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ON INSECT COLOURS.

II.

WOW it is necessary to explain the "reversion effects" of red, so frequently alluded to. I am tempted to give a detailed account of the experiments made in this connection, but the length to which this article has already run warns me that I must be very brief indeed: and I will therefore content myself with giving simply the broad results. All reds and pinks (always omitting the last four in the table), are turned orange or yellow instantly by acids. When nitric acid is used, this effect is permanent; and whether the yellowed wing be dried, or washed, the yellow is immovable. I have kept such wings for five or six months, and they were as yellow as possible at the end of that time. In the case of all other acids, the yellow is permanent only so long as the wing is actually acid: directly the acid is removed, the original red returns; and thus a wing may be alternately yellowed and "reverted" time after time. This reversion to the original red may be produced either by long exposure to the air, allowing the last traces of acid to drain off; or instantly by neutralizing the residual acid with a drop of ammonia, or by copious washing. It must therefore be under- | stood that, with the exception of those cases in which nitric acid has been used, the permanency of the artificial yellow is entirely dependent upon the presence of acid: remove the acid, and the yellow vanishes. Accordingly, I have suggested the following explanation. Let us denote the molecule of red pigment by X; when any acid, except nitric, is added, I assume that this forms with X a so-called molecular compound: for instance, on treating with hydrochloric acid, we should get the hydrochloride of X, viz. X.(H.CI); and it is evident that these hydrochlorides, hydrosulphates, &c., of X are yellow, although the original X is red. To all these facts, of course, there are ample analogies known to chemistry. Next, for the resuscitation of red. We must suppose what is certainly to all appearance very clear-that these molecular compounds are very unstable; an easily understandable fact; and that consequently the addition of even excess of water is sufficient to decompose them, removing the acid molecule, and thus restoring the pigment X to its original condition. Far more rapidly does this resuscitation occur if a drop of ammonia be used, this at once combining with the acid and liberating the X molecule. In the case of resuscitation produced by slow air drying, the action apparently would be in some cases due to gradual evaporation, or to some process of oxidation-anyhow producing dissociation of the molecular salt of X. Finally, in the case of nitric acid, it is clear that this acid does not form a molecular compound, but, as we might expect, exercises a permanently destructive action on the original pigment. Admitting that red has been developed from yellow, it is not surprising that it may be easily reconverted permanently into yellow by such a reagent as nitric acid. Before quitting this topic, I may point out that the cyanide reaction of the yellows is very suggestive indeed as to the kind of process by which the red pigment is developed from yellow.

Now, as to the last four species noted in the table. In these, I believe, the red is not developed from yellow at all, but from its close analogue, chestnut. Up till very recently, I supposed V. atalanta to be the only representative of such development, and was rather surprised that yellow should so commonly develop into red, and chestnut so rarely. But recently I have found that Anartia amalthea is exactly identical in behaviour with V. atalanta, whilst Heliconius amaryllis seems half-way between these spe

* Continued from p. 517.

2 A full account of these experiments will be found in the Entomologist, xxiii. pp. 39-40 and 53-59.

3 I have used hydrochloric, sulphuric, acetic, phosphoric, hydrofluosilicic, and oxalic acids, in these experiments.

cies and the normal reds, but nearer to the former. The evidence on which this conclusion as to the nature of the red in V. atalanta was founded is as follows. The red of atalanta does not change to yellow, but to the brown or chestnut normally present in V. cardui, or to a more colourless tint. The change is not similar to that of red to yellow, but is a solution effect: consequently no reversion effect can be obtained; and this alone is almost decisive. It seems to me especially interesting that this experimental conclusion as to the nature of atalanta red is entirely corroborated by totally independent evidence from the entomological side, since the connection of V. atalanta and cardui is exceedingly close, and there are transition forms between them.1

And now we come to the last colour-chestnut-for which a very brief account will suffice, in addition to the details already given in the table, and the incidental remarks made during the discussion of yellow. It must be understood, then, that the constitution of chestnut appears to be very close indeed to that of yellow like as in yellow, we can distinguish several stages of solubility, although deepening colour still less implies decreasing solubility even than it does in yellow-a conclusion which will be borne out by an examination of the table. Like yellow, chestnut may develop into red, as has already been explained; and the brilliant copper colour of Lycana phlæas and virgaurea appears to occupy, both in its extreme solubility and its relation to the main line of development of the chestnut pigment, a position exactly analogous to that occupied by the orange of E. cardamines among the yellows. The only further remark that I have to make with reference to this colour concerns V. io and V. antiopa, which I have specially marked as notable examples. these species the rich chocolate colour is very soluble, but leaves a black wing instead of a white. If chestnut had been developed from a white pigment, this would have been a grave difficulty; but it perfectly accords with the view that the pigment has been developed, not from any such white pigment, but in a previously unpigmented, usually white, wing; in these species it has been developed in a previously black wing. I have always considered the behaviour of these two species to considerably support my views of the nature of the chestnut pigment, and indirectly of the yellow."

In

Some

The main heads of the preceding pages may be very briefly summarized as follows. Blacks and whites are not pigment but absorption and reflection colours respectively. The great majority of blues are also physical colourschiefly, if not entirely, interference colours; and it is doubtful if there be any pigment blues at all. greens are also physical colours, very similar to the blues; the character of another group is somewhat ambiguous, although probably these, too, are physical. A third group, is pigmental, and probably derived from yellow. reds are pigmental, being developed chiefly from yellow, but in a few cases from chestnut; the former are characterized by the reversion effect. The great majority of yellows are pigmental, of various degrees of solubility or insolubility; but a few cannot at present be decisively pronounced either physical or pigmental, and the same remark applies to the chestnuts.3

All

In concluding this summary of my work, I must point out that it is not put forward as in any sense of the word final, even so far as it goes, but merely as a basis of systematic inquiry, in various directions. Up to the present, almost nothing at all has been known about the behaviour or character of these colours; now I will dare

There is similar evidence in the case of Anartia amalthea. Two specimens of this were sent me for experiment. One was marked with a chestnut band, and one with a scarlet. This scarlet was at once changed into the chesnut normally present in the other.

I am disappointed at having as yet come across no yellow species analogous to V. io. But in this connection I may call attention to the behaviour of the green species of Cidaria, which are changed to a brownishgrey. It is possible that these greens may be descended from yellow developed on an originally dark wing.

3 Cp. the instances of Vanessa io and antiopa.

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These tables afford only a very condensed summary of results; for fuller details vide Entomologist. The initials R., B., N., G., S., T. in first column signify respectively Rhopalocera, Bombyces, Noctuæ, Geometræ, Sphingidæ, and Tortrices. The asterisk (*) against various red species signifies "reversion effect," and the mark t against certain yellow species that the "cyanide effect" has been obtained; similarly, No † that no cyanide effect can be obtained with that species.

F. H. PERRY COSTE.

EXAMINATION OF THE STANDARDS OF MEASURE AND WEIGHT IMMURED IN THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.

A

FORMAL examination of the standards of measure and weight which are immured in the Houses of Parliament was made on Saturday last, of which some account may possibly interest our readers.

In the "New Palace at Westminster" there were deposited in the year 1853 a copy of the "Imperial standard of the yard measure" and also a copy of the "Imperial pound weight." In the same year similar copies of the Imperial standards were also deposited with the Royal Society, at the Royal Observatory, and at the Royal Mint respectively. Such copies of the standards were deposited in accordance with the recommendations of a Commission appointed in 1843 to superintend the construction of new Parliamentary standards of length and weight intended to replace the original Imperial standards which were destroyed by the fire at the old House of Commons in 1834. The new Imperial standards were subsequently legally recognized by the Act 18 and 19 Vict., c. 72 (1855), and more recently by the Weights and Measures Act of 1878.

The Act of 1878 requires an inter comparison of the copies of the Imperial standards which are deposited with the Royal Society, and at the Royal Observatory, and the Royal Mint, to be made once in every ten years; and such inter-comparison has been recently duly made under the directions of the Board of Trade. It appears also to be practically necessary that the standards immured at the Houses of Parliament should be examined at certain intervals, examinations having been made in the years 1865 and 1872; and the examination which was made on Saturday last in the presence of the Speaker, the President of the Board of Trade, and other representative authorities, was therefore the first that has been made for the past twenty years.

As yet we can make no reference to natural elements for the values represented by such standards as those above referred to. The earth's dimensions (as the tenmillionth of a meridian), or a physical quantity (as the length of the seconds pendulum), cannot at present be fixed or redetermined with sufficient accuracy for metrological purposes; and we have still therefore to rely on the length and weight of certain arbitrary or material standards placed in the custody of selected authorities. As all such material standards-whether made of iridioplatinum, quartz, gold, or other accepted materials-are liable to alteration by time or circumstance, it becomes the duty of the custodians of such standards to assure themselves from time to time that their standards are unaltered, so far as any intercomparison of material standards may afford evidence of their constancy; and such was the object of the examination on Saturday last, when the Board of Trade had their standards compared with those immured at the Houses of Parliament.

The history of these Parliamentary standards may be found in the classical contributions of the late Astronomer-Royal, and Prof. W. H. Miller, to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (Parts III. for 1856 and 1857); a history that has largely developed scientific inquiry in such direction, as may be instanced particularly by the creation and work of the International Committee of Weights and Measures at Paris.

On Saturday the examination of the immured standards was conducted by the officers of the Standards Department of the Board of Trade, who, for the purposes of the examination, had provided a microscopic-comparator and a balance of precision. The comparator had in it nothing new, and indicated differences of length approaching to ooooo1 inch, excepting that it was portable, so that the comparison of the immured standard yard with the Board of Trade standard might be then made

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at the Houses of Parliament without the risk of removal from the building. It was, indeed, a condition of the examination that the immured standards should not be removed from the custody of the Clerk of the House. The balance used indicated differences of weight approaching 00005 grain, although, unlike other balances of precision, this balance was inclosed in a closely-fitting copper case, so that disturbance by currents of air might be avoided as far as possible whilst the examination was being made. The mode of comparison of the yard measure was that adopted by Baily and Sheepshanks in 1843-48, Gauss's method of weighing being followed; and the temperature and atmospheric pressure were indicated by instruments verified at the Kew Observatory. The immured standard yard, like the Imperial yard, was found to be a bronze bar about 38 inches in length, marked "Copper 16 oz., tin 24, zinc 1. Mr. Baily's metal. No. 4 standard yard, at 61° 98 Fahrenheit. Cast in 1845. Troughton and Simms, London"; the length of the yard, or of 36 inches, being determined by a straight line or distance between two fine lines marked on gold studs or plugs which were inserted at the bottom of two holes or wells at about half an inch below the surface of the bar. The bar was found to be supported on bronze rollers, placed under it in such manner as best to avoid flexure of the bar.

The immured pound weight, like the Imperial pound, was found to be a cylinder of platinum about 135 inch in height and 115 inch in diameter, having a density of 211516; and being (in 1856) 000314 grain lighter than the Imperial standard deposited with the Board of Trade.

Both standards were placed in mahogany boxes; the pound weight being wrapped in Swedish filtering paper, and inclosed in a silver-gilt case, which was further inclosed in a solid bronze box. The mahogany boxes were inclosed in a leaden case, which was re-inclosed in a sealed oak case.

Although the actual result of the examination on Saturday could not then be made known to those present, it was stated that the immured standards were found to be in the same condition as when they were previously examined in 1872, and were to all intents and purposes unchanged since their original deposit in 1853. The official report of the Board of Trade, which will be shortly issued, will state the full particulars of the examination.

After the comparisons of the standards had been completed, the immured standards were replaced within the oak case, which was then replaced in an inclosure or cavity prepared for it in a recess under a blank window on the right-hand side of the second landing leading from the lower waiting hall up to the Commons Committeerooms; the rabbet of the inclosure was then covered with lime putty, the front stone being inserted and driven into close contact with the rabbet so covered, liquid plaster of Paris being poured in so as to fill all the joints of the front stone.

We are glad to see from a paper recently laid before both Houses of Parliament that the Board of Trade also possess authoritative copies (prototypes nationaux) of the international standards of the metre and kilogramme; and that metric weights and measures-now also of the highest importance in this country- may be accurately verified by comparison with such standards.

NOTES.

MR. BALFOUR is expected to make a statement in the House of Commons this evening about the Royal Commission to which the question of a Teaching University in London is to be referred. He hopes to be able to give the terms of the reference as well as a complete list of the members of the Commission.

THE honour of knighthood has been conferred on Dr. George Buchanan, F.R.S., on his retirement from the post of Medical Officer to the Local Government Board.

THE friends and admirers of the late Mr. H. W. Bates, F.R.S., propose to give substantial expression to their regard for his character. A fund is to be raised for presentation to his widow. Any communications relating to the matter should be addressed to S. W. Silver, 3 York Gate, Regent's Park, N.W.

A BRANCH of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society has been established in London. At the first meeting, which was held on Monday, Prof. James Bryce delivered an address on "The Migrations of the Races of Men considered historically." The Marquis of Lothian, President of the London branch, occupied the chair. He said they had no intention of competing, or in any sense of vying with, the Royal Geographical Society. The Scottish Society had branches in Glasgow, Dundee, and Aberdeen; and it had been felt that another might be appropriately formed for the benefit of members in London.

THE Committee appointed to consider the question of grants to University Colleges in Great Britain have issued their Report. The principle on which they consider that the distribution of the grant to the Colleges now sharing it should be made for the remainder of the quinquennial period is as follows: (1) they award a grant to each College, varying according to the nature and extent of its University work; (2) a grant for every professor or other teacher receiving more than £250 per annum ; (3) a percentage on the College income from all sources. A table is printed, giving the present grants, which the Committee wish to be continued; and the grants which they wish to be

added.

THE rebuilding of the College of Agriculture, Downton, rendered necessary by the destructive fire of last year, has now been so far completed that the premises will be ready for occupation and use next term.

THE Director of the new Imperial German Zoological Station at Heligoland will be Dr. Heincke, of Oldenburg, a recognized authority on fish and fisheries. As his first assistant he will have Dr. Clemens Hartlaub (son of Dr. G. Hartlaub, the well-known ornithologist of Bremen), who will take charge of the scientific branch of the establishment. Since the death of Dr. Philip Carpenter, Dr. Clemens Hartlaub has become one of our leading authorities on starfishes. He has just published in the Nova Acta of the Imperial Leopoldino-Caroline Academy, an elaborate memoir on the Comatulidæ collected by Prof. Brock in the Moluccan Seas and deposited in the Göttingen Museum. In the course of this article nine species of the genera Antedon and Actinometra are described as new to science.

ON March 26, the members of the Geologists' Association, assembled at the house of Mr. W. H. Hudleston, F.R. S., President of the Geological Society, in order to inspect the handsome private museum he has attached to his residence. The occasion was rendered particularly interesting by the fact that the Council of the Association had decided to take this opportunity of presenting to Mr. Hudleston an illuminated address expressing its sense of the helpful interest he had always shown in the work of the Association. Among those present were many former Presidents and officers of the Association, who now rank as leaders of geological science. Although at least one hundred persons had been concerned in the arrangement of the testimonial, the secret was so well kept that the presentation came as a complete surprise to its intended recipient. The signatories of the address had been selected to represent all grades of past and present workers of the Association. In making the

presentation, the present President of the Geologists' Association, Rev. Prof. J. F. Blake, after suitably referring to Mr. Hudleston's eminent services to geological science, expressed the particular pleasure he felt that it should have fallen to his share to hand a testimonial so richly deserved to his old colleague and fellow-worker. Mr. Hudleston, in the course of a well-chosen reply, referred to the curious coincidence that of the authors of the joint work of Blake and Hudleston many years ago, the one was President of the Geologists' Association and the other of the Geological Society during the same year. The contents of Mr. Hudleston's museum, now in course of arrangement, excited considerable interest, particularly the minerals, many of the choicest specimens of which are from the private collection of the late Prof. J. Tennant, and also the extensive series of British Jurassic Gasteropoda collected by the author for the monograph now in course of publication by the Palæontographical Society.

MR. J. P. BARRETT, chief of the department of electricity in connection with the Chicago Exhibition, has issued a pamphlet containing all the information that can be needed to enable intending exhibitors to proceed intelligently. He will be glad to give special information to any one who may want it, and invites correspondence.

The

A BODY called the Scientific Alliance was recently organized at New York. It consists of six societies engaged in the promotion of research, and two others will probably soon be added. The six societies are the New York Academy of Sciences, the Torrey Botanical Club, the New York Microscopical Society, the Linnean Society of New York, the New York Mineralogical Club, and the New York Mathematical Society. According to Science, these societies do not in any way sink their individuality or surrender any part of the management of their own affairs. Their union is merely in the way of co-operation for the advancement of science, and for mutual encouragement, carried out through a central representative body, known as the Council, having advisory powers only. Council is made up of the president and two other delegates from each society. A monthly bulletin is issued under the authority of the Council, announcing the proposed proceedings of all the societies, and a copy of this bulletin is sent to every member. The bulletin contains an invitation to the members to attend any of the meetings. An annual directory is issued, and it is proposed that there shall also be an annual report on the work done. Science says that the brief experience of the Alliance has convinced the members that still closer union is necessary, and this feeling has led to a movement for the securing of a permanent building as a home for all the societies. It is hoped that a building may be erected in a central part of New York, "large enough to afford each society rooms for its ordinary meetings, for its library and collections, as well as facilities for research, and also to contain a lecture hall,

capable of seating twelve hundred people, to be used by all the societies in their public work."

WE have referred in the astronomical column to the astronomical observations recorded in the "Washington Observations for 1887." We will here briefly summarize the contents of this volume with regard to the other observations there tabulated. Appendix I. contains a report upon some of the magnetic observatories of Europe, which was made by C. C. Marsh, who was commissioned to pay special attention to the instruments, buildings, methods of observing, and the question of the reduction of the observations. In this report, which was considerably cut short, owing to the author having to proceed to sea on his return, much interesting and valuable material has been collected which should be consulted by all those who are connected with the taking of such observations, and with the construction of

In the

magnetic observatories. The plates which accompany the text show plans of heating and ventilating the Pavlovsk and Potsdam Observatories, the cellar and ground plans of the latter, and details of instruments used in other Observatories. second and third appendices will be found all the magnetic and meteorological observations made in the years 1890 and 1883-87 respectively: these are brought together in a way that will be found most convenient for reference, while several plates showing the mean diurnal variations of some of the magnetic

elements have been added. All the above-mentioned observations have been reduced in the usual way, and the results obtained are here tabulated.

ON Thursday and Friday, last week, a tornado passed over the North-Western States of America and caused enormous damage and great loss of life, in some cases whole towns being devastated. It is said to have been the most far-reaching and destructive storm ever known to have occurred in these regions. Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska suffered most.

IN the Annual Report for 1892 of the Berlin branch of the German Meteorological Society, Prof. G. Hellmann gives an account of his continued experiments on the effects of exposure on rainfall records, and on the determination of the distance apart that rain-gauges should be erected in order to obtain an accurate account of the rainfall of any district. Simple as the question appears, the experiments, which have been carried on for seven years, have not sufficed to give a definite answer. Very considerable differences are found in the amounts recorded at stations comparatively close to each other. This result is partly owing to the effect of wind, especially in the case of snow. The following are the most important conclusions derived from the experiments :—(1) The more a rain-gauge is exposed to the wind, under otherwise similar circumstances, the less rainfall it records, and the higher a gauge is placed above the ground, the less rain it catches, as the disturbing influence of the wind is greater than on the surface of the ground. But if properly protected from the wind, a gauge will give useful results in an elevated position. The usual instructions to erect the gauge as openly as possible are therefore incorrect. (2) Even in a flat country, differences of 5 per cent. occur in different months, at stations a quarter of a mile apart; in stormy weather, especially during thunderstorms, the difference may amount to 100 per cent. The amounts recorded at neighbouring stations agree better together in spring and autumn, and also in relatively wet years. Further experiments are needed, if possible by means of anemometers erected at the same level as the rain-gauges, to determine more accurately the effect of wind on both rainfall and snow.

IN connection with the celebration of the fourth centenary of the discovery of America by Columbus, the Italian Botanical Society invites the attendance of botanists of all countries at a Botanical International Congress, to be held at Genoa, from the 4th to the 11th of September. In addition to the meeting for scientific purposes, there will be excursions on the shores of the Mediterranean and in the Maritime Alps; and during the same time will also take place the inauguration of the new Botanical Institute built and presented to the University of Genoa by the munificence of Mr. Thomas Hanbury, of La Mortola, and the opening of an Exhibition of Horticulture. All communications should be addressed to Prof. Penzig, of the University of Genoa. HARVARD UNIVERSITY is indebted to the munificence of Prof. George L. Goodale, the Director of the Botanic Garden at Cambridge, Mass., for a remarkable development of the botanical establishment of the University during the last ten years. It has acquired a large fire-proof Museum, to contain not only its collections, but its lecture-rooms and laboratories; has

added greatly to its collections and its library; and has also obtained larger permanent funds for its support.

IN a report on the Great Skua in Shetland during the season of 1891, printed in the new number (the second) of the Annals attention which was called to the persecution of the Great Skua, of Scottish Natural History, Mr. W. E. Clarke says that the at the close of the disastrous breeding season of 1890, was the and influence of ornithologists and others on behalf of the means of doing much good. It aroused and secured the interest bird's future welfare and its preservation as an indigenous British species. He notes that the number of Skuas resorting to Foula annually during the summer may be estimated at not less than 120 individuals. Of these, two-thirds are to be reckoned as breeding birds.

MESSRS. MACMILLAN AND Co. have issued a second edition of Mr. A. R. Wallace's well-known "Island Life, or the Phenomena and Causes of Insular Faunas and Floras." The work has been carefully revised throughout, and, owing to the great increase to our knowledge of the natural history of some of the islands during the last twelve years, considerable additions and alterations have been required.

THE paper on the opium question, recently read by Mr. G. H. M. Batten before the Society of Arts, is printed in the current number of the Society's journal. It is followed by a report of the animated discussion to which it gave rise, and by statements which would have been submitted to the meeting by various gentlemen if there had been time. Mr. Batten cites the opinion of a number of "independent persons of high character and reputation," to the effect that “the daily use of opium in moderation is not only harmless but of positive benefit, and fre quently even a necessity of life"; and that "this moderate use is the rule, and excess the exception." Persons who have arrived at an opposite conclusion have had an experience, he thinks, almost entirely confined to towns and the sea coast. 'They knew little or nothing of the millions of the healthy, industrious population in the interior of the country to whom the use of opium is as common, as moderate, and as beneficial as that of beer is to the people of England."

66

A WRITER in Nature Notes, calling attention to "the iniquity of rooting up wild flowers to sell them to English dealers," says he could name a district in the Basses Pyrénées, where not a single wild daffodil is now to be found. The flower was once abundant there, but an English resident chose to bargain with a well-known dealer, to furnish him with roots; and this has been attended by grave injustice to France.

MR. G. C. GREEN records in Nature Notes for April a curious reminiscence with regard to a pair of jackdaws kept by him at Modbury Vicarage, South Devon, about twenty years ago. They had been taken from the nest, and during the first summer their wings were slightly clipped. After this their wings were allowed to grow, and they lived at full liberty in the garden. They were perfectly tame, and would come at call and feed out of the hand, would come into the house, and in the morning knock at the windows to ask for some breakfast. In the spring they used to fly away and join their wild companions, make their nests, and rear a family; but when this was over they came back to the garden again, fed from the hand, and were as tame But the curious thing was, that after one or two seasons they brought another jackdaw with them, presumably the young of one of them, which was just as tame as themselves, although nothing had ever been done to tame it, so that it was impossible to tell which were the original favourites, and which was the new one. Moreover, when after a few years one of these jackdaws was accidentally killed, another was brought by the other

as ever.

two.

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