May 9, 1907] 



NA TURE 



47 



Chemical Society, April iS. — Sir William Ramsay, 

 K.C.B. F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The magnetic 

 rotation of hexatriene, CH, ; CH.CH : CH.CH : CH., and 

 its relationship to benzene and other aromatic compounds, 

 also its refractive power : Sir \V. H. Perkin. Hexatriene 

 was found to have the rotation 12-196, which, when re- 

 duced by 0'9S2, the constant due to the effect of ring 

 formation, gives 11-214 for benzene as against 11-284 

 actuallv found for benzene. This indicates that benzene 

 contains three contiguous unsaturated groupings (I'ieliuliS's 

 formula), and that these have substantially the same values 

 as in open chain compounds. — Aromatic azoimidcs, part i., 

 /i-hvdroxvphenylazoimide : M. O. Forster and H. E. 

 FieVz. The properties of f-hydroxyphenylazoimide were 

 described and compared with those of camphorylazoimide. 

 — Measurements of the velocities of saponification of the 

 /-menthvl and /-bornyl esters of the stereoisomeric mandelic 

 acids : A. McKenzie and H. B. Thompson. /-Bornyl 

 iZ-mandelate is saponified more quickly than /-bornyl 

 /-mandelate. The bornyl esters are more quickly saponified 

 than the menthyl esters. — The constituents of the essential 

 oil of American pennyroyal. Occurrence of a dextro- 

 menthone : M. Barrowcliff. The oil has been found to 

 consist of (i) an undetermined phenol ; (2) /-pinene ; (3) 

 /-limonene ; (4) dipentene ; (5) /-methyl-3-cyir/ohexanone ; 

 (6) pulegone ; (7) /-menthone ; (8) d-isomenthone ; (9) a 

 sesquiterpene alcohol ; (10) esters of formic, acetic, octoic, 

 decylic, and salicylic acids, and the ester of a dibasic 

 acid of the probable formula CgHuO.,, together with 

 formic, butyric, octoic, and decylic acids in the free state. 

 — Studies in the camphane series, part xxiii., oximes of 

 camphorvlsemicarbazide and camphorylazoimide : M. O. 

 Foi-ster and H. E. Fierz. — The action of ethyl oxalate on 

 thioacetanilide and its homologues : S. Ruhemann. — The 

 action of tribromopropane on the sodium derivative of ethyl 

 acetoacetate : T. E. Gardner and \\". H. Perkin, jun. — 

 Indican. Preliminary notice : A. G. Perkin and W. P. 

 Bloxam. A process is described for the isolation of the 

 glucoside from Indigofera leaves, and it is shown that 

 ihe indican from /. snmairana is identical with that from 

 /. arrccta. — Cupric nitrite : P. C. Ray. — The action of 

 hvdrogen peroxide on potassium cvanide : O. Masson. 

 The products of the action are potassium cyanate and 

 potassium and ammonium carbonates. — The reaction 

 between calcium carbonate and chlorine water : A. 

 Richardson. — The density of hydrogen chloride : R. W. 

 Gray. The highest value obtained for the weight of a 

 litre of the gas at 0° and 760 mm. in London was 1-64091 

 grams, and the lowest 1-64026 grams. The mean value, 

 corrected to lat. 45°, is 1-6397 grams, which is practically 

 identical with the value 1-6398 grams found by Prof. Guye. 

 — Di-iodocamphor : J. E. Marsh and R. de J. F. 

 Struthers. — Acyl-vfi -derivatives of iminothiocarbamic acid 

 and their isomerides : A. E. Dixon and J. Taylor. 



Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, April iS. — 

 Prof. W. Gowland, president, in the chair. — A visit to 

 the goldfields of Orenburg, Russia : F. H. Hatch. Notes 

 of a journey recently made through the district, with a 

 brief review of its physical characteristics, the occurrence 

 of gold in alluvials and quartz, and the systems of mining 

 adopted. — The McMurtry-Rogers process for desulphur- 

 ising copper ores and matte : communicated by T. C. 

 Cloud. A description of this process as carried on at 

 the Wallaroo Works. It consists in calcining sulphide ores 

 containing a large proportion of silica or siliceous material 

 in converters fitted with blast-pipes and air-holes, thereby 

 allowing a strong current of air to pass through the 

 charge ; an important part of the process is the preliminary 

 " swamping " of the ore and the materials to be treated 

 with water. — The ironstone of Cleveland : A. E. Pratt. 

 A brief account of the Cleveland ironstone beds, which 

 produce 40 per cent, of the iron ore raised in this 

 country. The author described the geology, mining, and 

 calcination methods pursued at leading mines, with prac- 

 tical notes on the working of the Cleveland kiln. — Labor- 

 atory crucible and muffle furnaces : G. T. Holloway. 

 An illustrated description, accompanied by a complete 

 specification, of furnaces erected in the author's own 

 laboratorv. 



NO. 1958, VOL. 76] 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, April 29.— M. A. Chauveau in 

 the chair. — A suspended collimator giving the position of 

 the zenith : G. Lippmann. A vertical collimator carry- 

 ing a very fine hole in its focal plane is suspended by a 

 very flexible spring in such a manner that it is perfectly 

 free to oscillate in a vertical plane. The suspending spring 

 is formed of steel ribbon, i/2oth of a millimetre thick, 

 I cm. wide, and 20 cm. long. The system is damped by 

 a set of plates dipping in oil, and ceases to oscillate in 

 two minutes. The apparatus is not sensitive to slight 

 earth tremors, and the luminous image returns to exactly 

 the same spot even after violent shocks. — The represent- 

 ations of an integral by a sum of ten or twelve squares : 

 G. Humbert. — The direct hydrogenation of allyl com- 

 pounds ; Paul Sabatier. The vapour of allyl alcohol in 

 a current of hydrogen carried over reduced nickel main- 

 tained at a temperature of between 130° C. and 170° C. 

 gives nearly pure propyl alcohol, the only impurity being 

 a trace of propionic aldehyde. Reduced copper at iSo° C. 

 produces the same reaction, but both the yield and the 

 qualitv of the product are inferior. — Observation of the 

 eclipse of the sun of January 14, 1907, at the Observatory 

 of Phu-Lien, Tonkin : G. Le Cadet. An account of visual 

 observations, actinometric measurements, and barometric 

 changes during the partial eclipse. — The distances of the 

 satellites of Uranus and of Jupiter : Eniile Belot. — The 

 analytical nature of the solutions of certain partial differ- 

 ential equations of the second order : Charles Goldziher. 

 — The development of hyperelliptic functions in trigono- 

 metrical series : Z. Kryg^owski. — The surfaces developed 

 by a circular helix : E. Barre. — The most general repre- 

 sentation of the equation of nomographical order 3 by a 

 conical nomogram : Maurice d'Ocagne. — The sharp edge 

 integrator : M. Jacob. This form of planimeter is capable 

 of dealing with important questions arising from the equa- 

 tions of Abel and Riccati, and presents especial interest 

 from the point of view of artillery. — The action of a hori- 

 zontal aerial current upon a vertical vortex : Bernard 

 Brunhes. — The direct determination of the absolute value 

 of the electric charge of a monovalent electrolytic ion : H. 

 Peliat. It has been shown by Townsend that the electric 

 charge carried by a gaseous ion is the same as the charge 

 carried bv a monovalent ion during electrolysis; J. J. 

 Thomson has determined the first of these two quantities, 

 thus giving the second indirectly. In the present note a 

 method is given for measuring the charge carried by a 

 monovalent electrolytic ion without assuming any of the 

 properties of gaseous ions. The numerical results are 0! 

 the same order as those furnished by the Thomson- 

 Townsend method. — The dielectric constant of ice and of 

 water in the neighbourhood of 0° C. ; F. Beaulard. It 

 is found that the dielectric constant of ice is of the same 

 order of magnitude as the square of the refractive index ; 

 the constant for water near 0° C. is about double that of 

 ice. — An apparatus for measuring the rate of consumption of 

 petrol in motors : M. Krebs. An acknowledgment of 

 priority for a similar apparatus invented by M. Parenty. — 

 The acoustic efficiency of the telephone : Henri Abraham. 

 Leaving cases of resonance out of account, the best 

 telephone does not transmit more than one-thousandth 

 part of the energy which it receives to the line. 

 — A new microscope and its applications to stereo- 

 scopic photomicrographv : A. Quidor and A. Nachet. 

 —The limit of inflammability of mixtures of ether vapour 

 and air: O. Boudouard and II. Le Chateiier. Refer- 

 ring to a paper on this subject published recently by 

 J. Meunier, the authors point out that they anticipated 

 these results ten years ago. — Researches on the compressi- 

 bility and vapour pressure of mixtures of methyl ether 

 and sulphur dioxide : the formation of a compound between 

 these two bodies : E. Briner and E. Cardoso. Data are 

 given proving the existence under strong compression of a 

 compound having the composition (CH,),0,SO,. The 

 critical temperature and pressure of this compound were 

 measured. — The temperature of formation of the carbides 

 of strontium and barium : Morel Kahn. The reduction of 

 baryta and strontia by carbon can be realised at a tempera- 

 ture near that of the fusion of platinum, with formation 

 of the corresponding carbides. — The preparation and proper- 



