May 19, 1898J 



NATURE 



57 



dispersion, and the density must also be in excess of the 

 theoretical density, viz. o'lS to o'i2, which we deduce re- 

 spectively from the atomic volume of organic compounds, and 

 the limiting density found by Amagat for hydrogen gas under 

 infinite compression. My old experiments on the density of 

 hydrogen in palladium gave a value for the combined body of 

 062, and it will be interesting to find the real density of the 

 liquid substance at its boiling-point. Not having arrangements 

 at hand to determine the boiling-point, two experiments were 

 made to prove the excessively low temperature of the boiling 

 fluid. In the first place, if a long piece of glass tubing, sealed 

 at one end and open to the air at the other, is cooled by immers- 

 ing the closed end in the liquid hydrogen, the tube immediately 

 fills, where it is cooled, with solid air. The second experiment 

 was made with a tube containing helium. 



The Cracow Academy Btillelin for 1896 contains a paper by 

 Prof. Olszewski, entitled "A Research on the Liquefaction of 

 Helium," in which he states "as far as my experiments go, 

 helium remains a permanent gas, and apparently is much more 

 difiicult to liquefy than hydrogen." In a paper of my own in 

 the Proceedings oi the Chemical Society, No. 183 (1896-97), in 

 which the separation of helium from bath gas was effected by a 

 liquefaction method, the suggestion was made that the volatility 

 o( hydrogen and helium would probably be found close together, 

 just like those of fluorine and oxygen. Having a specimen of 

 helium which had been extracted from bath gas, sealed up in a 

 bulb with a narro»7 tube attached, the latter was placed in liquid 

 hydrogen, when x distinct liquid was seen to condense. From 

 this result it .vould appear that there cannot be any great 

 difference in ne boiling points of helium and hydrogen. 



All knov 1 gases have now been condensed into liquids which 

 can be d" nipulated at their boiling points under atmospheric 

 pressur m suitably arranged vacuum vessels. With hydrogen 

 as a r oling agent, we shall get within 20° or 30'' of the zero of 

 abs iUte temperature, and its use will open up an entirely new 

 fi .d of scientific inquiry. Even as great a man as James Clerk 

 .laxwell had doubts as to the possibility of ever liquefying 

 hydrogen (see " Scientific Papers, ' vol. ii. p. 412). No one 

 can predict the properties of matter near the zero of temperature. 

 Faraday liquefied chlorine in the year 1823. Sixty years after- 

 wards Wroblewski and Olszewski produced liquid air, and now, 

 after a fifteen years' interval, the remaining gases, hydrogen and 

 helium, appear as static liquids. Considering the step from the 

 liquefaction of air to that of hydrogen is relatively as great in the 

 thermo-dynamic sense as that from liquid chlorine to liquid air, 

 the fact that the former result has been achieved in one-fourth 

 the time needed to accomplish the latter, proves the greatly 

 accelerated race of scientific progress in our time. 



The efficient cultivation of this field of research depends upon 

 con.l'nalion and assistance of an exceptional kind ; but in the 

 first instance money must be available, and the members of the 

 Royal Institution deserve my especial gratitude for their hand- 

 some donations to the conduct of this research. Unfortunately 

 its prosecution will demand a further large expenditure. 



During the whole course of the low temperature work carried 

 out at the Royal Institution, the invaluable aid of Mr. Robert 

 Lennox has been at my disposal ; and it is not too much to say 

 that but for his engineering skill, manipulative ability, and loyal 

 perseverance, the present successful issue might have been in- 

 definitely delayed. My thanks are also due to Mr. J. W. Heath 

 for valuable assistance in the conduct of these experiments. 



NOTES. 



M. Marcellin Boule, of Paris ; Dr. W. H. Dall, of 

 Washington (D.C.), U.S.A. ; and M. A. Karpinsky, of St. 

 Petersburg, have been elected Foreign Correspondents of the 

 Geological Society. 



Prof. Michael Foster has been elected President of the 

 British Association for the meeting to be held at Dover next 

 year. 



The annual conversazione of the -Society of Arts will take 

 place at the Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, S.W., 

 on Wednesday, June 22. The reception will commence at 9 p.m. 



A CONVERSAZIONE of the Metropolitan Counties Branch of 

 the British Medical Association will be held in the Museum of 

 the Royal College of Surgeons on Tuesday, June 7. 

 NO. 1490, VOL. 58] 



The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York were present ow 



Monday night at a special meeting of the Royal Geographical 

 Society, held in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the- 

 discovery of the Cape route to India by Vasco da C^ama, The- 

 president, Sir Clements Markham, was in the chair, and the- 

 address delivered by him upon the occasion is published inanothe 

 part of this issue. At Lisbon the Vasco da Gama celebrations*- 

 were inaugurated on Tuesday by the firing of a salute of 101 guns- 

 by the forts and the ships anchored in the Tagus. At a meeting,, 

 of the Lisbon Geographical Society, Baron von Kell, the DutcK' 

 Minister to Portugal, presented to King Charles an album and » 

 gold wreath, as the homage of Holland to Vasco da Gama. His- 

 Majesty accepted the gift, and said that Porti>gal was grateful- 

 for this act of homage. 



The Judicial Committee of the Privy CoutkhI recently- 

 granted the Hon. C. A. Parsons an extension of five years fo»- 

 his patent, dated April 23, 1884, for " improven>ents in rotary- 

 motors actuated by elastic fluid pressure and applicable also a^ 

 pumps." The reasons for this decision were stated on Satnrday 

 to be that Mr. Parsons had not yet been adequately remiuneratet© 

 for his invention. 



Dr. D. J. Leech, Professor of Materia Medica and Thera- 

 peutics in the Victoria University ; Prof. W. Ramsay, of Univer- 

 sity College, London ; and Prof. Ira Remsen, the Professor of 

 Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltinwre, have- 

 been elected honorary members of the Pharmaceutical Society- 

 of Great Britain, 



In the High Court of Justice on Saturday an application was- 

 made on behalf of the shareholders of the Sheffield BotanicaB 

 and Horticultural Society, that the trustees might be ordered to- 

 sell its property in pursuance of resolutions passed at nireetings- 

 of the members, and distribute the proceeds of the sale among-, 

 the members. It was urged by the Attorney-General that the- 

 property of the Society ought not to be so divided, but ought to* 

 be given to some other institution of a like character. The- 

 judgment was, however, that the applicants were entitled to the- 

 order they asked for. 



Prof. J. M. Schaeberle has resigned hi& post as- 

 astronomer at the Lick Observatory, California. 



Mr. Henry Wilde, F.R.S., has been elected an honorary- 

 member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. 



The Boston Society of Natural History has awarded the- 

 Grand Honorary Walker Prize of one thousand dollars to Mr.. 

 Samuel Hubbard Scudder, of Cambridge, Mass., for his con- 

 tributions to entomology. The prize is awarded every five 

 years, and the four previous recipients have been Mr. Alexander' 

 Agassiz, Prof. Joseph Leidy, Prof. James Hall, and Prof. James- 

 D. Dana. 



The annual electrical exhibition was opened at New York: 

 City on May 2. The President of the United States, follmving. 

 the usual custom, set the machinery in motion by pressmg a- 

 button at Washington. He also sent congratulatory mes.sages,. 

 as did the Vice-President. The opening address was by Chauncey 

 Depew, who supplemented his remarks by firing off a dynamite- 

 gun, without wires by the long-distance system of telegraphy, and> 

 by blowing up a mimic steamer in the tank ly a submarine- 

 mine. 



We regret to record the death of Mr. W. C. Lucy, F.G.S.^ 

 formerly of Brookthorpe, near Gloucester. For upwards o*' 

 forty years Mr. Lucy was one of the most active and enthusiastic- 

 members of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club. To the- 

 Proceedings of the Club he contributed numerous papers, iiv 

 eluding observations on the Drifts of the Severn, Avon- antU 



