October 29, 1896J 



NA TURE 



631 



for (he members of sporlinj; expeditions into the interior. 

 Licences are not needed for tlic purpose of obtaining food, nor 

 for shooting game damaging cultivated land, nor for shooting 

 apes, beasts of prey, wild boars, reptiles, and all birds except 

 ostriches and cranes. Whatever the circumstances the shooting is 

 proliibited of all young game — calves, foals, young elephants, 

 either tuskless or having tusks under three kilos, all female game 

 if recognisable — except, of course, those in the above category 

 of unprotected animals. Further, in the Moschi district of 

 Kilima-Njaro, no one, whether possessing a licence or not, is 

 allowed without the special permission of the Governor to shoot 

 antelopes, girafl'es, buffaloes, ostriches, and cranes. Further, 

 special permission must be obtained to hunt these 

 with nets, by kindling fires, or by big drives. Those who 

 are not natives have also lo pay lOO rupees for the 

 first elephant killed and 250 for each additional one, and 50 

 rupees for the first rhinoceros and 150 for each succeeding 

 one. Special game preserves are also to be established, and 

 Major von Wissmann, in a circular to the local officers, explains 

 that no shooting whatever will be allowed in these without 

 special permission from the (lovcrnment. The reserves will be 

 of interest to science as a means of preserving from extirpa- 

 tion the rarer species, and the Governor calls for suggestions as 

 to the best places for them. They are to extend in each 

 direction at least ten hours' journey on foot. He further asks 

 for suggestions as to hippopotamus reserves, where injury would 

 not be done to plantations. Tsvo districts are already notified 

 IS game sanctuaries. Major von Wissmann further suggests 

 that the station authorities should endeavour to domesticate 

 zebras (especially when crossed with muscat and other asses 

 and horses), ostriches, and hya-na dogs crossed with European 

 breeds. Mr. Gosselin remarks that the best means of prevent- 

 ing the extermination of elephants would be to fix by inter- 

 national agreement amongst all the Powers on the East African 

 coast a close time for elephants, and to render illegal the 

 exportation or sale of tusks under a certain age. 



.\n interesting report has been drawn up by Dr. M. C. 

 Schuyten on the influence of atmospheric variations on the 

 voluntary attention of school-children {Bulletin dc F Acadi'mie 

 Royalc de Hclgiiiite). Observations were made in four different 

 schools in Belgium, the method adopted being to give the 

 children in class a passage to read from a book, and to note 

 whether their eyes were fixed on the pages. The general con- 

 clusions arrived at by statistical tabulation of the results were 

 as follows : (I) The attention of children varies inversely with 

 the temperature of the air, being greater in winter than in 

 summer ; (2) it is greater in the higher than in the lower 

 classes ; (3) it is higher among girls than boys, and the 

 difference is greatest in winter ; (4) it decreases from 8.30 to 

 II a.m., and also from 2 to 4 p.m. ; at 2 ]i.m. it is greater than 

 at 1 1 a.m., but less than at S.30 a.m. 



Ok. Nanse.n's work on his expedition to the North Pole 

 will be published in the English language by Messrs. Archibald 

 Constable and Co. 



Thk Rev. Edmund Ledger will give a course of four lectures 

 upon " Eclipses of the .Sun," at Gresham College, Basinghall 

 Street, on November 3, 4, 5, and 6. The lectures are free, 

 and they commence at 6.0 p.m. 



The editor of the fournal of Malacology requests us to say 

 that he is still desirous of obtaining living specimens of worm 

 eating slugs (TestacelW), so as to add to the records he has 

 of the distribution of these animals in the British Isles, and 

 which he hopes to be soon in a position to publish. All com- 

 munications should be addressed to Wilfred Mark Webb, 

 " Ellerie," Crescent Road, Brentwood, Essex. 



NO. 1409, VOL. 54] 



During November, popular science lectures will be delivered 

 on Tuesday evenings, at 8.30, at the Royal Victoria Hall, 

 Waterloo Road, as follows : — November 3, Rev. J. Grant 

 Mills, on "St. Thomas's Hospital, Past and Present"; 

 November 10, Prof. Carlton J- Lambert, on "A Pennyworth 

 of Gas ; what it is, and what we can do with it " ; November 

 17, Dr. Bertram L. Abrahams, on "The Eye" ; November 24, 

 Lieut. Darwin, on " A Popular .\ccount of an Astronomical 

 Expedition." 



A MEETING of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers will 

 be held on Wednesday and Thursday, November 4 and 5. The 

 chair will be taken at half-past seven p.m. on each evening by 

 the President, Mr. E. Windsor Richards. The following papers 

 will be read and discussed, as far as time permits : — " Research 

 Committee on the Value of the Steam-jacket ; Experiment on a 

 Locomotive Engine," by Prof. T. Hudson Beare and Mr. Bryan 

 Donkin ; "Transmission of Heat from Surface Condensation 

 through Metal Cylinders," by Lieut. -Colonel English and Mr. 

 Bryan Donkin ; "Breakdowns of Stationary Steam-Engines," 

 by Mr. Michael Longridge. 



The Kelt) Btilletiti (Nos. 113 and 1 14) gives an account of the 

 progress, since its foundation in 1892, of the botanic station 

 at Belize, British Honduras. It has been founded by the 

 Governor, Sir Alfred Moloney, for the purpose of experiment- 

 ing on the tropical staples most suitable for the climate. Since 

 the decline in the production of mahogany, due to African 

 competition, the export of logwood has been almost the sole 

 source of wealth to the colony. It would appear, however, that 

 British Honduras is very favourably situated, as regards soil and 

 climate, for the production of many other tropical commodities, 

 and has excellent communication with the Southern States of 

 America. 



It has long been known that during the slow oxidation of a 

 number of substances in oxygen or air, part of the oxygen be- 

 comes endowed with peculiarly active properties. Various 

 explanations of the phenomenon have been offered ; the tendency 

 of recent investigation, however, seems to be to show that the 

 oxygen molecules split up into atoms (probably with opposite 

 electrical charges), one of which brings about oxidation, the 

 other forming the so-called active oxygen. An interesting con- 

 tribution to our knowledge of this subject is just published in 

 the form of an inaugural dissertation by Mr. W. P. Jorissem 

 (Amsterdam, 1896). He finds that triethyl-phosphine, in pre- 

 sence of water (in the dry state the reaction proceeds further), 

 takes up from the air a quantity of oxygen corresponding to the 

 formation of iriethyl phosphine oxide, P(C2l 15)30. Benz- 

 aldehyde is similarly converted into benzoic acid. If, however, a 

 substance such as a solution of indigo, which is not oxidised by 

 ordinary oxygen, be present, twice as much oxygen is absorbed, 

 the indigo being decolourised. For each atom of oxygen used 

 up in oxidising the triethyl phosphine or benzaldehjde an atom of 

 "active" oxygen is produced, which acts on the indigo. The 

 changes occurring during slow oxidation are, however, frequently 

 more complicated. For example, if a mixture of benzaldehyde 

 and acetic anhydride be exposed to the air, oxidation occurs 

 with formation of benzoyl peroxide and ozone. Jorissen sup- 

 poses the reaction to proceed as follows. 



aCsHjCOH + 2O., = 2C(iH5COOH -I- 2O (active) 

 2CcH,-,COOH -f O2 -1- 2O (active) ^ {Q^nJZOlfi. + HoO-fOj. 

 The acetic anhydride serves probably as a dehydrating agent. 

 In conformity with these equations, it is found that twice as much 

 oxygen is absorlied in this reacti<m as if the benzaldehyde had 

 simply been oxidised to benzoic acid. His own experiments, 

 taken together with previously published results, lead the author 

 to the conclusion that " a body undergoing slow oxidatioa 



