December 5, 1901 



NA TURE 



119 



the more important displacements of the horizontal pendulums 

 are of three types, viz. intermediate, long and short period 

 wanderings. During the last five years IVof. Milne has had 

 continuous photographic records of a horizontal pendulum at 

 his residence at Shide, Isle of Wight, and he now makes a com- 

 parison of these records with the weather conditions prevailing 

 during the first six months of 1901. He says that assuming 

 that a locality can be chosen where the diurnal wave and effects 

 ■ due to rain and desiccation are small, which his observations 

 indicate as possible, records of what appear to be the effects due 

 to barometrical gradients may be obtained. When these are 

 large and appear suddenly, the movements of the pendulum 

 may be marked. At Shide the westerly displacement of a pen- 

 dulum has, for several years past, been regarded as indicating 

 the approach of bad weather. 



Anthropological Institute, November 12. — Mr. W. Gow- 

 land, vice-president, in the chair. — Mr, R. Shelford exhibited 

 (i) a series of slides of natives of Sarawak, and (2) a collection 

 of gold jewellery found in Borneo, lent by H.H. the Rajah of 

 Sarawak. — Mr. Shelford read a paper entitled " A Provisional 

 Classification of the Swords of the Natives of Sarawak." — Mr. 

 J. Gray exhibited a craniometer for measuring the height of 

 the head. 



November 26. — Mr. C. H. Read, ex-president, in the 

 chair. — Mr. E. Willett exhibited a number of Palaeolithic im- 

 plements from Savernake. — Mr. N. W. Thomas exhibited a 

 collection of "totem-stones" collected by the Hon. Auberon 

 Herbert. The exhibit was discussed by Mr. Balfour and Mr. 

 Read. — Mr. R. F. Gatty read a paper on dwarf flints from 

 the sand mounds of Scunthorpe, illustrated by a number of 

 specimens. 



Manchester. 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, November 26. — 

 Mr. Charles Bailey, president, in the chair. — Prof. H. B. Dixon 

 mentioned that Mr. H. Brereton Baker had succeeded in 

 making a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen so pure that it would 

 not explode when the vessel containing it was raised to a red 

 heat or when a silver wire was melted in it. In one case some 

 water was gradually formed, so that the explosion of the gases 

 would seem to depend on the presence of some impurity other 

 than steam itself. ^Prof. F. E. Weiss exhibited two dwarf 

 Japanese trees which have been purchased for the Manchester 

 .Museum. They were Pinus parvifolia and Thuja obi ma (the 

 Japanese cypress), both natives of Northern Japan, where they 

 grow at very great altitudes and are naturally of small growth. 

 The trees exhibited, which were thirty and forty years old 

 respectively, were only six to nine inches in height, these dwarf 

 forms being obtained by a system of starving and pruning back 

 the plants and by contortions of the stem and branches which 

 retard the nutritive processes. — Mr. |. E. Petavel read a paper 

 entitled " On the Measurement of High Explosive Pressures." 

 After a short review of the various methods and instruments 

 used by Runiford, Bunsen and Rodman in the first half of the 

 nineteenth century, and by Noble, Berthelot, Vieille, Le 

 Chatelier and Mallard in recent years, the author went on to 

 describe a new form of recording gauge, which is, in principle, 

 not far removed from the ordinary crusher gauge. The short 

 copper cylinder is replaced by a hollow steel cylinder one inch 

 in diameter and five inches long, the relative cross-sectional 

 areas of the piston and cylinder being calculated so that the 

 strains are well below the elastic limit of the material. The 

 actual motion of the piston is thus limited to one or two 

 thousandths of an inch, and a very high time period is obtained. 

 The motion of the piston is transmitted to a mirror, the move- 

 ment of which is photographically recorded on a revolving drum. 

 The amplitude of the records thus obtained is about i" ; they 

 can be measured to an accuracy of about one-thousandth of an 

 inch. A number of records referring to mixtures of coal gas 

 and air or oxygen and hydrogen were shown, the pressures 

 ranging up to twelve thousand pounds per square inch. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, November 25. — ^M. Fouque in the 

 chair. — On the absence of action of a magnetic field upon a 

 mass of air which is the seat of a current of displacement, by M. 

 R. Blondlot. It has been shown in a previous paper that if a 

 mass of air is moved in a magnetic field normally to the lines of 

 force no electric displacement results in this mass of air. From 

 this it follows that a mass of air which is the seat of an electric 

 displacement should undergo no action in a magnetic field. If 



NO. 1675, VOL. 65] 



the principle of action and reaction is applied to this proposition 

 it leads to the conclusion that a current of displacement in the 

 air exerts no magnetic action, and consequently that the charging 

 current of a condenser is an open current from the magnetic 

 point of view. This is in direct opposition to one of the funda- 

 mental principles of Maxwell's theory, and choice has to be 

 made between renouncing this theory or the principle of action 

 and reaction. — On ibogine, the active principle of a plant of 

 the genus Tabernremontana, coming from the Congo, by 

 MM. A. Haller and Ed. Heckel. In the Congo and neighbour- 

 ing countries several species of plants possessing analeptic and 

 stimulating properties are used l:iy the natives under the name 

 of Iboga. These peculiar properties have been assigned by 

 MM. Dybowski and Landrin to a special glucoside, by 

 M. Schlagdenhaufen to a new alkaloid. The specimens of this 

 plant shown in the Colonial Exhibition of 1900 have been 

 utilised for the extraction of this substance. The amount of 

 material was small, but it is clear that the substance is a true 

 alkaloid and not a glucoside, and the formula Ci^Hj.iN.iO., is 

 provisionally assigned to it. The alkaloid itself has been 

 obtained in the form of white crystals, but all the salts obtained 

 up to the present are amorphous. — The mummified birds of 

 ancient Egypt, by MM. Lortet and Gaillard. The specimens 

 examined differ greatly in their states of preservation, some 

 being so perfectly preserved that a siinple examination of 

 the feathers was sufficient for the identification whilst in 

 others the skeleton was the only possible guide. Some thirty- 

 eight species were identified, the greater number of these not 

 having been found before in the mummy state. — The Okapia 

 Johnstoni^ a new mammal allied to the giraffe discovered in 

 Central Africa, by Prof. E. Ray Lankester. A drawing and 

 description of a new mammal discovered by Sir H. Johnstone 

 in the Semliki Forest on the borders of the Congo Free State 

 and Uganda. The skin bears no resemblance to that of the 

 giraffe, but its relationship to this animal is absolutely demon- 

 strated by its skull. It may possibly be the living representative 

 of the Miocene genus Helladotherium. — Remarks by M. Albert 

 Gaudry on the preceding paper. M. Gaudry presented at the 

 same time a restored head of Helladotherium. — M. Yves Delage 

 was elected a member in the section of anatomy and zoology 

 in the place of the late M. de Lacaze-Duthiers ; M. Gouy, a 

 member in the section of physics in the place of the late M. 

 Raoult. — On the number of roots common to several equations, 

 by M. .-\. Davidoglou. — The determination of some coefficients 

 of self-induction, by Mr. G. A. Heinsalech. In a previous paper 

 on the spectra of electric sparks the coefticients of self-induction 

 were calculated from the dimensions of the coils. It has now been 

 recognised that these were too great, and hence they have been 

 redetermined experimentally. The most advantageous values 

 for spark-spectrum observations are now given as '00286 Henry 

 for cobalt, zinc, magnesium and aluminium ; '00689 Henry for 

 manganese aad silver ; '0254 Henry for antimony ; and '0419 

 Henry for iron, nickel, cadmium, tin, lead, bismuth and copper. 

 — On the regular distribution of the magnetic inclination and 

 declination in France up to January i, 1896, by M. E. Mathias. 

 • — On the application of the clear chamber of Govi to the con- 

 struction of a comparator for end standards, by M. A. Lafay. 

 The arrangement described allows the difference in length 

 between a standard and its copy to be expressed as the algebraic 

 sum of the displacements of two plane mirrors mounted on 

 micrometer screws. It has the advantage over the ordinary 

 methods in avoiding all deformations due to the actual contacts 

 of the ends of the standards with the holders used in the ordinary 

 instruments. — On the combinations of aluminium chloride with 

 the alkaline chlorides, by M. E. Baud. It is shown by 

 thermochemical studies that the compounds AlXIg. 3NaCI and 

 ALiClg. 3KCI exist, and very probably al.so AI.,CI,;.6NaCI and 

 Al„CI|i.6KCl. —On the preparation of barium, by M. Guntz 

 (see p. 112). — On a new volatile salt of beryllium, by MM. G. 

 Urbain and H. Lacombe. A description of the preparation 

 and properties of a basic acetate of beryllium. It boils under 

 the ordinary pres.sure without any sign of decomposition at a 

 temperature of 330-331° C. , and its vapour density at the tem- 

 perature of boiling mercury was found to be I3''9, which is in 

 accordance with the atomic weight Be = 9. — The action of 

 fuming sulphuric acid upon acetaldehyde and propaldehyde and 

 acetone, by M. Marcel Delepine. — On the electrolytic prepara- 

 tion of the halogen derivatives of acetone, by M. A. Richard. 

 The electrolysis of mixtures of acetone with hydrochloric and 

 hydrobromic acids gives monochloroacetone and monobromo- 



