igo 



NA TURE 



[June 21, 1906 



now no longer necessary for stimulating interest in the 

 question of technical education or for promoting legis- 

 lation. But, in the course of its existence, the association 

 has done more than this ; it has become the centre to 

 which local authorities engaged in the work have been 

 accustomed to look for advice, for information, and, to a 

 certain extent, for guidance. Much of the work of the 

 association is capable of being performed by the Govern- 

 ment department. But from some communications which 

 he had with the Board of Education a year or two ago, 

 the Duke of Devonshire found that the department did 

 not consider itself then in a position to undertake the 

 whole of what is done by the association. It is, perhaps, 

 possible that the present Treasury may take a different 

 view, and that the Board of Education may be permitted 

 by the Treasury to undertake a part of the work which 

 has hitherto been exclusively carried on by the association. 

 He therefore suggested that' during the ne.xt year, in which 

 provision is made for the continuance of the efficient work 

 of the association, the executive committee should ascer- 

 tain, by communication with the Government, how far the 

 Board 'of Education is in a position to take up any part 

 of the functions which the association has hitherto 

 assumed ; and if it should be found that those functions 

 can be more usefully discharged in the future by a private 

 association than by "a department of the Government, prac- 

 tical consideration' must be given to the manner invvhich 

 it may be possible to secure a larger amount of assistance 

 from the public. Lord Avebury and Sir Henry Roscoe 

 also addressed the meeting. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, May 3. — "The Action of Pituitary 

 Extracts upon the Kidney." By Prof. E. A. Schafer, 

 F.K.S., and P. T. Herring. 



Intravenous injections of saline extract of the infundi- 

 bular part of the pituitary body produce dilatation of 

 l<idney vessels accompanied by increased flow of urine ; 

 i.e. the extract has a diuretic action. 



With the first injection this result is accompanied by 

 rise of blood-pressure and contraction of systemic arteries. 

 With subsequent injections the diuresis is usually attended, 

 not by a rise of blood-pressure, but by a fall. This 

 furnishes evidence that the diuresis is independent of the 

 effects upon blood-pressure, and leads one to suppose that it 

 is produced by a special constituent of the extract. 



This conjecture is confirmed by the result of treating 

 the extract with certain reagents which tend to abolish 

 the rise of blood-pressure which is produced by a first in- 

 jection, but leave the diuretic effect of the extract un- 

 altered. 



The diuretic as well as the pressor and depressor con- 

 stituents of the extract are not destroyed by boiling. 

 They dialyse through parchment paper. They are insoluble 

 in absolute alcohol and ether. 



Intravenous injections of extracts from the anterior or 

 epithelial lobe of the pituitary body do not produce diuresis ; 

 these extracts exhibit no physiological activity. 



It is concluded that the infundibular part of the gland 

 produces an internal secretion which passes into the blood, 

 and which, both indirectly owing to its general action 

 upon the vascular system and directly by its special action 

 on the renal vessels and renal epithelium, assists in pro- 

 moting and regulating the secretion of urine ; in other 

 words, the internal secretion of the gland is ancillary to 

 the renal functions. 



May 10. — " A Variety of Thorianite from Galle, Ceylon." 

 By Wyndham R. Dunstan, F.R.S., and B. Mouat Jones. 



Specimens of thorianite from the Galle district of Ceylon 

 were found to contain from 5884 per cent, to 6336 per 

 cent, of thoria associated with from 327 per cent, to 

 27-0 per cent, of oxide of uranium. Ordinary thorianite 

 from the Balangoda district contains 78-98 per cent, of 

 thoria and 13-40 per cent, of oxide of uranium. The 

 authors direct attention to the inter-replacement of 

 thorium and uranium in the mineral, and conclude that 

 the oxides of the two elements are present in isomorphous 

 mixture, and are not chemically combined. 



NO 19 I 2, VOL. 74] 



Chemical Society, June 7.— Prof. R. Meldnla, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — .-Ammonium selenate and the ques- 

 tion of isodimorphism in the .alkali series : A. E. H. 

 Tutton. Normal ammonium selenate crystallises differ- 

 ently from the seven rhombic normal sulphates and 

 selenates of the alkalis already investigated, namely, in 

 monoclinic prisms or tables. Rhombic mixed crystals of 

 ammonium selenate and sulphate have been obtained, and 

 it is concluded thai ammonium selenate is dimorphous, and 

 that the whole series of sulphates and selenates is probably 

 isodimorphous. — The vapour pressures of binary mixtures, 

 part i., the possible types of vapour-pressure curves : A. 

 Marshall. By differentiating the equation of Duhem and 

 Margules, .vd log />! -l-(i— .v)d log /!. = o, it has been found 

 possible to classify the total pressure curves into twelve 

 types, all of which are known to occur. The vapour 

 pressures of the following pairs of liquids have been in- 

 vestigated experimentally : — nitroglycerol and acetone, 

 diethylamine and acetone, ethyl alcohol and methyl ethyl 

 ketone, water and methyl ethyl ketone, water and methyl 

 acetate, water and ether, water and amyl alcohol. — The 

 behaviour of acetylene with electrical discharges of high 

 frequency : H. Jackson and D. N. Laurie. .\ semi- 

 solid brown substance is formed when acetylene is subjected 

 to discharges from an ordinary high-frequency apparatus, 

 which sets to a hard and very insoluble solid on exposure 

 to air. It is apparently a polymeride of acetylene. It 

 absorbs oxygen readily up to about 8 per cent. — The 

 behaviour of the vapours of methyl alcohol and acet- 

 aldehyde with electrical discharges of high frequency : 

 H. Jackson and D. N. Laurie. Working with discharges 

 of very short duration, the first change in the vapour of 

 methyl alcohol is the formation of carbon monoxide and 

 hydrogen ; in the case of acetaldehyde the greatrer part of 

 the vapour breaks up into methane and carbon monoxide, 

 but acetylene and water are also produced in smaller 

 quantities. — Note on 4-bromo-2-nitro-io:-naphthylamine : 

 R. Meldola and H. G. Dale. — Dinitroanisidines and their 

 products of diazotisation (second communication) : R. 

 Meldola and F. G. C. Stephens. — The action of sulphur 

 dio.xide and aluminium chloride on aromatic compounds r 

 S. Smiles and R. Le Rossignol. The authors have 

 previously shown that thion\i chloride reacts with phene- 

 tole in the presence of aluminium chloride, giving rise 

 successively to a sulphoxide and a sulphonium base ; it has 

 since been found that this reaction may be brought about 

 by sulphur dioxide with the aid of the same condensing 

 agent. — Action of sodium on aa-dichloropropylene : Miss 

 I. Smedley. — Resolution of lactic acid by morphine : 

 J. C. Irvine. Fermentation lactic acid may be readily 

 resolved into its active components by the crystallisation 

 of the morphine salts. — Brazilin and hjematoxylin, part 

 viii. : W\ H. Perkin, jun., and R. Robinson. — A study 

 of the reaction between hvdrogen peroxide and potassium 

 persulphate : J. A. N. Friend. It is shown that solutions 

 of hydrogen pero.xide and potassium persulphate interact 

 according to the equation H,0,-hK,S,0, = 2KHS0,-(-0.. 

 The reaction, however, is monomolecular, due to the form- 

 ation of an intermediate and highly unstable compound. 

 — The action of magnesium methyl iodide on dextro- 

 limonene nitrosochlorides : W. .\. Tilden and F. G. 

 Shepheard. The same compound is formed from the 

 a- and y3-nitrosochlorides. It is insoluble in aqueous 

 alkalis and in acids, though easily soluble in the usual 

 organic solvents, and has the formula C„„H,,ON„CL. — 

 Electrolysis of potassium ethyl dipropyl malonate ; D. C. 

 Crichton. A concentrated aqueous solution of potassium 

 ethyldipropylmalonate yields on electrolysis the ethyl esters 

 of a-propyl-/3-ethylacryIic acid, dipropylglycoUic acid, tetra- 

 propvlsuccinic acid, and probablv dipropylacetic acid. — A 

 new method for the measurement of hydrolysis in aqueous 

 solution based upon the consideration of the motion of 

 ions : R. B. Denison and B. D. Steele. — The oxidation of 

 hydrocarbons by ozone at low temperatures : J. Drugman. 

 Ozone acts slowly on saturated hydrocarbons, and the 

 process is one of gradual hydroxylation. The reaction 

 with an unsaturated hydrocarbon, such as ethylene, is in- 

 i stantaneous, even at temperatures far below 0°. and a 

 very explosive addition compound is first formed. — Reactions 

 involving the addition of hydrogen cvanide to carbon com- 

 I pounds, part v., cyanodihydrocarvone : -A. Lap^orth. — 



