;o6 



NA TURE 



[July 



= o> 



1895 



New Variable Stars. — Wolsingham Observatory Circular, 

 No. 42, received from the Kev. T. E. Espin, announces that a 

 red star of Secchi's Type III., magnitude S"4, was detected at his 

 Obsen-ator)- on July 14, in R..\. igh. 52-4m., Decl. 2' 11' 

 (1900). The ."itar is probably a new variable, and is not in the 

 southern Durchinusterung. The star ilesignate<l Espin 1021 is 

 also probably variable. 



THE BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 



A S already noted, the sixty-third annual meeting of the British 

 •**■ Mediad .\ssociation will be held in London next week. 

 From the programme of final arrangements published in the 

 current number of the British Mediial Jouriial, it is evident 

 that the meeting will be of exceptional interest anil importance. 

 The President-elect is .Sir J. Russell Reynolds, Ban. .\n address 

 in Medicine will be d-^livered by Sir W'illiam Broadbent, Bart. ; 

 an address in Surger)' by Jonathan Hutchinson, K. R.S.; and an 

 address in I'hysiologj- by I'rof. Edward .Albert Schafer, F. R.S. 

 The scientific business of the meeting will be conducted in 

 fifteen sections : — Numerous papers have been received by each 

 Section, and specific points have been selected for tliscussion. 

 In the Section of Medicine, presided over by Dr. K. W. I'avy, I 

 K. R.S., the following .subjects have been selected for discu.ision : 

 ( 1 ) Diphtheria and its treatment by the antitoxin ; acute lobar or 

 croupous pneumonia, its etiology, pathology, and treatment ; 

 the causes of acute rheumatism and its relation to other affec- 

 tions. The President of the Surgery- Section is Sir William 

 MacCormac, who will make .some introductorj- remarks, in 

 which he will refer to the effects produced by modern rifle 

 bullets on the human body. The following suiijects have been 

 .selected for discussion : The diagnosis and treatment of fractures 

 of the upper third of the femur, including the neck ; the surgical 

 treatment of cysLs, tumours, and carcinoma of the thyroid gland 

 and access<jry thyroids. Sir William Priestley presides over 

 the Section of Obstetrics and Gyn;ecology. Tlie President of 

 the Section of Public Medicine is Dr. Ernest Hart. The 

 regular business of this Section will commence each day with a 

 fnrmal discussion by gentlemen who have been invited to o|ien 

 the debates. The subjects selected are as follows : Presidential 

 address — Water-borne disease and its prevention ; discussions 

 upon the regulation of the slaughter of animals for human food 

 and the inspection of animals before and during slaughter : the 

 insecurity of tenure of extra-Metropolitan Medical UtVicers of 

 Health under the Public Health .\ct, 1875. The Section of 

 I'sychology h.-is for its I'resident Dr. W. J. Mickle. The Presi- 

 dent will open the section with an address on the brain. A 

 di.scussion has Ijcen arranged to take place on each day, the 

 subjects being : On the treatment of melancholia ; on insanity, in 

 relation to criminal responsibility ; on epilepsy, and its relation 

 1.1 insanity. The President of the Phy.siology Section is Dr. 

 David Kerrier, K.R.S. In this Section a discussion on the 

 mechanics of the cardiac cycle will t»e introduced by Prof. Hay- 

 craft and Dr. D. I'aterson ; the following will take jiart — Dr. 

 Noel Paton, Dr. Lauder Brunton, K.R.S., and Dr. Gibson. 

 The .\nalomy and Histology Section has for its President Mr. 

 Henrv Morris. The following subjects have lieen selected for 

 -ion: .\rt in its relation to anatomy; the development 

 lucture of the placenta ; the topographical anatomy of the 

 Men. The President of the Section of Pathology and 

 1 riol<,gy is Dr. Samuel Wilks, K.R.S. The work of the 



~ in includes the demonstration of the malaria jarasite by 

 Dr. P. .Manson, with Sf)me facts as to its lifc-histor)-. There 

 wilt Ik- a discussion upon this, and upon neuritis ; vaccinia and 

 lis an.x-mia : and lymphadenoma. The Presi- 

 i.n of Ophthalmology is Mr. II. Power. The 



i , M ., ,,-, ,.,,ions have lieen arranged in this Section : On 



certain rare ca.ses of recurrent o)ihthalmia ; on the diagnosis of 



<.rl,i:.il L;r.'»ihs; on the (juestion of o|>erating in chronic 



The Section of Di.sca.ses of Children has for its 



I I r. I'.hn H. Morgan ; and the President of the Section 



\V. Dalby. The Section of Pharmacology and 



lor lis President .Sir William Roberts, I'. K.S. 



1m ■ ■ ■" ' - ,!• ■■!-.; ti ii|xin senimthera|)cutics, 



and I kssion with reference to 



the r' / ,'"'• I'f- I'elix .Scmon is 



the Prcnlent of the .Seriirin of I^ar)ngology ; and Dr. H. Rad- 



cliffe Crocker, of the Dermatology Section. Finally, the ethics 



of the medical profession has a Section to itself, presided over by 



NO. 1343. VOL. 52] 



Dr. W. F. Cleveland. Only members of the British Medical 

 Association, invited guests, and accredited strangers, will be 

 allowed to attend the general meetings or the meetings of 

 Sections. The reception-rooms will be openeii on Monday, July 

 29, at 12 o'clock noon. The members' reception-room is in the 

 large hall of King's College. A separate reception-room has 

 been provided for inviteil foreign guests next to the members" 

 reception-room, and another for ladies at the Royal Society's 

 Rooms, Burlington House. The arrangements for the conduct 

 of the work of the Sections, and for the comfort of the members, 

 have been admirably arranged, so there is every promise that the 

 meeting will be a verv successful one. 



HE LI CM, A COXSTITCENT OF CERTAIX 



MLVEKALS.' 



1. 



'X'HE gas obtained from the mineral cleveite, of which a 

 •^ preliminary account has been communicated to the Royal 

 Society {Proieediiigs , May 2, 1895), has been the subject of 

 our investigation since the middle of April. Although much 

 still remains to be done, enough information has been gained to 

 make us believe that an account of our experiments, so far as 

 they have gone, will be received with interest. 



We have attempted to ascertain, in the first place, from what 

 minerals this gas, showing a yellow line almost, if not quite, 

 identical in wave-length with the line D3 of the chromospheric 

 siiectrum, and to which one of us has provisionally given the 

 name " helium " — a name applied by Profs. Lockyer and Frank- 

 land some thirty years ago to a hypothetical solar element, 

 characterised by the yellow line D, of wave-length 5S75'9S2 

 (Rowland). We may state at once that it is not our purpose to 

 altemjJt to prove this coincidence, but willingly to leave the 

 subject to those who are more practised in such measurements. 



We propose therefore, first, to discuss the terrestial sources of 

 this gas ; second, to describe experiments on products from 

 several sources ; and last, to propound some general views on 

 the nature of this curious substance. 



I . The Sounes of Helintn. 



It is usual in a memoir of this kind to cite previous work on 

 the subject. It would be foreign to our jiurpose to discuss 

 observations on the solar spectrum ; our memoir deals w ith 

 terrestrial helium. .And we have been able to find only one 

 short note of a few lines on the subject ; it is a statement by 

 Signor Palmicri < Kcnd. .-/.v. di Xaf'oli, xx. 2331, that on ex- 

 amining a lava-like product ejected by \esuvius, he found a soft 

 substance which gave a yellow sjiectral line of wavelength 

 587-5 ; he promised further researches, but, so far .as we know-, 

 he did not fulfil his promise. He does not give any details as to 

 how he examined the mineral. 



An account has already been given in Part I. of Dr. Hille- 

 braniVs investigations on the gases occlude<l by various 

 uraninites which he was so unfortunate .-us to mistake for nitrogen. 

 Dr. Hillebrand was so kind as to supply us with a fair ipianlity 

 of the uraninite he employed : and it is s;itisfaclory to be able 

 to confirm his results so far ; for it is beyond doubt that the gas 

 evolved from his uraninite by heating it in a vacuum or by 

 boiling with sulphuric acid contains about to per cent, of 

 its volume of nitrogen. It is therefore not to be wondered at, 

 that he formed the conclusion that the gas he hail was nitrogen ; 

 for he obtained some evidence of the formation of nitrous fumes 

 on |>a.s.sing sjarks through a mixture of this gas with oxygen ; 

 he succeeded in obtaining a weighable amount of ammonium 

 platinichloridc from the product of sparking it with hydrogen 

 m presence of hyilrochloric acid ; and, in ad.lilion, he observed 

 a strong nitrogen siu-clrum in a sample of the gas transferred to 

 a vacuum-tube. Had he operated with cleveite, as will lie 

 shown later, he would have in all probability discovered helium 

 (/*«//. U.S. Ceo/oxiia.' Siinry, Ixxviii. 431. 



To extract the gas from small (juantities of minerals, from i 

 to 5 grains of the coarsely- powdered substance wiis heale<l in 

 a small bulb of combustion-tubing, jjreviously exhausted by a 

 Toppler's pump. As it was founil that water and carbon dioxide 

 were often evolved, a soda-lime tube and a lube filled with 

 phosphoric anhydride were often interixjseil between the bulb 



1 A p.-iprr tiy Prof. William R.im.K.-i>-, F.R.S., Dr. J. Norman Collie, and 

 Mr. Morri« rr-ivcrs, read before the Clicmical Society on June »o. 



