May 3, 1888] 



NATURE 



appearance filled the entire flask. The spectrum of these flames 

 shows no lines in any case. They are all continuous. The 

 largest crystals of platinum were obtained with the IC1 3 . 

 Bromide of iodine behaved like iodine. 



We have tried a number of other substances in a similar 

 manner. Oxygen, sulphur, sulphur dioxide, nitric oxide, mercury 

 vapour gave negative results as far as we could see. With 

 hydrochloric acid some PtCl 2 was formed, but no flame 

 appearance. Phosphoric chloride gave a slight flame, and some 

 PlCL, ; but phosphorus is liberated, and then unites with 

 the platinum, melting it. A current of very dry hydrogen 

 fluoride was passed through the flask ; before the wire was 

 ignited no action on the glass of the flask was apparent, but 

 almost immediately on passing the current the glass became 

 much corroded by, probably, liberated fluorine. Owing to the 

 flask breaking, we cannot say if platinous fluoride was formed. 



With silicon fluoride a singular action took place, the wire, 

 especially the negative half, becoming covered with long semi- 

 transparent crystals of, we think, silicon. The silicon fluoride 

 was very dry, and passed for a long time through the flask 

 without any action until the wire was ignited, when simul- 

 taneously with the production of these crystals the glass vessel 

 became much corroded. A small quantity of a soluble platinum 

 salt was formed at the same time. We are continuing these 

 experiments. 



We do not think the platinum salts formed in this way are 

 simply shot out by " volcanic" action, as they are quite uniformly 

 spread over the sides of the glass vessel, and seem to be really 

 volatile at the temperature and under the conditions. We have 

 failed to find any record of platinum salts being volatile when 

 heated under ordinary conditions, but it is probable that in the 

 presence of free halogen they would be volatile. 



Whether there be any true electrolytic action in these cases 

 we are not at the mcment prepared to say. 



Royal Military Academy. W. R. Hodgkinson. 



"The Nervous System and the Mind." 



Wn.T. you allow me to account for one or two of the dis- 

 crepancies in my book which your very able reviewer points out 

 in the current issue of Nature ? 



He cannot reconcile the statement that "everyone nowadays 

 admits that the evolution of mind and the evolution of the 

 nervous system have proceeded pari passu, and are indeed but 

 two aspects of the same process," with the fnrther statement that 

 " this way of studying them is so greatly neglected, is indeed 

 derided and scouted." It is pointed out, however, in the 

 passage from which he quotes, that the latter charge is laid at 

 the door of my brother alienists only ; while the former 

 statement applies to psychologists at large. 



Were it worth while, I could substantiate my charge by 

 chapter and verse, but as the general movement is at last begin- 

 ning in the direction I advocate, to do so would be to cause the 

 cry from the wilderness to approximate too much to the character 

 of the voice of chanticleer. 



Your reviewer states, as if in controversion of my doctrine, 

 that "experienced alienists tell us they find it necessary to 

 admit a m jral insanity with an average amount of intelligence." 

 This I have never denied. My position is not that in "moral 

 insanity " intelligence is deficient in amount. What I say is, 

 that in "moral insanity" intelligence is always disordered. 

 Disorder of intelligence is very different from deficiency of 

 intelligence. Chas. Mercier. 



Catford, S.E., April 23. 



I AM glad that Dr. Mercier has found so little to complain of 

 in the review of his recent work. I am bound to accept his 

 explanation of the discrepancy I ventured to point out, although, 

 on re- reading the two apparently antagonistic passages again, I 

 do not find the distinction between psychologists and alienists, to 

 which he now refers, clearly stated. The expression " everyone " 

 (p. 4) appears to include both. Dr. Mercier's "brother alien- 

 ists" are, it seems, excluded from the class that can grasp the 

 truth that the evolution of mind and the nervous system are but 

 two aspects of the same process, and belong to that uninformed 

 class that "deride and scout" it. I certainly should have 

 hesitated to understand this to be the author's meaning, but, 

 being so, I must leave his benighted confreres to settle their 

 account with him. They may perchance think that in this 

 reading of the passage, "the voice of chanticleer " has already 

 become associated with the vox clamantis in the wilderness ! 



In regard to the association of moral insanity with an average 

 amount of intellect, I would only observe that the brother 

 alienists of Dr. Mercier, including Dr. Maudsley, contend that, 

 not only may this be met with, but that moral insanity may co- 

 exist with an undisordercd intelligence. Dr. Mercier's conten- 

 tion that "inmo'al insanity intelligence is always disordered" 

 would therefore be still in conflict with the experience of some 

 experienced alienists, which was the position I took. 



Both these points, however, are only small matters compared 

 with the general subject-matter of the work under review, and I 

 repeat that it is gratifying to find there does not appear to have 

 been any important mis-statement of Dr. Mercier's views in the 

 friendly criticism of The Reviewer. 



April 24. 



Nose-Blackening as Preventive of Snow-Blindness. 



My friend Mr. Edmund J. Power sends me the following 

 account of what appears to me to be an interesting fact. I should 

 like to obtain suggestions from physiologists as to the possible 

 explanation of the phenomenon, on the assumption that the 

 blackening of the nose and eyelids really does prevent the 

 injurious action of sunlight on the eyes ; and further, I should 

 like to know whether (quite apart from the fact of its utility or 

 futility) the custom has possibly a remote origin in some ceremony 

 or ritual. E. Kay Lankester. 



" Can you or some of your friends explain the following? 



" When in Colorado shooting the end of last year, my friend 

 had a very bad attack of snow-blindness, caused by a long march 

 on snow with bright sun. My eyes also were very bad the next 

 day and caused much pain. 



" Some days after I was under similar circumstances, when my 

 guide stopped, and taking some burnt wood from a stump 

 blackened his nose and under the eyes well down on the 

 cheek-bone. 



"On asking him the reason, he told me it stopped snow- 

 blindness, and as the glare was very strong I did the same, and 

 found immediate relief. 



" I did this all the time I was out, and never found the snow 

 affect my eyes in any way. 



" Everyone I spoke to about it could give no reason for it, 

 but all used it on the march. Some use glasses, but, as my man 

 remarked, 'glasses cost dollars, dirt nothing.' 



"Perhaps some of your friends can enlarge on the subject, as 

 it is of great interest to me, and may be so to Alpine people, as 

 glasses are hot to climb in, and from my own experience it is not 

 easy to stalk in glasses and then take them off and shoot." 



" Antagonism." 



The author of "The Correlation of the Physical Eorces " 

 has, I am sure, our sympathy when he relates how he has been 

 forestalled by Prof. Huxley. 



As Sir William Grove subsequently says that "it is always 

 useful to know the truth," he will, perhaps, excuse my suggest- 

 ing that his views upon antagonism as pervading the universe 

 have been anticipated in a work published more than a quarter 

 of a century ago. I allude to " First Principles," and more 

 especially to the chapter in it upon "The Rhythm of Motion," 

 in which the effects of antagonist forces are shown to be every- 

 where present, and are copiously illustrated and expounded from 

 the stand-points of astronomy, geology, biology, psychology, and 

 sociology. After reading this chapter, and especially its con- 

 cluding sentence—" Given the co-existence everywhere of an- 

 tagonist forces, a postulate which, as we have seen, is 

 necessitated by the form of our experience " — we cannot, I 

 think, but add another eminent name to that of Prof. Huxley as 

 anticipating Sir W. Grove : it is that of Mr. Herbert Spencer. 



E. Howard Collins. 



Churchfield, Edgbaston, April 29. 



Sense of Taste. 



The curious difference between male and female observers in 

 detecting feeble traces of quinine, sugar, acid, \c, in water as 

 mentioned in Nature on p. 557 (vol. xxxvii.), is possibly owing 

 to the sense of taste being injured in the males by the use of 

 tobacco. 



I have had occasion to apply delicate tests of smell and taste, 

 and I find that even moderate smokers are unable to detect 

 odours and tastes that are quite distinct to non-smokers. 



Dunstable. w - G - *'• 



