esis of Kekulé. Exactly as monobasic acids yield common ketones, so the diabasic acids should give double ketones having the carbon atoms in a ring form. Thus from succinic acid, di-ethylene-, di-ketone is formed: +(H,O), The potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium and lead salts of succinic acid were submitted to distillation under various conditions. A dark colored oil in greater or less quantity was always obtained, having a ketone-like odor, but from which no fractions of exact boiling point were obtainable. By distilling the fraction boiling between 160° and 250° with zinc dust, considerable benzene was obtained. Moreover hydroquinone was contained in the wash waters of the crude oily distillate. Since the above di-ketone yields both these bodies readily, CH,O=CHO, +H, and CHO,+Zn,=C ̧H ̧+(ZnO), +H,, it may be considered as proved that the benzene nucleus has the constitution assigned to it by Kekulé. Moreover this experiment fixes hydroquinone as a para-compound and establishes the quinones as double ketones.-J. pr. Ch., II, xx, 205, Aug., 1879. 2 OH G. F. B. 6. On the Sulpho-ethers of the Polyatomic Alcohols and the Carbohydrates.-CLAESSON showed, a short time ago, that chlorsulphuric acid, SO,{CI acted on the monatomic alcohols to form mono- or di-sulphuric ethers. He has now extended the reaction to the polyatomic alcohols and has obtained from glycol, ethylene disulphate, from glycerin, glyceryl trisulphate, from erythrite and mannite, tetra- and hexa-sulphates respectively, and from dulcite, a penta-sulphate. The carbohydrates of the glucose group give by this treatment, isomeric compounds probably monochlor-tetrasulphates. At least this is the case with dextrose whose derivative is crystallizable and has the composition CH, OSO OH. (CHOSO,Oй),. CHCI. CHO. Cane sugar, starch, etc., are first inverted and then the above compounds are formed. These polysulphates of the optically active alcohols and carbohydrates have an increased rotatory power to the right. Milk sugar gives dextrose and galactose.-J. pr. Ch., II, xx, 1, Aug., 1879. G. F. B. 7. On the Conversion of Aurin into Trimethyl-pararosaniline.-DALE and SCHORLEMMER, by acting on aurin with ammonia, have sought to obtain the intermediate products between this substance and para-rosaniline. As ammonia gave so much trouble, they tried methylamine and found that in aqueous solution, this base acts readily on aurin at 125° and transforms it almost entirely into a purple body, possessing all the properties of a trimethyl-rosaniline: CHO,+(CH ̧NH2),=CH(CH ̧) ̧N ̧+(H ̧O) ̧. Trimethylamine acts similarly, converting the aurin into purple coloring matters.-J. Chem. Soc., xxxv, 562, Aug., 1879. 14 14 G. F. B. 8. An Induction Balance.-Professor J. E. Hughes has lately devised an instrument which promises to be of great use in determining the amount of the constituents of alloys. It is based upon the principle that the induced current in a secondary coil depends upon the character and amount of metal which forms the core of the primary. A portion of the apparatus Professor Hughes calls a sonometer; this consists merely of two primary coils which are placed with opposing poles about a meter apart on a divided scale. Between them slips a secondary coil which is connected with a telephone. If the primary coils are exactly equal, and are traversed by the same electric current, one will hear no sound when the secondary coil is exactly between the primary coils. This point of balance is called the zero of the sonometer. The circuit running through the primary coils is provided with a microphone, and a clock ticking upon the support of the microphone supplies the necessary change of resistance in the electric circuit. If the equality of the sides of the sonometer is disturbed by the introduction of metals on one side or the other, the telephone announces the inequality and the secondary coil has to be moved nearer one primary coil than another. The number of degrees moved is a relative measure of the difference of the metals. The extreme sensitiveness of this balance is shown by numerous experiments. It is also of use as a coin detector-any difference in the quantity or quality of the metal being instantly shown. W. Chandler Roberts, Chemist of the Mint, has tested Professor Hughes' balance, and gives a number of curves produced by different alloys, and shows that the balance can detect smaller quantities of metals in the composition of alloys than the methods hitherto used. He suggests also "that the balance may afford a simple means of detecting variations in the molecular structure of alloys and for detecting allotropy in metals with greater accuracy than has hitherto been possible."-Phil. Mag., July, 1879, p. 50. II. GEOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY. J. T. 1. Notice of Volcanic Phenomena and Earthquakes during 1878. The statistical review of these phenomena recently published by Professor C. W. C. Fuchs shows the unusually large number of twelve eruptions during the year; most of which occurred in remote localities and from little known volcanoes. In Vesuvius there was but slight activity, with a small flow of lava in September and November. On January 10, smoke was seen from two hitherto unknown volcanoes at the southern point of South America. On the same day a great eruption occurred in the island of Tanna, one of the New Hebrides, followed by a second outbreak on February 4. Simultaneously yet another eruption occurred in the island of Birara in the group of New Britain. Another eruption took place in February from the volcano Isluga in South America (lat. 19° 10' S.), where several villages were destroyed by the lava streams and accompanying earthquake. Other eruptions were from Mount Hecla (March), from the Asamayama in Japan, from Cotopaxi (October), from the Tepaco, the Šitna, and the Ísalco in San Salvador, from the volcanoes of the Aleutian Islands and in the Society Islands. Dr. Fuchs also records the great mud eruption near Paterno in Sicily, which began on Dec. 10, and still continued at the end of the year. The number of earthquakes reported during 1878 amounts to 103. But among these are many complete earthquake periods during which the shocks continued with short intervals for hours, days or even weeks in the same locality. If every shock were counted the total would be many times greater. The earthquakes were most frequent in winter and autumnthirty-nine occurring in winter, twenty-six in autumn, and nineteen each in summer and spring. The most violent and destructive earthquakes occurred on January 23 in Peru and Boilvia, and on October 2 in San Salvador. (Also on April 12 in Venezuela. This Journal, Feb., 1879, pp. 158, 159, 161.) Of European earthquakes the following deserve notice. On January 28, about noon an earthquake occurred in the northwestern part of France and the south of England, particularly distinct in Normandy. Repeated shocks were felt in northwestern Switzerland and the southwest corner of the Black Forest on January 16, 17 and March 29. Other instances of repeated earthquakes are Innsbruck (Jan. 3, 10, 11, Feb. 2, Aug. 9), Gross Geran (Jan. 2, March 25), Lisbon (Jan. 26, 27, June 8), Constantinople and vicinity (April 19 to end of May). Less remarkable for its violence than for its extent was the Low-Rhenish earthquake of Aug. 26. The observations in this case were unusually exact and numerous, which gives additional interest. It began about 9 A. M., and was best observed in Cologne. Here it consisted of an undulatory rising and sinking of the ground, which increased in intensity to an alarming extent. On the cathedral tower the smaller bell struck several times, and in many places the houses showed cracks. At the end of the oscillations a dull subterranean noise was heard, and a second shock was observed by many persons. At other places the phenomena were similar. The area affected by the first shock may have measured over 2000 geographical square miles, as its outlines may be indicated as follows: Arnsberg and Hanover on the north, Offenbach on the Main and Michelstadt in the Odenwald on the southeast, Strasburg, Paris and Charelville in the south, Liége and Brussels in the west, and Utrecht in the northwest. From collating the most reliable observations of time Professor Klinkerfues infers that the velocity of the earthquake in the ground was 6.78 geographical miles per second, and that its origin was between 6.3 and 8.7 miles below the surface. It is remarkable that the phenomenon was only noticed at the surface and was more intense the higher the observer was above the ground, while miners working at a depth of 300 meters did not feel it at all. A similar fact has been noticed in regard to some recent earthquakes in our Rocky Mountain region, which, though quite severe on the surface were not felt in the mines below.-Condensed from Nature, Aug. 14, 1879. C. G. R. 2. The Geology of the Diamantiferous Region of the Province of Paraná, Brazil; by ORVILLE A. DERBY, M.S. (Proc. American Phil. Soc., May 16, 1879.)-This paper records the results of a recent trip by Mr. Derby, to the Province of Paraná, in continuation of the labors of the late Geological Commission in the same region; and it also gives us for the first time an accurate idea of the relations of the deposits of extreme southern Brazil to those of the other parts of the Empire. The Province of Paraná, one of the more southern ones of Brazil, lies between the provinces of São Paulo and Santa Catharina, and reaches from the Atlantic to the Rio Paraná. In its topographical and geological features it resembles, to a certain extent, the two provinces which border it on the north and south. The coast range of mountains, or Serra do Mar, traverses it in a north-south direction, leaving along the coast a low belt, from ten to twenty miles broad. The remainder of the province is, strictly speaking, a plateau, from 800 to 1000 meters high; but Mr. Derby divided the entire province into two distinct topographical regions, a mountainous region, bordering the coast and extending inland about 100 miles, and a plateau region, occupying the central and western parts of the province. The first region is entirely composed of metamorphic rocks, highly inclined and with a general strike east-northeast. These, in the coast belt, and in the Serra do Mar proper, are mostly granites and gneisses, representing the Archean of Rio de Janeiro and northern Brazil; but further west they consist principally of metamorphic schists, quartzites, marbles, etc., and represent the Lower Silurian or Cambrian of Bahia, Minas Geraes and northern Brazil. A second geological province extends from the metamorphic westward, a hundred miles or more, forming the far-famed Campos Geraes," and made up of shales and coarse and fine sandstones. In the shales of this group at Ponta Grossa, were discovered species of Lingula, Discina, Spirifera, Rhynchonella, Streptorhynchus and Vitulina, strongly resembling, and probably identical with, those of the Devonian of the Amazonas. Other fossils were also obtained. The entire western part of the province is apparently formed of a heavy bed or series of beds of trap, overlying a considerable thickness of soft red sandstone, which, in turn, overlies the shales and sandstones of the second region. The rocks of the third region resemble in a striking manner the Triassic rocks of North America. The diamonds are found principally in the valley of the river Tibagy, and more rarely in other river valleys, as they cross the second or Devonian area, above defined. The observations made tend to prove that the sand and gravel containing the diamonds were derived from the underlying Devonian sandstones, which had previously obtained their material from the lower-lying meta morphic series. The gems are found in the sands of the river, and in more elevated gravel banks, called "dry washings." R. R. 3. Serpentine Marble.-A beautiful variety of mottled serpentine marble is worked at a point on Broad Creek in Harford county, on lands of the Havre Iron Co., Maryland. Dr. Genth states that there are three beds of serpentine, associated with chloritic and other magnesian rocks in the mica schist formation of the region. The chief bed is about 500 feet thick, and is traceable by its outcrop for about 1500 feet. 4. The Gymnospermy of Coniferæ; by Dr. L. CELAKOVSKY. A paper in Flora for June, 1879, Nos. 17 and 18.-Celakovsky, who takes a high position as a morphological botanist, mentions that in the year 1874 he published in Flora an article opposing gymnospermy. He now announces that he has changed his opinion, having satisfied himself of the truth of this doctrine. The agent of conversion was a monstrosity of the Norway Spruce cone, like that from which Stengel made out the now accepted morphology of the cone, and the same monstrosity as that which Braun studied in the Larch, deducing from it the accepted doctrine many years ago. The essential point in this monstrosity is that the bracts of the abnormal catkin develop into leaves, and the carpellary scale before it into a pair of leaves transverse to the bract. The abietinous carpel consists of these two leaves united by their posterior edges (i. e., those next the axis of the cone) into a scale, the back of which therefore faces the axis of the cone, and bears the ovules. The lower part of these catkins is usually normal, the apex by prolification is gradually transformed in the manner here specified, and becomes a leafy branch. Dr. Engelmann, in this Journal, three years ago, gave a confirmatory account of an analogous monstrosity in the Hemlock Spruce, but in which the transformation was at the base of the cone, the lower bracts leaflike and with a pair of leaves in their axil, the following bracts more and more scale-like, the geminate leaves in their axil were partially united, next forming a scale with a cleft or notched apex, then an entire carpellary scale, in the axil of a normal bract. Celakovsky, having now seen the Spruce monstrosity for himself, adopts the inevitable conclusion, and applies it well to the settling of the question of gymnospermy. He declares that the dorsal origin of the ovules of the Abietineæ proves that it is no axillary production, and thus the main support of those who take the ovule for a simplified female flower falls to the ground. Moreover, the ovules of Coniferæ in retrograde metamorphosis never change into shoots, but simply disappear. If flowers, they would be expected sometimes to become foliaceous branchlets. So Celakovsky regards it as demonstrated that they are outgrowths from the dorsal face of the leaf, analogous to the sori and indusia of Ferns. He cites the indusium of Hymenophyllum as an instructive analogue, only it is marginal; that of Davalia is somewhat dorsal; that of Cyathea wholly so and yet cup-shaped. He goes on to say that the gymnospermy of Abietinec being thus proved, that of the rest |