RECORDS. 173 



for Independence, California, for that morning. They were : 

 barometric pressure 25.93 inches, temperature 78°. O, vapor ten- 

 sion 0.1 10 feet. Substituting these values in the formula given 

 by Bigelow on page 490 of the second volume of the annual 

 report of the " Chief of the Weather Bureau " for 1 898-1 899, 

 a difference in altitude between Independence and Mount Whit- 

 ney of 10,633 feet results. Inasmuch as this determination 

 was made five feet below the actual summit of the mountain, 

 and Independence is 3,910 feet above sea-level, it would give a 

 final value for the elevation of Mount Whitney of 14,548 feet. 

 It may be stated in this connection that the value which was ob- 

 tained by Secretary Langley as a result of a very complete series 

 of determinations was 14,522 feet. The probable error in either 

 case is undoubtedly not less than ten or fifteen feet. One ob- 

 ject of this determination was to show the availability of boiling- 

 point apparatus which is light and convenient for such deter- 

 minations as being very much more reliable than the aneroid 

 barometer, and much easier for transportation than the mer- 

 curial barometer. 



In the course of Dr. Mitchell's paper it was shown that the 

 interdependence of the sciences is nowhere better illustrated 

 than in spectroscopic work, when astronomy, the most an- 

 cient of all the sciences, goes hand in hand with physics to 

 find a new chemical element. In recent years, through spec- 

 troscopic researches several metals have been added to the 

 list of elements. In April, 1895, by investigations on a speci- 

 men of clevite, Ramsay announced the discovery of terrestrial 

 helium which gives a line in its spectrum agreeing with the D^ 

 line familiar for more than twenty-five years in stellar, promi- 

 nence and chromospheric spectra. About the same time, 

 Rayleigh and Ramsay announced the discovery of another new 

 element which was called argon. In the early summer of 

 1898, Ramsay found two more gaseous elements, neon and 

 krypton, and subsequently a heavier gas to which the name 

 xenon was applied. These five new elements, helium, neon, 

 argon, krypton and xenon are found in atmospheric air, and 

 can be obtained from air by fractional distillation by making 

 Annals N. Y. Acad., Sci., XV, April, 1904—13. 



