Vol. XXIV. No. 3.] 
Slie Popular Science I^ews. 
BOSTON, MARCH i, 1890. 
PQPULxlR SCIE^^CE NEWS. 
merits. No punishment would be too severe 
for the person who would knowingly sell 
this murderous mixture for such a purpose. 
41 
AUSTIN P. NICHOLS, S.B., . 
WILLIAM J. ROLFE, Litt.D., 
.... EtlUor. 
Associate Editor. 
It is with deep regret that we announce 
the death of Dr. S. F. Landrey, at Logans- 
port, Indiana, on the 25th of January last. 
Dr. Landrey was a valued contributor to the 
Science News for several years, and our 
business relations with him led to -a full 
appreciation of his noble character and high 
scientific attainments. Dr. Landrey was 
fifty-six years of age, and his death was 
caused by consumption. 
The Medical Summary, which, under the 
successful editorship of Dr. Wells, has been 
a feature of the Science News for the past 
three years, will, for the present,- be con- 
ducted by Dr. C. E. Washburne, of New 
York City. Dr. Wells has been obliged to 
resign the work, owing to the pressure of 
other engagements ; but we have no doubt 
that it will continue to be of as much interest 
and value as formerly to the large number of 
physicians among our readers. 
The disbandment of the American Psychi- 
cal Society is a matter to be greatly regretted 
b}' all persons interested in scientific pro- 
gress. Tiiere is no class of phenomena 
more worthy of systematic study than those 
mysterious occinrencA which it lias been tlie 
province of the society to investigate. We 
understand that tlie principal cause of its 
dissolution was a lack of interest and finan- 
cial support, and it is to be hoped that suffi- 
cient encoiuagement may soon be given to 
lead to the re-establishment of a society 
which, at the least, has rescued an important 
class of natural phenomena from the hands of 
religious fanatics and peripatetic charlatans. 
AlthoHgh the society has no longer an inde- 
pendent existence, some of the members will 
continue to carry on its work as an auxilliary 
to the original British organization. 
Speaking of adulteration, a correspondent 
sends us some specimens of an ingenious 
fraud in the shape of artificial coflee-beans, 
apparently consisting of burnt flour, made 
into a paste, with some albuminous substance 
to prevent their entire disappearance in boil- 
ing water. A few genuine coflee-beans are 
mixed with them to gi\e a flavor to the bever- 
age, and the total cost of the mixture is said 
to be three cents a pound. Although the 
artificial berries closely resemble the "genuine 
ones, a careful examination of the interior, 
in comparison with a genuine berry, will 
show the difference at once ; and this is, per- 
haps, the easiest way to detect the fraud, 
where more complete tests are not available. 
A SAD accident is reported from Bloom- 
ington, Illinois, where a retort in which 
oxygen gas was being generated, exploded 
in the midst of a class of students, destroying 
the eyesight of the instructor, and seriously 
injuring a large number of pupils. No par- 
ticulars are given, and we are at a loss to 
account for the cause of so violent an explo- 
sion, unless the binoxide of manganese used 
in the experiment was adulterated with char- 
coal or coal-dust, as has occasionally hap- 
pened. ■ These s-ubstances, when mixed with 
chlorate of potash, would form a violently 
explosive mixture, and the greatest care 
■ should be taken to obtain only pure materials 
for this, as well as all other chemical experi- 
TnE dairymen of this State are making 
frantic efforts during the present session of 
the Legislature to have a bill passed prohibit- 
ing the artificial coloring of oleomargarine, 
and thus preventing its sale in free competi- 
tion with genuine butter. As there is not 
the slightest objection to the use of oleo- 
margarine as food, and as at least nine-tenths 
of all the butter sold in the State owes its 
yellow hue to artificial coloring-matter, there 
seems to be a good deal of assurance in this 
demand of a limited class of producers for 
"protection." The whole history of oleo- 
margarine legislation is a curious and most 
unpleasant example of the success with which 
State autiiority may be invoked to interfere 
with private industries and the natural laws 
of supply and demand. 
*♦♦ 
. A meteorite fell at Migheni, in Russia, 
on the 9th of June last, which was remarka- 
ble in containing about five per cent, of 
organic matter, in tlie shape of a yellow sub- 
stance readily combustible and soluble in 
alcohol, closely resembling resin. It also 
contained two per cent, of an inorganic body 
which is, apparently, a metallic salt of a new 
element allied to tellurium, altiiough it has 
not been fully investigated. The presence of 
organic matter in this celestial visitor is cer- 
tainly an extraordinary occurrence, and must 
be held to indicate either the previous exist- 
ence of living organisms on these bodies, or 
else — as seems more probable — that under 
certain conditions, such as we may suppose 
to prevail in the interior of the earth, carbon 
and hydrogen may imite to form organic 
substances. The bearing of this theory upon 
the formation of petroleum and natural gas 
is evident, and, whatever may have been 
the genesis of this irieteoric resin, the dis- 
covery is of the highest importance. 
Dr. Phipson, of London, has published a 
paper in which he attempts to prove that the 
difference between the various elements is 
not in the atoms themselves, but in the space 
between the atoms, to which he gives the 
old-fashioned name of phlogiston. He claims 
that each clement is composed of a system of 
atoms — all alike in size, weight, and form. 
This theory, although, of course, unprovable 
with our present knowledge, is of interest as 
showing the tendency among chemists, at 
present, to refer all the different elements to 
one primitive form of matter. A theory, 
however, which apparently confers the prop- 
erties of matter upon space is rather an 
incomprehensible one, and not likely to meet 
with general acceptance. 
H. O. TuMLiRZ has calculated the mechan- 
ical equivalent of the force of a ray of light, 
and comes to the conclusion that, under cer- 
tain standard conditions, the lighl received 
through the pupil of the eye in each second 
of time, represents a quantity of work which 
would reqtiire i year and 89 daj's to raise the 
temperature of a gramme of water 1° Cent.- 
This amount, it may be noted, is so infinitesi- 
mally small as to be quite beneath the bounds' 
of human comprehension. 
In continuing his researches upon the 
atomic weights.of oxygen and hydrogen, Pro- 
fessor Cooke has determined the specific 
gravity of liydrogen by direct weighing of a 
glass balloon filled with the gas. A new 
feature of the process is the determination of 
the weight of the empty globe, by first 
weighing it when filled with carbonic 
dioxide, and afterwards determining the 
weight of this gas by tlie well-known 
methods of organic analysis. The new de- 
termination confirms the former atomic 
weights of oxygen obtained by Professor 
Cooke and Lord Rayleigh by other methods, 
the average value of Lord Rayleigh's deter- 
minations being 15.SS4, of Professor Cooke's 
first determjnation by chemical methods being 
15.883, and by his last experiments 15.891. 
Althongii the atomic weight of oxygen is 
undoubtedly below 16, Professor Cooke con- 
siders it best, for various reasons, to assume 
it to Be the whole number, and leave the value 
of hydrogen to vary, as our increasing know- 
ledge may indicate. Professor Cooke's origi- 
nal paper, which is published in the Ameri- 
can Cheviical Journal, is of great interest 
as an illustration of tlie refinements and pre- 
cautions required in modern scientific inves- 
tigations. 
<*v 
At this season of the year a good deal is 
heard of the injurious nature of the "burned 
air" which is given off' from the furnaces 
used in heating our houses. It is impossible 
to "burn" air, and there is no chemical 
change whatever caused in it by being 
heated in a furnace. If the furnace is gas- 
tight, and does not heat the air to too high a 
