April 28, 1 881] 



NA TURE 



615 



tribution to Mrs. Richard Burlon, British Consulate, Triesie, 

 Austria. 



Owing to tlie outcry caused by the sale to a private person of 

 the Katoomba Falls, in the Blue Mountains, the New South 

 Wales Government, according to the Colonics and India, has set 

 apart for public use large tracts of land round Dangar's Falls, 

 near Armidale, the Great Falls in the same district, and Moona 

 Falls, near Walcha, iu imitation of the reserves or national parks 

 in the United States of America. 



A REMARKABLE frost is said to have occurred in Guatemala 

 on February 10, doing great damage to the tropical vegetation. 



In the review of Messrs. Fison and Hovvitt's " Kamilaroi and 

 Kurnai " that appeared last week, we should have mentioned 

 that the book is published in England by Messrs. Macmillau 

 and Co. 



From Glasgow we have received two satisfactory Reports— 

 that of the Industrial Museum, presided over by Mr. James 

 Paton, and that of the Mitchell Library, under Mr. F. T. 

 Barrett. 



Two HUNDRED AND TEN school teachers nominated on purpose 

 by the 30,000 public teachers of elementary schools in France, and 

 travelling at the expense of the Government, were summoned to 

 Paris iu order to hold a Pedagogic Congress, which came to a 

 close on the 24th. At the same time the Ligue de I'Enseigue- 

 meat, founded by M. Jean Mace, held a series of meetings at 

 the Trocadero. The concluding sitting, which took place last 

 Thursday, was attended by all the school teachers and an im- 

 mense number of political leaders. M. Gambetta delivered a 

 speech praising the advantages of education, commending school 

 teachers as a body, and advocating the importance of interesting 

 ladies in the general diffusion of knowledge. 



Messrs. Marshall Japp, and Co., have published a useful 

 little Half-Holiday Handbook of Geological Rambles around 

 London, which will be found to add much interest to a Saturday 

 afternoon walk into the country. 



Mr. H. L. Janssen van Raay writes to us from Batavia, 

 March 21, that in the enumeration of the different geographical 

 societies of the world in Nature, vol. xxiii. p. 299, the Geo- 

 graphical Society at Samarang (Java), founded in 1879, was 

 omitted. 



FiDELls BuTSCH SoHN of Augsburg has issued a priced 

 catalogue of the extensive library of the late Prof. W. P. 

 Schimper of Strassburg. 



The new number of the Proceedings of the Bristol Natural 

 History Society contains some good papers : — Some Optical 

 Illusions, by Prof. S. P. Thompson ; Underground Tempera- 

 ture, by Mr. E. Wethered ; The Structure and Life-History of 

 a Sponge, by Mr. W. G. SoUas ; On some Ca>es of Prolification 

 in Cyclamen Persicum, by Mr. A. Leipner ; The Ethnology of 

 the Paropamisus, by Dr. J. Beddoe, F.R.S. ; Catalogue of the 

 Lepidoptera of the Bristol District, by Mr. A. E. Hudd, and of 

 the Fungi, by Mr. C. Bucknall ; The Pomarine Skua, by M. 

 H. Charbonnier. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include three Short-tailed Wallabys (Halinaliirns 

 brachyurus) from West Australia, presented by Sir Harry St. 

 George Ord, C.B., H.M.Z.S. ; three Green Lizards (Lacerla 

 viridis) from Jersey, presented by Mr. E. H. Bland ; a Rufous 

 Rat Kangaroo {Hypsipryinnus rtifcscens) from Australia, pre- 

 sented by Mr. A. W. Wyatt ; a Lion {Fdis Ico 9 ] from Africa, 

 deposited ; three Entellus Monkeys (Semnopit/iecus entellus 

 i 6 9) from India, purchased ; a Lion (Felis leo 9 ) from Africa, 

 a Common Otter (Lutra vulgaris 9 ), British, received in ex- 

 change ; a Collared Fruit Bat {Cynonycteris collaris), a Vtdpine 

 Phalanger {Phalangista vulpina), born iu the Gardens. 



CHEMICAL NOTES 



In Journal pract. Cheviie, Herr Cech, in the course of a 

 paper on the decompositions which occur during the rotting of 

 eggs, describes experiments which he thinks establish the possi- 

 bility of obtaining a good soap free from smell, by saponifying 

 with soda the residue obtained by evaporating to dryness rotten 

 eggs, freed from their shells. Such a dried residue yields about 

 lo'S per cent, of oil, fi'esh eggs giving about 1 1 per cent. 



The changes undergone by grain %\hen stored in underground 

 magazines have been recently studied by M. Miintz (Compt. 

 rend.). The magazines of the Paris Omnibus Company are 

 partly underground ; the grain in the upper parts is, however, 

 exposed to tlie influence of atmospheric chancres ; it is found to 

 contain much more moisture and to be at a higher temperature 

 than that in the lower parts. The relative amounts of deter- 

 ioration in grains may be measured by the quantities of carbonic 

 anhydride exhaled. When grain is freely exposed to air about 

 ten times as much carbonic anhydride is given off as when the 

 grain is kept in closed receptacles ; less oxygen is absorbed than 

 corresponds with this evolution of carbon dioxide. Normal 

 grain contains from II to 19 per cent, of moisture : the greater 

 the moisture the greater the exhalation of carbon dioxide. 

 The amount of the gas evolved also increases with increase of 

 temperature until a point is reached at which true chemical 

 combustion of the carbon begins, as distinguished from the 

 physiolojical combustion which has preceded it. Grain which 

 is to be kept for any time ought to be very dry, the receptacle 

 containing it ought to be completely closed, and all parts of this 

 receptacle ought to be at approximately the same temperature. 



Mr. V. Lewes, in the same journal, describes barium penta- 

 thiona'te, BaSjOg . 3H„0, and sever.il potassium pentathiniates, 

 prepared by slow evaporation in a vacuum of " Wackenroder s 

 solution." These experiments appear to establish beyond doubt 

 the existence of pentathionic acid. 



Dks. Dupre and Hake have applied their method for the 

 estimation of carbon (C/tetn. Soc. Journ.)—Va. burning in oxygen, 

 absorbing carbonic anhydride in baryta water, converting the 

 barium carbonate into sulphate, and weighing as such— to the 

 estimation of carbon in air ; their experiments apparently de- 

 monstrate the presence in London air of carbon in forms other 

 than carbonic anhydride, and probably in the form of some 

 volatile organic compounds, not as suspended matter. Drs. 

 Dupre and^Hake claim that their method of analysis enables 

 them to estimate carbonic anhydride, carbon in the peculiar 

 forms already noticed, and suspended carbonaceous matter in 

 air. 



In the same journal there is a contribution to the history of 

 ozone by Prof. Hartley of Dublin. The main conclusion-, drawn 

 from exjierimeutal data are these : Ozone is a normal constituent 

 of the higher atmosphere, and is present therein in larger pro- 

 portion than near the surface of the earth. The limitation of 

 the solar spectrum in the ultra-violet is readily accounted for by 

 the absorptive action of atmospheric ozone, without taking into 

 account the possible absorptive power of nitrogen and oxygen. 

 The blue tint of the atmosphere is probably due to ozone. It is 

 shown in the paper that the wave-length of the extreme ray 

 capable of absorption by considerable quantities of ozone is 

 about 316. A quantity of 2-5 mgm. of ozone iu each square 

 centimetre of sectional area of a column of air produces, it is 

 said, a full sky-blue tint. Incidentally experiments are described 

 in which one volume of ozone was distinctly detected by the 

 sense of smell in 2,500,000 volumes of air. 



Mr. G. S. Johnson has obtained ammonia (Cliein. Soc. 

 Journal) hy passing hydrogen and (presumably) pure nitrogen 

 over cold or moderately heated spongy platinum : when however 

 the mixed gases were passed over hot asbestos before traversing 

 the spongy platinum, no ammonia was formed. Mr. Johnson 

 thinks that nitrogen probably exists in two forms, an active and 

 an inactive form, the latter being produced by the action of heat 

 on the former. 



Dr. Dupr6 has introduced (Analysi) a slight modification 

 into the ordinary method for observing a colour change in 

 titrating with standard solutions, which is said to render the 

 perception of the change very sharp and accurate. He views 

 the liquid to be titrated through a glass cell containing a solution 

 of the same colour as, and about equal in intensity to, the liquid 

 itself. 



