652 transactions of the american institute. 



English Pig Iron. 



The amount of iron produced in Great Britain for the year ending in 

 1863 is 4,000,000 tons. 



Oxide of a New Metal. 



M. Bahr has observed in a Swedish mineral a white powder, slig'htly 

 tinged with red, which he believes to be an oxide of a new metal. It forms 

 only one per cent, of a mineral of very complex composition, which he calls 

 Wasite. The new metal is named Wasium, after the god Wasa. It should 

 be stated that M. Nickles maintains in the Comptes Rendus that the so 

 called Wasium is impure Yttria, containing some Didymium or Terbium. 

 If the report of M. Bahr should be confirmed, and the new metal separated, 

 the number of chemical elements or undecomposed substances will be 

 increased to sixty-seven. 



Relative Distances of the Planets. 



Bode's law, which expressed the distances of the planets from the sun, 

 by assuming Mercury to be four, and adding that number to the geometri- 

 cal progression of three for each succeeding planet, counting the Asteroids 

 as one planet, holds nearly true to Uranus, but differs widely from the 

 observed distance of Neptune. This discrepancy has led to several ingen- 

 ious calculations of late; none of them,_ however, present ratios approxi- 

 mating sufficiently near the astronomical measurements to be accepted. 



Tropical Africa. 



Baron Von Deckeh has communicated to the Royal Geographical Society 

 an interesting account of his travels in Zanguebar. Leaving the eastern 

 coast at Mombas he passed through Wanga and Ugono to Lake Jipe and 

 the Arusha range of mountains. The snowy peaks, Kilima-ndjaro, were 

 found by triangulation to be 20,065 feet and 11,009 feet respectively in 

 height. One of these mountains he ascended to the height of 13,900 feet. 

 The line of perpetual snow is at 11,000 feet. In Ugono he found a well 

 formed race, sufficiently civilized to smelt iron and manufacture it into 

 weapons. A minute description is given of a fly, called by the natives 

 " Donderobo," whose bite is fatal to some quadrupeds, and whose attack 

 upon the asses belonging to the caravan of the Baron seriously endangered 

 the expedition. 



Oxygen in Organic Compounds. 



Messrs. Wanklyn and Frank have noticed that organic bodies eVolve 

 some if not the whole of their oxygen in the form of water, and found upon 

 this fact a qualitative if not a quantitative method of determining oxygen. 



Molecular Mobility of Gases. 



Prof Graham, master of the mint, Loudon, to whom, with Dutrochet, we 

 are indebted for many observations relating to osmetic force, has lately 

 presented in the Philosophical Transactions some new experiments on the 

 molecular mobility of gases. The inter-diffusion of gases without any in- 

 tervening septum, is a subject of great interest. Carbonic acid was found 

 to travel in common air, by diffusion, at the rate of 73 inillinicters per 

 minute. Hydrogen was found to travel downwards at the rate of 350 m.m. 



