Abstract
PARIS. Academy of Sciences, October 14.—M. Lippmann in the chair.—B. Baillaud: The seventeenth general meeting of International Geodesic Association. The meeting, held at Hamburg, September 17–27, was attended by sixty-two delegates representing twenty countries. Details of the subjects discussed are given, and of the resolutions passed by the association.—A. Lacroix: Preliminary note on some Madagascar minerals, several of which have been utilised as gems. Amongst the minerals described of exceptional transparency are opal, chalcedony, orthose (golden-yellow), diopside, apatite, kornerupine, saphirine, and zircon.—Pierre Termier: The scientific results of the Alpine excursion of the Geologische Vereinigung. The lepontine strata in the Tauern. The conclusion is drawn that dynamo-metamorphism does not exist, and the name ought to disappear from science. Rocks are deformed but not transformed by dynamical action.—M. Gouy: The kinetic theory of ionised gases and Carnot's principle. The study of a gas, maintained adiabatically at a temperature such that a very small fraction of its molecules are decomposed with ions of opposite signs, and placed in a uniform magnetic field, leads to conclusions that are in contradiction with Carnot's principle. If this principle holds, then, alternatively, it is necessary to reject the possibility of the ionisation of a gas by a rise of temperature alone. The author regards the latter view as opposed to experiment, and points out that the magnetic field may be regarded as acting like Clerk Maxwell's demon, which, without supplying energy, exercises a directive and selective action on the particles.—Edouard Heckel: The influence of removal of the sex organs, male, female, and total, on the formation of sugar in the stems of maize and sorghum. The removal of both the sex organs in these plants leads, to a marked increase in the proportion of sugar present.—J. Guillaume: Observations of the Gale comet (1912a) made 1with the Brunner equatorial at the Observatory of Lyons. Positions are given for October 9, 10, 12, 14, and 15. The comet is circular, with a central condensation round a stellar nucleus; it was about the 8th magnitude on October 9, increasing to 5.5 on October 15.—M. Borrelly: Observations of the 1912 Gale comet, made at the Observatory of Marseilles, with the comet-finder. Positions given for October 4 and 5.—P. Chofardet: Observations of the Gale comet (1912a), made at the Besancon Observatory with the 33 cm. bent equatorial. Positions given on six days between September 27 and October 12. On October 10 the shape of the tail could be made out.—Ernest Esclangon: The orientation of photographic equatorials. It is pointed out that one method current is defective in principle, and a better alternative method is proposed.—A Petot: Conjugate systems.—Henri Lebesgue: The principle of Dirichlet.—Jules Andrade: A point still under discussion in the study of marine chronometers. A discussion of the variation from isochronism due to the inertia of the balance-spring.—J. de Boissoudy: Molecular association in gases.—L. G. Droit: The opacity to the X-rays of tissues suitably loaded with a dye containing lead salts. Silk is loaded with phosphostannate of lead to the extent of 68 per cent, of mineral matter, half of which is lead. Six thicknesses of this material form an effective screen against the X-rays, and for soft rays even two or three thicknesses are sufficient.—A. Guillet and M. Aubert: The electrical attraction of two conducting spheres; the properties of the families of polynomials occurring in this problem and their relations with the spherical Heine-functions of higher order.—M. Besson: The dissymmetry of the positive and negative ions relating to the condensation of water in an atmosphere of carbonic acid.—M. Hanriot: The hardness of metals. It is shown that the hardness of the metal is altered in carrying out Brinnel's test, with the result that the figures for hardness with an annealed metal come out too high.—Félix Robin: The production of voluminous grain in metals.—Albert Colson: The law of mass action. Its contradictory verifications and its defence, by M. Le Chatelier.—Georges Denigès: A new very sensitive reaction characteristic of free bromine. A solution of rosaniline, decolorised with bisulphite and mixed with a little hydrogen peroxide, gives a violet coloration in presence of free bromine. The colouring matter formed is soluble in choloroform and gives a characteristic absorption spectrum.—Maurice Durandard: Variations of the most favourable working temperature under the influence, of the medium in Mucor rouxii.—G. Arnaud: The cytology of Capnodium meridionale and of its mycelium.—André Mayer and Georges Schaeffer: The chemical composition of the blood and haemolysis. The corpuscles from different animals are unequally resistant to serums of different species. It has been found that the order of increasing resistance is: the same as the amounts of non-volatile fatty acids present in the corpuscles. The haemolytic power of the different sera was found to correspond with the amounts of cholesterol present in the sera.—Em. Bourquelot and H Hérissey: The synthesis of the galactosides of alcohols with the aid of emulsin. β-Ethylgalactoside.—Romuald Minkiewicz: A case of extraordinary reproduction in Polyspira delagei.—Léon Bertrand and Louis Mengaud: The existence of several superposed strata in the Cantabrian Cordillera, between Santander and Llanes.—L. Cayeux: The structure of the Urville (Calvados) basin and its consequences from the point of view of working for minerals containing iron.
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Societies and Academies. . Nature 90, 272–273 (1912). https://doi.org/10.1038/090272a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/090272a0