Apeh. 13, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



593 



FORESTS AND RAINFALL. 



Professor J. Schubert, director of the 

 meteorological division of the Prussian for- 

 estry experiment station work, has made a 

 study of the relation of forests and precipita- 

 tion in Silesia, taking as a basis the rainfall 

 map published by Hellmann in 1899. The 

 conclusion reached — the author himself says 

 that his estimates are to some extent uncer- 

 tain — is that forests seem to produce an in- 

 crease in precipitation. If one half of the 

 observed difference is set dovm as being due to 

 the increased protection of the gauges set up 

 in or near the forests, the actual effect of the 

 trees themselves would roughly correspond to 

 an increase in altitude of 40 meters (Met. 

 Zeitschr., December, 1905). 



NOTES. 



A NEW aeronautical observatory is to be es- 

 tablished at Friedrichshafen, on the shore of 

 the Lake of Constance, for carrying out 

 meteorological observations in the free air by 

 means of kites. The money for original 

 equipment, and for annual expenses, is to 

 be contributed by Germany, Wurtemberg, 

 Bavaria, the Duchy of Baden and Alsace- 

 Lorraine. Observations are to begin Janu- 

 ary 1, 1907. Boats of special construction are 

 to be built for flying the kites (Ciel et Terre, 

 January 16, 1906). 



The French Glacier Commission has been 

 carrying out a series of measurements of 

 snowfall at different altitudes on Mont Blanc. 

 In general it appears that the snowfall in- 

 creases with altitude between 1,000 and 3,200 

 meters, but the individual gauges do not give 

 satisfactory results {Met. Zeitschr., December, 



1^0^)- E. DeC. Ward. 



CARBON SUBOXIDE. 



The interesting announcement of the dis- 

 covery of a new oxide of carbon has just been 

 made by Messrs. 0. Diels and B. Wolf,' work- 

 ing in E. Fischer's laboratoiy. When the 

 vapor of diethyl malonate is passed over 

 phosphorus pentoxide, heated at 300°, it suf- 

 fers the loss of two molecules of alcohol, 



•Ber. d. Chem. Oes., 39, 689, 1903. 



which, of course, is immediately converted 

 into ethylene and water, and there results an 

 oxide of carbon, C3O,; this is one of the two 

 possible anhydrides of malonic acid, the other 

 being 



-CO. 



■CO' 



CH,<^X>0. 



The reaction which takes place is represented 

 by the following equation : 



CH, ( COOC^H, ) , -» 2C2H1 + 2H,0 + 00 : C ; CO. 



The new compound is a colorless, highly re- 

 fractive, very volatile liquid, boiling at 7° ; 

 it has an intense odor of acrolein and mustard 

 oil, and rapidly attacks the mucous membrane 

 of the eyes, nose and respiratory organs. 



Chemically, it is extremely reactive; with 

 water malonic acid is quickly regenerated; 

 dry hydrogen chloride gives malonyl chloride, 

 CH,(C0C1),; aniline and ammonia yield 

 malonanilide, CH,(CO]SrHC„H,) and malon- 

 amide, CH,(CO]S[H,)„ respectively. 



Although carbon suboxide can be volatilized 

 under reduced pressure, so as to admit of the 

 determination of its vapor density, yet it 

 slowly undergoes spontaneous decomposition 

 at the ordinary temperature. The product is 

 a dark red solid, which dissolves in water, 

 giving an intense eosin red color. At 37° the 

 decomposition of the suboxide is much more 

 rapid and at 100° it is instantaneous. Under 

 these conditions there is formed a deep black- 

 ish-red, very hard substance. The two solids 

 appfiar to be the oxides of carbon, C^Oj and 

 CgOj, which were described about thirty years 

 ago by Brodie and by Berthelot. 



Even from the brief description of carbon 

 suboxide given above it will be seen that its 

 properties and mode of formation are in ad- 

 mirable accord with the formula OC:C:CO, 

 and that it possesses three series of relation- 

 ships, according to whether it is regarded as 

 being: (1) an oxide of carbon, (2) an an- 

 hydride of malonic acid, (3) a carbon car- 

 bonyl, similar to those of nickel and iron, 

 ]Sri(CO), and FeCCO)^, which excited so much 

 interest at the time of their discovery some 

 years ago. 



J. Bishop Tingle. 



