i8 



NATURE 



[May 2,1872 



propionate and formiate, and subsequent treatment with sodium 

 amalgam. Tiie normal alcoliol was convened into isopropyl 

 alcohol by preparing from it the iodide, and from this the cyanide, 

 which by treatment with potash yields propylamine. Propylamine 

 hydrochloride on heating with argentic nitrate and water yields 

 isopropyl alcohol, having the characteristic properties and reac- 

 tions of this body. — Hugo .Schiff follows "On the constitution 

 of Lfsculin ; " this is an important theoretical paper. — Quinke 

 contributes the second part of his memoir, " On a new class 

 of aromatic hydrocarbons." By the action of benzyl chloride on 

 toluol, benzyl toluol CuHj^ is formed v/ith elimination of hydro- 

 chloric acid. By o.\idation, this hydrocarbon yields benzylben- 

 zoic acid CijHuO.^ ; this by the action of nascent hydrogen 

 yields benzhydrylbenzoic acid Cj^Hj.jO., ; and by the treatment 

 with hydriodic acid the latter'yields benzylbenzoic acid Ci,,Hi.,0„. 

 — Translations of two papers, which have already appeared in the 

 French journals, and also a paper by Maly, complete this number. 



The yoiinia! of the Franklin Instilntc for February, after 

 the usual editorial paragraphs descriptive of novelties, has an 

 article by Prof. H. B. Thurston, on Experimental Steam Boiler 

 Explosions, conlaining a report of a series of experiments under- 

 taken by a committee of the Institute, in conjunction with several 

 railway engineers, for the purpose of testing the conditions under 

 which steam boilers explode — Mr. F. A. Genth continues his 

 paper on the i\Iineral Resources of North Carolina ; and Mr. J. 

 P. Cooke his Chemical Theory of the Voltaic Battery, the por- 

 tion in the present number being devoted to Electricity. — Prof. 

 P. E. Chase gives a Table of Cyclical Rainfalls at Lisbon, in 

 support of the theory already advanced by him of the lunar 

 influence on the weather. The other papers in this number are 

 mostly of a purely mathematical character. 



The first original article in the number for March is chiefly of 

 local interest — " The Locomotive Engine, and Philadelphia's share 

 in its Early Improvements," by J. Harrison, jun.,'the last recipient 

 of the Rumford Gold Medal. — Mr. James Emerson gives a Re- 

 port of Water-wheel Tests at Lowell and other places, illustrated 

 with plates. — In another paper on Experimental Steam Boiler 

 Explosions, Prof. Thurston discusses the third experiment at 

 Sandy Hook, New York. — Mr. Joseph S. Smith describes the 

 construction of the Keokak and Hamilton Bridge across the 

 Mississippi, connecting the States of Iowa and Illinois. — Dr. 

 Richard Owen, of the Indiana State University, details a series 

 of experiments on Terrestrial Magnetism. — Prof. R. E. Chase 

 gives tables of the Monthly Rainfall at San Francisco. 



The first article in the AmcriaDt Journal of Science and Arts 

 for March is a most interesting account, by Prof. Hayden, of the 

 Hot Springs and Geysers of the Yellowstone and Firehole 

 rivers, accompanied by illustrations and maps. The description 

 of these geysers, which throw those of Iceland completely into 

 the shade, will not bear epitomising, but is well worth reading as 

 a whole. — Two other geological articles are by Prof. Dana, on 

 the Quartzite of the Green Mountains, and by Prof. Silliman, 

 Geological and Mineralogical Notes on some of the mining dis- 

 tricts of Utah territory. — Prof. A. E. Verril contributes two in- 

 stalments of his contributions to zoology, from the Museum of 

 Yale College, on the affinities of Palajozoic Tabulate Corals with 

 existing species, and recent additions to the moUuscan fauna of 

 New England. — The other article of greatest interest is by Prof. 

 H. A. Nicholson of Toronto, on the genera CornuUtes and 

 Tentactilitcs, and on a new genus Coiichicolitcs. 



The Quarterly Journal of Science for April commences with 

 an article by Mr. R. A. Proctor on Meteoric Astronomy. In 

 reference to the researches of Signor Schiaparelli, he gives an 

 account of the meteoric systems through which the earth passes 

 in August and November, and seeks in meteoric phenomena and 

 the associated phenomena of comets the explanation of some of 

 the features presented by the solar corona. The zodiacal light 

 he explains also on the theory of its being the outer portion of 

 the sun-surrounding meleor families. — Mr. James Douglas, of 

 Quebec, gives a description of the copper mines of Chili, and of 

 the geological and mineralogical features of the country where 

 they occur. — An arliLleon Natural and Artificial Flight describes 

 the results arrived at by Dr. Pettigiew in the case of the flight 

 of birds and insects, and consists to a large extent of extracts 

 from that gentleman's memoirs contributed to the Transactions 

 of the Linnean Society and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.— 

 Mr. William Toplev, in an article on the Geology of the Straits 

 of Dover, illustrated by sections, advocates the project proposed 

 by Hawkshaw and Low of a submarine tunnel, to run from near 



the South Foreland to a point between Sangatte and Calais, 

 which he believes will pass entirely through the chalk, and will 

 not be likely to be attended by any insuperable engineering 

 difficulties. — An article on the Gold Coinage, and a short one by 

 Captain Oliver on Recent Changes in British Artillery Material, 

 complete the original portion of the number. — Only four books 

 are reviewed this quarter, and more than half the space allotted 

 to reviews is occupied by a notice, by Mr. A. R. Wallace, of 

 Mr. Dale Owen's " The Debatable Land between this World 

 and the Next," in which the reasonableness of the alleged 

 phenomena of modem Spiritualism is advocated. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 



Royal Society, April 25. — "On a supposed Periodicity 

 in the Elements of Terrestrial Magnetism, with a period of 26; 

 days." By George Biddell Airy, Astronomer Royal, P.R.S. 



In a paper published in the "Proceedings of the Imperial 

 Academy of Sciences of Vienna," vol. Ixiv., Dr. Karl Herns- 

 tein has exhibited the results of a series of observations which 

 appeared to show that the earth's magnetism undergoes a peri- 

 odical change in successive periods of 26V days, which might 

 with great plausibility be referred to the rotation of the sun. 



It appeared to the author that the deductions from the magnetic 

 oqservations made at the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, and 

 which are printed annually in the "Greenwich Observations," 

 or in the detached copies of " Results of Magnetical and Meteoro- 

 logical Observations made at the Royal Observatory of Green- 

 wich," would afford good materials for testing the accuracy of 

 this law, as applicable to a series of years. 



The mean for declination in 1S70, and, still more remarkably, 

 the mean for horizontal force in 1870, appear to exhibit an in- 

 crease about the fourteenth day. But the author does not remark 

 in the other means, either as given in numerals or as projected 

 as curves, anything to support the idea of an ine([ualily periodical 

 in the 26J days. It might almost be suspected that the secular 

 changes used in the period 1S50-1852 are too large ; but no 

 alteration of these renders the inequality of 25J days more 

 probable. Dr. Hornstein's investigation was limited to observa- 

 tions made in 1870. 



Royal Geographical Society, April 22.— General Sir 

 Henry C. Rawlinson, K.C. B., president, in the chair. "On 

 Recent Explorations of the North Polar Region, by Captain 

 Sherard Osborn, R. N. Captain Osborn commenced by alluding 

 to his advocacy of a Polar Expedition -ra Smith Sound, in 1865, 

 and stated that the Duke of Somerset, then First Lord of the 

 Admiralty, though apparently sufficiently favourable to the 

 general proposal of a Government Expedition, urged upon him 

 by a deputation from the Society who waited on him in that year, 

 declined to assume the responsibility of recommending an ex- 

 pedition, owing to the difference of opinion which then reigned 

 with regard to the best route to be followed. The alternate route 

 to Smith Sound was that by the seas of Spitzbergen, advocated 

 by Dr. Petermann and others, on the ground that the Gulf 

 Stream, flowing in that direction, maintained an open sea to the 

 Pole. lie (Captain Osborn) and the promoters of the Expedition 

 were content to wait the result of efforts made soon after by the 

 Swedes and Germans to carry out the views of the German 

 geographer. Seven years had elapsed, and we were now in a 

 position to say that the advocates of the Spitzbergen route had 

 been proved entirely wrong, whilst those who believed Smith 

 Sound to be the best route were right. Captain Kolicway, who 

 commanded both the German Expeditions, slates, as the result 

 of all his efforts, that " one can hardly resist the conviction that 

 the hope of attaining the North Pole by ship, or of finding an 

 open sea around the Pole, are alike among the most improbable 

 of things. I confess that I myself was misled by representations 

 in Dr. Petermann's ' Geographische Mittheilungen,' and held it 

 to be at least possible by following a line of coast to penetrate 

 by ship far into the central Arctic region, and then certainly to 

 make one's way to the Pole. A winter in East Greenland, the 

 most careful observation of these mighty masses of ice, their 

 movements and formation, and of the whole condition of tem- 

 perature, have radically cured me and all my companions of this 

 idea. ... If the principal object be the nearest possible ap- 

 proach to the Pole, I am quite of Osborn's opinion that the best 

 way appears to be through Smith Sound. Here one can pene- 

 trate by ship every year to the ySth parallel, and then one has a 



\ 



