94 



NA TURE 



{Dec. 4, 1873 



Western Ontario, including Zaphrentis feneslrata (n.s.) Blothro- 

 phylluni approximaliim (n.s.); HcHophyllum colbornensis (n.s.); 

 Petraia logani (n.s.) ; and Alecto canadensis (n.s.). — A detailed 

 report is given of the meeting of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, of which an abstract has already 

 appeared in our pages. 



Joii>-nal of the I'ranklin Instiliitc, Oct. 1S73. — We have here 

 the second portion of Prof. Thurston's valuable paper on the 

 molecular changes produced in iron by variations of tempera- 

 ture. He comes to the conclusion that at temperatures above 

 600" and below 70"^ F., iron conforms to the general law for solid 

 bodies, that increase of temperature diminishes tenacity but in- 

 creases ductility and resilience, while decrease of temperature 

 has the opposite effect. Below 70° the tenacity increases with 

 diminishing temperature at the rate of 0'02 to 0'03 per cent, for 

 each degree F. , while the resilience decreases in much higher 

 ratio. IJetween ordinary temperatures and a point somewhere 

 between 500° and 6oo', on the other hand, iron shows marked 

 deviation from the law, the strength increasing to the extent of 

 about fifteen per cert, with good iron. The practical result is, 

 that as iron does not lose its power of sustaining "dead" loads 

 at low temperature, but greatly loses its power of resisting 

 shocks, the factor of safety in structures need not be increased 

 in the former case, where exposure to severe cold is appre- 

 hended ; but that machinery, rails, and otlier structures which 

 have to resist shocks should have large factors of safety, and be 

 protected, if possible, from extremes of temperature. — Mr. 

 Lowe communicates "something new concerning the physical 

 properties of steam," viz., that the external work given out by 

 steam in expanding from the temperature (/') to the temperature 

 (/), bears a constant ratio to the difference ; that is, to {i' - 1). 

 He considers the latent heat performs the internal work, while 

 the sensiljle heat only is available for external work ; in which 

 lase that vapour whose latent heat is the smallest, other things 

 equal, would be the best agent for converting heat into work. — 

 A paper on statistics of coal, is compiled from Mr. James 

 McFarlane's "Coal Regions of America." — Mr. Bilgram fur- 

 nishes an " Elementary treatment of Zeuner's slide-valve ;" and 

 Mr. Murphy has a paper on "Bridge building considered nor- 

 mally." — There are descriptions of machinery for utilisation of 

 coal waste, a stone-cutting machine, and a machine for making 

 paper boxes. The latter produces match-boxes at the rate of 

 3,000 in an hour. Paste is dispensed with, the slips of wrapper 

 being fastened by delicate staples of iron wire. 



American yournal of Science and Arts, November, 1873. In 

 this number we find two contributions in chemistry from the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in one of which it is 

 shown that by solution of cast-iron in an acid, there may be ob- 

 tained, besides gaseous boilies, which escape with the hydrogen, 

 volatile hydrocarbons, boiling between 93° and 155° C, and 

 probably belonging partly to the saturated, partly to the non- 

 saturated series. Of the latter, considerable quantities may be 

 condensed by combination with bromine, after having passed 

 through a freezing mixture. — Prof. H. L. Smith gives a series of 

 investigations made in the Queen's Chamber of the Great Pyra- 

 mid, as supporting the view that a high degree of geometrical 

 and astronomical knowledge must have been possessed by the 

 builders, but without superhuman accuracy. In a paper on 

 rocks of the Ilelderberg era, in the Connecticut Valley, Prof. 

 Dana endeavours to show that Staurolitic slate, hornblendic 

 rocks, gneiss, mica schist, &c., are extensively developed in a 

 formation of Ilelderberg O'^e, and probably the Upper Helderberg 

 or Lower Devonian. There is a letter from Dr. B. A. Gould, 

 Director of the Cordoba Observatory (date Aug. 5), giving an 

 account of work recently done there. Zone observations had 

 been begun in September last year, and were nearly half 

 completed, some 50,000 stars having been obser^'ed. From a 

 note on the hypsometric work of the U.S. Geological and Geo- 

 graphical Survey of the Territories, we learn that four stations 

 were established : at Denver, 5,000 feet above the sea ; Caiion 

 City, 6,000 feet ; Fair Play (m the South Park), 10,000 feet; 

 and Mount Lincoln, 14,000 feet ; the observations at each being 

 taken three times daily. The U.S. Signal Service have recently 

 esiabiished a permanent meteorological station on the summit of 

 Pike's Peak, about 14,000 feet high ; the observations will be 

 published daily by telegraph, and will doubtless be of high scien- 

 tific and popular interest. — Of the remaining matter we m.ay 

 note suggested improvements in filter pumps, and in the arrange- 

 ment of shutters in a dome for an equatorial telescope. 



Poggendorffs Annalen dcr Physik und Chcmic. No. 7. 

 1S73. In this number, M.Quincke continues his " Optische 

 Untersuchungen," investigating at some length the behaviour of 

 polarised light on its passage through gratings. — M. Riess 

 enunciates thus a new kind of reaction of currents : a wire 

 circuit, part of which is traversed by a given (Leyden) battery 

 current, remaining unaltered, various secondary currents, pro- 

 duced in it successively, react on the primary, so that the 

 weaker secondary corresponds to the stronger primary. —Dr. 

 Voller has examined the influence of temperature on electro- 

 motive force of g.ilvanic combinations, and finds that with salt 

 solutions in contact with copper or zinc, the force is diminished 

 by rise of temperature, whereas with acids it is increased. — An 

 interesting paper by Prof. Villari treats of the time flint glass 

 takes to be maenetised, demagne'ised. and to turn the plane of 

 polarisation. He rotated a glass cylinder between the poles of 

 an electro-magnet, where it acted like a cylindrical lens to 

 polarised light passing through the poles. When not magne- 

 tiseti, the cylin ier, whether m motion or at rest, was neutral 

 to the light ; but when magnetised, its plane-rotating power 

 considerably diminished with increasing velocity of rotation ; 

 the reason being that, in such quick revolution, each diameter 

 remained too short a time in the axial direction to acquire all 

 the magnetism it would otherwise have. To give flint glass 

 such diamagnetic intensity, as became observable by rotation 

 of the plane, required at the least o'"ooi244, while to give it 

 all the diamagnetism it is capable of takmg under a strong 

 magnet, at least o"oo24i was necessary. — " A contribution to 

 the theory of thermal currents," by M. Avenarius, appears to 

 be an appropriation of results published by Prof. Tait in 1S70, 

 and which are incorporated in the professor's Rede Lecture 

 for this year. A similar remark will apply to M. Topler's 

 application of air-friction to the deadening of galvanometer 

 needles, &c., which is simply Sir W. Thomson's dead-beat 

 principle. — M. Raye criticises unfavourably M. ZoUner's theory 

 of sun-spots and protuberances ; his own theory represents, in 

 the sun, something like what occurs in our cyclones, in which 

 there is an u/nvard air-current carrying with it aqueous vapour, 

 which forms above into a cloud. He thus differs from Faye, 

 who supposes a descending current, in the solar cyclones. — M. 

 Hennig describes an apparatus for quantitative spectrum 

 analysis, and M. Schneider continues his account of salts of 

 sulphur. We find also notes on galvanic reduction of iron under 

 the influence of an electromagnetic solenoid, and on the reflec- 

 tion and refraction of sound ; from the St. Petersburg and 

 Vienna academies respectively. — An abstract of an instructive 

 paper by M. Vogel on the spectra of comets we hope to give 

 shortly. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 

 Geological Society, Nov. 19. — Prof. Ramsay, F.R.S,, 

 vice-president, in the chair.^The following communications 

 were read : — " Supplemental Note on the Anatomy of Jlvpsilo- 

 phodou Fo.rii," by Mr. J. W. Hulke, F.R.S. The material for 

 this note was a slab from Cowleaze Chine, containing portions 

 of two individuals of Hypsilophodon Foxii, one consisting of a 

 skull with a great part of the vertebral column, thefother of a 

 portion of the vertebral column. The author described some 

 details of the structure of the skull, and especially the palatal 

 apparatus. In connection with the question of the generic 

 rank of Hypsiiopltodon, the author stated that in Hypsilophodott 

 the centra of the sacral vertebrnj are cyhndroid and rounded 

 below, whilst in Igiianodon they are conafressed laterally and 

 angulated below. — " The Drift-beds of the North-west of 

 England, Part i. Shells of the Lancashire and Cheshire 

 Lou-level Clay and .Sands," by Mr. T. Mellard Reade. The 

 author gave a list of the localities in which shells were 

 found, and stated that in all forty. ■;ix species had been met with 

 distributed through the clay-beds, those found in the sand-seams 

 being rare and generally fragmentary and rolled, lie contended 

 that the admixture of shells in the boulder-clay was due to the 

 tendency of the sea to throw up its contents on the beach, whence 

 changing currents and floating ice might again remove them, antl 

 to the oscillations of the land bringing all the be Is at one time 

 or another within reach of marine erosive action. He maintained 

 that it is in the distribution of land and sea at the period of depo- 

 sition of the Lancashire deposits, and not in astronomical 

 causes, that we must seek the explanation of the climate of that 



