Jan. I, 1 8 74 J 



NA TURE 



175 



M. Van Rysselberghe's " universal meteorographic system " 

 (which we lately noticed), is here described in full, with illustra- 

 tions, and deserves the attention of meteorologists. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 Edinburgh 



Royal Society, Dec. 22, 1873. — Sir W. Thomson, president, 

 in the chair. At the request of the Council, Dr. Andrews gave 

 an address on ozone. After giving a full n'siimeoi the history of 

 the discovery of the more important properties and relations of 

 ozone, Dr. Andrews showed a number of beautiful experiments. 

 Especially remarkable among these was a class-illustration of the 

 contraction of o.xygen by the silent electrical discharge. By the 

 use of a new form of apparatus a diminution of volume \\'as 

 obtained, exceeding any hitherto recorded. Among the more 

 remarkable of the new experiments shown was one quite re- 

 cently made by the lecturer, proving that coarsely pounded glass, 

 shaken in a vessel containing electrolytic oxygen, rapidly de- 

 stroys the ozone reactions. This experiment forms a new link 

 between a purely mechanical action and a chemical change, 

 closer than any hitherto observed. The chairman, thanking the 

 lecturer in the name of the Society, pointed out how very large 

 a portion of all that we know about ozone is due entirely to the 

 exquisite researches of Dr. Andrews, 



Royal Physical bociety, Dec. 17, 1S73. — Dr. James M'Bain, 

 R.N., president, in the chair. — Ttie communications read were 

 the following : — On a deposit of magnetic iron ore on the shores 

 of Bute, by James .Middleton, M.B. {with exhibition ot speci- 

 mens.) It seems ttiatsome time ago Mr. Cameroir, of Rothesay, 

 had noticed some remarkable kind of black sand on the beach at 

 Bogany Point, at the entrance to Rothesay Bay. Being inte- 

 rested in it, he carried home a specimen, dried it, and made an 

 examination of it, the result being that he found the sand to con- 

 sist of almost pure magnetic iron-ore. Bogany Point is not the 

 only part of Bute where it has been found, as it occurs at Kil- 

 michael in the Kylcs of Bute. An interesting circumstance, 

 probably connected with this deposit, is that captains of small 

 coasters in the neighbourhood say that they have noticed a 

 divergence of the compass near the point where the principal 

 deposit lies. — Experiments regarding the rate of deposition of 

 sediment from fresh and salt water, by David Robertson, 

 E.G. S. A simple way to illustrate the experiment of the 

 precipitation in fresh and sea water is to take two small glass 

 jars of equal size. Fill the two about four-fifths full, the 

 one with sea and the other with fresh water ; then fill both up 

 with clay dissolved in fresh water — say about the consistence of 

 cream — and stir both well up. Set the jars side by side to settle, 

 and in a very short time the precipitation in the jar containing 

 the sea- water will be seen to be going on rapidly, while in the jar 

 with the fresh water little or no change will be observable. 

 From these results, we can easily understand that what- 

 ever changes may have taken place relatively to land and 

 sea from other causes, it does not appear that deposits from fresh 

 water currents can be carried far seaward, — Note on the deposi- 

 tion of mud from various solutions, by Joseph Sommerville. 



Manchester 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, Dec. 16, 1873. — E.W. 

 Binney, F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — " ^Iethod of Con- 

 struction of a New Barometer," by Dr. J. P. Joule, F. R.S., 

 president. The condition of the instrument placed on March 18 

 in the Society's Hall proves that it is possible to use sulphuric 

 acid on the top of the mercurial column without chemical action 

 taking place. I have therefore proceeded to prepare other tubes 

 with a view to test, by practical worlc, the merits of the new con- 

 trivance. A tube of about ,"j inch bore is selected. It is first 

 cleaned by drawing a knotted string through it. It is then bent 

 to the siphon shape ; and near the longer end it is drawn to a 

 capillary tube. It is then washed with nitric acid ; afterwards 

 with sulphuric acid. The sulphuric acid is then drained off. 

 Jlercury is then poured into the short limb. The end of the 

 longer limb is then attached to my mercurial exhauster. On 

 working this the mercury rises in the tube, and, being replenished 

 by pouring it into the short limb, soon arrives at the height due 

 to the atmospheric pressure. It carries with it the acid left ad- 

 hering to its sides, so that after a few hours half, or, what is 

 better, one third of an inch of acid stands above the mercury. 



Small bubbles of air are seen to arise ; but by leaving the tube 

 in connection with the exhauster for a day or two these finally 

 cease. Mercury is then poured into the short limb until that in 

 the longer rises nearly to the capillary part of the tube. This is 

 then sealed and detached from the exhauster. Mercury is then 

 removed from the shorter limb until it stands in the long one at 

 a convenient height. Sulphuric acid is then introduced into the 

 short limb until it forms a column equal to that in the longer 

 limb. A small tube is finally attached to the short limb, and 

 dipping a little w.ay into a small bottle containing a small quan- 

 tity of sulphuric acid, prevents the access of moist air into the 

 short limb. The tube thus completed possesses the following 

 advantages : — 1st. There is the utmost facility in the movement 

 of the column, so that the most minute changes of pressure are 

 at once registered without any dragging. 2nd. The depression 

 produced by capillary action is reduced to one half, so that the 

 siphon arrangement can be satisfactorily used as affording an 

 accurate neutralisation of capillary action. — Mr. Baxendell read 

 a letter from Prof. C. Piazzi Smyth, F. R. S., Astronomer Royal 

 of Scotland, referring to Prof. Reynolds's experiments on explod- 

 ing glass tubes, and confirmatory of the conclusions of the im- 

 mense force exerted by water when suddenly converted into 

 steam, as when lightning rends a tree. 



Vienna 



Imperial Academy of Sciences, Oct. 9, 1873. — Prof Krasan 

 made two contributions in plant physiology ; one of them as to 

 what degree ot heat wheat-seeds can bear without losing the power 

 of germination. It is much higher than had been thought. They 

 coukl bear a boiling heat for some hours, desiccation being 

 effected by very gradual rise of temperature, and the use of 

 chloride of calcium {65^ for one hour was the limit previously 

 supposed) — A second paper treated of the germination of tubers 

 and bulbs of some early-spring plants. — Prof Lindemann com- 

 municated a paper on the behaviour of acrylic acid towards 

 hydrogen liberated from acid solution, and towards agents of 

 oxidation. He finds that acrylic acid at 100° C, with zinc and 

 sulphuric acid, readily passes into ordinary propionic acid ; and 

 that, in oxidation, it furnishes no acetic acid. He thinks acrolein 

 and acrylic acid cannot be constituted similarly to true aldehydes 

 and fatty acids. 



October 16. — Prof. Heller, who had been requested to study 

 the Tunicata of the Adriatic, gave a paper on the vascular 

 system of these animals, and especially Ascidians. The walls Oj 

 the heart (which is a long cylindrical bag, with a thin peri- 

 cardium), show fine striated muscular fibres, not parallel, but 

 forming a network. The two vascular trunks immediately pro- 

 ceeding from the heart have a similar wall-structure, ami con- 

 tract along with it. The vessels supplying the outer coat in 

 Ascidians always appear as double vessels, joined together only 

 at the end of the last ramification ; in one vessel the blood 

 Hows outwards, in the other inwards. The blood in Ascidians is 

 often coloured ; sometimes greenish yellow, sometimes brownish ; 

 while in some species (as .-/. iittestitmlis), it is quite colourless. — 

 Dr. ^'on Reuss communicated the first part of a monograph of 

 the fossil bryozoa of niiocene Tertiary strata in Austro-Hungary. 

 — Prof. Ritter read a paper on the path of Winnecke's Comet 

 (III. iSig). — Prof Bohm described experiments which proved 

 the injurious action of ordinary gas on plants. For example, 

 of ten plants (Fuchsia and Salvia), in pots, in which gas was 

 constantly being conducted to the roots, seven died in four 

 months. It was also shown that the gas does not in the first 

 instance kill plants, but that it poisons the ground. Dr. Bohm 

 recommends Von Jiirgen's method of preserving plants from gas 

 in the ground, which is, to place the pipes in wider pipes com- 

 municating with the outside air, and in which a draught is pro- 

 duced. 



October 23.— M. Stefan gave the result of experiments on 

 evaporation, made chiefly with ether. The rapidity of evapora- 

 tion of a liquid in a tube is inversely proportional to the distance 

 of the liquid surface from the open end of the tube ; it is inde- 

 pendent of the diameter, and increases with the temperature. 

 If a pipe, closed at one end, open at the other, is dipped 

 with the latter in ether, bubbles are developed, and the 

 times in which successive equal numbers of bubbles appear, are 

 (initially) in the proportion of the odd numbers. If the tube 

 contains hydrogen instead of air, the same number of bubbles 

 appears in a four times shorter period. Thus evaporation in 

 hydrogen is four times quicker than in air. If a pipe, with open 

 stop-cock, is dipped in ether, and the cock then closed, the 



