Vol. XXII. No. 7.] 



POPULAR SCIElSrCE NEWS. 



105 



€f^t ^opu\at Science ^e\o0. 



BOSTON, JUNE 1, 1888. 



AUSTIN P. NICH0L8, S.B Editor 



WILLIAM J. ROLFE, Litt.D Associate Editor 



Subscribers who are still in arrears for the 

 present year will find a bill to January, 1889, 

 enclosed in the present number. A prompt re- 

 turn with the necessary amount will be greatly 

 appreciated by the publishers. Such small 

 amounts are very likely to be overlooked, but 

 the low price of the paper renders it all the 

 more important that they should be promptly 

 paid. Please remit by check, money order, or 

 registered letter. 



be some undiscovered source of constant error 

 in the determinations which may alter the atomic 

 weight still farther, but at present there is no 

 way to discover it, and the weight given above 

 must be considered the nearest approach to the 

 true weight that has as yet been determined. 



The treasurer of the Illinois State Board of 

 Health has communicated to us some facts 

 which fully explain their recent action in re- 

 voking the license of a physician who adver- 

 tised his practice in the newspapers, which 

 was referred to in the May number of this 

 journal (p. 73). It appears that the action 

 was not taken on account of the advertising, 

 but because of fraudulent advertising ; the 

 alleged physician claiming to cure incurable 

 diseases, and, by the aid of hired representa- 

 tives personating him, carrying on his business 

 in several places at the same time. He cer- 

 tainly seems to have been a most unworthy 

 member of the medical profession, and was 

 undoubtedly entitled to very little considera- 

 tion at the hands of the authorities. It is an 

 additional illustration of the worthless char- 

 acter of the numerous advertising doctors who 

 infest the country, and no one with any regard 

 for his health or purse should pay any atten- 

 tion to their bombastic misrepresentations in 

 the columns of the papers. 



Dr. C. II. Yarrow of the National Museum 

 has been carrying on a course of experiments 

 (described at length in Forest and Stream) in 

 an endeavor to discover an antidote for serpent 

 venom. He believes that this has been found 

 in the fluid extract of jaborandi, already used 

 to some extent in medicine. It is to be hoped 

 that the results of his experiments may be con- 

 firmed, and that a safe and effective cure for 

 the bites of these dreaded reptiles has really 

 been discovered. 



—t — 



comfortable, and supplying the conveniences 

 and luxuries of travel which are so conspicu- 

 ous on the Atlantic steamers by their absence. 

 We doubt if these improvements will be intro- 

 duced until there is a line of steamers to Europe 

 which shall be owned and managed by an 

 American company. 



Mr. Emile Berliner recently exhibited to 

 the Franklin Institute an improved form of 

 phonograph invented by him, and named the 

 gramophone. This instrument reproduces 

 words loudly enough to be heard over a large 

 room, while the phonograph emits only a very 

 feeble sound. If the improvement is found to 

 to be a practical one, it will add greatly to the 

 value and usefulness of the original instrument, 

 and still further adapt it to general use. 



Mr. H. C. Bolton, University Club, New 

 York City, is desirous of collecting words and 

 expressions used in .iddressing domestic ani- 

 mals in all parts of the United States and in 

 foreign lands. All correspondence will be 

 gratefully received, and materials used will be 

 credited to the contributors. A circular givino- 

 full particulars and instructions will be sent 

 on application. 



A COMPOUND extensively advertised under 

 the name of " Scotch Oats Essence" has been 

 a subject of much discussion in the medical 

 journals latel3'. The proprietors modestly claim 

 that it is a sure cure for the alcohol and opium 

 habits, as well as innumerable diseases of every 

 description. It is evidently prepared on homeo- 

 pathic principles, as Dr. Francis Wyatt found 

 a sample to contain over sixty per cent of alco- 

 hol, while other chemists have found notable 

 quantities of morphine to be present in it. It 

 would seem as if any person of average intelli- 

 gence could detect the absurdity and falsity of 

 the statements made in the advertisements of 

 the innumerable patent medicines ; but every 

 new cure-all finds a ready market, and the crop 

 of more or less genuine " certificates " to their 

 efHcaev is an unfailing one. 



The latest calculations of Professor Cooke 

 and Mr. Richards give for the atomic weight 

 ofox3genthe number lo. 869, which is consid- 

 erably lower than the result first obtained. A 

 constant source of error in the determinations 

 was discovered, due to the change in volume of 

 the glass globe in which the gas was first 

 weighed, by the pressure of the air. Professor 

 Cooke is inclined to think that there may still 



Two European chemists, Spring and Van't 

 Hofl', have investigated the chemical changes 

 produced by increased pressure. Finely puK 

 verized copper-calcium acetate at a tempera- 

 ture of 104° F. was subjected to the action of a 

 screw-press. The results were marked, three- 

 quarters of the mass being liquefied, and be- 

 coming solid again when the pressure was 

 removed. The sides of the containing vessel 

 were covered with a coating of copper, and 

 small leaves of copper could be picked out of 

 the mass. The dark blue of the acetate had 

 changed to green, interspersed with white 

 points, indicating the separation into copper 

 acetate and calcium acetate. Since the ther- 

 mic effect of the compression was less than 

 corresponds to a rise of 1°, the above result 

 must have been due entirely to a change of 

 volume. At ordinary temperatures a pressure 

 of ninety thousand pounds produced no change 

 except a consolidation of the powder into a 

 crystalline mass. 



Some experiments recently performed by 

 Grunewald and Meyer seem to show that the 

 formula of ferric chloride should be written 

 FeClj, instead of Fe^Clg, as at present. 



The Cunard steamer "Etruria" recently 

 made the passage from Qiieenstown to New 

 York in five days and twenty-three hours, thus 

 beating all previous records. Faster and more 

 powerful boats are being built every year, and it 

 is hard to say when the limit of speed will be 

 reached. We have failed, however, to notice 

 any attempt on the part of the various com- 

 panies to make the voyage less disagreeable to 

 the passengers by making their boats more 



CRYSTALLIZATION". 



As a general rule, most inorganic and many 

 organic solid substances possess a certain typi- 

 cal form, which they tend to take when their 

 molecules are temporarily enabled to group 

 themselves in their natural positions. This, 

 however, is impossible while they are in the 

 solid state ; and it is necessary to give freedom 

 of movement by first liquefying the substance, 

 either by melting, or dissolving in some liquid. 

 Less frequently the solid may be changed by 

 heating to the gaseous condition, and be de- 

 posited, on cooling, in the crystalline form. 



If we dissolve a quantity of alum in water, 

 and allow the solution to slowly evaporate, 

 the alum will be deposited, not as a powder or 

 in irregularly shaped masses, but in regular 

 geometrical forms._ In the case of alum the 

 form is usually the octahedron, or a solid 

 bounded by eight triangular surfaces, re- 

 sembling two pyramids placed base to base. 

 Common salt under the same conditions crys- 

 tallizes in the form of a cube ; while other sub- 

 stances, particularly minerals, take more com- 

 plicated forms, which are still further varied 

 by combinations of two or more forms upon 

 the same crystal. A very good example of 

 this occurs in crystals of alum, which are often 

 a combination of the octahedron and cube ; 

 tiie planes of the cube appearing upon the 

 corners of the crystal, and causing them to 

 appear as if they had been cut ofl" with a 

 knife. 



Crystallography is a science in itself, and is 

 based upon intricate mathematical and geo- 

 metrical principles. Without attempting to 

 explain these principles, we may mention the 

 six systems of crystallization to which all 

 crystals may be referred. 



It is evident that a solid must have three 

 dimensions, or axes, about which its bounding 

 surfaces may be grouped. In the regular ot- 

 monometric system of eiystallization, these 

 axes are all of the same length, and placed at 

 right angles to each other. A cube, for in- 

 stance, has all its faces of equal size and all 

 its angles equal to each other. A great many 

 familiar substances crystallize in this system, 

 such as salt, alum, diamond, garnet, and most 

 metals. 

 In the dimetric system the axes are at right 



