NOTES. 



767 



H. C. Bolton's amendment was approved, 

 appointing a committee of five to cooperate 

 with the American Association at the August 

 meeting, to establish the chemical section 

 of that body on a firmer basis. 



Monuments to Liebig are to be erected 

 both at Munich and at Giessen. At the 

 Chemical Centennial, Prof. J. Lawrence 

 Smith ui-ged the raising of a subscription 

 for these memorials among the chemists of 

 the United States. The following subscrip- 

 tions were announced, it being understood 

 that they are to be devoted to the monu- 

 ment at Giessen : Prof. J. L. Smith and 

 Prof. Silliman, $200 each ; Prof. Horsford, 

 8100; Prof. Chandler and Dr. Amend, $50 

 each. 



The Signal-OflSce at Washington has 

 perfected arrangements with the various 

 meteorological bureaus of European states, 

 for an international exchange of weather 

 reports. This cooperation cannot fail to be 

 productive of highly-important results both 

 for commerce and for science. 



A COMMISSION of Icelanders is about to 

 visit Alaska, to inquire into the prospects 

 for the settlement of a colony of their coun- 

 trymen in that Territory. 



In a letter dated Tokei, Japan, May 18th, 

 and addressed to Prof. Joseph Henry, Prof. 

 Henry S. Monroe says that carboniferous 

 coal of the best quality has been discovered 

 on the island of Yesso, in the tertiary for- 

 mation ; it is true bituminous coal. " So far 

 as I know," says Prof Monroe, " this is the 

 first time that such perfect fuels have been 

 found having so recent an origin as the Ter- 

 tiary age." 



The cities of Lyons and Yersailles on 

 the one hand, and Paris on the other, have 

 always differed very widely in the extent to 

 which they have been ravaged by cholera. 

 Paris falls an easy prey to the epidemic, 

 while it has never gained a firm foothold in 

 either Lyons or Versailles. M. Decaisne 

 finds an explanation of this in the different 

 characters of the soil underlying the three 

 towns. Yersailles is built on a bed of clay, 

 impervious to water; Lyons stands upon 

 granite; while Paris rests upon a porous 

 foundation. M. Decaisne does not attribute 

 the presence and absence of cholera to these 

 facts alone, but his arguments are directed 

 to show that they may exert a powerful in- 

 fluence. 



A NOTE in the American Chemist by Mr. 

 J. M. Merrick shows how some wines may 

 easily be freed of their excess of acid, with- 

 out in the least impairing their flavor. In 

 the autumn of 1871, Mr. Merrick made from 

 Concord grapes 120 gallons of wine, adding 

 1-^ lb. of sugar to each gallon of juice. 

 By analysis made June, 1873, this wine con- 



tained IY.5 per cent, alcohol, but it was un- 

 drinkably sour. Analysis showed it to con- 

 tain a little more than 07ie per cent, of free 

 acid, mainly tartaric. In September about 

 seven pounds of neutral tartrate of potassa 

 was added, with gratifying results : the color 

 of the wine was lightened, and its hardness 

 and sourness diminished. Into a gallon of 

 another harsh, crude, and unpalatable wine, 

 the author introduced a trifling amount of 

 neutral tartrate of potassa, and by heating 

 the wine to about 50° C. it became mild, and 

 high flavored, without unpleasant acidity. 



M. Dumas has communicated to the 

 French Academy of Sciences some experi- 

 ments by Messrs. Troost and Hautefeuille on 

 the hydrates of mercury or combinations of 

 hydrogen with that metal. These combina- 

 tions, it is said, so strongly resemble those 

 which constitute the amalgams of mercury 

 with silver and other white metals, that it is 

 hardly possible to doubt that they are them- 

 selves amalgams, and hence that hydrogen 

 is a metal, a fact apparently indicated in 

 many other analogies. 



Mr. a. Engelmann, in the Engineering 

 and Mining Journal, shows that rope tram- 

 ways are no recent inventions, citing a fig- 

 ure of such a tramway, in a work dating 

 from 1766. It is there stated that many 

 years before, the Bishop's Mound at Dantzi'c 

 was leveled by means of this machine, and 

 carried across river, fields, gardens, and past- 

 ures. The drawing shows an endless rope 

 passed over a roller attached to the side of 

 upright posts, and at the extremities of the 

 line over horse -whims; buckets are at- 

 tached to it by thin ropes, spliced to the 

 main rope. At each roller a rod is attached 

 to a piece of the post, which, bending up- 

 ward and outward round the roller, pushes 

 the bucket -rope aside, and enables the 

 bucket to pass by the rollers. 



A PROFESSORSHIP of Textile Industries 

 has been founded in connection with the 

 Yorkshire College of Science, by the "AVor- 

 shipful Company of Clothworkers." The 

 incumbent of the new chair willl be re- 

 quired to have a practical knowledge of all 

 materials used in the woollen and worsted 

 manufactures ; to be able to give practical 

 instruction in every branch of weaving ; to 

 apply the laws of color to the production 

 of colored designs ; to explain and illus- 

 trate the processes of carding, combing, 

 and spinning — in short, to be perfectly famil- 

 iar with every aspect of textile industry. 



The Lancet " entirely and heartily " ad- 

 heres to the principles and practice of cre- 

 mation as set forth by Sir Henry Thompson. 

 " Custom and sentiment," says the Lancet, 

 " Avill prove formidable opponents to this 

 reform ; but all reforms meet witTi keen op- 

 position, notably those connected in anv 



