2o6 



NA TURE 



[June 29, 1905 



charge of the work, in examining the currents at the 

 entrance of the Bay of Fundy extending from Grand 

 Manan Island to Cape Sable. These currents were found 

 to be strong, steady, and deep, and therefore contrasted 

 with those previously surveyed on the coasts of Newfound- 

 land. A correct knowledge of the currents in the region 

 surveyed is of great importance to navigation, as it includes 

 waters that lie on the lines of ocean steamships running to 

 St. John's, N.B., as well as of steamers from the United 

 States ports which round (he southern end of Nova Scotia 

 on their way to Europe. It has been ascertained from 

 the tide gauges which have been fixed during the survey 

 and the tides recorded since 1902 that from Cape .Sable 

 westward the tides can be satisfactorily referred to St. 

 John's, while eastward of Cape Sable they can be referred 

 to Halifax. One noteworthy fact brought out by the 

 survey is that the difference in range between spring tides 

 which fall at perigee or apogee respectively is as great 

 as the difference between mean springs and neaps, show- 

 ing the dominating influence of the moon's distance in 

 this region ; and the variation in the strength of the current 

 is found to follow the same law. Thus at St. John's the 

 range at S.T., when the moon is at perigee, is 27-10 feet, 

 and at apogee 2035 feet, showing a difference of 6.75 feet. 

 Mean spring range is 2372 feet, and neaps range 17.43 

 feet, showing a difl'erence of 629 feet. Also the 

 diurnal inequality which is a dominant factor in parts 

 of the Gulf of St. Lawrence is not very strongly marked 

 in this region, although still quite appreciable. It was 

 found that wind disturbance seldom affects the currents at 

 a depth of more than ten fathoms, and that while along 

 the centre line of the Bay of Fundy between the fifty 

 fathoms' line on each side the ebb current runs only at 

 the rate of ij to 2^ knots, nearer the shore about eight 

 miles to the right or left the rate is nearly double, or 

 from 3 to 4 knots. The report is accompanied by a map 

 of the Bay of Fundy showing the direction and strength 

 of the tidal currents. 



An index to the literature of indium, bv Dr. P. E. 

 Browning, has just been published by the Smithsonian 

 Institution, and forms part of vol. xlvi. of the Smithsonian 

 Miscellaneous Collections. 



So.ME remarkable finds of rare minerals have been made 

 during the opening up of the noted gadolinite locality in 

 Llano County, Texas; they are reported upon by Mr. 

 W. E. Hidden in the June number of the American Journal 

 of Science. The development of the mines was undertaken 

 by the Nernst Lamp Co., of Pittsburg, Pa., and among 

 the most notable discoveries were a double crystal ol 

 gadolinite weighing 73 lb., a mass of yttrialite weighing 

 18 lb., and a piece of pure allanite that weighed more 

 than 300 lb. A single crystal of smoky quartz had a 

 weight of 600 lb., and in a single year more than 1000 lb. 

 of nearly pure gadolinite were extracted. Many of the 

 minerals were radio-active, and deep work in the locality 

 seems likely to bring to light new combinations of the 

 rare earths and of uranium and thorium. 



In No. 4 of the Bulletin International of the Academy of 

 Sciences of Cracow, M. T. Godlewski shows that it is 

 possible to separate from actinium by a similar method 

 to that used for isolating ThX from thorium an intensely 

 radio-active substance to which the name actinium X is 

 given. The residual actinium is nearly inactive, retain- 

 ing only s per cent, of its original activity, but it re- 

 covers its activity with time according to an exponential 

 NO. 1861, VOL. 72] 



curve ; the activity of actinium X, on the other hand, 

 decays according to an exponential curve complementary 

 to the curve of recovery. As in the case of thorium, the 

 emanation of actinium is shown to be due to a trans- 

 formation of actinium X. A complete analogy thus 

 appears to exist between the radio-activity of actinium and 

 thorium. It is interesting, however, to note that actinium 

 itself is probably inactive, whilst thorium free from 

 thorium X has never been obtained with less than 25 per 

 cent, of its original activity. Moreover, the rays of 

 actinium are completely distinct in character from the 

 /8 rays emitted by other radio-active elements, inasmuch as 

 they are completely homogeneous with regard to their 

 absorption by solid bodies. 



A PAPER by Prof. Theodore W. Richards, Lawrence J. 

 Henderson, and George S. Forbes, which is published in 

 the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences (vol. iv.. No. 1), deals with the question of the 

 elimination of accidental loss of heat in accurate calori- 

 metry. It is shown that the lag of the thermometer 

 behind the temperature of a slightly cooling or slightly 

 warming environment causes an appreciable error in estim- 

 ating the temperature of the environment ; by a simple 

 method this lag can be accurately determined and allowed 

 for. A new method for obviating this and all other cor- 

 rections for cooling is shown to consist in systematicallv 

 altering the temperature of the environment at the same 

 rate and to the same degree as that of the calorimeter 

 proper ; this may be effected by allowing a chemical action 

 which liberates heat to take place outside the calorimeter 

 at a graduated velocity. This method is shown in a series 

 of experiments to give a more constant result than can be 

 obtained by introducing a correction for cooling according 

 to the method of either Regnault or Rumford. It is 

 shown, moreover, to give essentially the same value as that 

 afforded by the older methods when these are corrected 

 for the lag of the thermometer. 



In studying the action of fluorine on some compounds 

 of nitrogen, MM. Moissan and Lebeau found that whilst 

 there was no reaction between fluorine and nitrogen 

 peroxide (Nature, June 22, p. 183) there was a vigorous 

 reaction between fluorine and nitric oxide. In the current 

 number of the Comptes retidus they give a further account 

 of their work on this reaction, from the products of which 

 they have succeeded in isolating a new compound of 

 fluorine, nitrogen and oxygen, nitryl fluoride, NO,F. The 

 gaseous products of the reaction, cooled to the temperature 

 of boiling oxygen, gave a white solid which on fraction- 

 ation at a low temperature proved to consist of a mixture 

 of fluorine and a new substance, condensable at —80° C. 

 By repeated distillation this latter was obtained in a pure 

 state, and gave figures on analysis corresponding to the 

 formula NOjF. In the gaseous state this has a density 

 of 224, the theoretical density being 2-26, a melting point 

 of —139° C. and a boiling point of — 63°.5 C. Nitryl 

 fluoride possesses very active chemical properties, com- 

 bining at the ordinary temperature with boron, silicon, 

 phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and iodine. It is without 

 action in the cold on hydrogen, sulphur, and carbon, but 

 decomposes water, producing nitric and hydrofluoric acids, 

 and reacts with a large number of organic compounds, 

 giving nitro- and fluor-derivatives. 



There will be an extra meeting of the Physical Society 

 on Friday, June 30, at the Royal College of Science, South 

 Kensington, when the following papers will be read : — the 

 comparison of electric fields by means of an oscillating 



