94 

NATURE 
{Dec 1, 1870 


evaporated to get rid of the gypsum, and afterwards further 
evaporated in vacuum pans, and run into barrels ready for 
crystallisation. 
MATERIAL changes are officially reported from the Bay of 
Talcahuano, in Chile, which was surveyed by Captain Fitzroy. 
The commander of the Chilean war steamer Avcud now reports 
that the water throughout the entire extent of the bay has 
increased from two to two-and-a-half fathoms. This represents 
great geological change. The rock Fraile, in the Gulf of 
Arauco, represented on Fitzroy’s chart asa sunken rock, is now, 
however, a small island united to the mainland, opposite to the 
western bank of the river Tubul, and has rather the shape of a 
quadrangular pyramid. 
THE Zimes of India states that the coal-beds discovered in 
Bellary are excellent in quality and abundant in quantity, Great 
anxiety is felt for Dr. Oldham, who said he would eat all the 
coal found in the Madras Presidency, for the doctor is a man of 
honour. 
From a considerable number of observations on the tem- 
peratures of the two sides of the body, Mr. Blake draws the 
following conclusions, which are recorded in the AZedical Times 
and Gazette of October 8, 1870 :—1. That the temperature of 
the sides of the trunk under usual circumstances, 7.¢. in health 
and at rest in a temperate climate, is equal. 2. That under 
certain conditions the temperature of the left side of the trunk 
may exceed that of the right. 3. That that excess during ex- 
ertion in a cool atmosphere averages half adegree F, 4. That 
that excess reaches its maximum of about one degree F, during 
exertion under a powerful sun. 


THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF 
DEER* 
a his excellent “ Geographische Mittheilungen,” Dr. 
Petermann has lately given us several zo0-geographical 
articles, as we may call them—such as those of Dr. Finsch 
on the distribution of Parrots, and of Freiherr von 
Heuglin on the Bird-fauna of North-eastern Africa. Both 
of these memoirs are the products of the highest authorities 
on the subjects to which they respectively relate, and de- 
serve our warmest commendation. We cannot, however, 
say so much as to the merit of the paper upon the Geo- 
graphical Distribution of Deer, which appears in a re- 
cent number of Dr. Petermann’s journal. The authors 
of this memoir, which, if properly treated, is on a subject 
of very great interest, have, we fear, commenced to in- 
dulge in “generals” before having sufficiently got up their 
“particulars.” In the first part of their essay they point 
out the present distribution of the different genera and 
species of Cevvid@ over the world’s surface, and endeavour 
to show how they have descended from a common ances- 
tral form. This form they imagine must have been the 
Moschide, upon the ground that in order to obtain a deer 
with horns we must pre-suppose the existence of a deer 
without horns, and the J/oschtde answer this definition. 
Unfortunately, however, the authors have not yet dis- 
covered that their so-called group AZoschid@ is composed 
of two forms of animal life that have very little to do with 
one another. It has been shown most conclusively by the 
researches of M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards+ in Paris, and 
Prof. Flower in our own country,t that the Chevrotains 
(Tragulus and Hyomoschus), one of the constituents of 
* * Die Geographische Verbreit ung der Hirsche mit bezug auf die Geschichte 
der Polar-linder.” Von Gustav Jaeger und Emil Bessels. (Petermann's 
Geographische Mittheilungen, 1870.) 
+ ‘Recherches Anatomiqueset Palzontologiques sur la famille des Chev- 
rotains,” Paris, 1864. 
t “Notes on the Visceral Anatomy of Hyomoschus aquetocus.” 
Zool. Soc., 1867. 
Proc. 

the Moschide of MM. Jaeger and Bessels, constitute a 
family er se, quite distinct from the rest of the ruminants, 
and connecting them with the pigs, and consequently 
quite distinct from the musk-deer (M¥oschus). In the 
same way our authors base certain arguments upon the 
fact of all the typical deer being spotted in the immature 
state. But, as Dr. Jaeger at least—having been, if we are 
not misinformed, custos of a zoological garden—ought to 
know, this is not quite the case, all the Awszze deer having 
their young spotless. Again, arguments are founded upon 
Cervus pudu of Chili living in the Cordilleras, and the 
other allied species with simple unbranched horns in the 
plains of South America. But exactly the contrary is the 
case. Cervus pudu is from the low maritime coast of 
Chili, and one, if not more, of the so-called “ Subulones” 
(C. rufius) lives high in the Andes of Venezuela and 
New Granada. From these and other similar instances 
of erroneous statements which it would be easy to point 
out, it is,in fact, quite obvious that the authors of this 
essay have no very special acquaintance with the group 
upon the distribution of which they treat. We leave it to 
naturalists to decide whether, under these circumstances, 
the results arrived at are worthy of much attention. Their 
theory seems to be that the deer-family reached the New 
World by an Arctic continent which formerly connected 
northern Europe with eastern America, and which Dr, 
Jaeger, in a former paper, has proposed to call “Arctis.” 
There are, however, if we are not mistaken, equally good 
grounds for believing that the numerous, undoubtedly 
Old-world forms in North America reached it by immi- 
gration from North-western Asia. 
HENDERSON’S PATENT STEEL PROCESS 
"Eee articles written by Mr. W. Mattieu Williams, 
called ‘‘ Papers on Iron and Steel—A Costly and 
Vexatious Fallacy,” were published a short time since in 
NATURE. These papers are considered in this country to 
be the clearest and ablest that have ever appeared on 
this subject, setting forth the reason why all efforts here- 
tofore made to produce steel from English cast-iron by 
partial decarbonisation have failed ; that all manipula- 
tions have been directed to removing as much as possible 
the -impurities contained in pig iron by oxidation. He 
was not aware that new agents have been used, combined 
with oxygen, and that patents had been granted therefor 
in England, Nos. 318, 1,051, A.D. 1870 (which were not 
then published) for combining fluorine with oxygen, and 
fluorine combined with titanic acid, or with titanium and 
oxygen. 
‘The new patent process for the production of steel by 
the partial decarbonisation of cast-iron consists in the 
combined use of fluorspar or other fluorides and titanic 
acid, applied to cast-iron at the melting temperatures, pre- 
ferably in reverberatory furnaces. Fluorine is given off 
from the fluorspar, and is a more powerful agent for the 
removal of silicon than oxygen, and removes it almost en- 
tirely from the cast-iron before the reactions with the car- 
bon begin ; the phosphorus and sulphur are next acted 
upon and removed in the order they are named by means 
of the combined action of fluorine and titanic acid or 
fluorine, titanium, and oxygen, and lastly the carbon is re- 
moved. The fluorine is derived from fluorspar combined 
with iron ores containing titanic acid in such wise as 
ensures simultaneous action of the fluorine, titanium, and 
oxygen upon the cast-iron; and by reason of the affinities 
of these substances for silicon, phosphorus, sulphur, man- 
ganese, arsenic and carbon, these substances are taken from 
the iron in the form of vapour and slag, leaving the puri- 
fied metal in the condition to be hammered or rolled as 
merchantable steel. 
English pig-iron may be made direct into steel by the 
new process ; and with the large class of irons smelted 
from hzematites and specular ores with good fuel, pure 
. 
