122 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



rather more than double what it was before the war. Other possible sources oi 

 supply are the river gravels in South-East Borneo, where further prospecting is 

 required, and various districts in North America, more especially Sudbury, Ontario, 

 and the stream placers in Alaska, which are being investigated by the U.S. 

 Geological Survey. Considerable activity is also reported in the Similkameen 

 and Tulameen districts in British Columbia, which are the chief localities of 

 platinum production in Canada {Australasian Matiufacturer, December 8, 1917). 

 New South Wales has produced some 2,000 oz. in the course of the last five years. 

 The demand for the metal has, of course, increased enormously during the war on 

 account of its use in the contact process for the manufacture of sulphuric acid, in 

 aeroplane engines, etc. The average price in 1908 was £5 2s. bd. per oz. troy; 

 in New York in 1916 the price rose to £io. Wherever possible alloys have been 

 introduced to take its place. " Palau " is a gold-iridium alloy used for laboratory 

 purposes ; " Rhotanium," a gold-palladium alloy used for setting jewels and also 

 in the laboratory, is attacked only by hot concentrated nitric acid ; " Amaloy," an 

 alloy of nickel, chromium, tungsten, etc., is used in dental work and for surgical 

 instruments on account of the resistance it offers to atmospheric corrosion {Nature, 

 February 21, 1918). 



In the Annual Address to the Ohio Academy of Science in April 1917, Prof. 

 ]. R. Withrow mentioned another class of alloys which resists the action of 

 sulphuric and nitric acids of all strengths. These are the silicon- iron alloys sold 

 under various trade names, such as Durion, Tantiron, and Ironac. Though not 

 possessing quite the resistance of stoneware, they have made possible the huge 

 increase in the output of nitric acid necessitated by the war. Pipes and castings 

 for fittings can be made quickly and replaced at once, so that the stills can be 

 made to carry heavier charges and be run at greater speeds than before, any 

 resulting damage being made good quite easily. In the same address, which was 

 entitled " The Relation of War to Chemistry in America," the speaker showed 

 how the falling off in (published) chemical research was reflected in the number of 

 Chemical Abstracts issued by the American Chemical Society. The abstracts 

 are collated from some 600 journals published in all parts of the world. The 

 numbers are as follows: 1913, 25,971; 1914, 24,388; 1915, 18,449; 1916, 15,784, 

 and these figures, of course, refer to the period before the United States entered 

 the war. Forty-eight journals had apparently ceased publication : England and 

 Austria 1 each ; Belgium 7 ; Germany 8 ; France 31. 



We have received three Bulletins (Nos. 4, 5, and 6) from the Advisory Council 

 of Science and Industry of the Commonwealth of Australia. The first deals with 

 the " Factors influencing Gold Deposition in the Bendigo Goldfield." It contains 

 a very complete account of the structure of the reefs and of the theories of the 

 causes of the gold shoots, but it has not been possible to draw any very definite 

 conclusions to help the prospector. The second, on "Problems of Wheat Storage," 

 also fails to reach any very helpful results. The Committee appointed to investi- 

 gate the problem has made tests on the quicklime process for treating damaged 

 wheat. It is found that, when freshly burnt hot quicklime is mixed with the 

 wheat, the bacteria on the outer layers of the grains are considerably reduced in 

 number and the surface is cleansed from organic nitrogenous compounds, so that an 

 appreciable improvement is effected. The multiplication of insect pests is largely 

 determined by conditions of temperature and moisture. For example, grain is 

 apparently weevil-proof if it contains less than 10 per cent, of moisture. The 

 Committee recommend that this and other points should be investigated by some 

 one able to devote his whole attention to the work, and it is reported in the daily 



