April g, 1874] 



NATURE 



453 



the banks of the Dainlree we saw a palm-tree cocoa, which (ar 

 exceeds the unique specimens in the garden of the same genera 

 from Brazil in grandeur and gracefulness. While cutting a given 

 line on the banks of the river Johnstone for the purpose of exa- 

 mining the land, an enormous fig-tree stood in the way, far 

 exceeding in stoutness and grandeur the renowned forest giants 

 of Califoniia and Victoria. Three feet from the ground it mea- 

 sured 150 ft. in circum erence ; at 55 ft., where it sent forth giant 

 Branches, the stem was nearly So ft. in circumference. The 

 River Johnstone, within a limited distance of the coast, offers 

 the first and best inducements to sugar cultivation." 



We are glad to observe signs of life in Dundee, says the Scot- 

 tish Naturalist. That town, long noted for its commercial en- 

 terprise, has had nearly an equal, but not enviable, celebrity for 

 its poverty and deadncss in regard to the studyof natural science. 

 But now we trust that that reproach will soon be wiped away, 

 and that the members of the recently founded Dundee Natu- 

 ralists' Society, a cojiy of whose constitution is before us, will do 

 good work, and show their fellow-citizens that there are other 

 and more valuable di>ua Dei in the fields, woods, and mountains 

 of the interesting county of Forfar, than that wealth for which 

 the inhabitants of the town of the dninnii Dei are deservedly re- 

 markable. The Society has already upwards of forty members, 

 which number will probably soon be considerably increased. 

 We recommend to the Society the formation of a good local 

 museum of the natural productions of Forfarshire. 



In the forty-first volume of the Journal of the Asiatic Society 

 ol Beni^al, Mr. G. E. Dobson has drawn attention to a particu- 

 larly interesting feature in the osteology of the Rhinolophine 

 Bats. In the genera Pliyllorhina, TriiTiwps and Cidops, he finds 

 that in the innominate bone the ilium sends forward a process 

 from its upper part, which meets and anchyloses with an extension 

 of the ileo-ptctineal spine to form a second foramen above that 

 around which the obturator muscles arise. This peculiarity has 

 not been observed in any other mammal. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 last week include a St. John's Monkey [Macaciis sancti-johannis) 

 from China, and a Java-Chevrotain ( Tragulus favaniczis) pre- 

 sented by Captain Nutsford ; a Macaque Monkey {Macacus 

 cynomolgiis) from India, presented by Mr. W. Webster ; three 

 Passenger Pigeons (Ectopistes iiiii^mtoriiis) from North America, 

 purchased ; an Egyptian Monitor {Monitor niloticus) six feet 

 long ; and a Tuberculated Lizard (Iguana tuberculata) from the 

 West Indies, deposited. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



American Journal of Soence and Arts, March. — This number 

 commences with an interesting paper, by Prof. Leconte, On the 

 Great Lava Flood of the West, and on the Structure and Age of the 

 Cascade Mountains. The flood, commencing in Middle Califoinia 

 in separate streams, became in Northern Oregon and Washington 

 absolutely universal ; the whole country, mountain and valley, 

 being buried several thousand feet. Its extent cannot be less 

 than 200,000 to 300,000 square miles ; its average thickness is 

 probably 2,000 ft., and extreme thickness 3,700 ft. From the 

 structure of the Cascade Range (which extended throughout the 

 entire region of the flood) and palxontological evidence, the author 

 thinks the flood began to occur during or after the Miocene ; and 

 the process of flooding probably continued, by successive fissure- 

 flows of lava, chiefly in the Cascade and Blue Mountain Ranges, 

 until the I'ost-Tertiaty ; the liquid matter having been squeezed 

 out by horizontal and vertical pressure, while water, percolating 

 through the hot mass, generatea volcanoes that continued the up- 

 building process. — Dr. Blake of .San Francisco has a paper On 

 the Connection between Isomoiphism, Molecular Weight, and 

 Physiological Action. One of the conclusions arrived at is, that 

 amnng compounds of the more purely metallic elements, the 

 quantity of substances in the same isomorphous group required 

 to produce analogous changes in living matter, is less as the 



atomic weight of the electro-positive element increases. — Mr. 

 Carey Lea describes some experiments made to determine whether 

 it is a general law that when a metallic compound reducible by 

 light is placed in contact with an oxidisable body (or one capable 

 of uniting with CI, Br, or I, as the case may be), the capacity of 

 reduction of the compound by any particular part of the spectrum 

 is influenced by the colour of the body placed in contact with it. 

 But he did not succeed in thus generalising Vogel's results ; 

 which, however, he does not regard as contradicted or disproved. 

 — Some experiments by Piof Wright on the oxidation of alcohol 

 and ether by ozone, seem to indicate that the vinegar process 

 might be materially accelerated by passing ozonised air through 

 the apparatus. — Prof. Marsh communicates a notice (bearing on 

 the genealogy of the modern horse) of new equine mammals 

 from the Tertiary formation ; and we further note papers On 

 Recent Dredging Operations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Mr. 

 Whiteaves) ; On Fossils figured in the Illinois State Geological 

 Report (Mr. Meek) ; On Dissociation of certain Compounds at 

 very low Temperatures (Mr. Leeds), &c. 



Der Naturforscher, February. — We may first note, in this 

 number, an account of some valuable researches by MM. Petten- 

 kofer and Volt, as to the significance of the carbohydrates in 

 nutrition. The authors conclude that carbohydrates, in the 

 animal system, always pass entirely into carbonic acid and water, 

 and do not produce fat ; but they save (crsparen) the fat pro- 

 duced from albumen, and this in proportion to the quantities of 

 the albumen-fat and the carbohydrate. There is also, in the 

 biological department, a succinct statement of Prof. Hneckel's 

 *'Gastraea" theory.— In geology, some observations by M. G. 

 Laube appear to indicate that the transport of debris and stones 

 by ice in East and West Greenland is by no means a common 

 thing ; and a note by M. Albert Heim describes and explains 

 the formation of certain huge cauldron-like cavities in solid rock 

 in the Gletschergarten at Lucerne. — From an examination of 

 plant-remains found in amber. Prof. Caspary has inferred that 

 Pnissia, in the Amber period, must have been much warmer than 

 now ; certain Arctic Ericacea% supposed to be of the period, 

 probably flourished on lofty mountains. — M. Merget's recent 

 observations on thermo-diffusion of gas in leaves, and those of M. 

 Reinke on the function of leaf-teeth, are also given ; while MM. 

 Fliche and thandeau study the relation between chemical compo- 

 sition of the ground and vegetation of Pimis pinaslir. This 

 plant, while a flint-loving species, yet absorbs a considerable 

 quantity of lime ; and in soils with much lime, the increased 

 absorption of this salt is accompanied with a decrease in the 

 other ash constituents, especially potash (this being probably the 

 cause of the bad condition of the tree in such soil). — In the 

 department of physics, we have several notes from English 

 sources : On the Elements present in the Sun (Lockyer) ; 

 On the Affinities of the Magnetic Metals, and On Mole- 

 cular Phenomena in Glowing Iron (Barrett) ; On Propaga- 

 tion of Sound in Fog (Reynolds), &c. And in chemistry, there is 

 a note by M. Thomsen, treating of the influence of temperature 

 on chemical phenomerra of heat ; also a popular summary of M. 

 Ebermayer's researches as to the presence of ozone in the air. — 

 Astronomy is represented by papers on the star shower of No- 

 vember last, and on the direction of the large axes of cometary 

 orbits. 



Bulletin de V Academie P.oyale de Belgiijue. No I, 1874. — In 

 this number M. de Wilde makes some contributions to the theory 

 of bleaching of vegetable fibres which contain incrusling and 

 other matters. He considers that there is substitution of chlorine 

 for hydrogerr in the alkaline liquid, which has served to dissolve 

 the incrusting matter, and that chlorine acts, besides, in decom 

 position of the water, formation of hydrochloric acid, and fixa 

 tion of oxygen in the organic matter. — The same author com 

 municates notes on the preparation of acetylene, the action o: 

 hydrogen on acetylene and ethylene under the influence of pla^ 

 tinum black, and the action of the electric effluvia on some gases 

 and gas-mixtures. In the last he confirms MM. Thenard's ob- 

 servations ; and acetylene, he finds, is condensed by the effluvia 

 into a bquid which soHdifies rapidly, becoming yellow ; the solid 

 detonates under the action of heat. Sulphurous anhydri'ie and 

 oxygen combine directly to form sulphuric anhydride. — Continu- 

 ing his researches on glyceric derivatives, M. Henry describes an 

 oclobromide obtained by action of bromine on tetrabromide of 

 dipropargyle ; and a paper liy M. Spring, describing new syn- 

 theses of hyposulphurous acid and of trithicnic acid, is of theo- 

 retical importance as showing the relations between the sulphates 

 and hyposulphates, and between the latter and trithionates. — 



