ytdy 30, 1874] 



NATURE 



257 



to yellow : it also acts rapidly and can be kept in a dry form. — 

 The Rev. E. O'Meara describes a collection of Dialomacea; from 

 Spitzbergen, including many species not enumerated by Cleve's 

 Diatoms ot the Arctic .Sea. — Mr. Buck describes and figures a 

 new Polyzoon belonging to the family Halcyonekic, named by 

 him Clavi^poya hydricis, from a single specimen obtained in the 

 expedition of the Porcupine in the Mediterranean. — An article 

 from the Indian Maiical Gazette, On the etiology of Madura 

 foot, is discussed, the vegetable origin of that disease being 

 severely handled. A note by the Rev. ftl. J. Berkeley is appended, 

 strongly supporting Dr. V. Carter's original observations. — Dr. 

 W. G. Farlow, of Harvard University, writes On a sexual growth 

 from the prothallus oi Pleris cretica, in which he shows that whilst 

 in some of the prothalli archegorina and antheridia were deve- 

 loped, others gave rise to young fern-plantlets by a direct bud- 

 ding of the cells, without any sexual intervention. The paper is 

 illustrated with tw o plates. — Mr. E. R. Lankester has two papers, 

 one on TenjuateHa typiea, a new type of Infusoria, allied to the 

 Ciliata, from Naples ; peculiar in not possessing cilia, not even 

 round the oral region and capitular jirominence, but in their 

 place a bell-like prolongation of the body-wall like a ring of 

 united cilia. The second paper is on the heart of AppenJieii- 

 laria fureata, in which that organ is shown to consist of two 

 nucleated cells connected by fourteen or so slender vibratile 

 fibrillo?, whose mutual connection by .a membrane is uncertain. 

 This organ is thus nothing more than a " most vigorous churn, 

 beating and stirring up the fluid in the great perivisceral hocmo- 

 lymph space without propelling it in any particular directions" 

 The paper ends with some suggestive remarks on the reduction 

 of the structure of organs in diminutive elaborate types generally. 



jfiistiis Lie/iif's Anna/en der Chtinie nnd Pharmacie. — Band 

 172, Heft 2. — The following papers are published in this part : — 

 On the salts of parabanic acid, by N. Menshutkin. The formula 

 of the ammonium salt is C^IIoN.jO^. NII3 ; by the action of 

 water on the talt the ammonium salt of oxaluric acid is pro- 

 duced, and by the action of heat alone oxaluramide. The potas- 

 sium,and sodium salts have likewise been examined and two 

 silver salts obtained, of which the formulce are C3HAgN._,03.H20 

 and CgAgjNgOs.Hg^* — The same author contributes a paper en- 

 titled, "Notice on potassium oxalurate and the determination of 

 the alkaline metals in the salts of the acids belonging to the uric 

 acid group." — On the oxidation products of colophony and oil of 

 turpentine, by Dr. Josef Schreder. By digesting colophony with 

 dilute sulphuric acid, isophthalic acid (C5H5O4) and trimellithic 

 acid (C,|HgO|;) are obtained. Turpentine oil oxidised by dilute 

 nitric acid, gives terebinic and terephtlialic acids. — On the con- 

 version of cinchonidine into an oxy-base, by Dr. J. Skalivert. 

 Cinchonidine is mixed with carbon disulphide and bromine 

 dropped into the mixture. A brominated compound of the 

 formula CooHoaBrjN.jO is thus obtained, which on treatment 

 with potassium hydrate yields t.he new oxy-base C.,|,Ilo4N.,03. 

 Analyses of the sulphate and of the double Ft salt are given. — 

 On ferrous anhydrosulphate, by T. Bolas, already noticed in the 

 Journal of the Chemical Society. — The following are commu- 

 nications from the Tubingen laboratoiy :— (i)On the cyan- and 

 carboxyl derivatives of diphenyl, by Oscar Doebner. — (2) On 

 normal phenyl propyl alcohol and allylbenzene, by Leopold 

 Riigheimer. — (3) Researches on the synthesis of allylbenzene, 

 by Rudolf Fittig. — (4) Researches on the constitution of piperine 

 and its decomposition products pipcrlc acid and piperidine, by 

 R. Fittig and W. H. Mielck. This is the fourth notice on the 

 subject, and the authors now touch upon the constitution of 

 piperic acid. By the action of bromine a tetra-brominated acid 

 CjoHii|Br404 is obtained which by the .action of sodium carbonate 

 is converted into thedibrominated compound CijHgliroOj. This 

 last substance boiled with soda solution and precipitated by an 

 acid yields a monobrominated body of the formula Ci.>H8Br05. 

 The authors next proceed to the consideration of a new 

 acid which they have obtained by acting upon mono- 

 brompiperonal with bases, and then decomposing the salt 

 produced by means of hydrochloric acid. The new acid has 

 the formula 'C,„lIi„Brj05, and must be regarded as the substi- 

 tution jroduct'of the acid CjoHj/).-,. By the action of soda 

 on the sodium salt of the new acid an intermediate compound 

 having the formula Ci2H8Br.jO,, has been produced. Bro- 

 mine dropped into a solution of hydropiperic acid in carbon 

 disulphide, gives rise to the formation of the compound Cp^Hj., 

 BroOj. In the concluding section the decomposiiion of hydro- 

 piperic acid by means of fused potassium hydrate is treated of. 



The chief product of the reaction is protocatechuic acid, C^H^Oj, 

 H„0. The authors finally assign the constitutional formula 



-/o\cii 



C„H3— 0/^"2 



\CH = CH — Cll = CH — CO — OH 



to piperic acid. — The part concludes with papers by Peter Greiss 

 On the sulphurisation of sulphurobenzoic acid or dicarboxyl- 

 sulphocarbanilide, and by M. t;, Gustavson On tetra-iodide of 

 carbon. This substance has l)een obtained by the action of 

 aluminic iodide on CCIj according to the equation — 



3CCI4 H- 2AUIe = 2Al„Cls + 3CI4. 

 The substances are made to react in carbon disulphide solutions, 



Gazzetla Chimica Italia na, Fascicolo V., 1874. This part 

 contains the following papers : — On the extraction of sulphur, 

 by F. Sestini. — On the action of sulphur on earthy carbonates, 

 particularly on neutral calcium carbonate, with regard to geology 

 and agriculture, by Prof. Egidio PoUacci. This paper was com- 

 municated in April to the Reale Istituto Lombardo di Scienze 

 e Lettere. The author's principal object is to prove that a mix- 

 ture of sulph'.ir and calcium carbonate acted upon by water with 

 free access of air gives rise to the formation of calcium sulphate. 

 The chemical changes are thus expressed — 



2S + 30., + 2H„0 = 2H,S04 

 2H„SOj + 2CaCO"3 = 2CaS04 + 2C02-l-2H,,0. 

 The author is of opinion that the oxidation of the sulphur is 

 effected directly by atmospheric oxygen in presence of CaCO, 

 and water. — The concluding p.ipsr is entitled Chemical Research 

 on Turkey Red, by Prof Abelardo Romegialli. The remainder 

 of the part is devoted to abstracts from foreign periodicals. 



Zeitschi ift der Oesterrcichischen Gescllschaft fiir Meteorologie, 

 July I. — This number contains an article by Dr. J. Hann On 

 the diminution of atmospheric vapour with increase of elevation. 

 Experiment and mathematical theory both deny tlie existence of 

 an independent vapour atmosphere, which according to Dalton s 

 law would decrease much less rapidly with elevation than atmo- 

 spheric vapour really does. Hence Mr. Strachey (Proceedings 

 of the Royal Society, March 1S61) would not deduct the vapour 

 pressure from the height of the barometer to obtain the pressure 

 of dry air. From a table showing the actual decrease of vapour 

 tension with increase of height, observed in various ascents of 

 mountains and in balloons, is derived a formula to express this 

 decrease. Thus where/ and /„ stand for the pressures at the 

 height // and at the surface of the earth, // being measured in 

 units of 1,000 English feet, 



(I)/ = /„ (1-0-075 /; -1- o-ooi46/;2) 

 and where e is the bases of natural logarithms, and /; in units of 

 1,000 metres. 



If atmospheric vapour obeyed the law of Dalton, its weight over 

 any place would be four and a half times greater than the real 

 weight. Dr. Hann calculates the weight of vapour at 1,962 

 metres to be only half, at 6,500 metres one-tenth, of the weight 

 at the surface of the earth. With respect to this rapid decrease 

 of moisture, Strachey remarked that mountain chains, even of 

 moderate altitude, must have great influence upon the hygro- 

 metric state of the atmosphere. The above formula can only be 

 used safely for calculating the mean pressure of vapour at a given 

 height. It may be useful for barometric measurements of alti- 

 tudes, since it frequently happens that the vapour pressure of 

 only one of two stations, of which the difference in height is 

 required, is known. Obsen'ed values, up to 1,884 metres, have 

 been actually found to agree well with those calculated by the 

 formula. Tliis formula may be only another expression for the 

 opinion of Strachey, that the mean degree of saturation at dif- 

 ferent heights remains nearly uniform, and therefore the vapour 

 tension depends merely on decrease of temperature. But the 

 calculation of the mean vapour pressure of one level from that 

 of another level with so great accuracy appears not to have been 

 hitherto accomplished. 



Annali di Chimica appUcata alia MeJieina, t. Iviii., No. 5.— 

 In dietetics there is a paper by Dr. F. Turbacco On cheese and 

 its alimentary use.— Beaumertz furnishes a contribution on 

 farinaceous substances as food for children.— In pathology tliere 

 is a paper by Dr. L. Ledeganck (translated from La Presse 

 Medicate Belg'e) On the action of parasitic organisms in the pro- 

 duction of necrosis.— In therapeutics we have the following 

 papers :— On the ansesthesia produced in man by the injection of 



