January 13, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



71 



the central organs mainly through the full-line 

 connections. A simultaneous stimulus of all the 

 end organ from A to B would then reach the 

 central organ mainly through the dotted con- 

 nections just as would a stimulus moving from 

 B to A. 



W. S. Feanklin. 



OCCURRENCE OF THE VIEGINIA OPOSSUM IN 

 SOUTHERN CENTRAL NEW YORK. 



During the present year several Virginia 

 o\)oss,xxYas {Didelphisvirgimana)'ha,\e been killed 

 near Owego, Tioga Co., N.Y. Some twelve years 

 ago a farmer residing near here told me he had 

 killed one. Last fall a large female was killed 

 on a mountain side two miles east of this vil- 

 lage, and while myself hunting a mile farther 

 east, on December 3d, I met a hunter who had 

 just caught two. He had tracked them a mile 

 or so through the snow, and finally dug them 

 out of a woodchuck's hole. They were both 

 dead when found, probably having starved, as 

 their stomachs were empty. Their skulls are 

 in my possession. Several days later he secured 

 another, an old one, the sex I do not know. It 

 was taken four miles west of where the two 

 young ones were captured. The animal is 

 alive and in his possession. This man is an old- 

 time hunter and trapper, and considered truth- 

 ful. He told me he had seen their tracks sev- 

 eral times before. I have failed to learn of any- 

 one who has liberated a pair of these animals 

 or even had a pair in captivity. The capture 

 of two, early in the fall, has come to me, but I 

 cannot say if it is authentic. 



I wish particularly to note that this record 

 comes from Owego, N. Y., not Oswego, two 

 widely separated places. 



J. Alden Loring. 



Owego, N. Y. 



NOTES ON INORGANIC CBEIIISTEY. 

 The December number of the Journal of the 

 American Chemical Society contains an extended 

 review of the year's progress in applied chem- 

 istry by Dr. Wm. McMurtrie. Development 

 along these lines is going on more rapidly 

 than ever before, and it is encouraging to note 

 that this country is taking its place as an im- 

 portant factor in chemical technology. While 



Germany will long hold the first place in 

 those industries in which chemistry plays an 

 important part, America has already become 

 an important factor, especially in the field of 

 electro-chemistry, and it requires little effort of 

 the imagination to see, in the not-far-distant 

 future, the supremacy crossing the water. Dr. 

 McMurtrie' s review is well worth careful perusal 

 by the economist as well as the chemist. Only 

 a few points can be noticed in this column. In 

 Germany, at the close of 1896, 96 chemical 

 works, with $64,000,000 capital, gave a return 

 of nearly $8,000,000, an average of 12.3 /o as 

 against 8.9fc for 1897. Of these the coal tar 

 industries gave the highest returns, 24/^, while 

 the fertilizer industries gave the lowest. An 

 interesting announcement has been made by 

 Dupre that gold can be extracted from ores 

 by an inexpensive solution containing sodium 

 thiosulfate, ferric halids, with an acetate. The 

 solution extracts fifteen to twenty times as much 

 gold as a cyanid solution in the same time, and 

 does not attack sulfids ; hence, if the success of 

 the process is confirmed, it may be expected to 

 replace the cyanid and chlorination processes 

 for low grade and sulfid ores. Great progress 

 has been made in the metallurgy of zinc, and 

 there is every reason to believe that within a 

 few years the old and unsatisfactory process 

 will be entirely displaced, except for very pure 

 ores. The use of the electric furnace is revo- 

 lutionizing the preparation of phosphorus, and 

 with the increased production in France and 

 Russia, and prospective developments in Ger- 

 many and at Niagara Falls, the English mo- 

 nopoly is seriously threatened. The advantage.^ 

 of the new processes are both the reduction of 

 price and the increased protection of the health 

 of the operatives. The electrolytic alkali in- 

 dustry is still in an experimental stage, but 

 with the certainty of future success, indeed, it 

 may be said that the great question to-day is 

 the selection and development of the best elec- 

 trolytic method. Already in the manufacture 

 of potassium chlorate the electrolytic methods 

 have taken the lead, with a consequent marked 

 fall in price. The commercial production of 

 liquid air and of oxygen on a large scale will 

 render possible many new developments along 

 many lines. The production of calcium carbid 



