iVoz 



-o> 



[880] 



NA TURE 



95 



melting of tlie snow must occur at very difterent times of the year. 

 TheMemel alao possesses reservoirs in its marshes, and its region 

 is perhaps better wooded than that of tlie other streams of 

 Germany, but the long and hard winters cause an accumulation 

 of large masses of ice and snow which melt suddenly and almost 

 simultaneously in the whole region. 



Herr Graeve takes up various other points, which have a 

 practical bearing on navigation, but for these we must refer the 

 reader to his memoir. He remarks in concluding on the desira- 

 bility of comparing the conditions of outflow of German rivers 

 with corresponding data for other European rivers, though at 

 present the scanty and incomplete character of the data at hand 

 render such inquiry scarcely practicable. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The Jountal of the Russian Physiial a:id Chiiiiical Society, 

 vol. xii. fascicules 5 and 6, contain, besides the minutes of meet- 

 ings of the Society, the following papers : — In fascicule 5 : On 

 the dosage of chromium, by M. Th. Willm. — On the composition 

 of the hydrate of peroxide of barium, by M. E. Schone. — On the 

 distribution of naphtha on the peninsula of Apsheron, by M. S. 

 GouUchambaroff. — On the oxidation of ketones, by M. Gold- 

 stein. — On the products of oxidation of erythrite, by M. S. 

 Przibytek. — A necrology of Prof. Nicolas Zinin, by MM. Borodin 

 and Boutleroff. — On the magnetisation of liquids, by M. Ziloff. — 

 On hail, by M. Schuedoff. — Notes by M. Latchinoff on specific 

 heat, on a new dynamometer, and on electrical light. — In fasci- 

 cule 6 : On chlorocamphoric oxide, by M. Latchinoff. — On the 

 action of heat on phosphorites, by M. Beletzky. — On tetrolic 

 acid, by M. Lagermark. — On the solidification and evaporation 

 of drops of liquid, byM. Sloughinoff. — On the dosage of mercury 

 and arsenic in corpses ; and an analysis of the artesian wells of 

 Staraya Rousia. 



KcThc iiitcrnationale dis Scieiues hio!ogiq:ies, July, 18S0. — 

 J. L. de Lanessan, on the protozoa (a chapter with illustrations 

 from the author's forthcoming "Manuel d'Histoire Naturelle 

 raedicale). — A. Ilovelacque, on the inferior races of mankind. — 

 M. Debierre, man before and on the threshold of history. — Pro- 

 ceedings of the Academies of Paris, Belgium, and Amsterdam. 



August. — J. L. de Lanessan, the coloration and the colouring- 

 matters in plants. — M. Moniez, on the cysticers of Trenia. — M. 

 Debierre, man before and on the threshold of history. — Pro- 

 ceedings of the Academies of Paris, Belgium, and Amsterdam. 



September. — M. Vulpian, physiological study of poisons: 

 curare. — M. J. L. de Lanessan, the saccharomycetes and the 

 fermentations caused by them. — Prof. W. H. Flower, on the 

 comparative anatomy of man (translated from Nature). — M. 

 R. Moniez, on cestoid worms and helminthologists. — Proceedings 

 of the Academy of Paris. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 

 Chemical Society, November iS. — Prof. H. E. Roscoe, 

 president, in the chair. — It was announced that a ballot for the 

 election of Fellows would take place at the next meeting 

 (December 2). — Tlie following papers were read : — Notes on the 

 oxides of manganese, by Spencer Pickering. Various samples 

 of oxides were procured and heated to various temperatures, 

 until their weight was constant ; in some cases they lost weight, 

 in others they gair.ed, whilst in some the weight remained 

 constant. — On aluminium alcohols, by J. H. Gladstone and A. 

 Tribe. When aluminium foil and iodine are heated with alcohol 

 the latter is decomposed, two new organic aluminic compounds 

 being formed, alumini; iodoethylate (€21150)313 Al.j, and aluminic 

 ethylate A1„(C2H50)5. The authors have applied this reaction 

 to other alcohols, and have thus prepared aluminic methylate, 

 ethylate, propylate (isopropylate could not be obtained), iso- 

 butylate, amylate, cetylate, phenylate, cresylate, and thymolate. 

 — Mr. W. H. Perkin then gave an account of the artificial pro- 

 duction of indigo by A. Baeyer, and prepared some before the 

 Society. The steps in the process are : toluene C^HuO, di- 

 chloride of beneyl CsHsCHCl.,, cihnamic acid CgHgOo, ortho- 

 nitrocinnamic acid C9H-(NO„)Oj, orthonitrodibromhydrocin- 

 namic acid CgH7Br20o(NOo) ; by the action of caustic potash 

 orthonitrophenylpropiofic acid C,H5(No„)02 is formed, which 

 on reduction in alkaline solution with grape sugar furnishes 

 indigo CigHidN^O,,.— On the synthetical production of new 

 acids of the pyruvic series, by E. Moritz. — On the old alum 

 well at Harrogate, by R. H. Davis. The author gives 

 an analysis of the rcineral cons' ituents in the residue. — On the 



absorption spectium of ozone, by W. N. Hartley. — On the 

 probable absorption of the solar rays by atmospheric ozone, by 

 W. N. Hartley. The author has photographed and measured 

 the absorption spectrum of ozone ; he suggests that the shortening 

 of the solar spectrum at the violet end is due to the presence of 

 ozone in the atmosphere, also that the blue colour of the sky may 

 be ascribed to the same cause. — On peppermint camphor, by M. 

 Moriya of Tokio. The author has studied carefully the physical 

 characters of this substance ; he has also investigated the action 

 of chromic acid, nitric acid, and bromine thereon. 



Zoological Society, November 16. — Prof. Huxley, F.R.S., 

 vice-president, in the chair. — Mr. W. K. Parker, F.R.S., read 

 a paper on the development of the skull in the Urodele Batra- 

 chians. Mr. Parker described the skull of the adult Gigantic 

 Salamander (Sieboldia maxima'), the Su-en and the Menopoma, and 

 compared their structure with that of the various stages of the skull 

 of the common new t. — Mr. G. E. Dobson, C.M.Z.S., exhibited 

 and made remarks on the head of a partridge (Perdix dna-ca) 

 with an extraordinai-y prolongation of the intermaxillary bones. 

 — Mr. W. A. Forbes, F.Z.S., made some remarks on the shed 

 ding of the horns of the Prong-buck {^Antilocapra amcricana), 

 as recently observed in the specimen living in the Society's Gar- 

 dens. — Mr. Harting, F.Z.S., exhibited a specimen of Barlram's 

 Sandpiper, recently killed in Lincolnshire. — Mr. Sclater exhibited 

 the skin of the Guinea Fowl, lately described in the Society's 

 Proceedings as A'nmida Ellioti. Further investigation had in- 

 duced him to believe that this bird %\as the same as N'umida 

 puckcrani of Hartlaub, the inaccurate colouring of the head in 

 Mr. Elliot's figure of that species having prevented its identifi- 

 cation. — Mr. G. A. Boulenger read a paper on the Palrearctic 

 and yEthiopiin species of Biifo, of ^^'hich he recognised ten 

 species : four in the Palajarctic, five in the ^Ethiopian region, 

 and one found in both regions. — A communication was read 

 from Dr. Otto Finsch, C.M.Z.S., in which he gave a list of the 

 birds of the Island of Ruk, in the Central Carolines. — A second 

 communication from Dr. Finsch contained the descriptions of 

 some new or little-known species of pigeons from the Caroline 

 Islands. — A communication was read from Mr. Edgar A. Smith, 

 containing an account of the shells of the genus Myodora of 

 Gray. — A communication was read from Mr. Martin Jacoby, in 

 which he gave the descriptions of a collection of Phytophagous 

 Coleoptera made by Mr. Buckley at Eastern Ecuador. The 

 collection contained a good many new and interesting species, of 

 which a great part were not alone inhabitants of Ecuador, but 

 had been found either in Peru or the Amazonian region. — A 

 paper by Messrs. F. D. Godman and O. Salvin was read, in 

 which they gave the descriptions of some supposed new species 

 of butterflies collected by Mr. Andrew Goldie in the interior of 

 the district of Port Moresby, New Guinea. 



Physical Society, November 13. — Prof. W. G. Adams in 

 the chair. — Mr. Bosanquet, of St. John's College Physical 

 Laboratory, Cambridge, read a paper on the nature of the sounds 

 which occur in the beats of consonance. From mistimed octaves 

 and twelfths he found that when the beats of the harmonics are 

 cleared away each beat consists entirely of variations in the 

 intensity of the lower notes. He gave the mathematical theory 

 of these beats, and likewise of the curves given by the harmono- 

 graph. He also described an ear-tube for using in connection 

 with a resonator. It is difficult to get definite results with a 

 resonator unless the passage from the latter to the ear is closed 

 to sound. The ear tube consists of a copper pipe bent into a 

 sickle shape to gird the face, so that the ends may enter the 

 ears, into which they are screwed, plugging them close. The 

 sound is led from the resonator to the middle of the bent 

 pipe by a flexible india-rubber tube, and thence to the ears. — 

 Mr. Brown read a paper on action at a distance. He drew atten- 

 tion to the fact that though Ne\\ton disbelieved in action at a 

 distance, he did not pronounce whether the medium was material 

 or immaterial. Mr. Brown showed that the hypothesis of a 

 material medium was encumbered with difficulties, since, among 

 other reasons, direct contact could not explain gravity, projection 

 of small particles from one body to another could not explain 

 attraction, and Lesage's theoiy of corpuscles (as modified by 

 Mr. Tolver Preston) required an enormous degree of porosity 

 in masses of matter. The nature of magnetism and vibrations 

 was also discussed by the author.— Mr. J. Macfarlane Gray read 

 a paper on the mechanical nature of the forces called attraction, 

 and gave grounds for attributing them to the pressures of a uni- 

 versal material ether of a gaseous nature. The paper was long, and 

 had tT be in part left unreid. The livpothe=is held by Mr. Gray 



