90 Kansas Academy of Science. 



M. Arnaud has developed a method of precipitating nitric acid as cinchonamine 

 nitrate. It may be used for the estimation of nitric acid in natural waters and in plants. 

 The method possesses several advantages, among which is the high molecular weight of 

 the precipitate. Very good results have been obtained, but the details of the process cannot 

 be given here. (C. N., 50—103.) 



Several qualitative tests for nitric acid and nitrous acids have been proposed, but 

 space forbids any further mention of them. 



Considerable attention has also been given to the determination of carbon in iron and 

 steel. Most of the progress, however, consists in modifications of the well-known 

 methods. Zaboudsky decomposes the finely pulverized sample by means of a mixture of 

 sodium chloride and cupric chloride, instead of cupric-ammonium chloride. The decom- 

 position is completed in about forty-five minutes. His method contains other modifica- 

 tions of the ordinary process also. (C. N., 50 — 57.) 



A. B. Clemence filters the carbon after its separation from iron directly into a platinum 

 combustion tube. The tube is eleven and one-half inches long, three-fourths of an inch 

 wide for seven inches, and then contracts rapidly to three-sixteenths of an inch. An 

 asbestos filter is placed at the point where the contraction begins. (C. N., 48 — 206.) 



R. W. Atkinson has made some valuable investigations on the standarizing of potas- 

 sium bichromate. He also condemns the use of stannous chloride as a reducing agent in 

 analyses of iron, on account of the difficulty with which the excess of the reagent is 

 accurately destroyed. Since zinc chloride diminishes the delicacy of the ferri-cyanide 

 reaction, he strongly recommends ammonium bisulphite for the reduction of ferric com- 

 pounds when potassium bichromate is used in the titration. (C. N., 4 ; J — ■•17. 



G. Bruel uses sodium salicylate as an indicator in the titration of ferric solutions with 

 sodium thiosulphate. (J. C. S., CCLVI—367.) 



Thomas Moore describes a method of separating nickel and zinc, which seems to be 

 much superior to the method with hydrogen sulphide and sodium acetate. (C. N., 

 501—51.) 



Mr. E. E. Dryer finds brucine a more convenient, more delicate and more striking 

 test for tin than the mercuric chloride test. .1 gram brucine is dissolved in 1 c.c. strong 

 nitric acid and diluted to 50 c.c. (C. N., 48 — 257.) 



A new method of separating strontium and calcium has been devised by M. D. 

 Sidersky. It is based on the fact that when a mixture of ammonium sulphate and am- 

 monium oxalate is added to a solution containing strontium and calcium, the strontium 

 is precipitated as sulphate while the calcium remains in solution and may be precipi- 

 tated from the filtrate by supersaturating with ammonia. The reagent contains three 

 per cent, of ammonium oxalate and twenty per cent, of ammonium sulphate. (C. N., 4$ 

 —296.) 



A. Cavazzi. — In a mixture of chlorides, bromides and iodides, the iodine may be de- 

 termined by distilling the solution with ferric sulphate and collecting the iodine in 

 potash. The ferric sulphate must be calcined to remove traces of acid, and a small 

 amount of ferrous sulphate is added to increase the solubility of the ferric salt. C. N, 

 49—U.) 



David Lindo has made an exhaustive examination of the oxalic acid method of sep- 

 arating phosphoric acid, for determination as magnesium pyro-phosphate. Space does 

 not admit of useful abstraction. (C. N., 43 — 217, 230 and 239; also 40 — 247.) 



Thomas S. Gladding, in a series of experiments on natural phosphates, artificial soils 

 and natural soils, has demonstrated that soluble phosphates become reverted very rapidly 

 in both natural and artificial soils, and that if iron or alumina is present the reverted 

 phosphates are not entirely taken up by a neutral solution of ammonium citrate at 40° 

 C, but are entirely dissolved by the same reagent at 65° C. {Am. Chem. Jour., 6 — 1.) 



Prof. Lord recommends the use of ammonium fluoride, instead of a mixture of 



