ISS 



KNnWIJ-.DGl-; 



Mw. 1012. 



iron filings wero acldfd. .iiid carbon tlinxKii' snppln<J Id llir 

 extent of one per cent, of the air in tlic llask. With inorganic 

 siilts, metallic iron, and no oilier sonrce of carbon than that 

 supplied indirectly by the action of carbon dio.\ide on the iron 

 (forming ferrous carbonatel, there was a marked increase in 

 the carbon content of the culture, masses of the bacterial 

 filaments being formed by growth. The bacterium must, in 

 order to gain one p.irt of carbon, produce from the ferrous 

 carbonate no less than seven hundred parts of ferric o.\ide. 



C.irbon dioxide is utilised in a similar manner by various 

 other oxidisini; bacteria, such as the nitrate and nitrite 

 bacteria, those which convert thiosulphates into telrathionic 

 and sulphuric acids, those which split up hydrogen pero.xide, 

 and those capable of oxidising meth.-ine and carbon mono.xidc 

 and utilising tlie carbon these substances contain. 



CHEMISTRY. 



By C. .AiNswoRrH MiTCHici.i., B.A. (OxoN.), F.I.C. 



K.\DIUM IX THIi WATERS OF BATH.— It has long 

 been known that artificial preparations of mineral waters do 

 not always produce the same effects as the natural waters, 

 however closely they are made to correspond in their chemical 

 composition. The chemists of the eighteenth century accounted 

 for this by the theory that natural mineral waters contained a 

 certain vital principal, "the soul of the waters," to which they 

 owed their specific activity, and later this volatile principle 

 was identified with carbon dioxide, or " fixed air," as it was 

 then termed. During the last century there was a tendency 

 to attribute the cures apparently efTected by certain classes of 

 mineral waters, in which nothing remarkable could be dis- 

 covered, to the simultaneous effects produced by good air and 

 regular diet which accompanied the " taking of the waters." 



In 1895 the element helium was discovered, and a few years 

 later the gas was found to be a constituent of many natural 

 mineral waters. It was. for instance, shown to be present in 

 the gases escaping from the King's Well at Bath, in the 

 proportion of 1-2 parts per thousand, but the significance of 

 this fact was not made clear until in 1903 there came the 

 discovery by Sir William Kamsav and Mr. Soddy that helium 

 was a product of the disintegration of radium, and that its 

 presence in the water was thus an indication of radioactivity. 



The presence of radium itself was detected by the 

 Hon. R. J. Strutt both in the waters of Bath and in the 

 deposits from the hot springs, and this has been followed by 

 the recent estimation by Sir William Ramsay of the amounts 

 of niton (radium emanation) in the different waters of Bath 

 and the gas emitted by them. 



The report of this investigation is published in a recent issue 

 of The Chemical News (1912, CV., 134), and the interesting 

 results there given have an important bearing upon this 

 question of the therapeutic .action of waters like those of Bath. 



The gas emitted from the King's Well was estimated to 

 amount to four thousand nine hundred and twenty-seven litres 

 in twenty-four hours, and consisted of three hundred and sixty 

 parts of carbon dioxide and nine thousand six hundred and 

 forty of nitrogen, and so on, per ten thousand. The nitrogen 

 contained 73-63 per cfent. of argon, 23-34 per cent, of neon 

 and 2-97 per cent, of helium. 



The Pump Room water contained in solution 18-5 parts of 

 gas per thousand, consisting of 6-9 parts of carbon dioxide 

 and 11-6 parts of nitrogen and its companions. 



In measuring the amounts of radium and its emanation 

 (niton), the latter was calculated into the corresponding 

 quantity of its parent, radium, that would have produced it. 

 The method may best be made clear by quoting Sir William 

 Ramsay's words : " Suppose one gramme of radium to be 

 dissolved in water, say as chloride or bromide. It is con- 

 tinually giving off niton, but at the same time the niton is as 

 continuously disappearing with the formation of radium. A, B. 

 C and D. There will arrive a time when the production of 

 niton from the radium will have ceased to increase, because 

 as it is produced it decays, and the rate of production is then 

 equal to the rate of decay. The amount of niton will therefore 

 increase up to a certain point; that point is when 0-6 of a 



I'ubir millimclrc of niton has hien prfiduccd. The weight of 

 one cubic millimetre of niton is .dmost exactly one hundredth 

 of a milligramme; hence 0-6 cubic millimetre weighs six 

 thousandths of a milligramme. This is the weight of niton 

 which is ei|uilibrium with one gramme of metallic radium." 



Fstimaud by this method the following results were 

 obtained in the examination of the waters of Bath : — 



Millieratnmo per 

 million litres. 



Radium in the water of the King's Well ... 0-1387 



Niton (radium emanation) „ „ „ ... 1-73" 



Niton „ „ „ Cross Bath ... 1-19' 



Niton ,. „ „ Hetley Bath... 1-70^ 



Niton „ in gases from King's Well ... 33-65" 

 * These figures are the weights of radium capable of forming 

 the amounts of niton found. 



EFFECTS OF ROAD-SLRFACINGS ON FISH LIFE. 



— The modern method of tarring roads to prevent dust has 

 led to numerous complaints that fish in streams near the road 

 have been destroyed by the poisonous dust. An investigation 

 to ascertain the effects upon fish of various compounds present 

 in substances used for treating roads has. therefore, been made 

 by .Mr. W. A. Butterfield iStirveyor. 1912, XLI, 277). From 

 the results of the experiments it appears that ammonia and 

 many of its salts, gas liquor .solutions, phenols and tars 

 containing much phenol, and light tar oils capable of forming 

 films on the surface of the water, are all more or less toxic to 

 fish. On the other hand, napthalene, coal-tar, pitch, and 

 certain kinds of asphaltum are not distinctly injurious to fish, 

 while there is no objection to the use of calcium chloride 

 solutions. Films of heavy automobile oil on the surface of 

 the water have also no injurious action upon the fish. 



The general conclusions based upon these experiments is 

 that the tar for allaying the dust in roads should consist of 

 coal tar or a mixture thereof with carburetted water-gas tar, 

 with a specific gravity of not less than 1-lS at 15° C, and 

 that it should contain not more than one percent, of gas liquor 

 (the ammonia in which must not exceed five grains per gallon 

 of tar I, one per cent, of light oils, and three per cent, of crude 

 tar acids. This will ensure safety to fish life, provided that 

 not more than a twentieth part of the area draining into the 

 water has been tarred. 



Incidentally it is pointed out that there is some risk of 

 injury to fish from the washings from stable manure finding 

 their way into the water, and that for the same reason the use 

 of sodium nitrate as a fertilizer is attended with less chance of 

 injury to fish than the use of ammonium sulphate. 



GEOLOGY. 



By G. W. Tyrrell, A.R.C.Sc, F.G.S. 



THi: CiEOLOGY OF THE COUNTRY AROL'ND 

 OLLI'KION. — .\ Survey Memoir just issued with this title 

 describes the country between Newark and Mansfield. 

 Nottinghamshire. The ground is mostly occupied by Triassic 

 rocks, with small tracts of Permian and Lias, all being 

 underlain by Coal Measures which, although not exposed in 

 the Ollerton district, are continuous w-ith the visible Coal 

 Measures in the adjoining area to the west. The extent and 

 availability of the concealed coalfield is, of course, the chief 

 economic interest of the area. 



The Permian rocks were deposited on an evenly denuded 

 slope of Coal Measures, directed nearly due east and falling at 

 the rate of one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty 

 feet per mile. A considerable thickness of Coal Measures was 

 lost by denudation before the deposition of the Permian rocks. 

 The coal seam usually sought for in borings is the Top Hard. 

 In the Mansfield Colliery workings, this seam dips three 

 degrees (276-7 feet per mile) to the north-east. If this dip 

 continues within the Ollerton district, the Top Hard Coal 

 would plunge below the limiting depth of profitable working 

 (4,000 feet) in the area bordering on the Trent. To the south 

 and west of the Ollerton district, however, the dip is known to 

 decrease north-eastward until it is a little over a degree 

 (92- 16 feet per mile). If this lowering of dip continues to the 



