August 



1913] 



NATURE 



601 



The organisation created by Lord Morley in 1909 

 for the benefit of Indian students included an Advisory 

 Committee, and was mainly composed of influential 

 Indian residents ; fresh regulations have now been 

 promulgated, we learn from The limes, giving the 

 committee a definite constitution and specifying its 

 functions. At least half of the committee an. always 

 to be Indian gentlemen resident in this country. The 

 appointments are to be made by the Secretary of State 

 for a term of three years. The functions of the com- 

 mittee are to keep itself informed as to the views 

 of parents in India; to advise the Secretary of State; 

 and to bring to his notice matters respecting the 

 needs of the students. The committee has arranged 

 to meet regularly on the first Monday in each month, 

 and has appointed Sir M. M. Bhownaggree vice- 

 chairman. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, July 28. — M. F. Guyon in the 

 chair. — Maurice Hamy : Study of the nitrogen radia- 

 tions. The explanation of the width of the lines of 

 the spectrum of rarefied gases, based on the Doppler- 

 Fizeau principle, has been recently verified experi- 

 mentally by Buisson and Fabry working with Geessler 

 tubes containing the rare gases of the atmosphere. 

 Similar work on nitrogen, a gas furnishing a band 

 spectrum, is now described by the author, and he 

 concludes that the band spectrum of nitrogen obeys 

 the same laws as line spectra, as regards the difference 

 of path required to make interference bands disappear. 

 — E. Jungfleisch and L. Brunei : The sulphur set at 

 liberty in the action between sulphurous acid and 

 water. A study of the condition in which the sulphur 

 is deposited in this reaction. Five photographs 

 accompany the paper. — Lucas Championniere : Opera- 

 tion for club foot by ablation of all the bones of the 

 tarsus. Osseous regeneration in young subjects. The 

 operation consists in the removal of all the tarsal 

 bones with the exception of the posterior portion of 

 the calcaneum. A description of the results in forty- 

 two cases is given. In young children there is dis- 

 tinct regeneration of a portion of the bone removed. — 

 Couyat Barthoux and H. Douville ; The Jurassic in the 

 •desert to the east of the Isthmus of Suez. — P. Duhem : 

 The formula for the velocity of sound. A correction 

 of a formula recently published bv M. Aries.- -J. 

 Guillaume : Observations of the sun 'made at the Ob- 

 servatory of Lyons during the second quarter of 1913. 

 Observations were possible on seventy-seven days, and 

 the results are grouped in three tables showing the 

 number of spots, their distribution in latitude, and the 

 distribution of the faculas in latitude. — Rodolphe 

 Soreau : An approximate formula for the arc of an 

 ellipse. — E. Stiemke ; Numbered moduli. — Kr. Birke- 

 Iand : The conservation and the origin of terrestrial 

 magnetism. — Georges Claude: The maintenance with- 

 out difficulty of a temperature of — 211° C. by the use of 

 liquid nitrogen. A rapid stream of hydrogen. 20 to 

 2s; litres per minute, previously cooled by flowing 

 through a copper spiral immersed in liquid nitrogen, 

 is passed through about 075 litre of liquid nitrogi 11 

 contained in a capacious Dewar vessel. The tempera- 

 ture rapidly falls, and after about twenty minutes 

 remains steady at — 211 C, the melting point of 

 nitrogen. At this point about two-thirds of the 

 original liquid remains in the tube. — R. Ladenburg 

 and F. Reiche ; The absorption of coloured flames. 

 It was shown more than thirty vears ago bv M. Gouv 

 that the absorption of a coloured flame for the narrow 

 lines of the spectrum which it emits is far from being 

 complete, and that it was possible to calculate from 

 NO. 2284, VOL. 91] 



his measurements the brightness of the lines as a 

 function of the product of the thickness of the layer 

 by the density oi the metallic vapour. In the present 

 paper these experimental results are compared with 

 relations furnished by the electronic theory of disper- 

 sion. The two are shown to be in good agreement. 

 If, on the other hand, the intensity of the lines is 

 governed, not by the theory of dispersion, but by 

 Rayleigh's theory according to the Doppler effect, 

 then there is no agreement between the theory and 

 Gouy's experiments. — E. Briner ; The dissociation of 

 the molecules into atoms considered as one of the 

 factors of reaction velocity. — Victor Henri and Rene 

 Wurmser ; The negative photocatalysis of hydrogen 

 peroxide. The stimulating or poisoning effect pro- 

 duced by certain substances on ferment actions has 

 been hitherto ascribed to the action of the stimulant 

 or poison on the ferment ; the authors hold that this 

 view must be modified in so far as this action may take 

 place not on the ferment but on the body under trans- 

 formation. In support of this view they adduce ex- 

 periments on the photocatalysis of solutions of 

 hydrogen peroxide in presence of traces of various sub- 

 stances, including sulphuric acid, caustic soda, 

 iodine, potassium cyanide, &c. The addition 

 of traces of these substances caused an increase 

 of stability of the hvdrogen peroxide towards ultra- 

 violet rays. — F. Bourion and A. Deshayes : The quan- 

 titative separation of chromium and aluminium. The 

 analysis of chromite. The method proposed is based 

 on the use of a mixture of chlorine and sulphur 

 chloride. — C. J. Pitard : Statistics and affinities of the 

 flora of Chaouia. — O. Mengel : The evolution of mildew 

 according to the conditions of the medium. — Ch. Julin 

 and A. Robert : Ascidia fumigata. Contribution to the 

 study of the classification of the Phallusiideae. — M. 

 Ruot ; Bacillus lactis fermentens, a spore forming 

 butyleneglycol ferment of milk sugar. This organism 

 produces an active fermentation of milk, 2 : 3-butylene- 

 glvcol accumulating in the culture, other products 

 being carbon dioxide, hydrogen, acetylmethylcarbinol, 

 acetic and formic acids. — Maurice Renaud : The 

 irradiation of bacteria and the irradiated vaccines. 

 For all the organisms studied irradiation with a quartz 

 mercury-vapour lamp rendered the media sterile, leav- 

 ing intact the histochemical properties. Irradiation 

 prolonged beyond the period necessary for sterilisation 

 does not diminish the activity of the soluble products 

 of bacterial origin, such as toxins. The therapeutic 

 application of irradiated cultures is discussed. — F. X. 

 Lesbre and R. Pecherot : A calf born without the upper 

 jawbone ; a new Cyclocephalian type. — Eric Gerard 

 and Hermann Chauvin : The waters of Spa. Radio- 

 activity, electrical resistance, and crvoscopy. — J. 

 Ventre : The influence of the yeasts on the variations 

 of drv extract and of glycerol in wines. — L. Lindet : 

 The soluble albuminoid matters of milk. — Ch. 

 Dhere : The diversity of ha?mocyanines according to 

 their zoological origin. 



New South Wales. 

 I mucin Society, June 25. — Mr. W. S. Dun, president, 

 in the chair. — C. Hedley : Studies on Australian 

 Mollusca. Part xi. During 1912 the writer spent 

 a furlough in Europe and America. Opportunities 

 occurred for prosecuting conchological studies. Many 

 types were examined, and much information was 

 gathered from the Cumingian collection at the British 

 Museum, the Lamarckian collection at Geneva, the 

 collection of A. Angas at Newcastle, and that of Gould 

 at Washington. Ten weeks were spent in constant 

 study at the British Museum, during which almost 

 the whole series of Australian marine gastropods and 

 bivalves was examined. From these sources critical 



