Oct. 14, I 



NATURE 



567 



NOTES 



\ . ai-complislied 



Another brilliant synthesis hns vo, 



,^ ,, •.. ui organic chemistry; Messrs. Grimaux 



and Adam have succeeded in building up citric acid from 

 glycerin. We shall give full details next week. Curiously 

 enough, in the last number of the Berlin Berichte, Kekule 

 announces that he has been working at the same subject, but by 

 a totally different method. Kekule's work is not sufficiently 

 advanced for him to say positively that his method of synthe^is is 

 successful, but he feels justified in saying that very probably the 

 process adopted by him has resulted in the formation of citric 

 acid. 



The death is announced of Dr. Hofrath von Wagner, Pro- 

 fessor of Technological Chemistry in the University of Wiirzburg, 

 and the author of several works on that science, chief of which 

 is " Jahresberichte iiber Chemische Technologic " and "Hand- 

 buch der chemischen Technologic," translated into English by 

 Mr. Crookes. He was born at Leipsic in 1823, and first taught 

 in Niiremberg. 



The credit of the invention of binocular glasses has usually 

 been assigned to a certain Bohemian friar. Father de Rheita, 

 who died at Ravenna in 1660. His treatise, which bears the 

 quaint title of "Oculus Enochi et Elise," was published at 

 Antwerp in 1645. In 1677 there appeared at Paris a volume 

 entitled "La Vision parfaite," by another ecclesiastic, Pere 

 Cherubin of Orleans, which contained an account of some 

 improvements on de Kheita's discovery, illustrated by excellent 

 copper-plate engravings. Lately however Signor Govi has 

 unearthed in the Bibliothcque nationale a printed document 

 which proves the antiquity of binocular glasses to be a little 

 more remote. This document is a placard by one D. Chorez of 

 Paris, who lived on the island of Notre-Dame, at the sign of the 

 " Compas." The placard is in old French, and is headed "Av 

 Roy"; it states that the "admirable lunettes" it describes, 

 and which are represented by accompanying figures, were invented 

 by Chorez and dedicated to the king in 1625. 



In the placard of the optician Chorez referred to, the address 

 actually printed was "la rue de Perigneur aux Marais du 

 Temple"; but these words have been struck out with a pen, 

 and above is written "Lisle nostre Dame." The incident is 

 curious as showing that two centuries and a half ago the saEie 

 quarters of Paris were frequented as now by the instrument- 

 maker. M. Salleron is in the Rue Paree du Marais ; M. 

 Lemaire a little farther north, just out of the Quarticr du Temple, 

 in the Rue Oberkampf. On the island of Notre-Dame the 

 opticians elbow one another in shoals, not to omit M. Bregnet's 

 modest shop. The only district of Paris which can, indeed, 

 compete with these being the Quarlier Latin, where instrument- 

 makers of all kinds abound. 



With regard to the announcement in an enterprising provincial 

 contemporary of a projected " Natural History Survey of India," 

 the general conduct of which is to be intrusted to Dr. George King 

 of the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta, we believe that those most con- 

 cerned know nothing which affords any foundation for the state- 

 ment. The notion is intrinsically improbable, inasmuch as the 

 "Flora of British India," which is in process of preparation at 

 Kew, and of which the third volume is now in course of publica- 

 tion, covers the same ground. It would be inexpedient for the 

 Government to take any step of the kind as far as botany is con- 

 cerned till the material collected by Indian botanists since the 

 beginning of the century has been fully worked up, and this is 

 being rapidly proceeded with under the direction of Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, assisted by Mr. C. B. Clarke of the Bengal Education 

 Department, who has been detached on duty at Kew for the 

 purpose. 



The case recently rppnrfp/1 ;» ito ncT.^iJapcrs 01 poisonmg 

 j,y American tinned beef is calculated to arouse much alarm in 

 the minds of those who use tinned meats. According to the 

 newspaper report of the inquest, no direct evidence was given 

 that poisoning was actually due to zinc or other metallic poison ; 

 in the present state of knowledge the explanation referred to by 

 Mr. Dyer in his letter to the Daily News, viz., that it was due to 

 the unwholesome state of the meat itself, and not to metallic 

 poison absorbed from the tin, seems the most probable. Never- 

 theless, a series of well-conducted experiments, undertaken by 

 some of the companies whose trade in these meats is so large, 

 on ihe action of meat juices on tin and on solder, might do 

 much to allay suspicion, and at the same time to advance our 

 knowledge of 1 atural facts. 



In the last session of the United States Congress at Wash- 

 ington, May 24, 1880, the "Committee on Naval Affairs" 

 reported a bill in support of a proposed International Commission 

 to agree upon standard tests for colour-blindness and visual 

 power in navies and merchant marines, and standard require- 

 ments of these faculties. Resolutions in recommendation of this 

 Commission have been passed by the American Ophthalmo- 

 logical Society at their Newport meeting, the Ophthalmological 

 Section of the British Medical Association at Cambridge, and 

 the International Congress of Ophthalmology at Milan. The 

 next United States Congress will act on this bill to initiate the 

 Commission. Dr. R. Joy Jeffries, 15, Chestnut Street (Beacon 

 Hill), Boston, Mass., U.S. America, intimates that he will be 

 greatly indebted for any public or private statistics or information 

 in relation to this subject which any one can send him. 



Mr. Adam Sedgwick, who was elected a Fellow of Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, on Saturday last, the 9th inst., graduated 

 in the First Class of the Natural Sciences Tripos of 1877, when 

 he was especially distinguished for his knowledge of zoology and 

 comparative anatomy, human anatomy and physiology. Those 

 of our readers who are interested in the study of the principle of 

 heredity may be glad to know that this gentleman is the great- 

 nephew and eldest male representative of the illustrious geologist 

 whose name he bears. 



In reference to our note (Nature, vol. xxii. p. S41) upon the 

 awards of the juries of the Exhibition of Agriculture and Insect- 

 ology at Paris, wherein we observed that a suggestion had been 

 put forward to arrange the electric light as an insect-catcher, a 

 correspondent writes that in experimenting for other purposes 

 with a Browning electric light upon a roof at Charing Cross, 

 besides innumerable flies and moths, single individuals of two 

 species of sphinxes were attracted, probably from considerable 

 distances. 



The Freedom of the City of London was conferred on Sir 

 Henry Bessemer on Wednesday last week. Sir Henry in his 

 address indicated the vast improvements which his process had 

 introduced in the manufacture of steel, and at the dinner in the 

 evening he sketched the early progress of iron manufacture. 



The French Minister of Public Instruction has caused an 

 edition of Mr. Herbert Spencer's work on Education to be 

 published for gratuitous distribution in France. 



A PRACTICAL experiment was, on Wednesday last week, tried 

 with the air-engine at Woolwich, designed by Col. Beaumont, 

 Royal Engineers, and which has been for some time running on 

 the short lines of the Royal Arsenal. Although weighing but 

 10 tons, it has proved capable of hauling a burden of 16 tons up 

 a fair incline, and arrangements were made to try its powers in a 

 more extended run, such as engines of the kind would have to 

 encounter on the London railways and tramways. The air- 

 reservoir, which contains only 100 cubic feet of air, was charged 

 at the torpedo pumping-house, up to pressure of 1,000 lb. to 



