256 



NATURE 



{July 



12, 1 



nominally opened some days ago. It will not, however, be 

 opened to the public for several months. 



The meeting which will shortly be held in Paris for the study 

 of tuberculosis, under Prof. Chauveau's presidency, promises to 

 be very interesting and successful. 



The International Congress of "Americanists" will hold 

 its seventh session in Berlin from October 2 to 5 next. The 

 organizing committee has just issued the programme. The first 

 day will be devoted to questions relating to the discovery of the 

 New World, to the history of America before the time of 

 Columbus, and to American geology ; the second to archaeology ; 

 the third to anthropology and ethnography ; the fourth to 

 philology and palaeography. 



It is proposed that an exhibition, to be called the "Three 

 Americas Permanant Exhibition," shall be established at Wash- 

 ington in 1892 as a memorial of the discovery of America by 

 Columbus. Both Houses of Congress have expressed approval 

 of the scheme. While the subject was being considered by the 

 House Committee on Commerce, Major J. W. Powell, director 

 of the U.S. Geological Survey, pointed out, in an interesting 

 address to the Committee, the benefits that archaeologists would 

 be likely to derive from such an exhibition, and the importance 

 of securing without delay the necessary materials. 



We have received the volume containing a report of the 

 Proceedings of the thirty-sixth meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, held at New York in 

 August, 1887. Among the more interesting contents of the 

 volume is the addres; of Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, vice-President 

 of the Section for anthropology. In this address Dr. Brinton 

 presents a comprehensive review of the data for the study of the 

 prehistoric chronology of America. Speaking of physical 

 characteristics, he says that although the anatomy and physiology 

 of the various American tribes present great diversity they also 

 display a really remarkable fixedness of type. No observer well 

 acquainted with this type could err, he thinks, in taking it for 

 another. " Darwin says that the Fuegians so closely resemble 

 the Botocudos [of Brazil] that they seemed members of the same 

 tribe. I have seen Arawacks from Guiana who in the north- 

 west would have passed for Sioux." According to Prof. J. 

 Kollmann, the results of whose researches on this subject are 

 accepted by Dr. Brinton, the essential physical identity of the 

 American race is as extended in time as in space. Prof. Koll- 

 mann has analyzed the cranioscopic formulas of the most ancient 

 American skulls, those from the alleged tertiary deposits of the 

 Pampas, that obtained from Rock Bluff, Illinois, the celebrated 

 Calaveras skull from California, and one from Pontemelo in 

 Buenos Ayres of geologic antiquity. The conclusion at which 

 he arrives is that the earliest Americans — those who were con- 

 temporaries of the fossil horse and other long since extinct 

 quadrupeds — possessed the same racial character as the natives 

 of the present day, with similar skulls and a like physiognomy. 



On Monday the atmosphere in the Channel became so rarefied 

 that objects could be seen with extraordinary distinctness at a 

 distance of between 30 and 40 miles from Dover and Folkestone. 

 The Times says that the lighthouse at Cape Grisnez, Calais, and 

 the dome of the Cathedral, 'and Napoleon's Column at Boulogne 

 could be distinctly seen with the naked eye, and every prominent 

 object could be picked out along the French coast. The distance 

 from Dover to Boulogne as the crow flies is 28 miles, and the 

 column is about 2 miles further inland. 



The following telegram from Valparaiso was lately received 

 at Buenos Ayres: — "A rather severe earthquake shock was 

 experienced in Santiago on Sunday, May 13, at 11.30 a.m., and 

 considerable alarm prevailed in consequence of May 13 being the 

 anniversary of the great earthquake in 1647, which laid a large 



portion of the city in ruins, and which was the origin of the pro- 

 cession of the Senor de [Mayo. A severe but short vertical 

 shock occurred here on Tuesday, the 15th, at 8.5 p.m. A 

 strong earthquake shock was felt at Yumbel on the 10th, at 

 9. 15 p.m. A smart earthquake shock, preceded by a long sub- 

 terranean noise, was experienced in Santiago on Wednesday, 

 the 16th, at _ 4. 55 a.m. The shock was also felt here, but 

 slightly." At Buenos Ayres several earthquake shocks were 

 experienced on the night of Monday, June 4. According to the 

 Buenos Ayres Standard, a slight shock was felt at 12.18. Three 

 seconds afterwards a very strong shock occurred, and the oscil- 

 lation was slow and pronounced. The walls of houses and all 

 movable articles were shaken, and a third shock, which seemed 

 to be nothing more than the subsidence of the second, occurred 

 two seconds afterwards. No serious accident followed the 

 occurrence. Several families, however, were so startled that 

 they rushed out of their houses and sought refuge in the open 

 square. The shocks were felt with more or less intensity all 

 over the province of Buenos Ayres and in Montevideo. As felt 

 in Montevideo the shock passed from south-south-west to north- 

 north-east. 



At the meeting of the French Meteorological Society on 

 June 5, M. Angot communicated a paper on the climate of St. 

 Martin-de-Hinx (Landes) based on observations made since 1864, 

 in which he has determined the diurnal variations of each ele- 

 ment. He also announced that as soon as funds were obtained 

 he intended to publish in extenso several long series of observa- 

 tions. At several of the places mentioned, including Paris, 

 Marseilles, &c, the observations date from far into the last 

 century. M. L. Teisserenc de Bort communicated a note 

 relative to two earthquakes which occurred at 8 p.m. on the 4th, 

 and at 5 p.m. on May 14 last, in the department of Puy- 

 de-D6me. M. Moureaux remarked that the magnetograms at 

 Parc-St.-Maur showed no special disturbances at those times. 

 M. Renou paid a tribute to the memory of M. Herve-Mangon, 

 to whose exertions the separation of the meteorological from the 

 astronomical service was due. This memoir will be printed in 

 the Bulletin of the Society. 



A NEW base and its series of salts, belonging to the remark- 

 able group known as "platinum bases," have been obtained by 

 Dr. Heinrich Alexander, of Konigsberg. The base itself has 

 the composition Pt(OH) 2 . 4NH 3 0, and may be considered as 

 the hydroxylamine-platinum compound corresponding to the free 

 base of the well-known green salt of Magnus, Pt(OH) 2 . 4NH3. 

 The chloride of the series was prepared some little time ago by 

 Lossen, but can be most readily obtained, according to 

 Alexander, by mixing a 10 per cent, solution of potassium 

 platinous chloride with hydrochloride of hydroxylamine and an 

 alkaline carbonate. On standing, the deep red liquid becomes 

 decolourized, and the reaction is completed when a yellowish 

 precipitate commences to settle ; on the addition of more alkali 

 the new base is immediately and quantitatively precipitated. 

 The precipitate is then dissolved in the calculated quantity of 

 cold dilute hydrochloric acid, and on passing a gentle stream of 

 hydrochloric acid gas through the solution, or on the addition 

 of absolute alcohol, fine colourless needles of the chloride 

 PtCl 2 . 4NH3O are deposited. These needles are very soluble 

 in water, but, like many other chlorides, are insoluble in con- 

 centrated hydrochloric acid. The free base is at once precipitated 

 from this salt on the addition of stronger bases, such as potash 

 and soda, or even ammonia. It is perfectly stable in the air 

 and is extremely insoluble in water and alcohol ; it behaves 

 exactly like a true metallic hydroxide, dissolving in acids 

 with formation of the corresponding salts. The sulphate 

 PtS0 4 . 4NH3O, which is best obtained by treating the base 

 with the calculated quantity of sulphuric acid upon a water bath, 

 crystallizes well in short, heavy prisms, difficultly soluble in cold 





