Mays, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



657 



it to be very fine rock matter, chiiefly fragments 

 of quartzite. 



An analysis of an artesian water from Derby- 

 sbire is given by John White in the Analyst, 

 which is peculiar as containing barium, it be- 

 ing the first recorded occurrence of this metal 

 in waters in this section. The well is 1,300 feet 

 deep and 160 feet above the sea level. Accord- 

 ing to the analysis given, the water first ob- 

 tained at depth of 837 feet, contained of barium 

 carbonate 1.77 parts per 100,000 ; the deep water 

 contained at first of barium chlorid 38.55 parts, 

 and six months later 40.7 ; water eighty feet be- 

 low the surface contained 3.03 parts. The 

 sodium chlorid in the deep water was over two 

 thousand parts. The author discusses the origin 

 of the barium salt. Clowes has found minute 

 crystals of barium sulfate in the red sandstone 

 near Nottingham, and Dieulafait has shown ba- 

 rium to be a constant constituent of primitive 

 rocks, but this does not explain the conversion of 

 the sulfate into carbonate or chlorid. The only 

 possible explanation, according to the author, 

 is that the barium sulfate has been at high tem- 

 perature reduced to the sulfid by coal, and this 

 converted into the chlorid by concentrated salt 

 solution. The carbonate is derived from the 

 chlorid. In confirmation of this it is pointed 

 out that barium sulfate has been found in con- 

 nection with coal deposits and barium chlorid 

 in water in the vicinity of coal mines. It is, 

 however, not impossible that under certain 

 conditions, such as Melikoff has shown take 

 place between sodium sulfate or sodium chlorid 

 and calcium carbonate in the presence of alu- 

 minum or ferric hydroxid, a reaction may take 

 place between the barium sulfate and sodium 

 chlorid in a concentrated solution of the latter. 



Professor VfezES, of Bordeaux, has con- 

 tinued his work upon the oxalates and nitrites 

 of the platinum metals, and his last contribu- 

 tion to the Bulletin Societe Chimique is on the 

 complex salts of palladium. A concentrated 

 solution of potassium chloropalladite is con- 

 verted by potassium oxalate into the pallado- 

 oxalate, and the same salt is formed by the 

 action of oxalic acid upon the pallado-nitrite. 

 On the other hand, the pallado-oxalate is 

 readily converted into the chloropalladite by 



hydrochloric acid, and into the pallado-nitrate 

 by potassium nitrate. These reactions corre- 

 spond very closely to those of the platinum salts 

 as investigated by Vezes, except that only one 

 modification of the pallado-oxalate has been 

 found. The pallado-oxalic acid was also ob- 

 tained and found to be tolerably stable. 



The same journal contains analyses of a se- 

 ries of potassium, ammonium and silver salts 

 of the so-called osmiamic acid, by Brizard, in 

 which the formula proposed, by Joly for this 

 acid is fully confirmed. According to this, 

 osmiamic acid is a nitroso compound, having the 

 formula OsO(NO)OII, and corresponds to nitroso 

 hydroxid of ruthenium. 



J. L. H. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 

 BLUE HILL OBSERVATORY BULLETINS. 



Bulletin No. 2 (1899) of Blue Hill Ob- 

 servatory, prepared by A. E. Svveetland, con- 

 tains accounts of two remarkable snow storms 

 which occurred during the past winter. The 

 first storm, that of November 26-27, 1898, 

 caused the wreck of 141 vessels on the New 

 England coast, and the loss of 280 lives. It was 

 during this storm that the steamer Portland, 

 with about 175 persons on board, was lost off 

 Cape Cod. The suddenness and violence of 

 this storm were due to the rapid increase in 

 energy which took place when a cyclone from 

 the Gulf of Blexico and one from the Great 

 Lakes met on the coast. The fall of snow was 

 very heavy. On February 8-14, 1899, a severe 

 cold wave and another heavy snowfall oc- 

 curred. On February 13tb, at 8 a. m., the 

 zero isotherm extended as far south as latitude 

 31°. At Blue Hill the average temperature of 

 the five days February 8-13 was 3.1° lower 

 than the average of any successive five days 

 since the Observatory was established. This 

 cold wave was followed by a heavy snow storm, 

 with high winds, along the North Atlantic 

 coast. It is interesting to note that the pre- 

 ceding cold wave, although it caused much suf- 

 fering by its severity at the time, had one very 

 fortunate effect. The extreme cold which had 

 almost closed some of the harbors with ice, and 

 the difficulty of navigation when the waves, 

 driven by the strong westerly gale, quickly 



