1864. | Recent Scientific Progress in America. 523 
time in sleep, now occupy a portion of the night in reading or other 
amusements ; and this is more particularly true of the winter season. 
Benzine has come largely into use to supply the place of turpen- 
tine, especially for painting. It seems to be a good substitute for 
that now almost unpurchasable commodity, though painters have 
been forced to change their processes of mixing. 
Professor Wolcott Gibbs has recently investigated the relations of 
hyposulphite of soda to certain metallic oxides. He finds that it can 
be used instead of sulphydric acid in precipitating nickel, cobalt, iron, 
alumina, zinc, and manganese from their solutions, if the mixture be 
raised to 120° C. In the old process as suggested by Himly, the 
temperature employed was not greater than the boiling point at the 
ordinary pressure of the air, and the reduction, though occupying 
several hours, was often incomplete. Gibbs uses a combustion tube 
hermetically sealed, heating it in an air bath for about an hour. 
Mr. M. Carey Lea has examined the influence of ozone and some 
other chemical agents on germination and vegetation. He finds that 
ozone tends to check the growth of young plants ; wheat in air grow- 
ing 10 inches, while that exposed to ozone grew 4 inches. Ozonized 
air also diminishes the length of the roots, those exposed to it only 
becoming ;%,th of an inch long, whilc the others increased to 24 inches. 
He concludes, that though ozone is a highly oxidizing agent, it may 
in some cases put a stop to putrefaction, by destroying the low order 
of vegetable organisms, which Pasteur has shown to be to a large 
extent the medium of effecting such changes. Mr. Lea has also noticed 
that oxalic and picric acids, even in very weak solutions, entirely pre- 
vent germination. The seeds were placed in all these experiments on 
gauze, resting on the surface of water. 
Some facts regarding the great mass of copper found in the Minne- 
sota mine, 120 feet below the surface, have been lately published. It 
was 45 feet in length, 22 feet at the greatest width, and 8 feet at the 
thickest part. It weighed 420 tons, and contained 90 per cent. of copper. 
Mr. James D. Dana has continued the publication of his memoir 
on the classification of animals, based on the principle of cephalization. 
It is also being printed in England. 
Professor J. D. Whitney is steadily progressing with the geological 
survey of California. The maps are mostly on a scale of $ inch to the 
mile. He has discovered that Mount Shasta, 14,440 feet high, pro- 
bably overtops all other peaks in the United States ; Popocatapetl, 
17,783 feet high, the loftiest mountain in North America. 
Professor Charles A. Joy has given the analysis of a meteorite 
found in Chili, weighing 1,784 grammes ; it contained— 
Nickel iron (with Co, Mn, and Cu) 48-689 
Sulphide of iron FeS 7405 
Chrome iron Cr,O, FeO 0-701 
Schreibersite (Fe 1:38 Ni 0°67 P 0-115) 1-563 
Olivine ROy SiOz 1677, 
Labradorite (R, O; SiO; +4 ROS8iO;) 29-852 
Tin stone Sn O, 0:189 
100-076 
VOL. I. 2N 
