112 



REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE, 



Tali (lat. 75° 14', long. 100° 22'), 692, 700, 701, 702, 70t, 703, 710, *11, 715, 817, 

 818, 819— total, U. 



Wuting (lat. 25° 32'. long. 102° 33'), 817, 818, 819— total, 3. 



Yunnan (lat. 25° 06'. long. 102° 52'), 451, 452, 581, 582, 686, 688, 700, 715, 729, 

 817, 818, 819, 829, 836. 859, 864, 888— total, 17. 



Yungchang (lat. 25° 05', long. 99° 26'), 695, 724, 725, 774, 773— total, S. 



Monthly and Seasonal Distribution of Earthquakes. 



Bi'v.amic Isomerism.— Ueport of the Committee, consisting of Professor 

 II. E. Armstrong (Chairman), Dr. T. M. Lowry (Secretary), Pro- 

 fessor Sydney Young, Dr. C. H. Desch, Dr. J. J. Dorbie, Dr. 

 M. 0. Forster, and Dr. A. Lapworth. (Drawn up by the 

 Secretary.) 



A. — Since tlie appearance of the last report the experiments on the 

 influence of acids, bases, and salts in accelerating isomeric change in 

 solutions of nitrocamphor have been completed and published.^ 



B.— Carbonyl Chloride as an Agent for Arresting Isomeric 



Change. 



The most important feature of the year's work has been the discovery 

 of a group of agents by means of which the isomeric change of nitro- 

 camphor can be retarded or completely arrested. As long ago as 1899 - 

 it was observed that solutions of nitrocamphor in chloroform behaved in 

 an abnormal manner in that isomeric change was sometimes arrested 

 during a period of one or two weeks and then abruptly started by some 

 slight change of conditions, eij., by transferring the solution from a flask 

 to a polarimeter tube. 



The abnormal properties of this solvent were again noticed in the 

 recent experiments on the influence of acids and bases. The basic 

 chloroform solutions showed a marked decrease of activity when kept 

 for a few days, whilst dilution produced a loss of catalytic power out of 



' Lowry and Magson, 'The Influence of Nitrocamphor on the Mutarotation of 

 Nitrocamphor,' Tra?is. Cliem. Soc, 1908, 93, 107-119 

 ■■' Lowry, Tran.s. Chem. Soc, 1899, 75, 211 



