March lo. 1881J 



NA TURE 



437 



by the Society ; formerly a correspondent in London or 

 Paris, &c., sent a general account of chemical work pub- 

 lished in the country from which he wrote. The abstracts 

 of the German Society are on the whole shorter than 

 those which have for many years made the Journal of our 

 own Chemical Society of such great value to the student ; 

 they are, however, published at a shorter interval after 

 the appearance of the original paper. 



Brief accounts are given of recent chemical patents, 

 but little space is devoted to purely technical chemistry. 

 Is not the JourJial of the Chemical Society sometimes 

 overburdened by abstracts which might better find a 

 place in a book professing to collect receipts for the 

 purely "practical man"? 



The German Chemical Society in 1S77 appointed Dr. 

 C. Bischof of Berlin to prepare a general inde.\ for the 

 first ten volumes of the Berichtc. The arduous task has 

 been admirably fulfilled. Fellows of the Society have now 

 in their hands not only an index to the Bo'ichte, but a 

 volume which is really a general guide to the chemical 

 work published during the period 1868-1877. 



The " Generalregister " extends to 1020 pp. ; of these, 

 162 pp. are devoted to an index of authors, 732 pp. to an 

 index of subjects, 42 pp. to an index of patents, and 84 

 pp. to a systematic classification of the carbon compounds 

 referred to in the index. 



Under an author's name are given, not the exact title 

 of his paper, but a very succinct statement of the leading 

 points in the paper. The same method is pursued in the 

 subjects-index. Taking, for instance, such a general 

 subject as " Dissociation," one finds, first, references to 

 work on the general Theory of Dissociation, e.g. connec- 

 tion between dissociation and temperature, tension, &c. ; 

 then follow special instances of dissociation, inorganic 

 compounds preceding organic. In the case of individual 

 elements or compounds, the references begin with those 

 papers on the existence of the substance in cjuestion, 

 then follow its preparation and formation, its properties, 

 its action on other substances, the action of other bodies 

 on it, its estimation, &c., &c. 



A systematic nomenclature is adopted, more especially 

 for the carbon compounds : the principles which guided 

 the compiler are stated in a few introductory pages. 



The " Generalregister" cannot but be of the greatest 

 value to chemists generally. Almost every chemist is a 

 Fellow of the German Society ; many possess the Berichte 

 complete up to date ; with the Berichtc and this admirable 

 guide which Dr. Bischof has supplied, they can find 

 almost everything that has been done in experimental 

 chemistry within the period i868-i?77. M. M. P. M. 



IRISH ESPARTO GRASS 



IT is now over two years ago since attention was called 

 in our pages to the importance of the purple Molinia 

 {Moliiiin ca-ruled) as a material for making paper. Mr. 

 Christie of Edinburgh sent a small quantity of it to be 

 operated on by Mr. T. Routledge of Sunderland, and the 

 report on this was most ftwourable. In January, 1S79, a 

 notice appeared in the Times also calling attention to the 

 subject, and referring to the above favourable report ; it 

 expressed the hope that some effort would be used to 

 have this grass collected on an extensive scale. It would 

 seem to be ripe for gathering in the early autumn, when 

 some hands could be spared for such work, and as the 

 ground on which it flourishes — wet or partially drained 

 bogs — pays, at least in Ireland, little if any rent, the crop 

 would cost little over the expense of reaping it. _ Since 

 the first notice appeared in our columns, the Spanish and 

 African Esparto grass has been getting more difficult to 

 obtain, and the demand for it has been steadily on the 

 increase. It is said that the greater part of what is 

 gathered in Morocco finds its way to the Times paper- 

 mills, and its value for paper-making is now known in 



America. Several analyses of specimens of the dried hay 

 made from this grass are given in a paper by Dr. Cameron, 

 "On the Composition of a Crop of Hay" {Proc. Roy. 

 Dub. Soc, U.S., vol. ii. p. 101) ijwe select one of these, 

 which yielded as follows :— 



100 parts contained — 



Water 27'95 



Albuminoids ... ... ... ... 7*49 



Fats ... ... ... ... ... 2'7o 



Non-nitrogenous substances 30"oo 



Woody fibre ... 3I'26 



Mineral water ... ... ... ... o'6o 



And 0/ this the ash contained — 



Lime ... ... 28'86 



Magnesia ... ... ... ... ... 4'76 



Potash and soda ... ... 42'I7 



Phosphoric acid ... ... ... ... I2'36 



Sulphuric acid ... ... ... ... 5'98 



Oxide of iron and alumina I'oo 



Chlorine ... ... ... ... ... 4*32 



Silica o'55 



loo'oo 



This freedom from silica of the purple Melic grass is 

 very remarkable. 



From a paper by Mr. W. Smith in the recent number 

 of the Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society, we learn 

 that a very successful trial has been made in the county 

 of Galway to grow this grass in some quantity. As a 

 native plant it is found in every county in Ireland, both 

 on wet heaths and boggy pastures. It flowers in July 

 and August, and its seeds are ripe early in September ; it 

 would seem to grow well on partially drained bogs, and if 

 the surface of these has been burnt, the purple Melic grass 

 grows thereon most luxuriantly. It seems fond of growing 

 in tufts, of somewhat large size, and it does not form a 

 sod like so many other grasses. It would appear that 

 in Ireland alone there are over 1,000,000 acres at the 

 present moment not worth sixpence a year each for any 

 agricultural purpose ; each acre would easily grow half a 

 ton weight of dried Melic grass, which at its lowest value 

 would be worth 2/. Would not this crop, in time, more 

 than compensate for the loss of the potatoe ? It seems a 

 pity that the manufacturer should have to go to the Port 

 of Mogador for what he might get with so much greater 

 ease at the Port of Dublin. 



SIBERIAN METEOROLOGY 



UP to the present time Yakutsk, in North-east Siberia, 

 has often been cited as the place of our earth where 

 the winter is coldest, while the minima observed during 

 Arctic expeditions are beheved to be the lowest known. 

 Neither the one nor the other is true. In Maak's book, 

 "Olekminski Okrug," I find many data which prove that 

 the coldest winter as well as the lowest well-authenticated 

 minima were observed at Werkhojansk, to the north-east 

 of Yakutsk. The name of the author gives us some 

 guarantee that the observations are trustworthy. I give 

 below the minima at some places cited by Maak, and 

 compare them with those observed in Central and Western 

 Siberia, and the Arctic Archipelago of America: — 

 North-East Siberia 



Serdze-Kamen. 67° N. 173° E. (Nordenskjold) - 50-3 F. 



Yakutsk ...62° N. 130° E. (Maak) - 77-3 F. 



Wiljuisk ... 64' N. 122° E. (Maak) - 76-3 F- 



Werkhojansk.. 67^° N. 134° E. (Maak) -SroF. 



Central and IVcsl Siberia 



Yemssei..k ... 584° N. 92° E - 73-5 F- 



Barnaul ... 534° N. 84° E - 61-4 F 



