SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
87 
those who are engaged in testing the physiological properties of alcohol, 
was read lately before the Chemical Society of Berlin by Herren Kramer 
and Pinner. These chemists had an opportunity of investigating the 
different products which, by the distillation of spirits — that is to say, the 
manufacture thereof — from grain, are formed, and can be separately col- 
lected, owing to the perfection of the rectifying apparatus in use, on the 
large scale. Among these substances are prominent — aldehyde, acetal, 
propyl-alcohol, butyl-alcohol, acetic ether, fusel oil, and a mixture of dif- 
ferent substances. 
The rapid separation of Silver and Copper Nitrates. — An abstract of a 
paper by Dr. Palment is given as follows in the Chemical News for Oct. 22 : 
The author had to prepare nitrate of silver from small silver coins which 
contained a large percentage of copper. The alloy is dissolved in nitric acid ; 
the solution is filtered if necessary, and evaporated until it has the consis- 
tency of a thickish oil ; when this point is reached there is added to the 
solution very concentrated nitric acid free from HC1. By this proceeding 
all the nitrate of silver is precipitated, while nitrate of copper remains in 
solution. One part of the concentrated metallic solution requires from three 
to four parts of nitric acid for the complete precipitation of the nitrate of 
silver; the more concentrated the nitric acid is the better, but acid of P250 
specific gravity answers the purpose. The solution of copper is decanted 
off, and the nitrate of silver washed with nitric acid.. 
GEOLOGY AND PALAEONTOLOGY. 
The Concentric Structure of Granitic Nocks. — In the Proceedings of the 
Boston Society of Natural History for 1869, Mr. N. S. Shaler has pub- 
lished a paper on this subject. Concentric lamellation differs widely from 
the common features of cleavage in rocks, inasmuch as, however com- 
plicated and distorted the cleavage system may be, it is always re- 
ducible to sets of planes crossing each other — if there be more than 
one such system — but never producing systems of curves, which are 
the essential feature in these fractures. This much, says Mr. Shaler, 
is readily seen upon the exterior of any mass characterised by this 
structure. Upon examining, where it has proved possible, the internal 
features, the interesting fact became evident that the concentric arrange- 
ment was confined to the external portions of the mass, never being dis- 
cernible at a greater depth than four or five feet — rarely, indeed, below 
three feet — from the surface. This determination has been made from the 
examination of a very few sections, which were fitted for the purpose, inas- 
much as, according to the author, it is by no means easy to find quarries 
which give sufficiently extensive sections to admit of the study of such 
features, which cannot be well examined in a small sectional area. 
Hypsilophodon is the name given to a new genus of Dinosauria, described 
by Professor Huxley at the meeting of the Geological Society on November 
10. The specimen on which the genus is founded was obtained by the 
Rev. W. Fox from the Wealden at Cowleaze Chine, in the Isle of Wight. 
