420 
NATURE 
[FEBRUARY 28, 1907 
papers on the chemical and physical properties of 
fluorine and on many of its compounds, the careful 
and detailed nature of the investigations being 
characteristic of all his work. 
It is unnecessary to describe further these re- 
searches, since the whole subject forms a chapter of 
their science well known to all chemists, and has, 
moreover, already been fully dealt with in Nature 
(vol. xxxvii., p. 179; vol. xliv., p. 622). Attention 
should, however, be directed to the fact that in 1897, 
in conjunction with Sir James Dewar, fluorine was 
liquefied at the Royal Institution. The construction 
of an apparatus of copper in 1899, to replace the ex- 
pensive platinum vessels previously employed, simpli- 
fied the preparation of the element, and the discovery 
that dry fluorine exempt from vapours of hydro- 
fluoric acid does not attack glass served in recent 
years to facilitate the investigation of its properties. 
In 1891 Moissan was elected a member of the 
Academy of Sciences to fill the chair left vacant by 
the death of Cahours. . 
The main reason which impelled Moissan to pass 
from the study of fluorine to the high-temperature 
researches, which from 1892 onwards absorbed so 
much of his attention, seems to be closely connected 
with a desire, which he had long entertained, to solve 
the mystery of the origin of the diamond. The hope 
that the great activity of fluorine for other elements 
would help in the quest not being realised, he was 
led to a methodical study of the behaviour and trans- 
formation of the three allotropic modifications of 
carbon. This study, which is an excellent example 
of the logical application of experiment, resulted in 
the artificial production of diamond, and at the same 
time added greatly to our knowledge of the peculiar 
metamorphoses which characterise this element. 
The examination of portions of the meteorite from 
the Canon Diablo proved the presence of small 
diamonds, surrounded by thin ribbon-like strips of 
compressed carbon, hidden in the centre of a mass 
of iron, and gave him the clue to the solution of the 
problem. How he planned and successfully carried 
through the adaptation of this idea in the laboratory 
with the production of minute but unmistakable 
diamonds is well known to all. Although this work 
has been frequently challenged, he had fully upheld 
the validity of the results, so recently as 1905, by 
repeating the experiments with still greater precau- 
tions, and by applying a more intimate knowledge of 
the compounds formed under similar conditions. It 
was for the purpose of augmenting the solubility of 
carbon in iron that he first required and adopted the 
electric furnace. 
In electric furnace work, Moissan’s preeminent 
position is due, not to the design or discovery of a 
special form of furnace, but rather to the skill with 
which he investigated in detail a number of in- 
dividual chemical reactions. In each case he devoted 
great care to the purification and analysis of the raw 
materials required in the process, and submitted the 
products to minute examination and quantitatively 
determined their composition. Thus his preparation 
of chromium, tungsten, molybdenum, uranium, 
titanium, and many other metals in a fused form and 
high degree of purity greatly enriched our knowledge 
of the chemical and physical properties of these 
elements. 
Of still greater importance was the methodical 
following up of the chance formation of calcium 
carbide which he observed around the carbon elec- 
trodes in his early furnace experiments. From this 
observation he was led to discover and determine 
fully the nature and properties of a large number of 
metallic carbides, borides, and_ silicides, most of 
NO. 1948, VOL. 75] 
them hitherto absolutely unknown, or, like the metals 
mentioned already, only obtainable as impure and 
fragmentary specimens. 
There is perhaps no need to consider, at the present 
time, in how far industry is directly indebted to 
Moissan’s work. He himself had invariably ex- 
pressed his desire not to be considered in such dis- 
cussions, and, so far as the merit of his work is con- 
cerned, it needs no support of this nature.  In- 
directly, both science and industry have benefited 
enormously. On the Continent his scientific investi- 
gations are directly credited with a renaissance in 
the study of inorganic chemistry, which, particularly 
in Germany, had been almost entirely neglected for 
the more productive field of organic chemical re- 
search. Even in England, which has always held a 
high position in the pursuit of inorganic chemistry, 
his work has been of great assistance in instilling 
enthusiasm and encouraging the deeper study of the 
subject. 
As a teacher, Moissan will be affectionately re- 
membered by all his pupils; even during the tenure 
of his professorship of toxicology he maintained a 
research laboratory for chemistry, and attracted to it 
a number of students, and from the time of his 
appointment, in 1g00, to the chair of inorganic 
chemistry at the Sorbonne larger numbers were able 
to avail themselves of his teaching. 
As a lecturer, both in his public discourses and in 
the lectures on inorganic chemistry, which he gave 
during the last few years of his life, he was dis- 
tinguished, even amongst French chemists, by the 
brilliant exposition of his subject and by his skill in 
experimental demonstration. R.. S. Hutton. 
NOTES. 
We regret to see the announcement of the death of Mr. 
H. C. Russell, C.M.G., F.R.S., Government astronomer 
of New South Wales. 
Tne autumn meeting of the Tron and Steel Institute 
will be held in Vienna on September 23-25, and will be 
followed by excursions to Bohemia and to Styria. 
THe Women’s Agricultural and Horticultural Inter- 
national Union is organising an exhibition and sale of 
farm and garden produce, &c., to be held in the Gardens 
of the Royal Botanic Society, Regent’s Park, N.W., on’ 
Wednesday, July 17. 
Tue Mercers’ Company has made a grant of toool. to 
the Imperial Institute for scientific research in regard to 
the economic products of British colonies and protectorates, 
to be expended under the direction of the managing com- 
mittee, subject to the control of the Secretary of State for 
the Colonies. 
Tue Friday evening discourse at the Royal Institution 
en March 8 will be delivered by Prof. David James 
Hamilton, on ‘‘ Certain Seasonal Diseases in the Sheep 
and means of preventing them.” 
ENnG.isuH geologists who know anything of France and 
the French Alps will especially regret the death of M. 
Marcel Bertrand, which took place on February 13. His 
work on mountain-origins and mountain-structure had an 
important influence in the development of geological 
thought. Bertrand succeeded Pasteur as a member of the 
French Academy of Sciences in 1896. 
WE learn from the Times that the Royal Academy of 
Sciences at Stockholm is petitioning the Swedish Govern- 
ment to request the British Government to grant per- 
