yiine 1 1, 1 8 74 J 



NATURE 



115 



Magazine informs us, is preparing for a second arctic voyage 

 during the season to Novaya Zemlya. lie intends to launch 

 provision-hden balloons in various directions in the hope of 

 succouring the Austro- Hungarian Trgti/wff' expedition. 



We learn from the Geographical Magazine that the surveys in 

 connection with the European measurement of a degree have 

 been rciumed, under the direction of Col. Granhal of the 

 Austrian and Gener.il de Vecchi of the Italian Engineers, who 

 are now measuring a base-line in tlie neighbourhood of Udine. 



On Saturday last the foundation-stone of a fine new museum 

 in connection with the Torquay Natural History Society was 

 laid by llie president, the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing. The Society 

 was founded in 1844, by a few gentlemen of Torquay, among 

 whom was Mr. Pengelly, and has had a most prosperous career 

 in all respects. The contents of the Museum, wholly Devonian, 

 are of high scientific value. Among the contents of the bottle 

 placed in the cavity of the foundation-stone, was a copy of the 

 last number of Nature, containing a portrait of Mr. Darwin. 



An extract from a letter by Mr. Dunn, the geologist, now on 

 a special exploring expedition to the Transvaal, published in the 

 Cape Argus of May 5, gives a description of a thunder and hail- 

 storm which he experienced at Pietermaritzburg, on April 1 7 : — 

 " Hail-stones, liberally mingled with great masses of ice of very 

 irregular forms, poured down with great violence. The hail- 

 stones were seldom less than i in. in diameter ; the average was 

 from liin. to 2 in. in diameter. These were of very regular 

 spherical form, and consisted of a nucleus of white snow, with an 

 envelope of hard transparent ice. Sometimes they piresented, 

 when broken through, a concentric arrangement of zones, alter- 

 nately white and opaque and transparent. The irregular masses 

 were formed of a nucleus generally longer in one direction than 

 the others, from 2 in. to 4 in. in diameter; projecting all over 

 were stalactites, each one about the thickness of a little finger, 

 and presenting, when broken across, an agate-like structure, as 

 though segregation had built them up. Of these masses I 

 weighed a fe« with the following results : — Three weighed over 

 8 oz., two over 6 oz., and one over 4 oz. The mischief done will 

 net be covered by 2,000/. or anything like that sum." 



M. W. DE FONVIEI.LE made a balloon ascent on May 27, in the 

 " Guillaume Tell." He ascertained the existence of an aerial 

 stream 2,000 ft. thick, blowing with a velocity of 4 yards per 

 second, in a south-east direction. From that current up to 

 10,000 ft. the air was running in a southerly direction,^with nearly 

 the same velocity. The temperature was only 42° F. at 8,000 ft. 

 and rapidly increased when nearing the earth, where it was 77°. 

 The lower part of the northern current for 1,800 ft. was limpid 

 air. At an immense height were floating strata of cirrhus, almost 

 parallel. The larding took place after having run 42 miles in only 

 40 minutes. Sever.1I experiments en sound were made, and others 

 will be made shortly. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 last week include a Oieat Anteater {Afyrmeeop/iaga juia/a) {torn 

 the Argentine Republic, presented by Mr. J. Mendez ; a 

 Temminck's Snapper (Macroclcmmys lem)iiincki\, a North Ameri- 

 can Trionyx (7)70/y.vyf«.r) and other Chelonia, presented by 

 the Smithsonian Institution of Washington ; a Red Deer [Cei-nis 

 daphus], European, presented by Lord H. Russell ; a Vervet 

 Monkey {Cercopit/uciis lalandii) from West Africa, presented by 

 Commander J. H. .Smith ; a Pig-tailed Monkey (Macaeus iiemes- 

 triiiiis) from Jav», presented by Mr. J. E. Kincaid ; a Griffon 

 Vulture {Gyps Jtilvm), European, presented by Mr. S. Reid ; a 

 Stanley Crane (Titrapleryx paradtsia) from South Africa, pur- 

 chased. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The current number of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopic 

 Science contains several articles of interest, most being condensed 

 accounts of longer papers from British and foreign sources. The 

 first memoir is by Mr. Francis Darwin, entitled " Contributions 

 to the Anatomy of the Sympathetic Ganglia of the Bladder in 

 their Relation to the Vascular System." The author's object is 

 to show that there is a reflex mechanism effected by peripheral 

 ganglion cells, through which the coats of the arteries are placed 

 under nervous control, independent of the central nervous 

 system ; so that the statement of Cohnheim to the contrary in 

 his " New Researches on Inflammation" decs not hold. Mr. 

 Darwin illustrates his views by two excellent plates, which de- 

 monstrate that in the bladder .it least ihe ganglionic nerve fibre 

 or fibres (for there are generally two) which accompany each 

 small artery, send branches which are partly distributed to the 

 coats of the vessel, and are partly lost on its outer covering. 

 — This paper is followed by a further resume of recent observa- 

 tions on the Gonidia question, by Mr. W. Archer, which com- 

 mences with the adverse comments of Fries and J. Midler on 

 Schweindener's peculiar theory respecting the relation borne by 

 the gonidia to the lichen-thallus, and is followed by an abstract 

 of the researches of Bornet in the same direction, but favourable 

 to the parasitic hypothesis. — Mr. W. Hatchett Jackson proposes 

 anew method forpreserving m.igtnta-stained microscopic sections 

 which he has found successful. Magenta being a trianime, its 

 triaciJ salts colourless, and nearly all of them soluble in most 

 preservative solutions, it was desirable to obtain a sLible mon- 

 acid salt and a suitable preservative fluid. These conditions are 

 fulfilled by employing as the staining agent the monotannate of 

 magenta, and as the pieservative fluid syrup, with 3 or 4 per 

 cent, of calcium chloride. .'Specimens prepared and mounted by 

 this method have been kept for more than a year, the sugar 

 m.iking them very transparent. — A translation is given by Mr. 

 Perceval Wright of part of Prof. Ilaeckel's now well-known 

 Gastraea theory, the phylogenetic classification of the animal 

 kingdom, and the homology of the germ lamina. The gastraea 

 theory, which is vei-y similar to one published shortly before it 

 by Mr. E. Ray Lankester, divides the animal kingdom into two 

 chief divisions, the Protozoa and the Metazoa, the former of 

 which never form germ lamina.', never possess a true intestinal 

 cinal, and, especially, never develop a differentiated tissue ; 

 whilst the latter always form two primary germ laminre, always 

 possess a true intestinal canal, and always develope differentiated 

 tissues. The Metazoa are further divisible into the Zoophyta (or 

 Coelenterata) and the Bilateria (or bilaterally symmetrical ani- 

 mals). — The last article in the number is an account of Dr. 

 Cunningham's report on the microscopical examination of air, 

 from experiments prosecuted at Calcutta, undertaken with the 

 view of throwing light on the origin of cholera and other eastern 

 epidemics. 



yonrnal of the Chemical Society, April. — This part contains the 

 following papers : — On the products of decomposition of castor 

 oil. No. I. Sebacic acid, by E. Neison. The author prepares 

 the acid by mixing equal weights of castor oil and sodium hydrate 

 with sufficient water to form a pasty mass, and then heating this 

 mass till it solidifies. The product thus obtained is quickly 

 distilled in a copper flask (200 grms. at a charge), the residue 

 dissolved out of the fl.ask by boiling water, and the seb.icic acid 

 precipitated from the solution by hydrochloric acid, the precise 

 method of precipitation being varied according to the stage to 

 which the distillation has been carried. The yield is small, 

 I kilog. of oil giving only about 50 grms. of the acid. Analyses of 

 numerous salts are given. —Action of benzyl chloride on laurel 

 camphor (Laurus caviphora). Preliminary notice, by Donato 

 Tommasi. The reaction is perfoimed in presence of powdered 

 zinc, and the chief product a[pears to be toluene. — t)n the action 

 of Irichloracetyl chloride upon amines. I. Action upon aniline, 

 by D. Tommasi and K. Meldola. The result of the reaction is 



( Cf.H^ 

 phenyl-trichloracetamide N •; CnCUO. This by treatment with 

 (H- 



( CeHjCNOj), 

 fuming nitric acid yields a dinitro derivative N \ CoCUO 



(H 

 — Isomeric terpenes and their derivatives. Part III. On the 

 essential oils of wormwood and citronella, by C. R. A. Wright. 

 The author has studied the action of zinc chloride, and of phos- 

 phorus pentasulphide upon absinthol and citronellol ; .nlso Ihe 



