May i6, 1907] 



NA TURE 



71 



can only be collected if it be protected from reaction with 

 carbon monoxide. 



Having overcome the difficulties of maintaining an 

 electric arc in highly compressed air, it is shown that 

 the production of oxides of nitrogen exhibits an increased 

 eiliciency attributable to pressure. 



Linnean Society, April l8. — Dr. A. Smith Woodward, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — The cecological 

 functions of stolons and cleistogamous flowers : J. C. 

 Shenstorte. The author pointed out the advantages to 

 the plants by . the colony-forming habit, such as its more 

 certain pollination and greater power of holding its own 

 against competitors, instancing as examples BelUs 

 percnnis. Thymus Serpyllum, and Mcrciirialis percnnis. 

 Further examples were dwelt upon in the cases of Urtica 

 dioica, Adona Moschatellina, and the violets, Viola 

 odorata and I', caniiia, where both stolons and cleisto- 

 gamous flowers cooperate in keeping the colonies compact. 

 — The conservation of existing species by constitutional or 

 physiological variation giving greater power of adaptation 

 without perceptible change of structure : A. O. Walker. 

 The author referred to a supposed case of two healthy men 

 going to an unhealthy climate : one, proving immune to 

 the local diseases, might conceivably transmit that quality 

 to his children ; the other, falling a victim to the climate, 

 would leave no descendants. .As instances he brought 

 forward the case of Crcpis laraxacifoUa, long known in 

 Wales as a rarity, w'hich in i8g6 onwards became 

 extremely abundant at Colwyn Bay. He considered that 

 this might be accounted for by a different variety, morpho- 

 logically identical, yet physiologically distinct, having been 

 introduced, which, by its ability to adapt itself to its 

 surroundings, had rapidly extended its area of growth. 

 .Another case was of Cardawiiic pratcnsis, usually stated 

 to grow in inoist meadows, which is accurate as regards 

 North Wales, but in Kent its favourite habitat is coppice 

 woods, the second year after cutting the undergrowth. 

 It is frequent on dry banks, on masses of roots of trees 

 or shrubs, probably as .xerophilous a station as could be 

 imagined. — .An aberrant Coccid : Hugh Scott. The 

 species of Coccid, or scale-insect, described was found at 

 the northern border of the .Algerian .Sahara by Mr. J. J. 

 Lister. — Some results of inoculation of leguminous plants : 

 Prof. W. B. Bottomley. In May, 1906, experiments 

 were begun ; tares, Vicia saliva, were chosen, and inocu- 

 lated seeds set in sterilised sand, to which the requisite 

 potash and phosphate salts had been added. .A second 

 set of pots were prepared with untreated seed, but besides 

 the potash and phosphate, nitrate of soda proportionate 

 to 2 cwt. per acre was added. In the last week of July 

 the results were tested and found to be : — tares, with 

 nitrate of soda, yielded 1-92 per cent, nitrogen ; tares, 

 inoculated, yielded 307 per cent, nitrogen, showing that 

 the latter contained more than 50 per cent, more nitrogen 

 than those grown with nitrate of soda, the food value 

 being correspondingly increased. Specimens of field crops 

 were obtained from Scotland to check these results, in 

 .September, and the three experimental plots proved : — 

 Section .A, no nitrogenous manure, 3-41 per cent, nitrogen ; 

 Section B, nitrate of soda, 3.75 per cent, nitrogen ; 

 .Section C, inoculated, 4-04 per cent, nitrogen. Here the 

 differences are less, due to the fact that farm soil invariably 

 contained a certain number of the nitrogenic bacteria, 

 which accounted for these results. Section B showed a 

 yield of 9 tons 8 cwt. per acre, and Section C (inoculated) 

 show-ed 12 tons 5 cwt. of fodder. 



Chemical Society, May 2.— Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., 

 F.R.S., president. In the chair. — ^The chemical action of 

 the radium emanation, part i., action on distilled water ; 

 Sir \V. Ramsay. The action of the einanation alone on 

 water decomposes it into explosive gas, mixed with excess 

 of hydrogen ; it has been shown that the emanation, when 

 mixed with explosive gas, causes re-combination, and the 

 rate at which the decomposition of w'ater takes place has 

 been measured. The reason of the excess of hydrogen has 

 not yet been elucidated. — Freezing-point curves of the 

 menthyl mandelates : .A. Findlay and Miss E. M. 

 Hickmans. From a study of the freezing-point curves 

 for mixtures of /-menthyl /-mandelate and /-menthyl 

 i/mandelate, it is found that /-inenthv! c-mandelale exists 



as a definite, partially racemic compound having a stable 

 melting point of .S3°.7. It w-as also pointed out that other 

 freezing-point curves indicate the existence of true 

 racemates in the liquid state.— The constitution of homo- 

 eriodietyol. .A crystalline substance from eriodictyon 

 leaves ; F. B. Power and F. Tutin. Homo-eriodictyol, 

 CisHnOj, is isomeric with hesperitin, and similar to the 

 latter in many of its properties, contains one methoxyl 

 group, yields a tetra-acetyl derivative, and is hvdrolysed 

 by aqueous potassium hydroxide to phloroglucinol and 

 ferulic acid. From these results it is concluded that homo- 

 eriodictyol must possess the following constitution, 



OH 

 HO(^ ^ CH:Cn.CO.-^ \0H. 

 MeO. ' OH 



Eriodictyol, C,,H,30, (m.p. 267°), a crystalline substance, 

 which was also isolated by the authors from eriodictyon 

 leaves, contains no methoxyl group. Homo-eriodictvol is 

 probably a methyl ether of eriodictyol. — The relation 

 between valency and heats of combustion. Preliminary 

 note : G. Le Bas. The heat of combustion of a substance 

 may be regarded as made up of (a) an absorption of heat 

 due to the dissociation or decomposition, and (6) an evolu- 

 tion of heat due to the coinbination of the isolated atoms 

 with o.xygen. .A study of molecular heats of combustion 

 reveals the following law, which appears to be generally 

 valid. The heat of combustion of an organic compound 

 is equal to the heats of combustion of its possible dis- 

 sociation products. The factor (a) is negligibly small as 

 compared with (b). The heats of combustion of organic 

 compounds in most cases are found to be the same as 

 those of saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons and 

 hydrogen, or of mixtures of these. Similarly the factor 

 (a) is negligibly small as compared with (fc) in the case 

 of the saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons, and there- 

 fore their heats of combustion are sensibly those of their 

 isolated atoms, pb(s an excess for the latter, owing to 

 unsaturation. These relations lead to a second law which 

 applies to all the hydrocarbons. The molecular heats of 

 combustion of the hydrocarbons arc proportional to their 

 valency numbers. — The velocity of hvdrolysis of aliphatic 

 amides by alkali : J. C. Crocker and F. H. Lowe. The 

 reactions of the aliphatic amides with sodiuin hydroxide 

 are shown to follow the bimolecular relation 



K = 



£^a• 



where as is the degree of dissociation of the alkali. — The 

 addition of iodine to acetylenic acids : T. C. James and 

 J. J. Sudborough. — The chemical changes induced in 

 gases submitted to the action of ultra-violet light : D. L. 

 Chapman, S. Chad wick, and J. F. Ramsbottom. Dry 

 carbon dioxide is decomposed by ultra-violet light. The 

 rate of contraction of a mixture of carbon inonoxide and 

 oxygen is practically independent of the degree of 

 desiccation of the gases, due to the fact that, though the 

 presence of moisture causes the rate of formation of carbon 

 dioxide to rise, it results in an equivalent reduction in the 

 yield of ozone. — .Studies of the pcrhalogen salts, part i. : 

 C K. Tinkler. — The interaction of cyanodih}-drocarvonc, 

 aniyl nitrite, and sodium ethoxide : .A. Lapworth and 

 E. Wechsler. — Contributions to the chemistry of oxygen 

 coinpounds, li., the compounds of cineol, diphenvlsulph- 

 oxide, nitroso-derivatives, and the carbamides with acids 

 and salts : R. H. Pickard and J. Kenyon. 



DfBLIN. 



Royal Dublin Society, April 23.— Prof. J. A. McClelland 

 in the chair. — Pleochroic halos : Prof. J. Joly. The paper 

 is descriptive of more extended observations on the sub- 

 ject. Both in cordierite and biotite the halos attain a 

 like maximuiTi radius, and appear only formed around 

 strongly radio-active enclosures. Their origin appears to 

 be referable to some action of the a rays. In the 

 radial dimension it is found to agree with Rutherford's 

 measurements of the effective range of these rays in inatter 

 of similar density. — The quantitative spectra of barium, 

 strontium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium : 

 Dr. James H. Pollok and .\. G. G. Leonard. The 



NO. 1959, VOL. 76] 



