July 31, 1913J 



NATURE 



575 



Dixon. — Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter, professor of 

 metallurgy in the Victoria University ot Manchester, 

 has been appointed to the chair of metallurgy in the 

 Royal School of Mines. Mr. S. J. Truscott has been 

 appointed assistant professor of mining. These 

 changes form part of a complete scheme of staff and 

 curriculum reorganisation in the Royal School of 

 Mines now being carried out. The work of the school 

 will be transferred in October to the commodious pile 

 of buildings now approaching completion in Prince 

 Consort Road, South Kensington. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy oi Sciences, July 21. — M. F. Guyon in the 

 chair. — B. Baillaud, as president of the Bureau des 

 Longitudes, presented the results obtained by the 

 French committee charged with the execution of the 

 preliminary operations relating to the measurement 

 by wireless telegraphy of the difference of longitude 

 between Paris and Washington, made under the direc- 

 tion of MM. Renaud and Bourgeois. The preliminary 

 results include the determination of the time of trans- 

 mission of the signals between the Eiffel Tower and 

 Arlington (6175 kilometres), 0-0315 second, and the 

 differences of longitude and colatitudes observed by the 

 observers attached to the French Navy and Army 

 independently. The signals emitted by Paris were 

 received at Arlington with a sufficient intensity to be 

 registered photographically. — J. Boussinesq : A new- 

 demonstration of the formula of surface potential 

 energy in perfect liquids. — Armand Gautier and ' P. 

 Clausmann : A remarkable condition of the attack of 

 quartz by gaseous hydrofluoric acid. It had been 

 noticed in some work on the determination of fluorine 

 that quartz was scarcely attacked by quantities of 

 hydrofluoric acid a hundred times greater than the 

 amount giving a good etching on glass. It has now 

 been found that the position of the surface of quartz 

 under attack by the acid with respect to the axis of 

 the crystal causes large variation in the amount of 

 corrosion produced. .Taking the attack of glass as 

 1000, that of fused quartz is about too; quartz cut 

 parallel to the axis is 11, cut perpendicular to the axis 

 about 1. — A. Haller : The production of tetra-alkyl 

 derivaties of the o or i-methylcydohexanone. — G. 

 Gouy : The conditions of equilibrium of the solar atmo- 

 sphere with respect to the repulsive force of radiation. 

 — Magnus de Sparre was elected a correspondant of 

 the academy for the section of mechanics in the place 

 of M. Bazin, elected non-resident member. — Rene 

 Baillaud : A new method of determining the horizontal 

 flexure of meridian instruments. — M. Fessenkoff : 

 Photometric observations on the zodiacal light. — F. S. 

 Zarlatti : Some singular integral equations. — J. A. Le 

 Bel : The catathermic radiation. — V. Schaffers : Elec- 

 trical conduction in cylindrical fields under atmospheric 

 pressure. — MM. Massol and Faucon : Absorption of the 

 ultra-violet radiations by some organic colouring 

 matters in aqueous solution. — H. Gaudechon : The rela- 

 tion between the thermal effect accompanying the 

 immersion of dry powders in liquids and the aptitude 

 of the latter to form associated molecules. Dried clay, 

 starch, silica, and charcoal on addition to water or 

 various organic liquids give off a certain amount of 

 heat. This has been determined, and it is shown that 

 with normal, non-associated liquids the temperature 

 rise is very small ; with associated liquids the heat 

 evolution is greater. — Gabriel Bertrand and G. Weis- 

 wciller : The composition of coffee extract : the pre- 

 sence of pyridine. Amongst the products of coffee 

 infusion to which the aroma is due pyridine has been 

 found, and in a proportion greater than any other 

 solatile constituent. The possibility of this base play- 



NO. 2283, VOL. gi] 



ing an appreciable part in the physiological action of 

 coffee is discussed. — A. Damiens : Study of the action 

 of water on the carbides of the rare earths. The 

 carbides of cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, praseo- 

 dymium, and samarium were studied, the hydro- 

 carbons being analysed by the method recently de- 

 scribed by Lebeau and Damiens. The primary re- 

 action between the water and carbide is — 



C.M + 3H a O = M(OH) 3 + C.H 3 +H 3 . 

 Ethylene and ethane are formed by the interaction of 

 some of the hydrogen and acetylene, but no trace of 

 methane is found. — J. Clarens ; the spontaneous trans- 

 formation of hypochlorites into chlorates and of hypo- 

 bromites into bromates. — A. Mailhe : The catalytic pre- 

 paration of the ketones with oxide of iron. At tem- 

 peratures between 430 and 490° C. in pre- 

 sence of oxide of iron vapours of the fatty 

 acids are catalytically converted into ketones, 

 carbon dioxide and hydrogen being simultaneously 

 evolved. Mixtures of benzoic acid with fatty acids 

 give good yields of the mixed ketones. The worst 

 yields were obtained with isovaleric and isobutyric 

 acids. — H. Giran : Researches on sulphuric acid and 

 sulphuric anhydride. — Paul Lebeau and Marius Picon : 

 The action of sodammonium on phenylacetylene and 

 styrolene. The reaction differs from that recently 

 proved for acetylenic hydrocarbons of the fatty series, 

 phenylacetylene giving ethylbenzene by reduction. — 

 Jacques Bardet : The spectrograph^ study of French 

 mineral waters. The salts from fifty-four springs 

 have been examined using the arc spectra. Lead was 

 found in all the samples, silver and tin in most of 

 them. Germanium and gallium were found in a con- 

 siderable number, and amongst other elements not 

 usually mentioned as constituents of mineral waters 

 were molybdenum, copper, antimony, cobalt, 

 chromium, mercury, nickel, gold, thallium, vanadium, 

 and tungsten. — M. Gard : The sexual elements in the 

 vine. — Marcel Delassus : The influence of the partial 

 suppression of the food reserves of the seed on the 

 anatomy of the plant. Removal of part of the reserves 

 of the seed results in development on a reduced scale, 

 the differentiation of the tissues is retarded, and the 

 number of fibro-ligneous bundles of the stem is 

 diminished. — Audebeau Bey : The permeability of 

 Egyptian soils. — J. Winter: The total volume of the 

 gastric juice secreted during digestion. — G. Bourguig- 

 non and H. Laugier : The apparent differences of polar 

 action and localisation of the stimulation on closing 

 the circuit in Thomsen's disease. — Miromond de 

 Laroquette : A new method for discovering foreign 

 bodies in the tissues. The apparatus described is 

 simple to use, and permits of the discovery of the exact 

 position of the foreign body in less than one hour. — 

 M. Gerber : The identity between the rennet, casease, 

 and trypsin of one and the same latex. The existence 

 of two types of proteolytic plant ferments. — Pierre 

 Thomas and Mme. Sophie Kolodziejska : The proteid 

 substances of yeast and their products of hydrolysis. 

 — H. Bierry and Mile. F. Coupin : Sterigmatocystis 

 nigra and lactose. 



New South Wales. 

 Linnean Society, May 28.— Mr. W. S. Dun, presi- 

 dent, in the chair.— Dr. A. Jefferis Turner : Studies 

 on Australian Micro-Lepidoptera. This contribution 

 is intended to be a supplement to Mr. Meyrick's re- 

 visional paper on the Plutellkke (Proceedings of the 

 Linnean Society of New South Wales, 1907, p. 47). 

 Additional localities for known species are given, and 

 a number of species are described as new. — R. J. 

 Tillyard : Some descriptions of new forms of Austra- 

 lian Odonata. This paper adds four new species, 

 three new subspecies, and the hitherto unknown 



