Decemiier 9, 1909] 



7\M TURE 



165 



gard to avialion, tliat public or national bodies have inter- 

 fered with onerous legislation such as has retarded other 

 budding industries. The movement has received but little 

 encouragement in the way of State-aided experimental 

 work ; plenty of private pioneer work has been done — 

 indeed, we were among the first to take seriously to 

 aeronautics — yet we are woefully behind our neighbours. 

 E.xtremely rapid progress has been made recently in other 

 countries in heavier-than-air machines, and it seems clear 

 that we should actively encourage the development of that 

 branch of the science which appears of the greatest 

 promise. Two methods have been adopted on the other side 

 of the Atlantic which we might do worse than imitate. 

 One is a national competition promoted by the United 

 States War Department ; the other is the method adopted 

 by Dr. Graham Bell, who collected around him a number 

 of ardent workers, who banded themselves together with 

 the object of producing several successful machines. These 

 men were all well acquainted with the principles under- 

 lying the art, and their collective wisdom has been well 

 proven in the results achieved. Our own few earnest 

 workers worry along independently, until financial stress 

 often directs their attention to other matters. Continuing, 

 our contemporary thinks that the movement of aviation is 

 not in the right hands. Anyone who attends the meetings 

 of the two best known societies connected with aeronautics 

 must know that the discussions are not at all on a high 

 level, and compare very unfavourably with those at, say, 

 the Institution of Civil Engineers or the Institution 

 of Mechanical Engineers. It is admitted that sport 

 is quite a legitimate opening for aviation, as it has 

 been for yachting and motoring ; but, as has happened in 

 these latter sports, the flying machines now built merely 

 to win races will probably give place to machines of a 

 more serviceable type when the movement has become 

 leavened with the ideas of engineers and the results of 

 scientific studies. 



Evidence of the interest that is taken in the isomeric 

 change of optically active compounds is afforded by two 

 papers by Mr. H. Wren in the October number of the 

 Chemical Society's Journal. The substance selected for 

 examination was /-benzoin, CsH,.CHOH.CO.CjHs, a com- 

 pound which contains an asymmetric carbon atom, but 

 would lose its optical activity if converted into the isomeric 

 "enol," C,H.,.C(OH) : C(OH).CsH5, and might therefore 

 be expected to racemise with great readiness, at least in 

 presence of an alkaline catalyst. The experiments carried 

 out by the author showed that /-benzoin retained its activity 

 in the crystalline state during three months, and that its 

 solution in acetone was unchanged at the end of eight 

 days. The addition of a small quantity of sodium ethoxide 

 to its alcoholic solution was, however, sufficient to destroy 

 its optical activity in a single day. The methyl ether, 

 CeH5.CH(OCH3).CO.CjH„ lost its optical activity com- 

 pletely in five minutes when dissolved in alcoholic potash 

 of N/9 strength, and a progressive racemisation by dilute 

 sodium ethoxide was completed in the course of three 

 hours. Complete racemisation took place on attempting 

 to prepare the ethyl ether by means of alcohol and hydrogen 

 chloride, and a partial loss of activity took place when 

 silver oxide and ethyl iodide were used. The oxime 

 CeHs.CH(OH).C( : NOH).C5H„ and carbanilide 

 C,H,.CH(O.CO.NH.C5Hj).CO.CeHj, 

 were found to be optically active, but the former suffered 

 a partial loss of activity on acetylation, and the latter was 

 completely racemised by heating above its melting point 

 during four hours at 140", contact with the glass being 

 shown to be an important factor in promoting the change. 

 NO. 2093, VOL. 82] 



A racemic product was also obtained on condensing 

 /-benzoin with aniline. The changes here recorded are very 

 similar to those that have been observed amongst the deri- 

 vatives of camphor, but differ from them in that the in- 

 version of the one asymmetric carbon atom causes a total 

 loss of optical activity. 



Dr. Maximilian Toch, of New York City, in his address 

 as chairman of the American Society of Chemical Indus- 

 try, dealt with the influence of chemistry on civilisation. 

 The address is published in the issue of Science for 

 November ig. In the course of his remarks, Dr. Toch 

 said : — Chemistry needs no sponsor, but its effect on 

 civilisation has been more marked than that of any other 

 science. True, it has reached out and taken electricity 

 and physics as aids, but, withal, engineering made but 

 little progress until steel and cement — two chemical pro- 

 ducts — were cheapened, simplified, and made universal. 

 Medicine has claimed great honours, but the masterful 

 work done in coal-tar chemistry, in the production and 

 discovery of synthetic drugs, the discovery of anaesthetics, 

 the marvellous work done in the metabolism of matter, the 

 excellent analytical schemes for the waste matter of the 

 tissues, are all due to the researches of chemistry, and 

 their civilising influence is greatly felt. The engineer may 

 boast of his skill, but he has done nothing greater than 

 the pyramids, nor finer than the temples of Greece and 

 Egypt. The monuments he has wrought in steel were 

 given to him by the ability of the chemist to control 

 carbon in iron, and the economic principle involved in the 

 production of steel supplies work, puts money into circula- 

 tion, and keeps the wheels turning. For a science so 

 young its civilising influence is enormous, and there is no 

 doubt that the rapid progress which chemistry made in 

 the nineteenth century will be outstripped in the twentieth, 

 for the control of our foodstuffs, the application of the 

 raw materials in the earth, and the refining of metals, 

 create positions, give progress to a country, and help largely 

 in the establishment of chemistry as a profession. 



The Geological Society has published a catalogue of the 

 geological literature added to the society's library during 

 the year ended December 31, 1908. The catalogue has 

 been compiled by the assistant-librarian and edited by the 

 assistant-secretary, and its price is 2S. 



Messrs. Flatters and Garnett, Ltd., 32 Dover Street, 

 Manchester, have just issued a new classified catalogue of 

 lantern-slides illustrating various subjects of biology, 

 geology, astronomy, physiography, textile fibres, machinery, 

 &c. The slides are from drawings, photographs of speci- 

 mens, and photomicrographs, and most of them are not 

 to be found in other catalogues. For the illustration of 

 lectures or lessons in biological and other subjects many 

 of the slides should prove very valuable. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Discovery of a New Comet, igoge. — A telegram from 

 the Kiel Centralstelle announces the discovery of a comet 

 by Prof. Daniel, at Princeton, on December 6. Its posi- 

 tion at gh. 23-9m. (Princeton M.T.) was 



R.A. = 6h. i6m. 32s., dec. =33° 50' N., 

 and its magnitude was estimated as no. This position 

 lies at about the centre of the triangle formed by d and k 

 Aurigae and S Geminorum. The comet is said to be moving 

 slowly in a northerly direction. 



Halley's Comet. — According to the ephemeris, Halley's 

 comet is now approaching the sun at a rate of nbout 

 1,230,000 miles per day, whilst its distance from the sarth 



