JULY'S, 1909] 



NATURE 



59 



positions of close upon 2000 lines, composing Ihe three 

 principal bands, have been determined. The wave-lengths 

 were derived from the interference standards of Fabry and 

 Buisson, but have been corrected to Rowland's scale to 

 facilitate comparison with solar spectra. (4) Twelve of the 

 series of lines which compose the grten band have been 

 traced, and it is shown that none of the formula: which 

 have been proposed is sufficiently general in its applica- 

 tion to represent all of these series within the limits of 

 error of measurement. For the longer series the closest 

 approximation is given by Halm's equation. (5) The 

 identification of magnesium hydride in the sun-spot 

 spectrum has been fully confirmed, and is clearly demon- 

 strated by photographs submitted for reproduction. (6) It 

 is shown that many of the bright interruptions of the dark 

 background of the spot spectrum are not bright lines, but 

 merely clear interspaces between lines or groups of lines 

 in the spectrum of magnesium hydride. (7) The presence 

 of the magnesium hydride flutings, together with flutings 

 of titanium oxide and calcium hydride discovered at Mount 

 Wilson, accords with the view that spots are regions of 

 reduced temperature, and that their darkness is at least 

 partly due to absorption. (S) The investigation of the 

 possible presence of lines of magnesium hydride in the 

 ordinary solar spectrum is for several reasons inconclusive, 

 but there is evidence that very few, if any, of the thousands 

 of faint lines tabulated by Rowland are to be accounted for 

 by this substance. — The discovery of a remedy for 

 malignant jaundice in the dog, and for redwater in cattle : 

 Prof. G. H. F. Nuttall and S. Hadwen. — The comparative 

 power of alcohol, ether, and chloroform, as measured by 

 their action upon isolated muscle : Dr. h. D. Waller. 

 Edinburgh. 

 Royal Society, June 2 1 . — I >r. Hiirpe^-^, vice-presiden*, in the 

 chair. — The pharmacological action of protocatechyl- 

 tropeine : Pi-of. C. R. Marshall. Like most other 

 tropeines, this substance paralyses, but only for a short 

 period, the so-called vagal endings of the heart ; it also 

 depresses the neuro-muscular junctions in voluntary muscle 

 and the muscular tissue itself. Its most interesting action, 

 however, is upon the respiration. Medium doses, intra- 

 venously administered, rapidly paralyse the respiration. 

 This effect is generally transitory, and is not concomitant 

 with other effects produced by the compound. Tappeiner 

 and Pohl have observed similar transitory effects after 

 intravenous injection of other derivatives, and Pohl's ex- 

 planation, which ascribes the effect to paralysis of the 

 respiratory centres, was shown to be the true one for proto- 

 catechyltropeine. The relation between chemical constitu- 

 tion and pharmacological action as exemplified in the 

 tropeines was considered, and an attempt made to show 

 that definite action could not with certainty be attributed 

 to the two constituent groupings of the tropeines. — The 

 toot poison of New Zealand; an investigation into its 

 pharmacological action : Prof. C. R. Marshall. This 

 poison, which includes three definite species of Coriaria, 

 has proved a serious hindrance to the rearing of stock in 

 New Zealand. The active principle, isolated by Easter- 

 field and Aston, is a glucoside named tutin. The effects 

 produced are chiefly stimulation of the medullary centres 

 and epileptiform convulsions, which are mainly of cortical 

 and pontine origin. Pontine convulsions are very 

 susceptible to anaesthetics. A fall of temperature always 

 occurs after the administration of tutin. The substance 

 also depresses the sentient centres, and in man causes loss 

 of memory. Coriamyrtin and picrotoxin have a similar 

 action, but are more powerful, and in some respects more 

 transient in action, than tutin. — Hydrolysis of salts in 

 amphoteric electrolytes : Miss H. H. Beveridgre. The 

 two principal methods in general use for determining the 

 degree of hydrolysis of salts — catalysis of methyl acetate 

 and electrical conductivity — give results in the case of 

 salts of amphoteric electrolytes which are not at all con- 

 cordant. The hydrolysis of anthranilic hydrochloride was 

 therefore investigated by several independent methods. Of 

 these, the solubility, distribution between two solvents, 

 catalysis of diazo-acetic ester, and electromotive force all 

 pointed to the catalysis values being correct, while values 

 obtained from depression of the freezing point and electrical 

 conductivity differed widely from these. The divergence 

 was due, not to any abnormality in the degree of ionisa- 



NO. 2071, VOL. 81] 



tion of the salt, nor to the speed of the ions, but might 

 be explained by the assumption of some association of 

 molecules and ions. — Seismic radiations, part ii. : Dr. 

 C. G. Knott. Following up results regarding reflection 

 and refraction of seismic disturbances given twenty years 

 ago (see also Phil. Mag., iSgg), the author calculated the 

 surface disturbances which accompany the reflection of 

 the various types of elastic wave at the surface of an 

 elastic solid. When the incident wave is condensational 

 there is always a reflected distortional wave as well as a 

 reflected condensational wave, and a simple harmonic dis- 

 turbance produces at the surface a simple harmonic disturb- 

 ance along a line differing at most incidences by a few 

 degrees from the direction of the incident disturbance. 

 When, however, the incident wave is distortional there 

 is, after a certain critical angle, no reflected condensational 

 wave. For incidences greater than this critical value the 

 original simple harmonic motion of the incident wave_ is 

 not, in general, accompanied by a simple harmonic motion 

 of 'each particle of the surface, but each point of the 

 surface is thrown into elliptic motion of all degrees of 

 ellipticity from circle to straight line. Details were worked 

 out for certain assumed values of the elastic constants. 

 The results indicate how misleading in certain cases is the 

 phrase " emergence angle," much used by seismologists. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences. June 28.— M. Lmile Picard in 

 the chair. — Integral equations of the first species : Emile 

 Picard. — The gases of volcanic fumaroles : Armand 

 Gautier. The gas samples were collected under experi- 

 mental conditions . designed to exclude the possibility of 

 the admission of atmospheric oxygen, and to preserve gases 

 alterable by water, such as carbon oxysulphide. Gas 

 taken from fumaroles at Vesuvius near the top of the 

 cone was found to consist of hydrochloric acid, carbon 

 dioxide, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. No sulphur 

 compounds could be detected, and carbon monoxide, oxides 

 of nitrogen, hydrocarbons, and fluorides were absent. 

 Gases collected from fumaroles on Vesuvius eighteen 

 months after an eruption showed hydrochloric acid to be 

 absent, and 0.5 to 2-0 of carbon monoxide present. It 

 was noted that, although no halogen acids could be 

 detected, the gases leaving the fumaroles rapidly attacked 

 steel and copper. — Ordinary carbon : H. Ue Chatelier 

 and M. Wologdine. By modifying the graphitic oxide 

 reaction, graphite has been proved to be present in 

 carbon from acetvlene and in other varieties of carbon 

 produced at moderately low temperatures, hitherto assumed 

 to be free from graphite. Carefully purified amorphous 

 carbon from various sources has a density of about i-S. 

 —The existence of trachytes with quartz (bostonites) m 

 the Mont-Dore ma.':sif : A. Michel Levy and A. Lacroix. 

 — The polished stonework in the Haut-Oubanghi : A. 

 Lacroix. The ornaments are made of worked and 

 polished quartz ; the process of manufacture is described 

 in detail, and shown to be strikingly analogous with 

 similar work in Neolithic deposits.— The origin and evolu- 

 tion of fresh-water shrimps of the family of Atyids : 

 E. L. Bouvier. — The hydration of potassium carbonate : 

 M. de Forcrand. A thermochemical paper. — The action 

 of metallic oxides on methyl alcohol : Paul Sabatier 

 and A. Mailhe. Alumina, at temperatures about 300° C., 

 furnishes a large yield of methyl oxide ; thoria and 

 titanium dioxide at 350° behave similarly; oxides of 

 chromium and tungsten give a mixture of methyl oxide 

 and formaldehyde, '^the latter being partially split up into 

 carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Other oxides give the 

 latter reaction exclusively. — Observations of_ the comet 

 1909a, made at the Observatory of Lyons with the bent 

 equatorial of 32 cm. aperture : J. Guillaume. — The 

 variations of brightness of Encke's comet and the sun- 

 spot period : J. Bosler. The graphical comparison of the 

 variations in brightness of Encke's comet and the 

 number of sun-spots shows that the two phenomena are 

 clearly related.— Comparison of the spectra of the centre 

 and the edge of the sun : H. Buisson and Ch. Fabry.— 

 The physical and historical interpretation of some mark- 

 ings on the moon's surface; from the eleventh part of 

 the photographic atlas published bv the Observatory of 

 Paris : P. Puiseux. — .\n extension of the theory of con- 

 tinued fractions : A. Chatolet. — The calculation of the 



