110 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [March 



other eats tobacco-leaves, the tomato-chewer should be accused of 

 spitting, and the tobacco-chewer should be held to be guiltless of 

 this offensive practice. Now, then, gentlemen of the public press, 

 if tomato-worms neither sting nor spit, what is the next charge 

 that you are going to bring against them ? Why not assert that 

 they can leap a distance of from 10 to 20 ft., having taken deadly 

 aim at the human eyes, which they forthwith proceed to gouge 

 out with their rough rasp-like pro-legs ? Of course you would 

 follow this up by recommending everybody never to go near a 

 tomato patch, without a large pair of green goggles to protect the 

 eyes from being destroyed. — American Entomologist. 



CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS. 



Hydrogenium. — The last researches of the late lamented 

 Prof. Graham, the Master of the Mint, were devoted to the 

 study of a new condition of hydrogen antithecal to that of 

 oxygen in the form of ozone; and to this condition of the 

 element he gave the name of Hydrogenium. By all analogy the 

 new substance should be considered metallic, but like ozone, it 

 has not been isolated. The details of Prof. Graham's researches, 

 communicated to the Royal Society, were devoted to the rela- 

 tions of hydrogen to palladium. He had also observed hydro- 

 genium in meteoric iron. Concluding an account of his re- 

 searches to the Royal Society, Prof. Graham thus remarks on 

 the chemical properties of hydrogenium which distinguish it from 

 ordinary hydrogen : — 



<' The palladium alloy precipitates mercury and calomel from 

 a solution of the chloride of mercury without anydisengagement 

 of hydrogen ; that is, hydrogenium decomposes chloride of mer- 

 cury, while hydrogen does not. This explains why Mr. Stanislas 

 Meunier failed in discovering the occluded hydrogen of meteoric 

 iron, by dissolving the latter in a solution of chloride of mercury ; 

 for the hydrogen would be consumed, like the iron itself, in preci- 

 pitating mercury. Hydrogen (associated with palladium) unites 

 with chlorine and iodine in the dark, reduces a persalt of iron to 

 the state of protosalt, converts red prussiate of potash into yellow 



