January i6, 1902] 



NA TUBE 



26' 



responding theorems for definite integrals. References to other 

 memoirs abound. — Mr. C. L. Bouton gives an account of a 

 game which he entitles " Nim " (a game with a complete 

 mathematical theory). It is a game played at a number of 

 American colleges and fairs and has been called " Fan-fan," 

 though it does not correspond with the Chinese game of that 

 name. He gives a description of the game (too curt, we think), 

 and also discusses the theory of it. — Dr. G. A. Miller discusses 

 the groups generated by two operators of order three whose 

 product is also of order three, a short note, as is also the 

 concluding one, on the invariants of a quadrangle under the 

 largest subgroup, having a fixed point, of the general projective 

 group in (he plane, by W. A. Granville. 



American Journal of Siience, January. — An experimental in- 

 vestigation into the " skin " effect in electrical oscillators, by 

 C. A. Chant. The skin effect was studied on sixteen cylindrical 

 oscillators of various materials, including brass, iron, copper, 

 gold, tin and silver, and of thicknesses varying from '0000114 

 cm. upwards. The expected effect was not realised, as in the 

 case of both the cylindrical and spherical oscillators the exces- 

 sively thin gold shells were quite as efficient as the solid metal 

 bodies. — The effect of hydrochloric acid upon the precipitation 

 of cuprous sulphocyanide, by R. G. Van Name. In the presence 

 of free hydrochloric acid the precipitation of copper sulpho- 

 cyanide by a small excess of ammonium sulphocyanide is in- 

 complete. The error can be reduced to a negligible amount by 

 increasing the amount of the ammonium sulphocyanide. — -The 

 action of ammonium chloride upon certain silicates, by F. W. 

 Clarke and G. Steiger. The minerals submitted to the action 

 of the ammonium salt included stilbite, heulandite, chabazite, 

 thomsonite, ilvaite, riebeckite, aegirite, serpentine, leuchten- 

 bergite and phlogopite. — Studies of Eocene Mammalia in the 

 Marsh collection, Peabody Museum, by J- L- Wortman. The 

 present instalment deals with Mesonyx obtusidens. — A cosmic 

 cycle, by F. L. Very. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



M.^NCHESTER. 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, January 7. — Mr. 

 Charles Bailey, president, in the chair. — The president an- 

 nounced that the Society was indebted to Dr. Edward Schunck, 

 F.R.S., for a mural tablet, placed in the secretaries' room, bear- 

 ing the following inscription: "This room was the laboratory 

 of John Dalton ; here his great discoveries were made, and 

 here he conceived and worked out his atomic theory." — Mr. J. 

 Cosmo Melvill exhibited many species of the genus Chrysanthe- 

 mum, L., and described its affinities and subdivisions. He 

 directed special attention to wild examples of C. sincnse from 

 China and C. indidim from both China and Japan, these two 

 species being the origins of all the garden varieties, the former 

 of the long-petalled kinds and the latter of the short-rayed and 

 pom-pom forms. — Mr. R. S. Hutton described experiments 

 which he had carried out at the Owens College on the fusion 

 of quartz by means of the electric arc. He finds that, with 

 suitable arrangement, there is no inconvenience caused by the 

 reducing action of the arc, and that, owing to the much higher 

 temperature, the fusion takes place with greater rapidity than 

 with the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe. Methods were described for 

 making tubes of quartz of any desired length in an electric arc 

 furnace, and specimens of tubes were shown. —Dr. George 

 Wilson read a paper on the failure of certain cast-steel dies used 

 in the manufacture of drawn tubes. During the process of 

 manufacturing tubes, the dies have occasionally fractured, to 

 the danger of those using them, and an attempt has therefore 

 been made to estimate some of the stresses to which such dies 

 may be subjected. The results show that out of six fractured 

 dies of which particulars were obtained, five had a factor of 

 safety too small to cover flaws and dynamic effects. An 

 example of the stress in a die is fully worked out, showing by 

 curve the nature of the stresses and distortions. — Mr. C. E. 

 Stromeyer exhibited some chemical gas washers which he h.ad 

 designed for dealing with relatively large volumes of gas. The 

 largest apparatus was capable of dealing with about 50 litres 

 per hour, and one of the smaller ones, designed to hold only 

 six cubic centimetres of fluid and weighing only 40 grammes, 

 was able to deal with 5 litres per hour. 



NO. 1 68 I, VOL. 65] 



Paris, 

 Academy of Sciences, January 6. — M. Bouquet de la 

 Grye in the chair. — On the focussing of a collimator or a 

 telescope -by means of the measurement of a parallax, by 

 M. G. Lippmann. A point P at a finite distance from 

 the collimator is viewed through an auxiliary telescope and 

 brought on to the cross-wire of its eyepiece. The auxihary 

 telescope is now displaced parallel to itself through a known 

 distance ; if the image of P still remains on the cross-wire the 

 collimator is correctly adjusted for parallel rays. If not, the 

 collimator is adjusted until this condition is satisfied. The sen- 

 sibility of the method depends on the magnifying power of the 

 auxiliary telescope, and increases rapidly with the dimensions of 

 the latter. — A method for verifying if a slider or a rule is recti- 

 linear, by M. G. Lippmann. — The preparation and properties of 

 potassium hydride, by M. Henri Moissan. The existence of a 

 a hydride of potassium has been known for some time ; in the 

 present paper an account is given of the difficulties encoun- 

 tered in the preparation of this body in a pure state. Hydrogen 

 acts very slowly at a temperature of 360° C. upon potassium, 

 giving a white crystalline hydride of the formula KH This is 

 instantly decomposed by water, takes fire at the ordinary tem- 

 perature in fluorine, chlorine and in dry oxygen. It possesses 

 very energetic reducing properties, comparable to those of 

 calcium hydride. — On a tumour of the tendon of Achilles, by 

 M. Lannelongue. The changes in this tumour, which was not 

 malignant, were followed by radiography. It was cured with- 

 out treatment in two years, and as an operation was not neces- 

 sary its exact nature remained doubtful. — The stability of a 

 system, for any perturbations, affected by a movement of 

 uniform rotation, by M. P. Duhem. — On the geographical posi- 

 tion of In-Salah, an oasis of the Touatian archipelago in the 

 Central Sahara, by M. G. B. M. Flamand. The latitude and 

 longitude of this point, about which there has been some contro- 

 versy, as well as of five other points, were redetermined by the 

 Tidikelt expedition. — On certain systems of total differential 

 linear equations, by M. Emile Cotton. — On the universal vibra- 

 tions of matter, by M. A. Korn. — On the electrostatic field round 

 an electric current, and on a theorem by Poynting, by M. W. de 

 Nicolaieve. An experimental study the results of which are 

 in exact accord with Poynting's theorem. — The general equa- 

 tions of electrodynamics in conductors and perfect dielectrics at 

 rest, by M. E. Carvallo. An analytical expression and a 

 dynamical interpretation for the two general laws of electro- 

 dynamics given in a previous paper is here deduced and the 

 results compared with those of Maxwell. — A new method for 

 the measurement and recording of high temperatures, by 

 M. Andre Job. An application of the fact that the viscosity of 

 a gas varies rapidly with the temperature. O.xygen gas is 

 evolved at a constant rate from a voltameter and allowed to 

 escape alternately through two capillary tubes, one of which is 

 at a known temperature and the other at the high temperature 

 to be measured. The pressure under which the gas escapes in 

 each case is measured with a manometer, and by a direct com- 

 parison with a Le Chatelier couple it was found that the ratio 

 of the excess of pressure in the two cases is a linear function of 

 the temperature. — On the absolute value of the magnetic 

 elements on January i, 1902, by M. Th. Moureaux. The 

 values given are for the observatory of Val-Joyeux. — The 

 action of copper hydrate upon aqueous solutions of metallic 

 salts, by M. A. Mailhe. The salts studied were the sulphates 

 of cadmium, nickel, cobalt, zinc, manganese, mercury, alu- 

 minium and iron. — On the conden.sation of hydrocarbons of the 

 acetylene series with esters. The synthesis of acetylenic acetones 

 and 3-ketonic ethers, by MM. Ch. Moureu and R. Delange. 

 The reaction between the sodium derivatives of ixnanthyl- 

 acetylene and phenyl-acetylene with ten alkyl esters has been 

 studied. The reaction takes place in two ways ; in some cases 

 the acyl derivative R — CO — C = C — R' is produced, which can 

 be hydrolysed to the 3-diketone R— CO— CH,.— CO— R', in 

 others the )3-ketonic ester is obtained directly. — The utilisation 

 of hexoses by the organism, by MM. Charrin and 

 Brocard. From the point of view of utilisation by the organism, 

 Ixvulose occupies the first place, galactose the second and glycose 

 the third. — The presence of a parasite in the blood of epilep- 

 tics, by M. M. Bra. Three microphotographs of the blood in 

 epileptic patients under different conditions are given. The 

 results appear to show that a microorganism is always present 

 at the approach of and during the attack. This organism is a 

 streptococcus, which would appear to have special morphological 



