Jan. 17, 1889] 



NATURE 



281 



is well known. For a good many years he was a Professor of 

 Zoology at the University of Heidelberg. In 1882, after having 

 retired from public life, he was persuaded to accept the post of 

 Director of the Museum of Natural History at Hamburg. His 

 <leath— which occurred on January 5— was due to heart disease. 

 He was in his sixty- fourth year. 



The death is announced from Southsea, after a very short 

 illness, of Sir William O'Shaughnessy Brooke, F.R. S.. in the 

 eightieth year of his age. From 1852 till 1862 he was Director- 

 General of Telegraphs in India. He was created a Knight 

 Hachelor in 1856 for his distinguished services in establishing 

 the electric telegraph service in our Indian possessions. 



The Rev. Churchill Babington, D.D.. F.L.S., died on Sunday 

 morning last at Cockfield Rectory. He was well known as a 

 botanist, and contributed to Sir J. Hooker's Journal of 

 Botany and Kerv Miscellany. Dr. Babington was one of the 

 honorary Fellows of St. John's College, Cambridge. 



At a meeting of the Royal Botanic Society, held last 

 Saturday, the Secretary reported that the recent fogs had done 

 much damage to the plants in the conservatories, causing 

 many of them to shed both leaves and flower-buds. More 

 especially had this been the case with Australian plants, which, 

 from enjoying in their own country a large amount of sunlight, 

 were found less capable than any oihers of contending against the 

 vicissitudes of London weather. Mr. G. J. Symons, F. R.S., 

 said he believed that fogs were increasing not only in London, but 

 generally. Plants, however, sufiered not only from the absence 

 of light, but from the pores of their leaves becoming filled up 

 with the sulphurous, sooty matters contained in London fogs. 



Intelligenxe received at San Francisco from Hawaii states 

 that Kilauea, the largest volcano in the island, is in a stale of 

 eruption. 



A NEW mineral of exceptional chemical interest has been 

 discovered by Mr. Sperry, chemist to the Canadian Copper 

 Company, of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. It is an arsenide of 

 platinun, PtAs.^, and is the first mineral yet found containing 

 platinum as an important constituent, other than ihe natural 

 alloys with various metals of the platinum group. A consider- 

 able quantity of the mineral, which takes the form of a heavy 

 brilliant sand composed of minute well-defined crystals, has 

 been thoroughly investigated by Prof. Wells, who names it 

 "sperrylite," after its discoverer; and the crystals have also 

 been measured and very completely examined by Prof. Penfield. 

 The sand is generally found to contain fragments of chalcopyrite, 

 pyrrholiie, and silicates, which maybe removed by treatment first 

 with aqua regia to remove sulphides, and afterwards with hydro- 

 fluoric acid to remove silicates. After this treatment the sperry- 

 lite sand is seen to have remarkably increased in brilliancy, every 

 grain showing extremely brilliant crystal faces, of a tin white 

 colour, resembling that of metallic platinum itself. It is very 

 heavy, possessing at 20" a specific gravity of lo"6. Strangely 

 enough, however, although so heavy, the sand shows a marked 

 tendency to float upon water, owing to its not being easily wet 

 by that liquid ; even when the grains do sink, they almost in- 

 variably carry down bubbles of air along with them. This 

 peculiar property is retained even after boiling with caustic 

 potash and washing with alcohol and ether, and cannot therefore 

 be attributed to any surface impurities. Sperrylite is only slightly 

 attacked by the strongest aqua regia, even after boihng for days, 

 and it also remains unchanged when heated in a bulb tube to the 

 temperature of melted glass. Heated in an open tube, however, it 

 gives oft' a portion of its arsenic as a sublimate of the trioxide, 

 the residue then fusing. When dropped upon a piece of red-hot 

 platinum foil it melts, evolving white fumes of inodorou 

 arsenious oxide, and forming a porous excrescence in colour 

 resembling metallic platinum upon the surface of the foil. 



Analyses show that sperrylite contains 52*5 per cent, of platinum ; 

 mere traces of rhodium and palladium, in quantity less than 

 I per cent., being also present. Prof Penfield shows that the 

 crystalline form is cubic, the habit being of the pyritohedral type 

 of hemihedrism, very similar to the various members of the 

 pyrites group, in which an atom of iron, nickel, or cobalt, is 

 united to two atoms of sulphur, arsenic, or antimony. The 

 forms cenerally developed are the cube {lool, octahedron {iii}, 

 pyritohedron ^1210!, andoccasionally the rhombic dodecahedron 

 \\\o\. It is very curious that in the treatment with aqua regia, 

 the cube and octahedron faces remain unattacked, while the 

 acids exert a decided action upon the pyritohedral (pentagonal 

 dodecahedral) faces, entirely destroying their power of reflecting 

 light. This similarity between sperrylite and the pyrites of the 

 iron group is rendered all the more important in view of the fact 

 that the platinum and iron groups both occur in the same vertical 

 row (the eighth) in Mendelejeff's periodic classific.ition. 



We referred last week to a proposal for a Meteorological 

 "Congress," to be held in Paris during this year. It should 

 be clearly understood that the meeting in question has originated 

 with the French Meteorological Society, in connection with the 

 Exhibition of 1889, and is quite distinct from the meetings 

 organized by the Committee appointed by the Congress of 

 Rome. This Committee, as stated in Mr. Scott's letter 

 (Nature, vol. xxxviii. p. 491), has decided to convene a 

 meeting of directors of the meteorological services, at some 

 future time, instead of an official Congress, such as those held 

 at Vienna and Rome ; but no such meeting has been arranged 

 by the Committee for the year 18S9. 



The Weekly Weather Report issued by the Meteorological 

 Council has been enlarged and considerably improved with the 

 new year. The statistical pages remain unaltered : they refer 

 exclusively to the temperature, rainfall, and sunshine within the 

 United Kingdom. The other portion, which until the end of 

 last year consisted of a brief summary of the weather for 

 each day, accompanied by copies of the daily charts of 

 pressure and temperature over North-Western Europe, has 

 undergone a great change. The area of the charts has been 

 extended so as to cover the whole of Europe, the Mediterranean, 

 Tunis, and Algeria, the hours represented being 8 a.m. for 

 temperature and we?ther, and 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. for barometer 

 and wind. The enlargement has necessitated the addition of 

 two pages to the Report, the whole forming a most interesting 

 record of the weather over this wide area. The first number is 

 ch iefly remarkable for the view it gives us of the Continental 

 anticyclone which spread from Moscow, where the barometer 

 exceeded 31 inches, westward to the Atlantic ; the changes in 

 position and intensity being in sympathy with the movements of 

 cyclonic disturbances in the Mediterranean and in the Arctic 

 regions. Towards the close of the week the decreasing intensity 

 of the high-pressure system became favourable to cyclonic 

 weather on our own shores, which afterwards completely dis- 

 pelled the thick fogs and severe frost. The great cold felt in 

 this country belonged to the same area as that which spread 

 over the Continent, the thermometer being as much as 20° 

 below zero at zero, and gradually rising thence to the shores of 

 the Atlantic. 



The Report of the Smithsonian Institution for the year 

 1887-88 has been issued. The Secretary, Prof. Samuel P. 

 Langley, refers, as was to be expected, in terms of the highest 

 appreciation, to the character and work of his predecessor. 

 Prof. S. F. Baird. The Institution, as usual, has been doing 

 much excellent work, but Prof. Langley complains that the 

 funds at its disposal are not adequate to its wants. The amount 

 bequeathed by Mr. Smithson, and accepted by Congress, is no 

 longer so valuable as it was half a century ago. " I do not 



