March 20, 1902 J 



NA rURE 



479 



D. L. Chapman described some experiments which have been 

 carried out, in conjunction with Mr. F. A. Lidbury, principally 

 for the purpose of discovering whether Faraday's law may be 

 considered as applying to gases. The electric discharge was 

 passed through water vapour, and the separation of oxygen and 

 hydrogen which took place was found to be from two to three 

 times as great as that which occurred in a voltameter placed in 

 the same circuit. The results are, therefore, inconsistent with 

 the view that the phenomenon is essentially electrolytic. 

 • February 25. — Mr. C. Bailey, president, in the chair. — Dr. 

 Henry Wilde, P\K.S., delivered the Wilde lecture, his subject 

 being " The Evolution of the .Mental Faculties in Relation to 

 some Fundamental Principles of Motion."' 



Dublin. 

 Royal Irish Academy, February 24. — Prof. R. Atkinson, 

 president, in the chair. — Prof. F. T. Trouton read for Prof. W. 

 Ramsay, F. R.S. , a paper on the molecular surface energy 

 of some mixtures of liquids. The liquids with which the 

 determinations were made were mixtures of carbon bisulphide 

 and chloroform, ethylene dibromide and chlorobenzene, toluene 

 and acetic acid, ethylene dibromide and acetic acid, ethyl 

 alcohol and benzene, ethyl alcohol and chloroform. Mix- 

 tures in proportions varying by about 10 per cent, each step 

 were prepared and the surface tension determined in each 

 case at several temperatures. From these it was sought to 

 adduce information as to the state of molecular aggrega- 

 tion in the mixtures by calculating the mean molecular 

 weight in each case given by assuming that the relation 

 ■y{y[.v)\ = k-T holds good for mixtures. These determinations 

 are given in the paper in the form of tables. — Prof. John Joly, 

 F. R.S. , read a paper on solvent denudation in fresh water 

 and sea water." The experiments are comparative : on 

 basalt, orthoclase, obsidian and hornblende. It is found that 

 the rate of solvent denudation unaccompanied by attrition in 

 sea water is very much faster than in fresh water, contrary to 

 what is generally inferred from the experiments of Daubree. 



Edinburgh. 

 Royal Society, February 3. — Lord M'Laren in the chair. — 

 Mr. James Russell read a paper on magnetic shielding in hollow 

 iron cylinders, the magnetising force being transverse to the 

 axis of the cylinder. The field within the cylinder was measured 

 inductively by means of a rotating coil in connection with a 

 ballistic galvanometer. Two different iron cylinders were 

 experimented with, and the cylinder could, if desired, be mag- 

 netised circularly by means of a coil wound round it parallel to 

 the generating lines. The general conclusions are as follows : — 

 (i) When no other magnetising force is acting than that due to 

 the transverse field increasing by increments from zero, the 

 shielding ratio diminished by unity is proportional to the ratio 

 permeability (B/H) and not to the differential permeability 

 (rfB/rfH). In descending fields the theoretic conditions are not 

 fulfilled. (2) When a circular magnetising force is acting upon 

 the iron cylinder in addition to that due to the transverse field, 

 the order and manner in which the one field is superposed upon 

 the other affects the shielding ratio to an enormous extent, and 

 the conclusions arrived at are not in harmony with the investi- 

 gations of Stefan and Du Bois (see Ekctrician, vol. xl. p. 654, 

 1898). When the circular magnetisation is superposed upon a 

 pre-existing magnetisation due to the transverse field, the shield- 

 ing ratio diminished by unity is proportional to the differential 

 permeability as impressed upon the iron by the circular field. 

 It attains a maximum for comparatively low values of this field 

 and then falls off towards an asymptotic minimum. When the 

 circular field is applied first, the shielding ratio becomes dis- 

 tinctly reduced in value, and becomes still further reduced if the 

 transverse field is subjected to repeated reversal. On the other 

 hand, repeated reversal of the superposed circular field in- 

 creases the shielding ratio so long as the values of dV,jdW are 

 high. The paper contained many other results of interest. 

 Prof. Schafer, in a note on the existence within the liver cells of 

 channels which can be directly injected from the blood-vessels, 

 referred to the recent work of the Drs. Eraser and Dr. Browicz, 

 and then drew attention to the fact that in one of the slides in 

 the possession of the physiology department of the Edinburgh 

 University the existence of these channels was clearly indicated. 

 The slide was prepared in 1886 for Prof. Rutherford by Dr. 

 'now Prof. ) Carlier, but though Dr. Carlier drew Prof. Ruther- 

 ford's attention to it at the time, no further notice was taken of 



it. — Dr. D. F. Harris, in a paper on fimctional inertia a 

 property of proto-plasni, contended that functional or metabolic 

 inertia is that property of living matter in virtue of which it tends 

 to remain in the functional status quo ante. It is of two kinds, 

 katabolic and anabolic, according as it is katabolism or meta- 

 bolism that persists in spite of stimuli tending to alter the meta- 

 bolic phase. It was shown to express itself under very different 

 categories — biochemical as "latent period," "refractory 

 period "(physiological insusceptibility), as rhythm, or as accom- 

 panied by consciousness. Thus functional inertia is the physio- 

 logical counterpart or antithesis of irritability or affectability. 

 Its recognition as a property of protoplasm enables us to corre- 

 late a very large number of different phenomena of both animal 

 and vegetable life having apparently nothing else in common. — 

 In a paper on functional inertia of plant protoplasm, Mr. R. A. 

 Robertson gave further illustrations of Dr. Harris's views. The 

 phenomena of latent periods in stimulation by gravity, heat, 

 contact, injury, are expressions of the anabolic phase of the 

 inertia ; those of the periods of activity after inhibitory stimu- 

 lation — as when protoplasmic movement is inhibited by high 

 temperature, sunlight, or absence of oxygen, assimilation by 

 cold, desiccation or darkness, growth in length by light, &c. — 

 indicate the katabolic phase of inertia. Functional inertia 

 finds expression in the existence of stimulatory limits, period- 

 icity of growth and movement, and in the phenomena of 

 polarity, and so on. It appears as a physiological insuscepti- 

 bility in photochemical induction and elsewhere. In virtue of 

 it protoplasm can be educated and new characters acquired. 

 Its time value varies from a few seconds to hours and may be 

 artificially extended to days ; its amount may be infinite in 

 respect of a single stimulus of any degree of intensity, but 

 relatively small (as in the case of a dry seed) for a combination 

 of simultaneously acting stimuli. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, March 10. — M. Bouquet de la Grye 

 in the chair. — Preparation and properties of a new hydride of 

 silicon, by MM. H. Moissan and S. Smiles. Magnesium 

 silicide having approximately the composition SiMg., was treated 

 with dilute hydrochloric acid, and the escaping gas, which was 

 spontaneously inflammable and consisted largely of hydrogen, 

 passed through a U-tube cooled down to the temperature of 

 liquid air. A solid substance separated out in the cooled tube, 

 which partially boiled off on allowing the temperature to rise. 

 The volatile portion was found to be ordinary hydrogen silicide, 

 SiHj, the remaining liquid, which boiled at 52° C. , proving to be 

 a new compound of the composition Si.,H,;, analogous to ethane. 

 The most remarkable property of this new compound is that of 

 catching fire spontaneously in the presence of air at the ordinary 

 temperature, and if a small quantity of the liquid is introduced 

 into a large volume of hydrogen, the latter also acquires the 

 property of becoming spontaneously inflammable in air. — The 

 conditions of vegetation of vineyards giving high yields, by 

 M. A. Miintz. By systematic analyses of the soil, manure 

 added, and the amount of sugar produced in the grape, the author 

 has been able to correlate the amounts of nitrogen, phosphoric 

 acid and potash used in the production of one kilogram of 

 alcohol from the fermented grapes. It is found that vines giving 

 high yields require larger amounts of fertilising materials, but 

 that the latter do not increase in proportion to the amounts of 

 sugar elaborated. — On the extension of the theorem of Lagrange 

 to viscous fluids, by M. P. Duhem. — On glycosuria due to 

 asphyxia, by MM. R. Lepine and Boulud. — M. Winogradsky 

 was nominated a correspondant in the section of rural economy 

 in the place of the late M. Demontzey. — Observations of the 

 sun made at the Observatory of Lyons with the Brunner 16 cm. 

 equatorial during the third quarter of 1901, by M. J. Guillaume. 

 The results are expressed in three tables, showing the number of 

 spots, the distribution of the spots in latitude and the distribu- 

 tion of facul.-E in latitude respectively. — A theorem on trigono- 

 metrical .series, by M. H. Lebesgue. — On factorial series, by 

 M. J. C. Kluyver. — On the cohesion of liquids, by MM. Leduc 

 and Sacerdote. A new interpretation is given of an old experi- 

 ment in which the weight required to pull away a plane glass 

 surface from a liquid is regarded as a measure of the cohesion of 

 the liquid. In reality the cohesion of the liquid has nothing 

 to do with the effect. — The electromagnetic theory of the 

 aurora borealis and the variation and perturbations of terrestrial 

 magnetism, by M. Charles Nordmann. It has been shown that 

 there is a close relation between the spectrum of the aurora and 



NO. 1690, VOL. 65] 



