4i8 



NA TURE 



\2Iaich 4, 1886 



On the Intelligence of Dogs 



When reading in Nature of November 12, 1885, the ab- 

 stract of Sir Jolin Lubbock's paper "On the Intelligence of 

 Dogs," I called to mind an incident of a little Blenheim spaniel 

 which belongs to my mother. 



The readers of Nature may perhaps be a little tired of 

 stories relating to the intelligence of the dog, especially when 

 these are illustrations of the effects of training. My excuse for 

 troubling you now is that the following incident seems to indi- 

 cate a singular power of reasoning, 



" Middy " was about nine months old when he was picked 

 off the streets of Melbourne, and he had many traits of the 

 "larrikins," as the human waifs there are called. He had been 

 three months in our family, and we had almost begun to despair 

 of breaking him in to civilised life. 



One Sunday my sisters set off for Sunday-school, and were 

 surprised, on nearing the church, to find "Middy" at their 

 heels. He was told to "go home," and he was found at the 

 house on their return. Nothing more w-is said on the subject, 

 which was forgotten by the next Sunday. But when my sisters 

 entered the school-room on that day, great was their amusement 

 to see the little dog seated calmly as a scholar in one of the 

 classes ! He behaved quite quietly during the lessons, and then 

 left with the children, and trotted home alone. To prevent con- 

 stant repetitions of this behaviour, he had to be caught hours 

 before school-time and shut up. He was very clever in evading 

 capture — crept into hiding early in the day, and bolted when 

 we were off guard. On these occasions he was certain to be 

 found in his place at school. 



It perhaps should be especially noted that "Middy" had 

 never been to the church before, and that a whole week had 

 elapsed between his first and second attempts. 



Mary Knott 



7, Kaga Yashiki, Tokio, Japan, January 20 



Frost in Devonshire 



The Rev. A. D. Taylor, Rector of Church Stanton, a parish 

 in Devonshire, some 900 feet above sea-level, writes me under 

 date of the 22nd inst. : — 



' ' We have had for three days the most wonderful rime. The 

 trees have been covered, every twig and bud, with ice, on the 

 average an inch at least in depth. I have measured several 

 pieces, and have found them ij to li inches from base to edge. 

 The whole place has been like fairy-land, or a silver country. 

 To-day it has all fallen, with a continuous rushing and rattling 

 on the bushes for four hours. The very leaves of the laurels 

 were so frozen that you could take oft' each leaf a perfect ;'(V- 

 /<^«/ — an exact reproduction in transparent ice, of about twice the 

 thickness of this (ordinary letter) paper, of the laurel leaf — every 

 vein and unevenness of edge distinct and clear. The children 

 collected scores of them, and very lovely they looked. I have 

 never seen anything of the sort which would compare with it. 

 The people call it ymigling (phonetic spelling), a queer word of 

 which I never heard before. " 



Keen frost in an excessively moist air no doubt sufficiently 

 explains the beautiful phenomenon itself; but can any Devon- 

 shire man explain the country people's word ? 



Bregner, Bournemouth, February 24 Henry Cecil 



" Pictorial Arts of Japan" 



In my review last week of Mr. Anderson's " Pictorial Arts of 

 Japan " 1 inadvertently wrote the " eight Nirvanas " of Gautama 

 instead of the "eight incidents (more properly 'features' — /a 

 Slang) of the Nirvana." F. V. Dickins 



University of London, Burlington Gardens, W., March i 



DISCOVERY OF A NEW ELEMENT BV 

 CLEMENS WINKLER^ 

 TN the summer of 1885 a rich silver ore was found at 

 ■'• Himmelsfiirst, near Freiberg ; it was pronounced by 

 A. Weisbach to be a new mineral, and was named 

 Argyroditc. T. Richter examined its behaviour in the 

 blow-pipe flame, and found that it consisted chiefly of 

 sulphur and silver together with a little mercury, which 

 latter element has never before been found at Freiberg. 



■ From the &W<r/</f of ihe Berlin Chemical Society, No. 3. 



The author has analysed the new mineral, and finds 

 that the amount of mercury only amounts to o'2l per 

 cent., whilst silver is present to the extent of 73-75 pei 

 cent., and sulphur to the extent of 17-18 per cent. He 

 also finds a very small quantity of iron, and traces of 

 arsenic. However often and however carefully the 

 analysis was conducted, a loss of 6-7 per cent, always 

 remained unaccounted for. After a long and laborious 

 search for the source of this error, Clemens Winkler has 

 at length succeeded in establishing the presence of a new 

 element in argyrodite. Gcnnanitiin (symbol Ge), as 

 the new element is called, closely resembles antimony in 

 its properties, but can, however, be sharply distinguished 

 from the latter. The presence of arsenic and antimony 

 in the minerals accompanying argyrodite, and the absence 

 of a method of sharply separating these elements from 

 germanium, made the discovery of the new element 

 extremely difficult. 



The author, having a more detailed communication in 

 view, confines himself to the following particulars ; — 



When argyrodite is heated out of contact with the air, 

 which is best effected in a current of hydrogen, a black 

 crystalline and moderately volatile sublimate forms, 

 which melts to brownish-red drops, and which consists 

 principally of germanium sulphide, together with a little 

 mercury sulphide. Germanium sulphide dissolves readily 

 in ammonium sulphide, and, on the addition of hydro- 

 chloric acid, is thrown down again in a pure state as a 

 snow-white precipitate, which is immediately dissolved 

 when treated with ammonia ; the presence of arsenic or 

 antimony colours the precipitate more or less yellow. 



On heating germanium sulphide in a current of air, or 

 on warming it with nitric acid, a white oxide is produced 

 which is not volatile at a red heat and which is soluble in 

 potash solution ; when the alkaline solution is acidulated 

 and submitted to the action of sulphuretted hydrogen, 

 the characteristic white precipitate is produced. 



The oxide is readily reduced by hydrogen, whilst the 

 sulphide on account of its volatility is more difficult to 

 reduce. The element, like arsenic, has a gray colour and 

 moderate lustre, but is volatile only at a full red heat, and 

 is decidedly less volatile than antimony. Its vapour con- 

 denses to small crystals recalling those of sublimed 

 iodine ; these show no tendency to melt and could not 

 be confounded with antimony. 



When germanium or its sulphide is heated in a current 

 of chlorine it yields a white chloride which is more 

 readily volatile than antimony chloride ; its acidulated 

 aqueous solution yields a white precipitate with sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen. 



The author intends to undertake the determination of 

 the atomic weight of germanium, even if it can be decided 

 only approximately, as this will show whether the new 

 element is to occupy the vacant position in the periodic 

 system between antimony and bismuth. 



THE STORY OF BIELAS COMET^ 

 II. 

 ■DRANDES, one of the two German students spoken 

 -'-' of, was riding in an open post-waggon on the night 

 of Dec. 6, 1798, and saw and counted hundreds of these 

 shooting-stars or meteors. At times they came as fast as 

 six or seven a minute. These meteors which Brandes saw 

 that night we know now were bits from Biela's comet. In 

 November 1833 occurred the famous star-shower, which 

 some of you saw. The facts of that shower gave to two 

 New Haven men. Profs. Twining and Olmsted, the clue 

 to the true theory of the shooting-stars. From that date 



" A Lecture delivered by Prof. H. A. Nev ton, on March 9, 1874, .it the 

 Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College, U.S. From the A 

 Journal of Science. Continued from p. 395. 



