April 15, 1880] 



NATURE 



573 



obtained from desoxybenzo'in, by united oxidation and 

 treatment with alcoholic potash, a peculiar body, C7,,H. fi (_> 4 , 

 to which he gave the name of bcnzamarone, and which 

 he decomposed into desoxybenzo'in and amaric acid, 

 C 4U H 42 (1 . This latter he decomposed, in 1877, into ben- 

 zoic acid and so-called pyroamaric acid. Various homo- 

 logues were obtained by varying the alcohol used as a 

 solvent for the potash, and pyroamaric acid was shown to 

 be a benzyl-ethyl-benzoic acid. One of his later investi- 

 gations showed the peculiar property possessed by zinc 

 of regenerating hydrocarbons from the solutions of their 

 addition compounds by extracting the halogens from the 

 latter. 



The researches published by Zinin during the latter 

 portion of his career, while marked by careful study and 

 minute elaboration, lack much of that originality and 

 generality of application characteristic of his earlier dis- 

 coveries. As contributions to the development of the use 

 of reducing agents in organic chemistry, they occupy, 

 however, an important place in the annals of the science, 

 while the ensemble of reactions and derivatives of the 

 benzoin group forms one of the important sections of the 

 chemistry of the aromatic series. 



Prof. Zinin's merits were warmly appreciated in his own 

 country, and he was the recipient of numerous decorations, 

 some of which were due to the important services ren- 

 dered by him in the solution of questions connected with 

 the Russian military department. In 1S55 he was elected 

 to the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg. 

 He was the only Russian among the corresponding mem- 

 bers of the Chemical Section of the French Academy of 

 Sciences, and was likewise one of the few honorary 

 members of the London Chemical Society and of the 

 German Chemical Society. T. H. X. 



W1LHELM PHILIPP SC HIM PER 

 pROF. SCHIMPER, to whose death at Strassburg on 

 •*• March 20 we have already alluded, was one of the 

 most prominent scientific men in Alsace. He was born, 

 January 8, 1808, at Dosenheim, near Elsass-Zabern. 

 After taking a course of theological studies at the Uni- 

 versity of Strassburg, he devoted his attention to natural 

 history. A period of travel was succeeded by his appoint- 

 ment in 1S35 as assistant in the Natural History Museum 

 at Strassburg. In 1S39 he became director of the esta- 

 blishment, and was elected Professor of Geology and 

 Mineralogy in the University. Before this date he had 

 already attracted attention in the botanical world by his 

 studies on mosses, and he soon became one of the leading 

 authorities on this branch. A monument of his work as 

 a specialist is left in his famous " Bryologia Europaea," 

 which appeared in six volumes with 640 plates, from 1836 

 to 1855 ; and was provided with an extensive supplement 

 in 1866. Other well-known important works in this con- 

 nection are his " Recherches anatomiques et morpho- 

 logiques sur les Mousses " (1S50), " Memoire pour servir a 

 lhistoire Naturelle des Sphagnum" (1854), and "Synopsis 

 muscorum europajorum " (1S60; 2nd edit. 1876). As a 

 palaeontologist Schimpcr has produced— 1S69-1874— a 

 "Traite" de Paleontologie ^ge'tale," in three volumes, 

 which ranks among the best text-books on the subject. 

 Much or his attention and time was directed to the rich 

 fossil remains of Alsace itself, and it is to these studies 

 that we owe the valuable monographs, " Plantes fossiles 

 des Vosges," written in 1844 in connection with A. 

 Mougeot; " Pakeontologica Alsatica " (1854); and " Le 

 Terrain de transition des Vosges " (1862). The marked 

 talent for botany in the Schimper family is something 

 unusual ; Prof. Schimper's two cousins having gained, 

 like himself, honoured places in the annals of the science. 

 Karl Schimper, who taught at Munich and Heidelberg, 

 and died in 1867, was distinguished as the founder of the 

 modern theory on the position of leaves, so ably expanded 



by the late Prof. Braun ; while Wilhelm Schimper has 

 widely increased our knowledge of African flora by his 

 researches in Abyssinia, where he was released from 

 imprisonment by the English expedition in 1868. 



NOTES 



MM. YV. de Fonvielle and D. Lontin described to the Paris 

 Academy last week a magnetic gyroscope, the object of which is 

 to give a movement of rotation to movable pieces of soft iron 

 of various forms. M. de Fonvielle is at present in London 

 with the apparatus, from which some very curious results have 

 been obtained. We hope to give a full account of the invention, 

 with illustrations, in our next number. 



M. B. Bruxet has presented the sum of 20,000 francs to the 

 French Association for the Advancement of Science, the interest 

 to be distributed annually for the promotion of scientific 

 research. 



Among recent deaths announced are those of Dr. Job. Eman. 

 Zellerstedt, the Swedish bryologist ; Dr. M. A. F. Prestel, of 

 Emden, the meteorologist ; and Dr. Mulder Bosgoed, of Rotter- 

 dam, author of a " Bibliotheca ichthyologica et piscatoria." 



The French Academy of Sciences numbers seventy-eight. 

 At present two seats are vacant : one in the section of mechanics 

 and one in that of "geography and navigation. The number of 

 foreign associates and corresponding members allowed by the 

 statutes is 10S. There are now four vacancies : two in the 

 cheruicil section, one in the botanical, and one in that of geo- 

 graphy and navigation. The classification of this portion of the 

 Academy by nationalities affords an interesting view of the 

 Judgment of Parisian scientific men on their confreres according 

 to ' ' geographical distribution." France, outside of Paris, heads 

 the list with 30 members ; then follow Great Britain, 21 ; Ger- 

 many, 17; United States, 8; Russia, 6 ; Switzerland, 6; Scan- 

 dinavian countries, 5; Italy, 4; Belgium and Holland, 4; 

 Austria, 2, and Brazil, 1. 



In a letter in yesterday's Times, deserving the serious attention 

 of those in authority, Mr. Merrifield strongly advocates the 

 appointment of an independent commission for inquiry into the 

 whole question of the construction of our heavy guns. Mr. 

 Merrifield seeks to show that the system at present in use is 

 accompanied with the most serious disadvantages. 



A PRosrECTUS has been issued by the Wilts and Hants Agri- 

 cultural College, of which we spoke last week. Every arrange- 

 ment has apparently been made for the improvement and comfort 

 of students, 



In a paper in the Journal of the Royal Society of New S mtfa 

 Wales, on the Forests of Tasmania, by the Rev. J. E. Tenison- 

 Woods, the author gives some interesting data as to the probable 

 age of the stately trees which people these forests. Judging from 

 their size one would be inclined to attribute to them great antiquity. 

 Mr. Woods was very anxious to collect data on the subject ; but to 

 nearly all his inquiries he only received mere guesses : from 200 

 to 300 years was the general reply. Mr. R. Hill, the proprietor 

 of an extensive saw-mill at Honey wood, on the Iluon, gave him, 

 however, some more trustworthy data. Mr. Hill assured Mr. 

 Wood that some of the gum-trees, and perhaps all of them, shed 

 their baric tw ice in the year. The stringy bark (E. odligua) is 

 one of the most striking instances of this. He further informed 

 Mr. Woods that, hearing a lecture from Mr. Bicheno on the 

 growth of trees, and the statement that a ring of wood was 

 added to the diameter each year of growth, he was induced to 

 test the truth of this. There was a blue gum-tree in his garden 

 in Hobart Town, the age of which he was sure of, as his brother 

 had planted it eighteen years previously. He felled it and 

 counted the rings, and found them to be thirty-six in number, or 



