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problems connected with the propulsion of ships, by Captain E. E. Goulaeff, Imperial Russian Navy. Some experiments on the transmission of heat through tube-plates, by A. J. Darston, Engineer-in-Chief of the Navy. Some notes on the testing of boilers, by J. T. Milton, Chief Engineer Surveyor, Lloyd's Registry of Shipping. On an apparatus for measuring and registering the vibrations of steamers, by Herr E. Otto Schlick. On the repairs of injuries to the hulls of vessels by collisions, stranding, and explosions, by Captain J. Kiddle, R.N. On approximate curves of stability, by W. Hök. Some experiments with the engines of the s.s. Iveagh, by John Inglis. On the cyclogram, or clock-face diagram, of the sequence of pressures in multi-cylinder engines, by F. Edwards.

Admiral Long's paper was the first taken, and was a useful contribution to a subject which is more of a military than an engineering or constructive interest. Lord Brassey's paper, on the other hand, is chiefly of interest to the shipowner from a commercial point of view, although a very wide imperial matter is encompassed within the scope of the paper. Lord Brassey maintains that this country cannot maintain her supremacy in first-class ocean liners of high speed, and carrying small quantities of cargo, in face of the foreign competition supported by state subsidies. Our own post-office contribution for carrying mails is insufficient for the purpose of enabling British shipowners to compete with those of foreign states. In the humbler class of ocean cargo steamers we can hold our own, as proved by the figures quoted. The matter is well worthy of the attention of statesmen. Admiral Long's and Lord Brassey's papers were discussed together, and occupied the whole of the Wednesday morning sitting.

On the Thursday, the second day of the meeting, a paper by Dr. Elgar was the first on the list, and is the outcome of some remarks made by the author in a speech during the discussion of Mr. Martell's paper of last year upon a similar subject. Dr. Elgar refers to the report of the Board of Trade Committee upon the spacing and construction of water-tight bulkheads in ships, saying that this report raises broadly and pointedly the question of how the strength of a large area of perfectly flat thin steel plating, which is supported at the edges and subjected to normal pressure, may be determined by calculation. This, the author says, is the simplest form of the question thus raised. In applying it to the case of a ship's bulkhead we require to deal with a continuous area of plating whose thickness is uniform, but with an area made of separate plates of varying thickness, and connected with riveted joints, which has stiffening bars riveted across in parallel lines at equal distances apart. Dr. Elgar pointed out that what is required is further experimental data upon which to base a theory of use to ship-designers in determining these points. In the discussion which followed Dr. W. H. White, the Director of Naval Construction, and assistant controller, supported the author's contention. as also did Mr. Martell, the chief surveyor of Lloyd's, and Mr. Bryan, of Cambridge. The two former, who, it is needless to state, are influential members of council, advocated that a research committee should be formed for the purpose of investigating the matter and accumulating experimental cata. Sir Edward Harland, who was chairman of the Board of Trade Committee before referred to, opposed this suggestion on the ground that the Board of Trade Committee had made experiments sufficient for the purpose, and until those experiments had been proved to be defective he thought that any further sums spent would be largely wasted. We do not think the meeting was in accordance with Sir Edward's views. As Dr. White pointed out, the experiments made under the supervision of Sir Edward Harland were more of the nature of experiments on individual girders, rather than on plated surfaces, supported by stiffeners, the stiffeners being treated as the girders. As Mr. Bryan said, what ship-builders really want is a rule based on scientific investigation by which they can be guided in cases where there is not absolute experimental dala We quite agree with Mr. Bryan that this subject wants to be lifted out of the region of empiricism which has always surrounded it. There is, however, not much prospect of the committee of the Institution being formed, not on account of its being unnecessary, but because there are not sufficient funds at he disposal of the Institution. Dr. White was anxious that be members should be asked to express formal approval of the step to be taken in carrying out this investigation, in order to -reng bet the bands of the council. We think, however, that streng beting of this nature is requisite, for, if we mistake

not, such work as this is directly within the scope of the Institution, as set forth by the original design upon which it is based.

Lord Brassey, who occupied the chair, advised that the council should memorialise the Board of Trade in order that the Government might take the matter up. No doubt if such a step be taken, a committee will be formed, and those members who have taken a prominent position in the discussion of these matters would no doubt be willing to act-in fact they could not very well refuse. It is to be hoped also that Mr. Bryan, although not a member of the Institution, will be included in the list. It is very desirable that practical consideration should be kept strictly in view in such a matter as this, but in order to be practical, the investigation should be based on a scientific foundation. There are several naval architects who are mathematicians in the best sense of the word. Mr. Bryan is, however, a mathematician first, and that of a very high order, having distinguished himself at Cambridge. His grasp of mechanical subjects has also proved considerable, as evidenced by the original work done at the Cambridge Philosophical and his contributions to the British Association. His paper on the buckling of the thin plate will be remembered in this con nection, and since then he has turned his attention to a study of the buckling of plates. His inclusion in the committee would be a guarantee that any experiments made would include the whole subject and not be simply girder tests.

Mr. Calvert has take up a very interesting subject for inves tigation. The measurement of a steamer's wake is a problem that has been looked on by many as practically insoluble, but Mr. Calvert has attacked it in a practical and philosophical manner. He has towed a large vessel, 260 feet in length. measuring the velocity of the wake by means of towing logs This vessel was towed from Holyhead to Liverpool. Unfortu nately the experiment was not so successful as might have been hoped. The speed of the vessel varied during the voyage and the logs only showed the average. The action of the rudder also affected the stream-lines. There were other sources of error. The author therefore was reduced to model experiments, the vessel he used was 28 feet long, and 3'66 feet draught. Across the stern was fitted a framework upon which several fine vertical wires were stretched, extending from the deck to some distance below the keel, each of these wires, and the apparatus connected with it, being exactly similar to its neighbours. Upon the wires at the level at which the weight measurement was required a horizontal tube, inch internal diameter, was carried by a universal joint near its forward open end. The end of this tube was in communication with another tube, closed at its upper and lower ends, and hung by trunnions to one end of 2 weighted lever. One of the trunnions being hollow formed: connection through the rubber tube to the under side of a gauge glass inside the model, so that through this system of jointed tubes there was free communication between the gauge glass and the water outside. On the after end of the tube four thin radi. feathers were fixed, and as the weight of that end of the system of tubes was accurately balanced by a lever, the honzontal tube necessarily assumed a position parallel to the direc tion of any current in which it might be placed, and its open forward end was consequently always presented normally to the

current.

In order that the attitude of the submerged tube might be noted by the observers in the boat, the vertical tube carried a light rod, the top of which indicated the inclination in any direction of the tube; four or five of such horizontal tubes were fitted at one time, each on its vertical wire, and having its cosnections as described, and another such tube with similar connections was carried by an outrigger reaching out into water that was practically undisturbed. Records were taken by means of a photographic camera. If the water into which these horizontal tubes advanced were at rest, or if its velocity through out were uniform, then the water in the gauge glasses, rising higher and higher as the speed increased, would still stand at the same level in all the glasses. Assuming that the tube carried by the outrigger was always advancing into undisturbed water, the the water in the gauge glass connected with that tube would serve as a datum line from which, at that instant, the relative elevation or depression of the water in any other gauge glass could be measured, indicating to its corresponding horizontal tabe that the water through which it was passing was either following or meeting the boat. The wave of the boat was a disturbia element which had to be allowed for. The data being appraised

by means of photographing the waves' profile. The author also towed a flat plank, 28 feet long, at a speed of 406 feet a minute. The speed of current recorded at distances of 1 foot, 7 feet, 14 feet, 21 feet, and 28 feet from the leading end were respectively 16 per cent., 37 per cent., 45 per cent., 48 per cent., and 50 per cent. of the velocity of the plank. These proportions appear to be maintained at all speeds between 200 and 400 feet per minute. Having thus determined the maximum velocity of the frictional water, other experiments were made with this plank to show the manner in which the motion of the water in contact with the surface was gradually imparted to the layers of water lying underneath. This was done by means of tubes, the forward ends of the tubes being open, and their after ends connected to gauge glasses. The results of experiments at 200, 300, and 400 feet per minute would appear to show that the velocity decreases in a geometrical progression as the distance from the surface increases in arithmetical progressions. The retardation of velocity in the somewhat analogous conditions of orbital wave motion of the flow of rivers, and possibly of glaciers, appears to confirm the foregoing observations as regards the ratio of decrease in velocity of the frictional weight. Mr. Calvert next went on to refer to the labours of Dr. Froude, and his report to the British Association for 1874. We regret that space does not allow us to accompany him in this most interesting investigation, and we must refer our readers to the Transactions, in which the whole matter will be published in full. In the discussion which followed, Dr. White, Mr. Froude, and others spoke, but no new facts were brought forward.

The next paper of interest was a contribution by Mr. A. J. Durston, Engineer-in-Chief of the Royal Navy, and dealt with the important matters which are comprised in the problem of leaky tubes. Our readers will be aware of the trouble that has arisen in the Navy from the leakage at tubeplates and tube-ends, where marine boilers have been driven to their maximum. The difficulty has been got over to a certain extent by the introduction of a peculiar form of ferrule. These ferrules are bent over at their ends and protect the joint of the tube and tube-plate from the fierce impact of flame. Naturally the ferrules themselves get burnt away, as there is an air space between them and the heated surface of the boiler by which the heat would be abstracted from the end. With malleable cast-iron, the destruction is not so rapid as one would imagine, for, we believe, although the fact was not stated at the meeting-that a spare set is all that is provided for a commission, that is to say, two sets of ferrules, one in position and one spare will last for three years. The experiments upon which Mr. Durston's paper is founded were made in various ways, with parts of boilers constructed especially for the purpose. The temperatures were generally ascertained by means of plugs at fusible alloys let into the plates through which the heat was transmitted. An interesting series of experiments was also made as to the temperature of the products of combustion at different distances within the tubes of a boiler.

This was done by means of a Le Chatelier pyrometer. And it may be said that the curve of temperatures obtained in this way agrees very closely with the curve of evaporation obtained by Mr. Wye Williams. We have not space to give the details of Mr. Durston's many trials. One very striking thing was the exremely deleterious result of grease in the boiler, by preventing he proper transmission of heat.

Mr. Milton's paper followed. Its object was to show that when a cylindrical boiler of the return tube type is subjected to pressure the staying of the combustion chambers to the shell as an effect of distorting the shell, dragging it out of the ylindrical form, thus the flat surfaces of the combustion chamers tend to bulge inwards on themselves, and away from he shell. This sets up strains which are not equally distributed round the whole circumference of the shell. In order to overCome this, Mr. Milton proposes to stay the combustion cham ers with stays radiating from the centre of the shell and disributed all round, so that the stress will be equal on all parts. The author quoted experiments showing that the distortion due o the cause named is far greater than is generally supposed by ngineers, in one case amounting to as much as one-eighth of n inch on the diameter. This was at a pressure of 320 lbs. on boler 14 feet in diameter having three combustion chambers. Herr Schlick's paper was of remarkable interest. He has levised an instrument by which a record is obtained, not only of the vertical but of the horizontal vibrations of steamers. Without the aid of illustration it would be impossible for us to

describe this very ingenious apparatus. Vibration is an important factor in the design of modern steamers of high speed. Our readers will remember Mr. Yarrow's contributions on this subject, and the very valuable practical results he adduced from the experiments made on torpedo boats. In ocean steamers the question of vibration is now one of great moment. In one wellknown Atlantic liner the vibration at one time was a serious objection to the vessel, and the nodal points of vibration were well marked in the length of the vessel, so much so that cabins on these points were greatly preferred, and those who were fortunate enough to be in the confidence of the stewards were able to secure these cabins. It has been shown that the action of the screw itself had very little to do with this vibratory disarrangement, it being the synchronisation of the reciprocating parts of the engine with the natural vibration of the structure of the hull that produces the effect in the most aggravated form.

Mr. Hök's paper on curves of stability is a valuable contribution to the Transactions of the Institution. The author is himself engaged practically in work of the nature which he describes, being a draughtsman in a shipyard on the north-east coast. The Institution can hardly have too many papers from authors of Mr. Hök's position and attainments. We do not propose here to enter into a description of the geometrical principles upon which the author bases his formula, and must refer our readers to the Transactions of the Institution for details. The system claims to give no more than approximation, but it is applicable to all kinds of ships and has the great merit of being readily constructed.

The last evening of the meeting Mr. John Inglis gave some interesting particulars of experiments made with a view to test the desirability of running triple compound engines as two cylinder compounds when low power only is required. The system has been frequently advocated with a view to save coal, but Mr. Inglis's results do not seem to bear out this claim. Two four-hours' trials were made, one with the engine working as an ordinary triple, and the other with the intermediate cylinder thrown out of use. Working triple, the I.H.P. was 810; working two cylinders, 351. In the former case the coal consumed per I. H. P. per hour was 147 pounds. With the intermediate cylinder out of use the coal was 2.238. The consumption of feed water corresponding was 15'25 pounds, and 23 18 pounds per I.H.P. per hour. Of course the comparison must not be taken as indicating degree of the superiority of the triple expansion engines over the ordinary compound, great as that superiority undoubtedly is.

A paper by Mr. Cole on the same subject follows, but the results obtained are not sufficiently conclusive to demand quotation.

The last paper at the meeting was the contribution by Mr. Edwards. Its title sufficiently explains its scope, and it would be quite impossible for us to follow the author's explanation without the aid of the diagrams which he exhibited on the walls of the theatre.

The chief event of the meeting was reserved for the last. It was the presentation of an address to Lord Ravensworth, who for fourteen years has occupied the position of president to the Institution. He now retires, his successor being Lord Brassey. The address referred to the great services that Lord Ravensworth had rendered to the Institution, and the authors of it gave utterance to no conventional platitudes.

Lord

Ravensworth has worked hard for the Institution of Naval Architects, and has conducted its meetings without favour to any, so that the humblest member could get a hearing equally with the most distinguished. It is not always so in societies of this nature.

A summer meeting of the Institution will be held at Cardiff, a very cordial invitation having been received from the Welsh metropolis. The meeting promises to be of unusual success, judging by the programme which is set forth, and the arrangements made.

THE ACTION OF GLACIERS ON THE LAND PROF. T. G. BONNEY, F.R.S., read a paper to the

last meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on the question, Do glaciers excavate? In view of the correspondence recently published in our columns the arguments adduced in support of the negative conclusions may be cited in some detail.

The question of the glacial origin of lakes involves many separate considerations. While lakes undoubtedly abound in regions now or formerly subjected to glaciation, many of these are formed by the damming of valleys by moraine heaps, or by extensive landslips. The school of Sir A. Ramsay affirm that glaciers are powerful excavating agents, and that there is no other agent but ice competent to form a rock-basin. The last argument breaks down when one considers the number of depressions of all sizes gradually increasing from mere volcanic craters to those of the Jordan Valley and the Caspian Sea, in the formation of which ice could have had no part. The argument that Greenland alone holds the key to the phenomena of glaciation breaks down, for the Alps were once the seat of a vast icesheet, which over-rode all the minor inequalities of the surrounding country, and of which the existing glaciers are the shrunken remnant. Thus the Alpine valleys should serve to show the typical results of ice-action on the land. This is the sum of their evidence: toothed prominences have been broken or rubbed away, the rough places have been made smooth, the rugged hill has been reduced to rounded slopes of rock (like the backs of plunging dolphins). But the crag remains a crag, the buttress a buttress, and the hill a hill; the valley also does not alter its leading outlines, the V like section so characteristic of ordinary fluviatile erosion still remains ; all that the ice has done has been to act like a gigantic rasp; it has modified, not revolutionised, it has moulded, not regenerated. No sooner do we come to study in detail the effects of the ancient glaciers in the upper valleys of the Alps than we are struck by their apparent inefficiency as erosive agents. Here, where the ice has lingered longest, just beneath the actual glacier we see that cliff continues to exist. Again and again in a valley we may find that on the lee side of prominences crags still remain, sometimes in sufficient frequency to be marked features in the scenery. The Haslithal is an excellent and representative example. The result of prolonged personal study of the Alps may be summed up in the words-"Valleys appear to be much older than the Ice Age, and to have been but little modified during the period of maximum extension of the glaciers."

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The evidence as to the erosive power of glaciers is very slight. Dr. Wright showed that the great Muir Glacier in Alaska covers great stretches of undisturbed gravel in which upright tree-stems remain. Prof. Bonney proceeded to say :In the Alps about the year 1860 the glaciers began to dwindle. By 1870 considerable tracts of bare rock or debris were exposed, which a dozen years before had been buried under the ice. On none of these have I seen any basin-like hollow or sign of excavation as distinguished from abrasion. The Unter Grindelwald Glacier in the last stage of its descent passes over three or four rocky terraces. The angles of these are not very seriously worn away, nor are hollows excavated at the base of the steps. The bed of the Argentière Glacier (I made my way some little distance under the ice) was rather unequal, and was less uniformly abraded than I had expected. There were no signs whatever of the glacier being able to break off or root up blocks of the subjacent schistose rock it seemed simply to wear away prominences. This also is true of other glaciers. Prior to 1860, and again in 1891, I saw glaciers which were advancing. They ploughed up the turf of a meadow for a foot or two in depth; they pushed moraine-stuff in front of them, showing some tendency to over-ride it, and nothing more. In 1875, at the foot both of the Glacier des Bois and of the Argentière Glacier, was a stony plain. Both these proved to have been recently uncovered by the ice; in other words, the glacier had not been able to plough up a boulder-bed even at a place where, owing to the change of level, some erosive action not unreasonably might have been expected. But, further, on both these plains big blocks of protogine were lying which were striated on sides and top, thus showing that the ice had actually flowed over them, as if it were a stream of mud. Some of the difficulties in the way of believing in the scooping out of lake-basins have now to be considered.

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First, in regard to their position: some of them, such as Constance, Geneva, Como, Maggiore, &c., are comparatively near to the lower limits of the great ice sheets, and so would be covered for a relatively short time. All of them are many miles from the ends of the existing glaciers, yet we are asked to admit that a rock basin, in depth sometimes exceeding 1000 feet and generally more than 500, has been scooped out in a time much shorter than that which has proved insufficient for the obliteration

of the original features of the upper valleys or for the deepening of their beds by more than a few yards at most-indeed, as: rule, the ice seems never to have been able to overtake the torrent.

The radiating arms of the Lakes of Lucerne, Lugano, and Como are insuperable difficulties in the way of accepting a glacial theory of the origin of these lakes, and the configuration of the Lake of Geneva and the other lakes in France recently minutely surveyed, lends no countenance to the theory of excavation.

One fact to which Prof. J. Geikie has called attention seems at first sight strongly to support Sir A. Ramsay's hypothesis, and is the only real addition, in my opinion, which has been made to the original reasons. It is that many of the Scottish lochs are true rock basins, and that similar basins frequently occur outside their mouths. This also often holds of the fork in Norway, New Zealand, and elsewhere. Prof. Geikie points out that several of these basins occur just when the ice might be expected to obtain an increased scooping power. His map first sight appears very convincing; but a study of the large charts reveals many anomalies. Loch Linnhe, for example, fr. below the entry of Loch Leven, maintains a general depth from 34 10 50 fathoms; then, below Loch Corrie, a chance may be traced whic varies in depth from 50 to 60 fathoms, after which, in the Lynn of Morven, we find it deepen to 70 fathons, then to 90 fathoms; and at last, a little north-east of the e joining Barony Point with Lismore Point, it expands into a bar with a maximum depth of 110 fathoms. But outside, in the Sound of Mull (to the north-west) the depths become very i regular, varying from about 35 to 70 fathoms. Barony Por appears to be connected with Mull by a submerged isthmus, generally less than 20 fathoms below the surface. But here. the glacier were stopped by impinging on Mull, it ought splitting to be pushing hard upon its bed. In all this region irregularities of the bed are very perplexing, whateve hypothesis be adopted; but I will restrict myself to a single in stance. Off the west coast of Scarba, under the lee of the "Islands of the Sea," and where the opening towards Colonsay makes improbable that the ice can have forced into a narrower space an elongated basin occurs in which the soundings-outside abo 60 fathoms-deepen to 100, and at one place to 137 fathoms The sea-bed about Arran presents similar difficulties. In short here, at Loch Etive, Loch Lomond, and in other places, all goes well only so long as we restrict ourselves to generalities and abstain from details.

The theory of the origin of rock-basins, which I brough forward full twenty years ago, is now supported by much ad tional evidence. It is that the lake beds are ordinary valley of sub-aerial erosion, affected by differential earth-movements This has been very strongly confirmed by the surveys of the o beaches of the great lakes of North America, the Iroquos beach being full 600 feet higher at the north-eastern part than it is at the western end of Lake Ontario.

To conclude, glaciers, when the paths which they have traversed are carefully studied, appear to have acted, as a rut as agents of the abrasion rather than of erosion. Even in t former capacity they have generally failed to obliterate the more marked pre-existent features due to ordinary fluviatile a sub-aerial sculpture. In the latter capacity they seem to har been impotent, except under very special circumstances; the while we may venture to ascribe to glaciers certain shal tarns and rock basins in situations exceptionally favourable, we cannot assign to their agency either the greater Alpine lake: any other important lakes in regions which were overflowed by the ice only during the period when it attained to an abnorma development. In the discussion which followed the paper, D. Blanford, Sir Henry Howorth, Mr. Freshfield, and Mr. Conway took part.

FURTHER STUDIES ON HYDRAZINE.

A FURTHER contribution to the chemistry of hydram NH, is communicated by Prof. Curtius to the cur number of the Berichte. The first portion of the memoir de with the preparation and properties of substituted hydra containing the radicles of the organic acids. In the latter por a number of inorganic salts containing hydrazine are describe. When hydrazine hydrate is brought in contact with the ames

chlorides, or esters of the organic acids, primary acid hydrazines are produced, of the general structure R.CO.NH. NH, where R represents the hydrocarbon radical contained in the acid Ammonia, hydrochloric acid, or alcohol is simultaneously formed, according as an amide, a chloride, or an ester is employed. The reactions proceed with facility and regularity, frequently in the cold, and afford theoretical yields of the substituted hydrazines. For many reasons, however, the esters are most convenient for the preparation of these acid hydrazines upon a large scale.

The primary acid hydrazines are colourless, non-volatile solids which usually crystallise well. The first member of the series, formyl hydrazine, H.CO.NH. NH, melts at 54. They are usually soluble in water and alcohol, but insoluble in ether. Most of them form stable salts with one molecule of hydrochloric acid. The hydrogen of the imido group NH is replaceable by metallic sodium or by the radical acetyl. They possess reducing properties similar to those of phenyl-hydrazine, and they condense readily with aldehydes and ketones to form insoluble tertiary hydrazines. Upon heating, frequently by simply boiling their aqueous solutions, they become converted into secondary symmetrical hydrazines in accordance with the equation: 2R.CO.NH. NH =R.CO.NH. NH.CO.R+ NH4. The liberated hydrazine decomposes into ammonia and free nitrogen.

The secondary symmetrical acid hydrazines are very stable substances, soluble only to a slight extent in water. They are usually colourless, possess high melting points, and behave as acids. By the action of powerful oxidising agents they are converted into substances endowed with brilliant colours, ranging from yellow to bright red, which appear to be of the nature of "azo" compounds.

Of particular interest is the substituted hydrazine obtained by the action of hydrazine hydrate upon urea, the amide of carbonic acid. When urea is boiled with hydrazine hydrate a monohydrazide is first produced, NH, ČO.NH. NH. This substance, however, is unstable and passes spontaneously into the secondary symmetrical compound NH.CO.NH. NH.CO.NH, with elimination of hydrazine, NH4. This secondary hydrazide is identical with a compound of the same constitution previously obtained in an entirely different manner by Thiele.

An extremely interesting reaction occurs when the acidyl hydrazines of monobasic acids are treated with nitrous acid. They are directly converted into esters of azoimide, NH, in accordance with the following equation :

R.CO.NH. NH2+NO.OH =R.CO.N3+2H2O.

During the course of work upon this latter reaction it was observed that the organic azoimides, both those containing acid and those containing hydrocarbon radicles, R.CO.N, and RN3, behave in a peculiar manner with water. Thus diazobenzene-imide CH.N, resinises with a copious evolution of gas; similarly benzoylazoimide, CH5.CO.Ng, when boiled for some time in contact with water evolves large quantities of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, and becomes converted into a magnificently crystallising base of the composition of a symmetrical diamidobenzophenone, CH4. NH.CO.NH.CH.

The hydrazines of dibasic acids do not yield derivatives of azoimide, but break up with a violent evolution of nitrogen and formation of secondary symmetrical hydrazines. For instance the hydrazine of oxalic acid yields the symmetrical compound

CO.NH.NH, CO

CO.NH.NH.CO

Several of the hydrazines of unsaturated acids behave in a manner peculiar to themselves. Thus the hydrazine derived from fumaric acid, CH(CO.NH. NH), yields with nitrous acid an extremely explosive colourless compound, of the nature of a diazofumaramide, C,H,(CO.NH. N2. OH),.

Prof. Curtius has succeeded in preparing a large number of double salts of metallic sulphates and chlorides with hydrazine sulphate and chloride. The double sulphates are constituted according to the general formula (NH),H,SOR ́SO,, and are distinguished by their difficult solubility and by the absence of water of crystallisation. Salts of the series have been prepared containing as the metal R" copper, nickel, cobalt, iron,

manganese, zinc, and cadmium; magnesium does not appear capable of forming a double sulphate. The blue copper salt is only soluble to the extent of one part in 1150 parts of water at 10°. It dissolves in ammonia with evolution of nitrogen.

The double chlorides are constituted according to the general formula N2H4. HCl. RCI. They are readily soluble in water, and certain of them may also be recrystallised from alcohol. Some contain water of crystallisation, while others are anhydrous and exhibit sharp melting points.

Hydrazine likewise forms a double phosphate with magnesium, which closely resembles ammonium magnesium phosphate.

Hydrazine appears to be remarkably stable towards nitric acid, but Prof. Curtius has eventually obtained the nitrate, NH. HNO3, in splendid crystals which melt at 70°. If these crystals are heated suddenly they explode with great violence. The acid salt, NH4.2HNÓ ̧, loses nitric acid when its solution is evaporated. It may be remembered that Prof. Curtius observed a similar greater stability of the monacid salt in the case of the chlorides, for upon heating the dihydrochloride, N2H.2HCl, to 140°, it was found to be completely converted into the monohydrochloride, NH.HCI.

A. E. TUTTON.

THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF PREHISTORIC ARCHEOLOGY AND

ANTHROPOLOGY.

IT is probably unique in the history of congresses that a report of the proceedings should be published within a period of three months from the time of the meeting. Such a feat was accomplished by the publication committee of the International Congress of Prehistoric Archæology and Anthropology, the eleventh session of which was held some time ago at Moscow. All the communications are printed in French. The first volume of the Report is divided into five sections; of these the first is devoted to geology and paleontology in their relations to primitive man. In his paper upon the constitution of the quaternary deposits in Russia and their relations to the finds resulting from the activity of prehistoric man, S. Nikitine draws the following conclusions: The subdivision of the stone age into paleolithic and neolithic epochs should be retained for Russia in Europe, because it coincides with the geological subdivisions pleistocene and recent, which in their turn are based upon paleontological facts. The study of the glacial deposits of Finland and of the western region do not furnish any proof of the existence of two special glacial epochs and of an interglacial epoch; all the facts can be explained by phenomena of the oscillation of a glacier at the time of its gradual but irregular retreat. The time corresponding to the inter-glacial epoch and that of the second glaciation of the Swedes was probably for the greater part of Russia the period of the formation of ancient lacustrine deposits, of the loess and of the upper fluviatile terraces, containing the bones of the mammoth and other extinct mammals. Man lived simultaneously with the mammoth during the second half of the glacial epoch along the limit of glaciation, knowing amongst other things the use of fire, but only making splintered flint implements. As the glacier retreated man advanced towards the north and north-west; he arrived in Finland and in the Baltic region after the close of the glaciation, and after the disappearance of the mammoth; but man then possessed the more advanced culture of the neolithic period, and besides chipped flint implements he knew how to make implements of polished stone, pottery, &c. Russia in Europe does not present any traces of man in the first half of the pleistocene or of still more ancient man.-Prof. W. W. Dokoutchaïev contributes a valuable essay on the Russian steppes, past and present, in which he deals with the last page of Russian geology, and comes to the conclusion that before the glacial period the difference between the relative altitudes of the north-west and of the centre of Russia were much more considerable than at present. The author describes the carving of the steppes and their surface drainage; their soil, and that of the forests; the vegetation, fauna, and climate of the

steppes. As the soil of the forests differs in character from that of the tchernozème the author and M. Gheorgievsky were able to prove the greater extent formerly of the Poltava forests.-The second section deals with prehistoric archæology. In a paper entitled comparison of the primitive industries of France and Asia, G. Chauvet discusses the question "Can one establish general divisions, applicable to both Western Europe and Asia, for prehistoric times and especially for the paleolithic period?" The general progress of the industrial arts has been the same in Asia and in Europe during prehistoric times, but how far these epochs were synchronous is unknown. In order to have terms for comparison it is necessary to have a "fixed base"; such a base is afforded by the glacial phenomena. He concludes by urging that the great engineering works which are now progressing in Asia afford opportunities for obtaining information on these problems which should not be neglected.-Lubor Niederle (of Prague) calls attention to the latest results of prehistoric archæology in Bohemia, and its relations with Eastern Europe, and arrives at the conclusion that the Slavs arrived in Bohemia earlier than is admitted by historians. He believes that the Slavs, like the Germans and Gauls, were originally dolichocephalic, and of a blonde complexion.-The other papers in this section are short, two of them being on nephrite.-The third section is confined to tumuli and encampments (Kourganes et goroditchtschés).— A. Spitzine reports on the bone-encampments in the north of Russia.-P. Krotov comes to the following conclusions in his paper on the layers of stone implements in the district of Iaransk, government of Viatka; the stone implements of the district of Iaransk do not belong to the true stone age, but to the epoch of the encampments and other ancient dwellings of the Finns, who made use of implements of stone and bone, along with utensils in iron and bronze. During this period of the life of the Finns, elements of a more advanced civilization penetrated into their country, coming from the centres of civilization of eastern Russia; flint and bone implements being replaced by iron tools.-B. Pérédolsky has a paper on the "jalnik (necropolis) of Iuriévo, in the district of Borowitchi, government of Novgorod."-The first paper in the Anthropological Section is by Topinard on race in anthropology, in which he asserts, (1) On no part of the surface of the globe can one discover a population entirely free from mixture, and presenting only a single type; (2) that the anthropological materials on which we work, and from which we extract the double notion of the type to begin with, and of its continuity in time, are only peoples; (3) that if the first factor, the type, is accessible with labour, the second, its permanence in time, is only a conjecture which it is impossible to demonstrate ; (4) that in consequence the notion of race in the two factors, and especially in the latter, is only a subjective notion, a mental conception, peoples and their historic elements being the only objective realities. Later on he says: "In order to show how in Europe, for example, the question of nationalities is foreign to that of races, or even of the constituent elements of peoples, one need but remember that three or four races (using the word conditionally) only are fundamentally concerned in the formation of the numerous peoples which at the present time are distributed from north to south, and from east to west. The races are the whites, the brachycephals, and the browns. They are found everywhere, with only here and there some secondary additions. Their proportions alone vary. To the north there are more blondes ; in the centre, from the Urals to Portugal, the brachycephals dominate; to the south, around the Mediterranean, the browns are in the majority. If two peoples agree in certain characters it does not follow that they have the same nationality. Kollmann, in an illustrated paper on the human races of Europe and the Aryan question, argues that it is necessary to distinguish at least four different types in Europe (the Dolichocephalic leptoprosopes and chamaprosopes and the Brachycephalic leptoprosopes and chama prosopes) which have continued, without any doubt, since the neolithic period; that the intellectual European culture is a common product of these types.-In his paper on the weight of the brain among several peoples of the Caucasus, Dr. N. Giltchenko gives valuable data on fiftyseven subjects. Anoutchine has a paper entitled, Ancient, Artificially Deformed Skulls found in Russia."-The last section is devoted to Prehistoric Ethnography. In his contributions to the prehistoric ethnography of Central and North-East Russia, J. Smirnov concludes that the linguistic

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facts permit the supposition that only a part of the mains of the neolithic period of Central Russia can beg to the Finns. The antiquity of sepultures can be determine besides other ways, by the animal bones deposited with t dead. The N.-S. position of the skeleton may be regar in Central Russia as one of the indices of ancient Fizz sepultures. To the category of the monuments of prehistor epochs belong geographical names. The place-names northern and central Russia prove that its pre- or prote historic population has been more homogeneous to th east, in the region of the Permiens and Ougriens, a more mixed to the west.-N. Troïtzky has a very interest paper on vestiges of paganism in the region site between the upper courses of the Oka and of the D Fire, tree, and stone cults persist, but modified by Christiani E. Chantre has a project for reform in the nomenclature the peoples of Asia"; and A. Ivanovsky, some informare upon the questions: (1) of the simultaneous employment sepulture and incineration; and (2) of the stone statues c

Kamennya baby."-The last is the most important comm cation, "Which is the most ancient race in Russia?" by A. Bogdanov, of Moscow. He finds that the most ancient s are dolichocephalic. In passing to the more modern tombs the fifteenth century, we see a diminution of the quantity dolichocephals and the preponderance of brachycephals. La ancient tombs of the government of St. Petersburg, as well as some districts of Novgorod, we meet from the stone onwards skulls of a type quite distinct from those charac istic of the tumuli (kourganes) of Central RE From Moscow eastward, and as far as the U and Siberia (Tobolsk), we find the tumuli of th brachycephals. In the governments of Moscow, Smolema Riasan, and Don, we have only in some localities the series the dolichocephals, and in others a kind of mixture of characte in these localities, more than in the others, mixture was poss since they are found either on the great routes of migrations, at the limit of the distribution of different races. In the ta called "Scythian " the majority of the skulls quite resemble dolichocephalic tumuli-population of Central Russia. Ore to only occasionally Mongoloid skulls in the tumuli of Cera Russia, and in the tombs of Southern Russia; whilst a tumuli of Tobolsk, and of the Uralian countries they aban and often predominate. The territory of this dolichocep leptoprosopic primitive people is very distinctly limited to north, east, and south by the tumuli, with a population brachycephalic, or presenting this type in preponderance. I is no south-west limit. In Galicia, north and south Germa and Sweden we meet with the same type in the ancient as in those of Central and Southern Russia. There are primitive dolichocephalic chamæprosops in Asia among the golians, but not in Europe. Kollmann's European types app to be the result of mixture with brachycephals, or of Virchow calls "pathological races." Dolichocephalism is and more diminishing in Europe. The larger and broader hes of the civilized classes should be attributed to other causes: merely to mixture.

SCIENTIFIC SERIALS.

A. CH

The Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science for Ja 1893, contains :-On the relationships and role of the A plasm during mitosis in the larval salamander, by John E. Moore (plate xxi.).—On the occurrence of embryonic fiss cyclostomatous polyzoa, by Sidney F. Harmer (plates xxiv.). The extraordinary phenomena described in det this paper were announced in brief to the Cambridge f sophical Society a couple of years ago. The completed in gations of the author indicate in the clearest way that they larvæ of Crisia ramosa are produced as buds from an empty inass of cells found in the young ovicell. "At the segmentation the embryo consists of a small mass of uncon tiated cells, lying near the distal end of the follicle, wh increased largely in size, and now forms a spherical iz jecting freely into the interior of a spacious tentacle after a time "the embryo, although remaining a solid

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