July 20, 1893] 



NATURE 



275 



density of copper deposition, and the absolute velocity of 

 migration of the copper ions, and Messrs. F. Bedell and A. C. 

 Crehore give a geometrical proof of the three-ammeter method 

 of measuring power. We wish the venture the complete 

 success that its high character merits. 



We have received a copy of " The Brighton Life Table,'' 

 based upon the mortality of the ten years i88i-go, by Dr. 

 Arthur Newsholme. No previous life-table has been con- 

 structed for Brighton, so the vital statistics of 1881-90 could 

 not be compared with those of any preceding decennium. Dr. 

 Newsholme has, however, compared his figures with those for 

 the whole of England and Wales between 1871 and 1880, and 

 also with the 1881-90 life-table of Manchester. The com- 

 parison indicates that the probabilities of life among both males 

 and females are at most ages greater in Brighton than elsewhere 

 — a result that might have been expected. 



We learn from the Victorian Naturalist that Mr.D. M 'Alpine, 

 pathologist to the Victorian Department of Agriculture, is pre- 

 paring for publication by the Department a Systematic Census 

 of Austra/ian Fungi, together with a host-index and list of 

 works on the subject. He is desirous of making the list as 

 complete as possible, and will be pleased to receive from 

 workers any published papers, &c., especially on the microscopic 

 forms. It is proposed to continue the list in annual supple- 

 ments. 



The 1892 report of the Superintendent of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Trinidad, has been received. The experiments in- 

 stituted by the Government having shown that tobacco of a 

 suitable character for making good cigars can be grown in 

 Trinidad, enterprising planters are beginning to cultivate a 

 sufficient area to make the crop remunerative. Mr. Hart 

 reports that the quality of the product of the district (always a 

 tobacco producing one) in which the operations were conducted, 

 has much improved. The native cultivators have partially 

 adopted the methods employed by the skilled cultivator, hence it 

 is anticipated that the industry will continue to make progress 

 during future years. 



Mr. M. Dunn, of Trevagissey, has sent us a paper by him 

 on '• The Migrations and Habits of the Pilchard," which 

 appears in the annual report of the Royal Polytechnic Society 

 for 1892. 



Messrs. Longman will shortly publish a work entitled and 

 specially devoted to "The Micro-organisms in Water," by 

 Prof, and Mr.=. Percy Frankland. It will deal not only with 

 the presence and significance of bacteria in water, but also with 

 the various means of effecting their removal, and an account 

 will be given of what is known concerning the vitality of patho- 

 genic microbes in various waters. A tabulated description of 

 the micro- and macroscopic characters of all the micro-organisms, 

 both pathogenic and non-pathogenic, hitherto discovered in 

 water will be appended, whilst a special part will be devoted 

 to the methods involved in the bacteriological examination of 

 water. The work is intended to serve as a handbook for all 

 interested in the sanitary aspects of water supply. 



A CATALOGUE of books issued by Mr. Charles Lowe, New- 

 Street, Birmingham, contains the titles and descriptions of a 

 number of scientific works for sale and wanted. 



A Considerable number of metallic salts of sulpho-phos- 

 phoric acid, H3PS4, have been obtained in a pure state by Dr. 

 Glatzel of Breslau, and are described in the current number 

 of the Zeitschrifl fiir Anorganische Chemie. They are pre- 

 pared by heating an anhydrous mixture of the chloride or sul- 



NO. 1238, VOL. 48] 



phide of the metal with phosphorus pentasulphide, being 

 produced in accordance with the equations : — 



3RCI -f P„S3 = R3PS4 + PSCI3, 



3R2S -f P,S5 = 2R3PS,. 

 The metallic chloride or sulphide requires to be perfectly dry, 

 if possible being fused previous to the experiment. When cold 

 it is finely powdered, intimately mixed with excess of anhydrous 

 pentasulphide of phosphorus and the mixture heated in a small 

 retort, at first slowly and carefully, finally to low redness. If 

 the chloride of the metal is employed, thiophosphoryl chloride 

 distils over and is condensed in a receiver. The excess of 

 phosphorus pentasulphide sublimes into the neck of the retort, 

 leaving the metallic sulphophosphate behind. The latter is 

 purified from any undecomposed metallic chloride or sulphide 

 by washing first with dilute hydrochloric acid, and afterwards 

 with water, filtering and drying. In this manner the normal 

 sulphophosphates of manganese, zinc, ferrous iron, nickel, cad- 

 mium, lead, thallium, tin, copper, silver, mercury, bismuth, 

 antimony and arsenic have been obtained in a pure state. In 

 addition to these, normal potassium sulphophosphate K3PS4 

 has also been obtained, but it was found impossible to separate 

 it entirely from phosphorus pentasulphide ; efforts to prepare 

 normal sulphophosphates of sodium, ammonium, barium, 

 strontium and calcium have not yet been successful. The nor- 

 mal sulphophosphates of manganese, zinc, ferrous iron, nickel, 

 cadmium and copper were obtained in the form of crystalline 

 powders, the others as fusible solids, which crystallise upon 

 re-solidification. The zinc and cadmium salts are white, the 

 manganese salt green, the iron, nickel, lead, tin and bismuth 

 salts vary from dark brown or grey to black ; the thallium, 

 copper, silver, antimony and arsenic salts are yellow ; and mer- 

 cury sulphophosphate is red and very sensitive to light. The 

 whole of them, with the exception of the potassium salt, are in- 

 soluble in water and organic solvents, but are slowly attacked 

 by dilute acids with evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen. The 

 potassium salt is decomposed by water alone with liberation of 

 the same gas. It would appear, indeed, that the more negative 

 metals, such as bismuth, antimony and arsenic form sulpho- 

 phosphates with the greatest facility. The bismuth salt BiPSj 

 remains in the retort after distilling a mixture of bismuth 

 chloride and phosphorus pentasulphide as a dark- coloured 

 liquid which solidifies to a grey mass upon cooling, and yields 

 upon pulverisation a powder of the colour of red phosphorus. 

 Antimony and arsenic form similar crystalline sulphophosphates 

 of a yellow colour, which are more volatile, however, and, 

 moreover, may be distilled without decomposition. The arsenic 

 salt solidifies in the receiver in a transparent form resembling 

 amber. 



In attempting to prepare a ferric sulphophosphate by the 

 action of phosphorus pentasulphide upon anhydrous ferric 

 chloride, an unexpected artificial synthesis of iron pyrites, 

 FeS,, in crystals identical with those found in nature, was 

 effected. The reaction occurs as represented by the equa- 

 tion :- 



3Fe.,Cl8 -f 2P2S5 = sFeClj -1- sFeS,, -t- 4PSCI3. 



The crystals of iron pyrites were formed as a beautiful glisten- 

 ing sublimate just above the heated portion of the retort. They 

 possessed the usual brass-yellow colour and brilliant lustre, and 

 consisted of pentagonal dodecahedrons and cubes or combina- 

 tions of these forms, together with faces of the octahedron and 

 of the more complicated forms of the cubic system. Moreover, 

 the same mode of striation was observed as is so characteristic 

 of natural crystals. 



Notes from the Marine Biological Station, Plymouth. — Last 

 week's captures include the Polychseta Staurocephalus rulirovit- 



