July 15, 1880] 



NATURE 



257 



and reweigbed. They weighed 0'2 niTrm. le=s than before. 

 The numbers were as follows : — 



Potash bulbs before combustion ... 43-8308 

 ,, after „ ... 43-S776 



-0468 



Drying tube before combustion ... 26-4294 



,, \, after ,, ... 26-432S 



-0034 



•0502 

 This gives a composition of 97 '85 per cent, of carbon, which 

 is a pretty fair approximation to pure carbon. However, to 

 determine whether or not this was the case, some further 

 experiments were tried. A small quantity of the carbon was 

 placed on the platinum boat and burnt in oxygen without any of 

 the gas being allowed to pass out of the apparatus, and the 

 mi.xed. gases so obtained transferred to a eudiometer, and 

 the carbonic acid and oxygen absorbed. It was then found 

 that a residue amounting to about 3 per cent, of the carbonic 

 acid was left unabsorbed by alkaline pyrogallate solution. This 

 proved to be nitrogen. A blank experiment was done, but it 

 gave only a minute bubble of nitrogen. Another experiment 

 was performed with the following results : — 



This plainly shows that nitrogen was present from some cause 

 or another, and as every precaution was taken in transferring the 

 gas from one vessel to another, and as the blank experiment 

 showed notliing, I am inclined to believe that the carbon, or at 

 least some portions of it, contained nitrogen chemically com- 

 bined. The numbers above given are degrees on the eudiometer 

 tube, and are not more than one-third of a cubic centimetre 

 each. Their exact value was of no consequence in the experi- 

 ment, and the tube was only calibrated by comparing one part 

 with another, and not with an absolute measure. 



From the fact that no diamond was found when nitrogen com- 

 pounds were absent, and from the fact that the mixed product 

 (for only a portion of the 14 nigrms. was clear diamond) con- 

 tains nitrogen, I am inclined to believe that it is by the decom- 

 position of a nitrogenous body, and not the hydrocarbon, that 

 the diamond is formed in this reaction. The experiments are, 

 however, too few, and the evidence too vague, to draw any 

 conclusions, as there are even very few negative experiments 

 from w-hicli anything can be learned, most of the results being 

 lost by explosion. I intend, when my other work — which I 

 laid aside for the diamond experiments — is finished, to begin a 

 series of experiments on the decompositions of carbon com- 

 pounds by metals, to find whether a more easily-controlled 

 reaction may not be discovered. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



The following circular has been issued by the Science and 

 Art Department : — ' ' It having been represented to the Lords of 

 the Committee of Coimcil on Education that many parts of the 

 kingdom are still in ignorance of the system of aid to the forma- 

 tion of classes for instruction in the principles of agriculture 

 afforded by the Science and Art Department ; that the supply of 

 teachers w ho have obtained the necessary qualification to earn 

 payments on results is very limited ; and that a strict adherence 

 to the rules of the Science Dhectory, wliich require that, in order 

 to obtain aid, classes must be under the instniction of such 

 teachers, would entail the delay of a year in the commencement 

 of classes in this important subject, my Lords decide that 

 §§ -xxxiv. and xxxvi. of the Directory may be relaxed for this 

 year in the following manner : — My Lords will be prepared to 

 consider an application from any committee, formed in accord- 

 ance with § X. of the Science Directory, to grant a temporai7 

 qualification to any person selected by it as fitted to teach the 

 principles of Agriculture, and, if such application be found satis- 

 factory, will permit the teacher to earn payments on the results 

 of the examination in May, iSSi ; on the condition that this 

 provisional quahfication shall then determine, and that the only 

 teachers who can after that date be recognised as qualified to 

 earn payments on the results of their teactung in this subject will 



be such as have complied \iith the ordinary rules. In making 

 the application the committee must show that there is no techni- 

 cally qualified teacher in the locality who could be employed to 

 instruct the class, and also state the grounds on which the pro- 

 posed teacher is considered to be really capable of giving instruc- 

 tion in agriculture, by his knowledge of chemistry and other 

 sciences bearing on the subject." 



Mr. Richard Chares Rowe, M.A.,B.Sc., Fellow of Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, has been appointed Professor of Mathe- 

 matics in University College, London. 



Plans have been prepared for a new botanical class-room in 

 connection with Edinbm-gh L'niversity, the present room being 

 much too small. The plans have been submitted to Govern- 

 ment ; if approved there will be a grant for the purpose re- 

 quired. The new class-room proposed will be seated for six 

 hundred students, while the old class-room will be altered so as 

 to be used as a practical and histological class-room. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



American Jouynal of Sciince, June. — Physical structure and 

 hypsometry of the Catskill Mountain region, by A. Guyot. — 

 Recent explorations in the Wappinger Valley limestone of 

 Dutchess Co., N.Y., by W. B. Dwight. — The colour-correction 

 of certain achromatic object-glasses, by C. A. Young. — Note on 

 the companion of Sirius, by A. Hall. — Study of the Emmet Co. 

 meteorite that fell near Estherville, May 10, 1879, by J. Law- 

 rence Smith. — O.xidation of hydrochloric acid solutions of anti- 

 mony in the atmosphere, by J. T. Cooke. — Relation between the 

 colours and magnitudes of the components of binary stars, by 

 E. S. Holden. — Occurrence of true lingula in the Trenton lime- 

 stones, by R. P. Whitfield. — Experiments on Mr. Edison's 

 dynamometer, dynamo-machine, and lamp, by Profs. Brackett 

 and Young. — On substances possessing the power of developing 

 the latent photographic image, by M. Carey Lea. 



ArcJiives de$ Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, June 15. — Re- 

 searches on the temperature of Lake Leman and other freshwater 

 lakes, by Prof. Forel. — The disease of workmen employed in the 

 St. Gothard tunnel, by Dr. Lombard. — Explosions by freezing, 

 by Prof. Hagenbach. — On a yellow rain observed near Bonne- 

 ville in Savoy, on April 25, iSSo, by M. de Candolle.— Diatoms 

 of the Alps and the Jur.a, and of the Swiss and French region 

 in the environs of Geneva, by M. Bonn. — On a simplification of 

 the theory of vibratory movements, by M. Cellerier. 



Atti del R. Accademia del Lincei, fasc. 6, May. — Distribution 

 of electricity in equilibrium on two parallel indefirute plane 

 conductors, subjected to the induction of a point in the space 

 included by them, by Dr. Maggi. — On a meteoric rain, containing 

 an abundant quantity of metallic iron, observed at Cattania on 

 the night of March 29-30, iSSo, by Prof. Silvestri. — On bromo- 

 camphor, by Prof. Schiff. — Chemical and pathological studies 

 on the hematopcetic function, by SS. Tizzoni and Fileti. — 

 Influence of light on the production of ha:moglobin, by the 

 same. — On ethylnaphtaline, by S. Camelutti. — On phenol 

 derived from santonosic acid, by the same. — On a connection 

 between meteorological phenomena and the time of arrival 

 of the earth at perihelion, by Mr. Jenkins. — On the electric 

 polarisation produced by metallic deposits, by Prof. Macaluso. 

 — On the envelope and- structure of the uveal tract in- verte- 

 brates, by Dr. Angelucci. — Helminthological observations on 

 the endemic malady of the workmen in the St. Gothard (Anchylo- 

 stoma duodenalis), by Prof. Perroncito. 



ReaU Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere. Rendiconti. 

 Vol. xiii. fasc xii. — On the aberration] of sphericity, &c. (con- 

 tinued), by Prof. Ferrini.— On injury to agriculture caused by 

 the winter 1S79-S0, by Prof. Cantoni. — On a problem of electro- 

 statics, by Dr. Maggi. 



La Natura, vol. iv. Nos. 3 and 4 (February).— On some 

 recent studies in agrarian meteorology, by S. Porro. — Morpho- 

 geny of animal individuality, by Dr. Cattaneo. 



Bulletin di V Academic Ro^'ale de Sciences de Belgique, No. 4, 

 iSSc— Letter from Dr. Muggins on the subject of M. Fievez's 

 recent note. 



Journal de Physique, June. —Vibrations on the surface of a 

 Hquid in a rectangular vessel, by Prof. Lechat.— On the eco- 

 nomic yield of electric motors, and on measurement of the 

 quantity of energy which traverses an electric circuit, by M. 



