Feb. lo, 1S87] 



NATURE 



i59 



Brolhers, Francis J. H. Coutts, Tamemasa Haga, Henry John 

 Hardy, Michitada Kawakita, Walter Leach, Stephen Jame5 

 Pentecost, Henry Joshua Phillips, P. Veshwant Sheshailri, 

 Tetsukichi Shimiclzu, Joseph Staplcton, Willi .m Phillips Thom- 

 son, Hikorokuro Voshiila. — The following papers were read : — 

 Researches on the constitution of azo- and diazo-derivatives ; (i) 

 Diazoamidocompounds, by R. Mcldola, F.R.S., and F. W. 

 Streatfeild. — The inlliience of silicon on the properties of iron 

 and steel, part I, by Thomas Turner. — -The distribution of nitri- 

 fying organisms in the soil, by R. Warington, F. R. S. — Isomeric 

 change in the phenol series ; the action of bromine on the di- 

 bromonitrophenoU, by A. R. Ling. — Some azines, by Francis 

 R. Japp, F. R. S., and Cosmo Innes Burton. 



January 20. — Dr. Hugo Midler, F'.R.S., President, in the 

 chair. — The following papers were read: — Some silicon com- 

 pounds and their derivatives, by J. Emerson Reynolds, M.D., 

 F.R.S. — Chromo-organic acids ; 'part I, certain chromoxalates, 

 by Emil A. Werner. — Note on the constitution of the double 

 chromic oxalates, by W. N. Hartley, P". R.S. — Remarks on 

 recent papers by \. B.aeyer and J. Thomsen on the constitution 

 of benzene, by .\lex. K. Miller, Ph.D. 



I I Royal Microscopical Society, Januaiy 12. — Rev. Dr 

 Dallinger, F.R.S. , President, in the chair. — Nlr. J. Mayall, Jun., 

 directed the attention of the meeting to eleven photo-micrograi)hs 

 sent by Dr. van Heurck, and which the latter thought showed 

 results of exceptional merit. The one of A, pcllucida by trans- 

 mitted light was rather striking ; it showed apparently two 

 series of lines which were resolved into dots, and, so far as he 

 was aware, this was the best of the kind which he had yet seen. 

 But Dr. van Heurck did not say whether it was taken from a 

 specimen mounted in a dense medium or not, and he thought 

 also that several important questi )ns of technique were omitted 

 which it would have been very useful to have had mentioned. 

 In the pamphlet which accompanied the photographs. Dr. 

 Royston-Pigott was quoted to the effect that they were quite free 

 from what used to be called "diffraction-spectra," which now 

 here have no existence whatever ; but on examination, unless he 

 was much mistaken, they had been painted out, or otherwise 

 blotted out, from the negative, so that Dr. Royston-Pigott, in his 

 remarks upon this supposed fact, had made what the French 

 called a bouUllc. If it was desired to give each photograph a 

 real value, '.he background should not be interfered with, and 

 each impression should have the particulars as to magnification, 

 mounting, and other data for identifying the object, the posses- 

 sion of which was essential in order to form any reliable opinion. 

 As regards the longitudinal lines of A. pdhicidx, as shown in 

 the untouched negatives of these photographs. Dr. van Heurck 

 said he had submitted them to Prof. Abbe, who replied that, as 

 they appeared closer than the diftVaction-lines, that was a satis- 

 factory deuionstratic n of their existence in the object. As to the 

 photograph of P. aii^iilaliim, in which a central spot was shown, 

 all who were familiar with the object were aware that they could 

 get the appearance of a central spot or not, according to how 

 they looked at it : it was a (piestion of change of focus. 

 Surirella gtrnma, he thought, was not better shown than 

 in Dr. Woodward's photographs. Then there were photo- 

 graphs of Nobert's lines, whicli were sai<l to be of the 

 l8th and 19th bands ; but here again there was nothing to 

 enable one to identify them or to say that they were not the 14th 

 and 15th bands. — Mr. M. Pillischer exhibited his new "-Kosmos" 

 microscope. — Mr. T. Charters White read a note on tartar 

 from teeth of the Stone Age. — Mr. Crisp exhibited a cylinder 

 fif glass, which, though it had plane ends, acted as a concave 

 lens, and solved some of the questions which had been raised as 

 to the images formed in insects' eyes. He also explained Prof. 

 Exner's method of preparing similar cylinders from celloidin and 

 gelatine, when the efTect of convex lenses was obtained. — Mr. 

 Crisp directed the attention of the meeting to the figures of 

 enormous microscopes in Schott's " Magia Naturalis," 1657. 

 These had long i^uzzled microscopists, who were at a loss to 

 understand what could be the object in making microscopes of 

 the lai^e size which was indicated by the comparison with the 

 observers as looking through them. In Traber's " Nervus 

 Opticus," what was undoubtedly meant for drawings of the same 

 microscopes, the mystery was solved, for if Schott's figures were 

 nibbed out, and single eyes were substituted for them, as Traber 

 did in his drawings, the scale of the microscope represented 

 was, of course, strikingly altered, and it was seen that they 

 were small hand microscopes after all. — Mr. J. Medland ex- 

 hibited and described his portable cabinet for microscopic slides. 



— Mr. Crisp exhibited .Stein's electric microscope. — Mr. A. W. 

 Bennett gave a risiioiioi his paper on freshwater Algae (including 

 chlorophyllaceous Protophytaof North Cornwall), with descrip- 

 tions of six new species, illustrated by coloured diagrams. — Mr. 

 J. Mayall, Jun., gave a very interesting account of a recent visit 

 to Jena, where he had been afforded every facility for examining 

 all the processes of manufacture as carried out in the factories of 

 Dr. Zeiss. He also described his interviews with Prof. Abbe, 

 and the way in which they had together tested numerous objec- 

 tives which he had taken for the purpose. — Dr. A. C. Stokes's 

 paper, on some new American freshwater Infusoria, was read. — 

 The nominations for the new Council were read, and auditors 

 appointed. 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, January 31. — M. Gosselin, Presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — On the coinmensurability of the mean 

 movements in the solar system, by M. F. Tisserand. The 

 object of this paper is to throw some light on the delicate ques- 

 tion, how far exact commensurability is compatible with the 

 stability of two or more bodies revolving round a common 

 centre, as maintained by Gauss, and more recently by Gylden 

 and llarzer, and denied by W. Meyer in his memoir jn "The 

 System of Saturn," Geneva, 1S84. — Metals and minerals from 

 ancient Chaldaia : on the sources of tin in the Old World, by 

 M. Eerthelot. The analysis of certain metallic remains from the 

 Palace of Sargon at Khorsabad and from Tello in Babylonia, 

 combined with recent reports of tin mines now being worked in 

 various parts of Khorassan, ^uggests the question whether tin 

 may not have been derived from that region by the Assyrians 

 and Chaldajans long before its arrival from the more remote 

 Sunda Islands and Malay Peninsula in the East, or from Corn- 

 wall and one or two other parts of Europe in tlie West. — Ex- 

 periments on the effects of transfusions of blood in the head of 

 decapitated animals, by MM. G. Hayem and G. Barrier. The 

 results are described of experiments on the head of dogs imme- 

 diately, and some time after separation from the trunk, such as 

 those studied some thirty years ago by M. Brown-Sequard, but 

 not since renewed by physiologists. The authors conclude 

 generally that the extinction of feeling and will is extremely 

 rapid, if not instantaneous, after decapitation ; that conscious 

 life may be sustained by the imme liate injection of arterial 

 blood from any animal of the same, or even of a different species ; 

 and that such transfusion, made after some minutes' delay, may 

 stimulate certain automatic and multiple reflex movements, but 

 is powerless to re- awaken either sense or will. — Observations of 

 the new comets of Brooks and Barnard, made at the Paris 

 Observatory (equatorial of the West Tower), by M. G. Bigour- 

 dan. — Observations of the same comet> made at the Observatory 

 of Bordeaux with the 0'38 m. equatorial, by M.\I. G. Rayet and 

 Courty. — On a method for determining the constant of aberra- 

 tion, by M. J. C. Houzeau. The author points out that the 

 fundamental principle of this method, as recently submitted to 

 the -Academy by M. Lcewy, had already been indicated by him 

 in a paper on the study of the movements of the stars, pub- 

 lished in 1871, in vol. xxxviii. of the Memoires of the Belgian 

 Academy. — On the mean periodicity of the spots in Jupiter, by 

 Dom Lamey. By a careful study of older maps of this planet 

 (which is still in a state of incandescence analogous to that of 

 the sun), combined with more recent observations at the Obser- 

 vatory of Grigiion, the author deduces a mean peri dicity of 

 5-43 ± 0-07 years for its spots. — On the theory of algebraic forms 

 with /* variables, by M. K. rPerrin.— Researches on the trans- 

 mission of electricity of feeble tension through the medium of 

 hot air, by M. R. Blondlot. This is a summary of the author's 

 researches on the transmission of an electric current through 

 heated air, which form the subject of a memoir presented by 

 him to the Academy. It is shown that hot air has, properly 

 speaking, no resisting power, and he feels inclined to attribute 

 the phenomenon to the principle of c-incctioii, as described by 

 Faraday. — On the -variable period of the currents in the case of 

 circuits containing an electro-magnet, by M. Leduc. — On a halo 

 accompanied by parhelia, observed at Fontainebleau on January 

 28, by M. A. Bouisson. This phenomenon, observed hetween 

 9. 30 and 10 a. m, , presented the appearance of a luminous circle, 

 with a radius of about 23°, concentric with the sun, passing from a 

 light brown in the centre to a greyish-ydlow on the periphery. 

 A ^econd luminous circle, concentric with the preceding, with a 

 radius of about 47°, showed in its upper segment the colours of 

 the rainbow, red on the inner side. Tangential to both circles 

 were vividly coloured arcs, the brilliancy of the latter decreasing 



