October 24, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



655 



inotion does not drag the ether along with 

 it. ThiTs each body on the earth's surface 

 is, in virtue of its motion with the earth, 

 traversed by a stream of ether, and the 

 question arises— Does light travel through 

 such a body with the same speed along the 

 stream of ether as it does against or across 

 it? The experiments of Miehelson and 

 Morley lead to an affirmative answer for 

 air; those carried out recently by Lord 

 Rayleigh now enable the same answer to be 

 given in respect of liquids ; and it is hoped 

 they will soon decide the question in the 

 •ease of solids. 



In Section B (Chemistry) considerable 

 interest was taken in the discussion of two 

 monographs on hydro-aromatic compounds 

 with single nucleus (Dr. A. W. Crossley) 

 and our present knowledge of aromatic 

 diazo-eompounds (Dr. G. F. Morgan). The 

 sub,jeet of the first of these contributions 

 derives interest from the fact that hydro- 

 aromatic compounds form a starting-point 

 in the stixdy of the camphors and the con- 

 stituents of turpentines and many essential 

 oils. The diazo-eompounds are important, 

 not only because their study has led to 

 theoretical results of the utmost value in 

 connection with the mechanism of chemical 

 change, but because they are used indus- 

 trially in the manufacture of most of the 

 coal-tar dyeS; The two monographs re- 

 ferred to are to be published at length in 

 the annual report. They constitute very 

 complete resumes of branches of organic 

 chemistry, of which the literature is dis- 

 tributed through many different journals. 

 If for no other reason than this, they will 

 prove of great service to both teachers and 

 students of the two subjects. The paper 

 on the alkylation of sugars, by Professor 

 T. Purdie and Dr. J. C. Irvine, deserves 

 special notice; the method which it de- 

 scribed for exchanging hydroxilic hydrogen 

 atoms in the molecules of certain sugars by 

 methyl groups should prove of great value. 



Dr. E. F. Armstrong contributed an im- 

 portant paper on the synthetical action of 

 enzymes, in which the formation of a 

 disaccharide by the action of the enzyme 

 lactase on milk siigar was described. The 

 new disaccharide, isolaetose, is a true sugar 

 and its synthesis is one of the first steps 

 taken in synthetic work upon disaccharides. 

 No one of the papers brought before Sec- 

 tion C (Geology) was of very great impor- 

 tance; but nearly all were records of valu- 

 able work. A paper by Mr. George Barrow, 

 on the prolongation of the Highland border 

 rocks into county Tyrone, gave rise to the 

 best discussion of the meeting. The paper 

 dealt with rocks termed the 'green rocks,' 

 found by the author in the neighborhood of 

 the great fault which crosses Scotland from 

 sea to sea. This line of disturbance has 

 now been traced across Ireland to Clew 

 Bay and Clare Island, and Mr. Barrow 

 believes that he can identify rocks in the 

 neighborhood of Omagh with the 'green 

 rocks' of Scotland, tie considers them to 

 be of pre-Cambrian age, and with this con- 

 clusion Professor Grenville Cole agrees. 

 Papers of considerable importance were 

 read by Dr. Traquair and Mr. H. Kynaston. 

 The former described some fossil fishes of 

 the lower Devonian roofing-slate of Gmiin- 

 den, in Germany. They belong to the class 

 with mailed bodies, and the fact that they 

 are there found associated with fossils of a 

 thoroughly marine character shows that 

 these mailed fishes lived in the sea. Mr. 

 Kynaston, who has been mapping the 

 northern part of Argyllshire for the Geo- 

 logical Survey, brought forward satisfac- 

 tory evidence proving that the sheets of 

 volcanic rocks in the neighborhood of Glen- 

 coe and the Black Mount are, like the vol- 

 canic series of Lorn, of lower old red sand- 

 stone age, and that the great granite mass 

 of Ben Cruachan is of newer date than 

 these volcanic sheets. This was probably 

 the most important paper brought before 



