^/rz7 2 3, i874] 



NA TURE 



495 



dent, in the chair. — Dr. A. W. Tilden read a paper On Aqua 

 Regia and the Nitrosyl Chlorides. He finds that when the 

 gases evolved on gently heating aqua reL;ia are passed into con- 

 centrated sulphuric acid, a product is obtained which, at a low 

 temperature, deposits crystals of nitrosyl sulphate, NOHSOj. 

 Both these crystals, and the liquid producing them, when mixed 

 with sodium chloride and gently heated, evolve nitrosyl chloride 

 NOCI, an orange-yellow gas which may be condensed to a deep 

 orange-red liquid boiling at — S' C. The author could not ob- 

 tain the dichloride NOCI.,, which Guy Lussac supposed to exist, 

 but which he believes to be merely a solution of chlorine in the 

 monochloride. — Dr. C. R. A. Wright then read a paper On 

 Isomeric Terpenes and their Derivatives, Part IV. § i. On 

 Cajeput Oil, by C. R. A. Wright and C. Lambert. It w.as 

 found that the cajeputol, CjdHjgO, boiling at 176° — I79°C., ob- 

 tained from oil of cajeput, combines with bromine forming the 

 compound Cj^HjgBr.jO. On heating this it splits up into 

 cymene, Cj„Hj4, hydrobromic acid, and water. § 2. Action of 

 Pentasulphide of Phosphorus on Terpenes and their Derivatives, 

 by C. R. A. Wright. When cajeputol is treated with the penta- 

 sulphide, it yields a mixture of terpene and cymene, the latter 

 being formed by a secondary action of the pentasulphide on tlie 

 terpene. This was shown really to be the case by treating the 

 terpene Irom oil of turpentine and hesperedene with the penta- 

 sulphide, when cymene was formed in both cases. 



Anthropological Institute, April 14. — Prof. Busk, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — Mr. John Brent exliibited and described 

 a series of flint implements from Canterbury and Reculver. — A 

 description, by Mr. Howorth, was read of an Ashanti fetish 

 letter, or curse. The document, which was lent by Capt. Gordon 

 for exhibition, was written in the Arabic character and in the 

 language of the Barbu tribe, on a sheet of rough paper of large 

 foolscap size, folded about two inches square and tied with green 

 thread. The letter contained a prayer that the English might 

 fight among themselves and return to the coast, and that pesti- 

 lence might overtake them. The Ashanti grievances were enu- 

 merated, and it stated that the white man came with covetous 

 eyes and seized the land, and that covetousness brought down 

 tire curses of Suleiman the high priest. It was thought by the 

 English scouts that it was Suleiman himself who endeavoured 

 to stay the British troops on their approach by throwing down 

 the fetish, and that his failure would probably cost him his life. — 

 Capt. S. P. Oliver, R.A., contributed a series of papers On the 

 Non-historic Stone Relics of the Mediterranean. The series 

 comprised full accounts, with ample illustrations, of the Torre 

 dei Giganti, Malta ; Tumuli near Smynia ; Dolmen-mounds of 

 the Albegna ; Sardinian Nuraggls ; and the .Sepolture de is 

 Gigantes of Sardinia. 



Meteorological Society, April 15.— Dr. R.J. Mann, pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — On the Climate of Patras, Greece, by Rev. 

 II. A. Boys. The author shows that the climate of Patras is 

 naturally mild and relaxing, seldom disagreeably dry, and not 

 often very damp, being indeed drier by a good deal than any 

 part of England. — Remarks on the Atlantic Hurricane of August 

 20 to 24, 1873, by W. R. Birt. — On the Meteorology of Decem- 

 ber in the southernmost part of the Southern Indian Ocean, by 

 Robert II. Scott, F. R.S. This paper has been prepared for the 

 purpose of giving information on the climate of Kerguelen 

 Island to those gentlemen who are going out to observe the 

 Transit of Venus in December next.— On the Diurnal Variations 

 of the Barometer, by J. K. Laughton. Whilst it has long been 

 well known that barometric maxima and mirima occur daily with 

 unfailing regularity, especially within the tropics, the cause of 

 this recurrence is yet unknown ; and though it has been attri- 

 buted to the different temperature and humidity at different 

 times of the day, such explanation is far from satisfactory, for 

 the maxima occur at the times of mean temperature and 

 humidity without regard to the direction of the change, and the 

 minima occur indifferently at the times of both greatest and least 

 temperature and humidity. It seems that an explanation is rather 

 to be found in the inertia of the atmosphere, which in the first 

 instance permits its elastic force to be increased by a rapidly 

 increasing temperature before the inertia of rest can be overcome 

 sufficiently to allow it to enlarge its volume in due proportion, 

 but when that inertia of rest is overcome, then the inertia of 

 motion permits it to move away from the place of observation 

 in excess of what is due lo the increased elasticity ; the nocturnal 

 maximum and minimum being caused by the resilient power of 

 the air, which gives it alternately an inward and outward motion, 

 and each way in excess of what is due tn the decrease or increase 



of elasticity by reason of the inertia of motion. If this explana- 

 tion is correct, we ought to find a certain tendency of the wind 

 towards east in the morning and towards west in the evening ; 

 and this tendency does seem to be shown in the very few pub- 

 lished observations which permit a comparison to be made. 

 Further observations, as confirming or disproving the proposed 

 theory, are much to be desired. 



Victoria Philosophical Institute, April 13. — Mr. Edmund 

 W. Gosse, of the British Museum, read a paper On the Ethical 

 Condition of the Early Scandinavian Peoples, in which he illus- 

 trated the peculiar features of the civilisation of Scandinavia in 

 pagan times, and showed in wiiat salient points that civilisation 

 differed from the spontaneous developments of morality in other 

 cultivated heathen races — the Elder or Poetic Edda of Scemund 

 Sigfussen being taken as the text. 



Manchester 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, March 24. — Rev. 

 William Gaskell, vice-president, in the chair. — On some of the 

 Perplexities which the Art and Architecture of the Present are 

 preparing for the Historians and Antiquarians of the Future, by 

 the Rev. Brooke Herfofd. — A Few Observations on Coal, by 

 E. W. Binney, V. P., F. R.S. From his observations the author 

 was led to conclude that soft or cherry coal was chiefly composed 

 of the bark, cellular tissue, and vascular cylinders of coal plants 

 with some macrospores and microspores. That caking coal had 

 much the same composition, except that it contained a greater 

 proportion of bark in it. That splint coal had a nearly similar 

 composition, but with a great excess of macrospores. That 

 cannel coal, especially that yielding a brown streak, was formed 

 of the remains of different portions of plants with a great excess 

 of microspores, which had long been macerated in water. These 

 conclusions were arrived at merely as to the composition of the 

 different kinds of coak No doubt each seam would be mate- 

 rially affected by the nature of the roof, whether the latter was 

 an open sandstone or a close and air-tight black shale or blue 

 bind, for the former would allow the free escape of gaseous mat- 

 ter, and the latter would prevent its escape. It is well known 

 that the character of the roof has a deal to do with the quality of 

 the coal under it. 



April 7. — E. W. Binney, F.R.S., vice-president, in the 

 chair. — The chairman exhibited to the meeting some portion 

 of the cast-iron roof from the Salford Station of the Lan- 

 cashire and Yorkshire Railway, which after having been 

 up for a period of four years was so much corroded and damaged 

 that it had to be taken down. He attributed the effects to sul- 

 phuric acid and soot arising from the combustion of the coal used 

 in the locomotives passing under it, aided by the action of steam 

 and vibration. — On the Action of Nascent Hydrogen or Iron, by 

 William H. Johnson, B.Sc. In a paper read before the 

 Society last year, the author showed that a piece of iron 

 immersed in hydrochloric, sulphuric, or other acid which 

 evolves hydrogen by its action on the metal, on breaking 

 gives off bubbles of gas from the surface of the fracture. It 

 subsequently occurred to the author that these bubbles 

 might be produced by subjecting the metal to the action 

 of nascent hydrogen for some time, and without the aid of acid 

 at all. To test this he connected two pieces of iron wire '07" diam. 

 respectively with the copper and zinc plates of a battery of 50 

 Daniell's cells and immersed them in a vessel of Manchester 

 town's water at a distance of one inch apart. On closing the 

 current, bubbles of hydrogen were given off from the wire con. 

 nected with the zinc, but none from the wire connected with the 

 copper, the oxygen liberated at the pole apparently forming 

 oxide of iron which in 12 hours formed a thick smudge at the 

 bottom of the vessel. After 24 hours the surface of the wire 

 connected with the zinc was unchanged, but on moistening the 

 fracture bubbles were given off abundantly just as if it had been 

 immersed in acid. The other wire, on the contrary, though 

 much oxidised and eaten away, did not give off bubbles when 

 broken. A variety of experiments were made in the same way 

 with similar results. The author concludes that if the oxidation 

 of the surface of iron be as a rule accompanied by the absorption 

 of nascent hydrogen into the interior of the iron, then the dimi- 

 nution of strength and toughness consequent on this will affect 

 iron ships, telegraph cables, and other structures in which iron is 

 largely used and which are constantly immersed in water. 

 Edinburgh 

 Geological Society, March 13.— Mr. Andrew Taylor ex- 

 Inbited a specimen of coni converted by a recent explosion in 



