4i8 



NATURE 



[March i, 1894 



The February Joitr^ial of the Royal Microscopical Society 

 contains the address on " The Progress and Present State of 

 our Knowledge of the Acari," delivered by the president, Mr. 

 A. D. Mitchell, on January 17 of this year. 



The number just issued of the Journal of the Institution of 

 Electrical Engineers contains Prof. G. Forbes's paper upon 

 " The Electrical Transmission of Power from Niagara Falls," and 

 the valuable discussion which it raised. 



Messrs. Witherby and Co. will issue next month a volume 

 of esoays on zoological and geological subjects by Mr. Richard 

 Lydekker. The volume is to be entitled "Life and Rock," 

 and will be fully illustrated. 



A FIFTH edition of Mr. W. Larden's "School Course in 

 Heat " has been published by Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston, 

 and Co. The book has been enlarged, and in places rewritten, 

 and has gained in value by the refining process to which it has 

 been subjected. 



A FIFTH edition of the late Prof. Tyndall's biographical 

 sketch of Faraday has been published by Messrs. Longmans, 

 Green, and Co. The preface of this new edition possesses a 

 melancholy interest, for, in a brief note appended to it, Mrs. 

 Tyndall says it was only written a few days before her husband's 

 death. 



Judging from the twenty-fourth annual report just received, 

 the Wellington College Natural Science Society is in a very 

 satisfactory condition. The report contains abstracts of the 

 papers read before the Society during the year, the results of 

 meteorological readings, observations of plants and insects, and 

 a statement of entomological occurrences and peculiarities. The 

 Society is certainly a creditable part of the College to which it 

 belongs. 



The iSg^ a nmtaire of the Municipal Observatory of Mont, 

 souris contains, in addition to the usual meteorological, physical, 

 and chemical tables, an article by M. Albert Levy on the 

 chemical analysis of air and water, and a memoir by Dr. P. 

 Miquel on the organic matter in air and water. The latter paper 

 deals with the microscopic analysis of the air of Montsouris 

 and that of the centre of Pnris, the microscopic analysis of 

 water, and statistics as to ammoniacal ferments in the air and 

 water of different places. 



The Universal Electrical Directory (J. A. Berly's) for 1894 

 has been published by Messrs. H. Alabaster, Gatehouse, and Co. 

 It contains the names of the members of the electrical and 

 kindred fraternities throughout the world. For simplicity and 

 facility of reference the work is divided into four groups, deal- 

 ing respectively with British, Continental, American, and 

 Colonial names, and these parts are again subdivided into 

 alphabetical and classified sections. Several thousands of new 

 names have been incorporated in the present issue, and 104 

 pages have been added, making a total of 888 pages. ! 



In March of last year we noticed the first report of the 

 proceedings of the International Congress of Prehistoric 

 Archaeology and Anthropology held at Moscow in 1892. The 

 second volume has now reached us. The memoirs included in 

 it are arranged into three classes, referring respectively to pre- 

 historic archaeology, anthropology, and prehistoric ethnology. 

 In addition to tbese memoirs, many of which are of great 

 importance, the present volume contains the Proces-verbaux of 

 the meetings. Another volume that has also been recently 

 published contains descriptions of the places and institutions 

 visited during the Congress, and reports on some of the ques- 

 tions discussed. 



NO. 1270, VOL. 49] 



It is announced that a new monthly review of current 

 scientific investigation — Science Prog7-ess — will make its debut 

 to-day. The new journal will be published by the Scientific 

 Press, and will be edited by Prof. J. Bretland Farmer, with the 

 assistance of an editorial committee, consisting of Prof. H. E. 

 Armstrong, F.R.S. ; Prof. C. S. Sherrington, F.R.S. ; Prof. 

 J. W. Judd, F.R.S. ; Prof. R. T. Weldon, F.R.S. ; Prof. G. 

 B. Howes, and Prof. H. Marshall Ward, F.R.S. The editors 

 propose to include in Science Progress notices and reviews of all 

 the effective work that is being accomplished in the various 

 branches of science, and the articles will aim at providing a 

 critical exposition of current work in the departments to which 

 they refer. In this way it is hoped that the journal will be of 

 use, not only in recording what has actually been done, but also 

 as indicating the direction and general tendency of research. 



The first number of the new series of Science Gossip contains, 

 among other articles, one by the editor, on science at the free 

 libraries. A recent tour through the metropolitan libraries, and 

 those in some of the larger midland counties' towns, has shown 

 Mr. Carrington that in many cases the income of the library goes 

 in the purchase of fiction or general expenses, and the librarian 

 depends upon donations for the science section of his catalogue, 

 and must accept whatever comes to hand. To remedy this, it is 

 suggested that some authoritative body, such as the Education 

 Department of the Imperial Government, or failing that, the 

 Library Association, should invite the councils of various learned 

 societies, like the Royal, Linnean, Zoological, Geological, 

 Geographical, Astronomical, Botanical, Chemical, Anthropolo- 

 gical and Meteorological, to draw up a list of works dealing 

 with their especial subjects, so as to get a list of good text- 

 books and authorities. This list might be revised from time to 

 time, as changes became necessary through the progress of 

 research. 



The atomic weight of palladium has been subjected to re- 

 vision by Prof. Keiser and Miss Breed. A previous investiga- 

 tion of the value to be ascribed to this metal was carried out by 

 Prof. Keiser in 18S9, the salt palladium diammonium chloride, 

 Pd(NH3Cl)2, which was considered for many reasons to be 

 particularly suitable, being employed. The number derived 

 from nineteen determinations was 106*27. Since that time 

 three other determinations of the atomic weight of palladium 

 have been carried out, by Bayley and Lamb, and by Keller and 

 Smith in 1892, and by Joly and Leidie in 1893, the results of 

 which are most discordant, differing by as much as a unit and 

 a half. Dr. Keiser has therefore returned to the work, and has 

 succeeded in discovering a compound of palladium which can 

 be vapourised, and therefore subjected to fractional distillation, 

 a method which Stas considered as the only one by which 

 substances may be obtained in the highest state of purity. The 

 compound in question is the dichloride PdCL, which can be 

 distilled at a low red heat in a current of chlorine. The pure 

 chloride thus obtained was converted into palladammonium 

 chloride, and the latter compound analysed by reduction to 

 metallic palladium in a current of pure hydrogen. The results 

 of all the analyses afford as the final mean value for the atomic 

 weight the number io6"25, which agrees remarkably closely 

 with that previously obtained by Dr. Keiser. The most diver- 

 gent of all the individual values are only 007 apart, so that it 

 would appear that the atomic weight of palladium is now 

 definitely determined. 



A further communication upon the subject of the artificial 

 preparation of the diamond is contributed to the Comptes 

 Rendus by M. Moissan. It was shown in an earlier memoir 

 that when carbon is dissolved in various fused metals at the 

 temperature of the electric furnace and at the ordinary pressure. 



