Fan. 6, 1870] 
NATURE 273 
brilliancy ; at this stage the stopcock H is partially closed until 
the maximum amount of light has been secured. The apparatus 
(fig. 3) is very similar to the other. The lamp P is filled with 
alcohol, the wick being round and cut cbliquely, as in fig. 4, 
the extremity of the jet N O being near enough to the wick to 
touch it lightly. The wick M should be almost in contact with 
the pillar A, which is brought about by the screw I (fig. 3). To 
this apparatus there is connected but one india-rubber tube, O O', 
in communication with the oxygen bag. Fig. 4 shows the exact 
position that the jet N O should occupy in relation to the magnesia 
pillar. The enlarging-apparatus is shown in fig. 5. A case of 
t 
polished oak, IJ, surmounted bya chimney, H, with doors at the 
sides, G, furnished with green glass, contains the lamp. The optical 
apparatus is contained in the box E; it is formed of two lenses 
of very white flint glass, of which one is seen at A. These two 
lenses condense the light and transmit it through another lens, 
D.* Between this latter and the lenses, A, is placed the negative 
to be enlarged (held in the frame C). The lenses which condense 
the light are prepared from very translucent flint glass rather than 
crown glass, which latter possesses to a considerable degree the 
power of absorbing chemical yays emitted at a low temperature, 
as is here the case. For further particulars, the reader is referred 
to the Photographic Fournal, No. 212. 
MANCHESTER 
Literary and Philosophical Society, December 14, 1869.— 
J. P. Joule, LL.D., F.R.S., &c., president, in the chair. Sir 
Charles Lyell, Bart., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., &c., and Henry 
Clifton Sorby, F.R.S., F.G.S., were elected honorary members 
of the society. Mr. R. Routledge was elected an ordinary mem- 
ber.—Mr. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., exhibited a stone-hammer 
and rude splinters of flint, brought over by Mr. Bauerman from 
the turquoise mines of the promontory of Sinai. These mines 
* Tn apparatus where the lenses, A, are ten inches in diameter, one of them 
may be removed, and the case, I J, also; then, by adjusting a reflector, it is 
possible to work by sunlight when the same is procurable. 
were worked, according to the evidence of the hieroglyphic in- 
scriptions en the rock, by the Egyptians from the third to the 
thirteenth of the dynasties mentioned by Manetho. The tools 
and flinc flakes found there in and around the workings, exactly 
coincide with the grooves in the rock made in the excavation, 
and evidently have been blunted by such use. There was no 
evidence that metal of any kind was used in the work. Mr. 
Bauerman also satisfied himself that the hieroglyphs were cut 
with implements similar to those used in the mining. This dis- 
covery is very important, because it opens up the question as to 
what tools the Egyptians used in working their wonderful monu- 
ments of granite and syenite. If it were worth their while to 
conduct turquoise mining with flint flakes in the Sinaitic pro- 
montory, and if they used the same tools in the hieroglyphs that 
fix the date of these mines—and of this there can be no reason- 
able doubt—it is very probable that they employed the same 
means for the same end elsewhere, and that, to say the least, a 
part of their marvellously minute sculpture in Fgypt has also 
been wrought with flint.. There is no evidence that they were 
acquainted with the use of steel. Iron and bronze are not hard 
enough for the purpose.— “On the Hades, Throws, Shifts, 
&c., of the Metalliferous Veins of the North of England,” by 
Mr. J. Curry, of Boltsburn, Eastgate, County of Durham. Com- 
municated by E. W. Binney, I°.R.S., F.G.S. The new views, 
contained in this paper, are embraced under the consideration 
that the hades, throws, shifts, &c., may have been chiefly accom- 
plished by peculiar modes of depositing of the sediments, during 
the contemporaneous building of the veins and strata. These 
modes were minutely described and illustrated by diagrams, 
which are requisite to convey a clcar conception of the pro- 
cesses, 
Physical and Mathematical Secticn, December 7, 1869.—E. 
W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., president of the section, in the 
chair, ‘*On the Mean Monthly Temperature at Old Trafford, 
Manchester, 1861 to 1868, and also the Mean for the Twenty 
Years 1849 to 1868,” by G. V. Vernon, F.R.A.S., F.M.S. 
é 
PARIS 
Academy of Sciences, December 27, 1869.—M. H. Sainte- 
Claire Deville called attention to the Annuaire du Bureau des 
Longitudes for 1870, and indicated that it contained a series of 
observations on the densities and co-efficients of dilatations of 
bodies which would render it useful in chemical laboratories. —M. 
C. Sainte-Claire Deville, in presenting a portion of the Lud/lctin 
Météorologique de V Observatoire de Montsouris, noticed the pro- 
gress of that establishment and the steps that are being taken 
for the cultivation of meteorology in France.—General Morin 
made a communication on some successful experiments which 
have been made on the acclimatisation of the Crmchona officinalis 
in the island of Réunion.—An extract from a letter of M. I. 
Pierre to M. Peligot, on the presence of potash and soda in 
various paris of plants, was read, in which the author stated 
that from his investigation of wheat, it appeared that where salt 
exists in the soil, both seda and potash occur in the plants 
grown on it, but that the latter increases in quantity up to the 
ear, whilst the soda is found especially in the lower parts of the 
plant. The amount of potash in different parts of the plant is 
in harmony with the amounts of nitrogen and phosphoric acid.— 
A note by M. S. Cloéz, on the disinfection of commercial sul- 
phide of carbon, was presented. His process consisted in agi- 
tating the crude substance with 4 per cent. of its weight of finely- 
powdered corrosive sublimate, which throws down a semifluid 
compound of disagreeable odour. The supernatant liquid is 
then decanted and distilled. —Some chemical researches on 
copper, by Mr, T. Sterry Hunt, were communicated. The author 
referred to the resemblances existing between perchloride of 
silver and protochloride of copper, which also extend to the 
oxides. He described the behaviour of protoxide of copper with 
various chlorides, especially those of magnesium and iron, and 
also that of peroxide of copper with protochloride of iron.—M. 
Daubrée presented a note by M. Terreil on the medifications 
undergone by minerals by the action of saline solutions. It 
related to the action of the alkaline monosulphides upon the 
natural metallic sulphides, selenides, and tellurides, singly or in 
combination.—A note by M. J. Personne, on the preparation 
and properties of hydrate of chloral, was read. The author 
described the differences in the physical properties of the sub- 
stances obtained by himself and M. Roussin as hydrate of 
| chloral, and indicated that these are due to the fact that the 
