Abstract
PARIS Academy of Sciences, August 14.—M. Blanchard in the chair.—The following papers were read:—Note on Dr. Andries' theory of cyclones, by M. Faye. This German observer takes a similar view to M. Faye's. Cyclones, tornadoes, and trombes are one and the same mechanical phenomenon, and their powerful action is due to the force in upper currents. Dr. Andries furnishes experimental evidence from liquids.—On the appearance of manganese on the surface of rocks, by M. Boussingault. He found on quartz pebbles carried down by Venezuelan streams, a thin dark pellicle of bioxide of manganese. A similar coloration of granite on the Orinoco, Nile, and Congo, has been observed. The natives of the Andes say that it is only the white (colourless) rivers that produce the dark banks; they regard the black granite rocks as unhealthy (and with reason). In the Andes M. Boussingault found a spring containing a good deal of man ranese, and forming deposits like those just referred to; the dark pellicle is probably due to suroxidation, in air, of the protoxide of manganesic carbonate.—Experimental researches on the mode of formation of craters of the moon, by M. Bergeron. He sends hot air through a brass tube into a melted but gradually cooling mass of Wood's Alloy. The bubbling forces the forming pellicle aside in a circular space, giving the aspect of a circus, then of a crater; ere long, the mass becoming pasty, the gas no longer clears the pellicle, but forms a cone in the middle. Some slightly different effects are had with other alloys; the sides of the cone may have a more broken-upap earance. An interruption of the current gave two concentric craters, the inner the higher (compare the lunar Copernicus, &c).—Terms of short period in the earth's motion of rotation, by M. Rozé.—On the cure of saccharine diabetes, by M. Félizet. Bernard showed that irritation of a part of the medulla oblongata causes, glycosuria. M. Félizet seeks to suppress irritation in the same quarter (the cause of diabetes), by the sedative action of bromide of potassium, and in fifteen cases he has thus effected a cure.—On a new process of insulation of electric wires, by M. Geoffroy. He wraps them in asbestos fibres and encloses in a lead lube. The wire may be quite volatilised without a spark being emitted. The lead shows no trace of fusion.—Discovery of a small planet at Paris Observatory, by M. Paul Henry.—Description of the Manger Præsepe in the Crab, and micrometric measures of relative positions of the principal stars composing it, by M. Wolf.—On the theory of uniform functions of a varible, by M. Mittag-Leffler.—General method for solution of problems relative to principal axes and moments of inertia; oscillation balance for estimation of moments of inertia, by M. Brassinne.—On the longitudinal vibrations of elastic bars, &c. (continued), by MM. Sébertand Hugoniot.—Hydrodynatnic experiments; imitation by liquid or gaseous currents, of magnetic figures obtained with electric currents or with magnets (sixth note), by M. Decharme. Inter alia, water or air is forced through a tapered glass tube against a plate covered with a thin layer of minium diluted with water.—On the surface tension of some liquids in contact with carbonic acid, by M. Wroblewski. The decrease of the superficial tension of the liquids depends solely on the fact that the superficial tension of the carbonic acid with which they are compressed is extremely small.—On some arseniates neutral to litmus, by MM. Filhol and Senderens.—Fermentation of starch; presence of a vibrion in the germinating grain of maize and in the stem of this plant, by M. Marcano. This inquiry relates to chicha, a strongly alcoholic drink prepared by American Indians from nuize. The vibrion's presence is regarded as clearing up several points hitherto obscure.—On five new parasitic protozoa, by M. Künstler. These were found in the larva of Melolonthus and of Oryctes, and in tadpoles.—Reearches on the organs of flight in insects of the order of Hemiptera, by M. Moleyre. The apparatus connecting the anterior and posterior wings is here studied; M. Moleyre considers that in the sub-order Heteroptera, whose hemelytra (or anterior wings) fulfil best the rôle of protective sheaths, the connecting apparatus appears, with a remarkable fixity, in its most perfect form.—Pierre Bret m and the binary nomenclature, by M. Crié.—On a disease of beet, by M. Prillieux. This disease, unknown in France before, and due to a Peronospora, has appeared at Joinville-le-Pont (Seine).—On the coal of Muaraze, in Zambesia, by M. Guyot. “Exploitation” seems impossible.
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Societies and Academies . Nature 26, 416 (1882). https://doi.org/10.1038/026416a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/026416a0