JUNE I0, 1915] 
NATURE 
417 

of a considerable proportion of acidic (phenolic) oil. 
This material was redistilled and divided into three 
main fractions. The first fraction (b. p. 100-200°), 
when emulsified with gum acacia and compared with 
carbolic acid in regard to its germicidal action on 
Bacillus typhosus, gave a carbolic acid coefficient of 
7. The second fraction (b. .p. 200-250°), under 
similar conditions, gave a carbolic acid coefficient of 
17, whereas the third fraction (b. p. 250-360°) gave a 
coefficient of 31. The phenolic substances present 
in these fractions couple readily with p-nitrodiazonium 
salts, forming dark red azo-derivatives, and they also 
give distinctive colorations with a 4-triazo-3 :5-di- 
methylpyrazole, a reagent which has been found to 
furnish characteristic colours with aromatic hydroxy- 
derivatives (Morgan and Reilly, Trans. Chem. Soc., 
1914, vol. cv., 442). These tests indicate that phenol 
oils’ immediate homologues, the cresols, are con- 
centrated in the fraction of lowest germicidal power, 
and that the active substances present in the two 
higher fractions are evidently more complex sub- 
stituted compounds of phenolic character.—Prof. Wm. 
- Brown: The subsidence of torsional oscillations and 
fatigue of nickel wires when they are subjected to 
the influence of alternating magnetic fields of 
frequencies up to 250 per second. The fatigue of 
nickel wire is increased as the rigidity is increased, 
and for a wire of given rigidity the maximum fatigue 
is not increased beyond a certain value when the 
frequency of the applied alternating magnetic field is 
increased nearly three times, but the fatigue takes 
place in a shorter period of time. In soft nickel wire 
there is a great difference in the subsidence of 
torsional oscillations due to the application of a 
longitudinal magnetic field and an equivalent alternat- 
ing magnetic field, but the difference is small when 
alternating magnetic fields of frequencies 50 and 250 
per second are applied.—Louis B, Smyth: On the 
faunal zones of the Rush-Skerries Carboniferous Sec- 
tion, Co. Dublin. This coast section was described 
and zoned by Matley and Vaughan in two papers 
(Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1906 and 1908). Owing to 
the scanty and poor material collected, certain parts 
of the exposure were only tentatively assigned to 
zones. Further collection has now cleared up their 
position as follows :—Rush slates (lower) Z,, Rush 
slates (upper) and Rush conglomerate (lower) C,, 
Rush conglomerate (upper) C,, Carlyan and Kate 
limestones CS (a confirmation, in the main, of the 
former correlation). Lane limestone C,, Lane con- 
glomerate C,, Holmpatrick limestone CS (all three 
previously placed in ‘“‘? D of unknown position ”’). 
The Holmpatrick limestone is found to have a fauna 
closely resembling that of CS beds at Arnside, West- 
morland. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, May 31.—M. Ed. Perrier in the 
chair.—J. Boussinesq: The problem of the cooling of 
the earth’s crust considered according to the method 
and ideas of Fourier.—Maurice Hamy: A _ reduction 
formula for prismatic spectra. Starting with the result 
of M. Salet that any wave-length A can be expressed 
with a high degree of approximation by the formula 
A—X,=h tan k(l—I,), in which A,,1,, h, k are constants 
and 1 is the reading of the micrometer screw of the 
‘dividing engine used in measuring the photograph of 
the spectrum. A simplified expression for as a func- 
tion of 1 is given, as precise as that of M. Salet, but 
much less laborious.—J. Guillaume: Observations of 
the sun made at the observatory of Lyons during the 
first quarter of 1915. Observations were made on fifty- 
eight days, and tables are given of the results, showing 
the number of spots, their distribution in latitude, and 
NO. 2380, VOL. 95] 


the distribution of the faculee in latitude.—Arnaud 
Denjoy: The descriptive theory of numbers derived 
from a continuous function.—M,. Glagolev: The spec- 
trum of the homogeneous secondary X-rays.—A. 
Leduc: Remarks on the proportion of oxygen in the 
atmosphere, according to MM. Guye and Germann. 
The author considers that 20-8 per cent. of oxygen 
found at Geneva is too low.—A. Boutaric ; The velocity 
of reduction of potassium permanganate by oxalic acid. 
The reaction has been studied by a spectrophotometric 
method based on the absorption by the permanganate. 
Under the conditions of these experiments the logarith- 
mic law does not hold true; the velocity of the reaction 
is not proportional to the quantity of permanganate 
existing in the solution.—Ph. Flajolet ; Perturbations 
of the magnetic declination at Lyons (Saint Genis 
Laval) during the first quarter of 1915.—M. Salet : The 
law of dispersion of prismatic spectra. The measure- 
ment 1 of the distance of a line is related to the wave- 
length A by the relation A=a tan (bl+c)+d. The differ- 
ences between the calculated and measured values of 
l are of the same order as the experimental error 
(0-002 mm.).—J. Wolff and Mlle. Nadia Rouchelmann : 
Oxidation and reduction phenomena in the chromogens 
of plants.—Ch. J. Gravier : Phenomena of replacement 
after mutilation of corals from great submarine depths. 
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