2l6 



NA TURE 



[July 2, 1908 



volatile chlorides and oxychlorides, the silica remaining 

 unchanged in the boat. — A new automatic principle applied 

 to the carburettor ; A. Lauret. A description of a new 

 form of carburettor for internal combustion engines 

 possessing the advantages of being free from moving parts, 

 strictly automatic in its action, and freedom from liability 

 to derangement. — The constitution of some derivatives of 

 diphenylmethane and the preparation. of some orthodiamines 

 of this series : H. Ouval. — The ai-dialkyl-^-ketonic 

 alcohols and their transposition by dehydration : E. E. 

 Blaise and I. Herman. The course of the transposition 

 under the influence of alkalis of the ketone 



CH,(OH)— C(CH3),— CO— C,H, 

 is shown to consist probably in a dehydration to 

 — CH— C(CH3),— CO— C,H„ 



followed by a migration of a methyl group resulting in 

 the ketone 



CH3— CH = C(CH3)— CO— C.H,. 



— Study of the molecular concentration of the liquids of 

 the organism in the pathological state : Adolphe Javal. 

 The cryoscopic constant of liquids extracted from patho- 

 logical growths is generally greater than the normal figure 

 — o°-56, and it is shown that this cannot be accounted for 

 by the presence of an abnormal excess of sodium chloride. 

 The amount of nitrogenous products in these pathological 

 fluids is above the normal, but is insufficient to account 

 for the observed hypertonicity. — A chemical character 

 differentiating the orthoses and the microclines : Ph. 

 Barbier. The orthoses uniformly contain small quantities 

 either of lithium or rubidium, frequently both ; these 

 elements are absent from the microclines. The exact 

 method of separating these alkalis is given in detail. — 

 Syiialpheion giardi, an entoniscian parasite of Synalphcus 

 longicarpus : H. Coutiere. — The comparative anatomy and 

 histology of the Blochmann glands in the Tectibranchs : 

 R^my iPerrier and Henri Fischer. — Chromatic reactions 

 and classification of the leucocytic granulations of the in- 

 vertebrates : M. Koimann. — Vascular elasticity and its 

 variations : Gabriel Arthaud. — The acetyl derivative of 

 atoxyl in sleeping sickness : Paul Salmon. The acetyl 

 derivative of atoxyl has been in the form of sodium salt 

 (sodium acetyl-para-amido-phenylarseniate) in experiments 

 on the treatment of sleeping sickness. It possesses the 

 advantages of being perfectly soluble, sterilisable at 

 100° C. without decomposition, and less toxic than atoxyl 

 itself. Experiments on rats, guinea-pigs, and apes infected 

 with Trypanosoma gamhiense demonstrate that acetyl- 

 atoxyl may be administered in doses four times as great 

 as atoxyl, causing the disappearance of the trypanosome 

 from the blood of the animals. — The geological constitution 

 of the massif of Bcni .Snassen, Morocco : Louis Gentil. — 

 The eolian origin of the finely divided minerals found on 

 the sea floor : M. Thoulet, An account of a quantitative 

 study of atmospheric dust collected on the tower of Nancy 

 Cathedral, 73 metres above the ground. — Two new sheets 

 of the industrial map of zoology of the coasts of France : 

 M. Joubin. — The torrential origin of ruin-shaped limestone 

 rocks : E. A. Martel. — The radio-activity of the waters of 

 Ax (Ari^ge), demonstrated by photography : F. Garrig^ou. 

 — Rain and the state of water-courses : Paul Garrigou- 

 Lagrrangre. — The ablation of the glacier at Chanionix 

 during fifteen years and during fifty years : J. Vallot. — 

 New magnetic determinations in the western basin of the 

 Mediterranean : Charles Nordmann. 



New Sol'th Wales. 

 Linnean Society, March 25 — Mr. A. H. Liica', president, 

 in the chair. — Notes on the native flora of New South 

 Wales, part vi., Decpwater to Torrington and Emmaville : 

 R. H. Cambage. Although the locality the flora of 

 which is described lies to the west of the Great Dividing 

 Range, a large percentage of the plants noticed occur also 

 in the Sydney district. The similarity of the two floras is 

 attributable to somewhat similar geological formations, for 

 while the Sydney rocks are sandstone, the acid granites of 

 Torrington contain quite 75 per cent, of silica, and the soil 

 derived therefrom approximates to that of a sandstone area. 

 Reference is made to the occurrence of both inland and 

 coastal plants, an association which is intelligible on the 



NO. 201S, VOL. 78] 



ground that the effect of higher altitude is counterbalanced 

 by that of a more northerly latitude. ^Note on the breed- 

 ing habits of the red-bellied newt (Molge pvrrlwgastra, 

 Boie) : E. R. Waite. 



C.^PE Town. 



Royal Society of South <rica, Arril 6. — Mr. S. S. 



Hough, F.R..S., president, in the chair. — Transvaal sea- 

 level temperatures : R. T. A. Innes. The object of the 

 paper was to find what reductions applied to temperature 

 readings in the Transvaal would reduce them to sea-level 

 temperatures. For this purpose, a curve was plotted with 

 the temperature entered horizontally and the altitudes 

 vertically. This was assumed to be a parabola, and the 

 correction was calculated on this assumption. A compari- 

 son with Buchan's maps in Bartholomew's Meteorological 

 Atlas showed great differences. These the writer 

 attributed to the fact that Buchan had no South African 

 data on which to base his correction. — The geology and 

 mineralogy of Albany: Prof. Young. ' The author 

 described the evidence he had of volcanic action having" 

 occurred in the Albany district along a line of crustal 

 weakness running east and west some miles to the south 

 of Grahamstown. He described some investigations he 

 had carried out on some of the rocks and minerals found 

 in the neighbourhood of this volcanic line. The evidence 

 goes to show that the district is mineralised with gold 

 and other rare metals, and that a mineral grease or oil 

 occurs in association with the rare metals. He also sug- 

 gested several chemical reasons to account for the failure 

 of most South African assayers to detect these metals, while 

 the European assayers have found them in several hundreds 

 of samples from Albany during the last two years. 



CONTENTS. PAGR 



Development of Astronomy 193 



Von Richthofen's Chinese Diaries ... ... 194 



The Genera of Flowering Plants. By Dr. Otto 



Stapf 195 



Science in the Textile Industries. By Prof. Walter 



M. Gardner 196 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Gibson: " The Geology of Coal and Coal-Mining" . 197 



Reiche : " Die Vegetation derErde" 197 



Thomas: " From a Hertfordshire Cottage " .... 197 



JetTeries : " The Open Air " 197 



Lyster : "School Hygiene" 197 



Deshumbert : " The Ethics of Nature " 197 



Letters to tbe Editor: — 



Uniformiiy in Lantern-slides. — Prof. G. H. Bryan, 



F.R.S 198 



A Probable New Fluting in the Spectrum of Magne- 

 sium Oxide. — E. E. Brooks ... 19S 



The Halos round Zircons in Biotite. — A. R. Hunt . 19S 

 Lord Ktlvin's Philosophy. By Sir Oliver Lodge, 



F.R.S. . 198 



Recent Work with the Spectroheliograph. {Illus- 



traled. ) By T. F. C 200 



An Investigation of the Sociology and Religion of 



the Veddas. By Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S. ... 201 



Notes 202 



Our Astronomical Column :— 



Astronomical Occurrences in July 207 



A Bright Meleor 207 



Computed Magnitudes for Halley's Comet before 



Perihelion 207 



The Revised Harvard Photometry 207 



The Parallaxes of Nebulae 207 



Occultation of Jupiter's Satellite II. by Satellite I. . 207 



Solar Prominences in 1907 207 



The Temperatuie and Structure of the Sun 207 



The Royal Society Conversazione 207 



A Calorimeter for determining the Relation between 

 Heat-Production and Muscular Work. (/Has- 



l)-aled. i 209 



Recent Researches in the Structure of the Universe. 



By Prof. J. C. Kapteyn 210 



University and Educational Intelligence 212 



Societies and Academies. {With Chart.) 213 



