754 



SCIENCE. 



LN. S. Vol. XVIIl. No. 407. 



especially nitroglycerin and gimcotton, and 

 showed that the action of the sulphuric acid is 

 not merely that of a dehydrating agent, to ab- 

 sorb the water formed by the reaction. It 

 was held that the nitric acid is itself de- 

 hydrated and condensed, the action being 

 represented by the equation 



2HN03 + H2S04 = 0<' ^S04 + H,0, 



which would explain satisfactorily the forma- 

 tion of the organic nitrates. The author 

 promised a continuation of this paper in which 

 the reactions will be discussed in detail. 



Meta-amino-henzonitril and Borne of Its De- 

 rivatives: H. T. Beans. 

 A brief account of the previously published 

 methods of obtaining »n-amino-benzonitril was 

 given, and a method for its preparation by 

 reduction of the nitronitril with stannous 

 chloride in hydrochloric acid was described. 

 The acyl-, benzoyl-, urea-, thiourea-, oxal- and 

 succinyl- derivatives were prepared and their 

 properties and decompositions studied. The 

 compound was also found to give addition and 

 condensation products with chloral which 

 were described. 



The Proteolytic Cleavage-products of Gela- 

 tine : P. A. Levene. 



The object of this work was to compare the 

 composition of the intermediate digestion 

 products of proteids. Special attention was 

 paid to the percentage of glyeocol in gelatine, 

 gelatoses and gelatine peptone. It was found 

 that gelatoses contained in their molecule 

 more glyeocol, while the peptone contained less 

 glyeocol, than gelatine. In harmony with this 

 is *the observation that in the early stages of 

 digestion, of the final nitrogenous decomposi- 

 tion products only ammonia can be demon- 

 strated, while on prolonged treatment with 

 proteolytic enzymes glyeocol appears in quan- 

 tities predominating over other crystalline 

 products of digestion. Among these, besides 

 glyeocol, were found leucin, glutamic acid and 

 phenylalanin. 



A Device for the Accurate Reading of Bu- 

 rettes: W. E. Chamberlain. 



Dr. Chamberlain discussed briefly the avoid- 

 ance of parallax in reading and of the adhesion 

 of drops to the walls, in the use of burettes. 

 H. C. Sherman, 



Secretary. 



TORREV BOTANICAL CLUB. 



At a meeting of the club held at the College 

 of Pharmacy, November 10, 1903, at 8 P.M., 

 the following program was presented: 



Mrs. Cunningham, of California, a prom- 

 inent organizer in that state of clubs for the 

 preservation of wild flowers, was present and 

 by request exhibited a large collection of 

 water-color sketches of California wild flowers 

 and spoke briefly of the best places and sea- 

 sons for finding them. 



The first regiilar paper was by Dr. Under- 

 wood on ' The Botanical Gardens of Jamaica.' 

 He outlined the history and described the 

 present condition of each of the four pviblic 

 gardens of Jamaica, illustrating his remarks 

 with ntimerous photographs. The first garden 

 established was at Bath in 1779. This is at 

 the eastern end of the island, where the cli- 

 mate is hot and very humid. It was virtually 

 abandoned many years ago, but a number of 

 interesting trees are still standing. The loca- 

 tion was not fully satisfactory, and in 1863 

 another garden was established at Castleton in 

 the Wag Water Valley, twenty-five miles north 

 of Kingston. This is now probably the finest 

 and most interesting botanical garden in the 

 West Indies. It contains a very notable col- 

 lection of palms, said to include 180 species. 

 In 1868 another garden was established at 

 Cinchona on one of- the spurs of the Blue 

 Mountain range at an elevation of nearly 

 5,000 feet. It was intended to test the prac- 

 ticability of the growing of cinchona for its 

 bark on a commercial scale, but many other 

 trees and plants adapted to high altitudes in 

 the tropics were planted, and for some years 

 it was the headquarters for the botanical work 

 of the island. Owing to its inaccessibility, 

 still another garden was established in 1873 

 at the Hope plantation in the outskirts of 

 Kingston on the south side of the island. 

 This is now the headquarters for the botanical 

 and agricultural departments of Jamaica, and 



