of its capacity to absorb sudden 

 shock by its elastic and plastic deformation. 



NOTES. . • -. 



We notice with sincere regret the announcement in the 

 daily papers that Lord Rayleigh, who, accompanied by 

 Lady Rayleigh, left England recently for a tour round the 

 world, has been so ill in South .Africa that he has abandoned 

 a proposed visit to Australia, and will probably winter in 

 Egypt. Later reports state that, though his lordship has 

 been seriously ill, he is now much better. 



The one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Charles 

 Darwin will occur on Friday of next week, February 12. 

 To celebrate this event the New York Academy of Sciences 

 will hold a special meeting on the anniversary day at the 

 .American Museum of Natural History. We learn from 

 Science that in addition to the presentation to the museum 

 of a bust of Darwin — the presentation to be made by Mr. 

 Charles F. Cox, president of the academy, and the accept- 

 ance by Dr. Henry F. Osborn, president of the museum — 

 addresses will be given on Darwin's work in botany, by 

 Prof. N. L. Britton ; on Darwin's work in zoology, by 

 Prof. H. C. Bumpus ; and on Darwin's work in geology, 

 by Prof. J. J. Stevenson. 



