Abstract
PARIS Academy of Sciences, August 20.—M. Blanchard, president, in the chair.—Observations on the smaller planets made at the great meridian of the Paris Observatory during the second quarter of the year 1883, by M. Mouchez.—On a letter of General Stebnitski concerning the figure of the earth, by M. Faye. The Russian savant holds that the actual form of the globe, as expressed by the ideal continuation of the sea-level beneath the continents, differs from the theoretic ellipsoid not only in the undulations produced by the attraction of mountain ranges, and of the denser parts occurring here and there in the crust of the earth, but also in the deformations due to the attraction of the continents. In reply M. Faye contends that the mathematical surface of the globe is not modified by these causes, and that the level of the oceans is not sensibly affected by the influence of the mainland.—A study of the deformations and development of heat produced by the use of round-faced hammers in forging, by M. Tresca.—Observations touching a passage in M. V. Burg's recent communication on the use of copper as a preservative against cholera, by M. Vulpian. The author explains that a statement attributed to him by M. Tresca, regarding the use of copper as a prophylactic by English and French officers in Egypt, India, and Cochin-China, is groundless. He adds that he regards the advantage of the use of copper as a preservative as extremely doubtful.—On the separation of gallium (continued). Separation from tungsten and phosphoric acid, by M. Lecoq.—Experimental researches on explosive gas motors, by M. A. Witz.—Researches on the iodide of nitrogen; on chemical radiometers or iodide of nitrogen photometers; on the preparation in a low temperature of nitrogen, iodide of ammonium, and iodate of ammonia under the influence of light, and on the double iodide of copper and nitrogen, by M. Antony Guyard.—A contribution to the history of the formation of coal, by M. B. Renault. The author concludes that in many cases fossil coal is produced by the transformation in situ of the constituent elements of the plants whose forms it has preserved; that both the wood and bark have entered into the formation of coal, and that in the process of transformation the organic elements have diminished in size in a determinable proportion depending on the primitiue density of the constituent organic matter.—Remarks on the Phylloglosmm Drummondii, by M. C. Eg. Bertrand.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Societies and Academies . Nature 28, 431–432 (1883). https://doi.org/10.1038/028431a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/028431a0