Nature (journal)/Volume 1/Number 9/Scientific Serials
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS
In the Annales des Sciences Naturelles (Zoologie, Tome xii. No.s 3 and 4), M. Marcy continues his elaborate paper on the flight of Insects and Birds. Prof E. Lartet describes and figures Trechomys Bonduelli and two other fossil rodents of the Eocene of Paris. New observations on the Zoological Characters and Natural Affinities of the Aepyornis of Madagascar are given by MM. Alphonse Milne-Edwards and Alf. Grandidier. Their paper is illustrated by a fine series of figures of the bones of these gigantic fossil birds: even the enormous bones of the lower limb are drawn the size of nature. The present double number of the Annales is concluded by a communication from M. Edward Perrier, entitled "Researches on the pedicellaria and ambulacra of star-fishes and sea-urchins."
The November number of the Annales de Chimie et de Physique contains the termination of a long memoir by Lecoq de Boisbaudran, on Supersaturation; a memoir by Des Cloiseaux, on Gadolinite, a mineral whose anomalies are very lucidly connected and explained; a very interesting paper by Boussingault, on the Function of Leaves, in which the influence of light is studied as affecting the decomposition of carbonic acid; Observations on a Note of M. Velter as to the agricultural utility of salt, by Peligot; a Chemical Study of Egyptian wheat, by Aug. Houzeau; the Polarisation of the Blue Light of Water, by J. L. Soret (taken from the Geneva Archives); and an account of Roberts's elegant experiment, showing the increase of volume undergone by palladium in combining with hydrogen.
The November number of Reichert and Du Bois Reymond's Archiv fur Anatomie contains the following papers:—"The Influence of Artificial Respiration on Reflex," by Dr. P. Urspensky, of St. Petersburg; "Musculi subcrurales et Subanconaei," by Dr. M. Kulaewsky; "The 'Ramus collateralis ulnaris nervi radialis again," by Professor W. Krause, of Göttingen; "The Inter-arytaenoid Cartilage of the Human Vocal Organs," by Professor H. von Luschka, of Tübingen (plate); "On the Influence of the Curara Poison on the Electromotor Power of Muscles and Nerves," by Hermann Rocher; "The Nervi Splanchnici and the Ganglion Coeliacum," by F. Bidder, of Dorpat; "On the Musculus Broncho-oesophagus Dexter," a communication by Dr. Wenzel Gruber, Professor of Anatomy at St. Petersburg.
Poggendorf's Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 1869. (No. II Vol. cxxxviii, Part 3). The physical papers in this number (the last published) are:—
(1.) "On the applicability of Ohm's Law to Electrolytes, with a numerical determination of the Electrical Resistance of dilute sulphuric acid by means of alternating currents," by F. Kohlrausch and W. A. Nippoldt (pp. 370 to 390). This paper forms the continuation and conclusion of one begun in the previous number of the "Annalen." After discussing the special difficulties that lie in the way of accurate determinations of the galvanometric properties of electrolytes, the authors show how the most important of them, the polarisation of the electrodes, may be overcome by substituting for a continuous current in one direction a rapid succession of currents of short duration in opposite directions. Such currents were obtained by the rotation of a steel magnet inside a coil of wire; and the employment of them necessitated the use of a Weber's bifilar dynamometer, instead of an ordinary galvanometer. There is a full discussion of the action of the rotating magnet, showing the mean electromotive force due to a given velocity of revolution, and the action of the resulting current on the dynamometer. In the part of the paper now published, the strength of the current traversing a column of dilute sulphuric acid is proved to be proportional to the electromotive force even when the latter does not exceed part of that of a Grove's cell. By using thermo-electric currents, the proportionality between electromotive force and strength of current, in the case of solution of sulphate of zinc between amalgamated zinc electrodes, is shown to hold good even when the electromotive force is only of that of a Grove's cell. The paper concludes with a series of numerical determinations of the specific resistance of dilute sulphuric acid of various degrees of concentration, from which we quote the following:—At 22°C, the maximum conducting power is possessed by sulphuric acid of specific gravity 1.233 (containing 31.5 per cent. hydric sulphate); taking the conducting power of mercury at 0° as unity, the conducting power of such acid is 0.000077274.
(2.) "On a Comparable Scale for Spectroscopic Observations," by A. Weinhold (pp. 417 to 439). In order to compare the indications of various spectroscopes, the author proposes to denote the various parts of the spectrum by reference to the interference-bands seen in the spectrum of light reflected from a thin plate of biaxial mica; and to reduce the results obtained by the use of plates of various degrees of thickness to a common denomination, by taking two definite parts of the spectrum, e.g., Fraunhofer's lines D and F, as fixed points, and dividing the interval between them into 100 parts. The bands of the interference-spectrum then become comparable with the divisions on an arbitrarily graduated thermometer, the value of which is determined by observing two fixed temperatures. The paper contains a full and careful description of the way of carrying out the proposed method in practice.
(3.) "Experiments on Retarded Ebullition" (third part), by G. Krebs (pp. 439 to 448). The author describes experiments, with tiresome fulness of detail, in proof of the fact that the pressure upon water which has been long boiled may be reduced considerably below the maximum tension of aqueous vapour at the temperature of the water, without ebullition taking place; but if, under these circumstances, a further sudden diminution of pressure takes place, or if the water is heated, very rapid or even explosive ebullition is liable to occur.
(4). "Lightning without Thunder," by Prof Th. Hoh (p. 496). In the night between the 25th and 26th July, the author observed forked lightning unaccompanied by thunder.
The other papers in this number are: "Investigation of Mica and allied minerals," by M. Bauer (pp. 337 to 370); "Studies of the oxygen-compounds of the Halogens," by Hermann Kammerer (pp. 390 to 417); "Mineralogical Communications" (eighth part), by G. von Rath (pp. 440 to 496).