348 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 167^ 



investigate how far this presence of free 

 mercury affects the therapeutic value of a 

 salt so largely used for medicinal purposes. 



In the Comptes Eendiis, P. I von describes 

 the use of calcium carbid as a test for ab- 

 solute alcohol. If any water is present in 

 the alcohol it decomposes the carbid with 

 the evolution of acetylene. Calcium carbid 

 may also be used for the . dehydration of 

 alcohol, one part being used to four parts 

 of 90-95 % alcohol. Any acetylene dis- 

 solved in the alcohol is removed by an- 

 hydrous copper sulfate, and in one, or at 

 least two, distillations the alcohol is ren- 

 dered absolute. 



The atomic weight of boron is the sub- 

 ject of a paper recently read before the 

 Chemical Society (London) by P. P. Armi- 

 tage. The method used was the de- 

 termination of the water of crystallization 

 in borax. Great care was used, both in 

 drj'ing the crystals, so that there should be 

 no efflorescence, and in dehydrating the 

 crystals. The result obtained, 10.959 

 (0 = 16), differs but 0.006 from that ob- 

 tained by Ramsay and Aston by distilling 

 sodium biborate with hydrochloric acid and 

 methyl alcohol. In the discussion which 

 followed the paper there was considerable 

 criticism of depending upon water of crys- 

 tallization in atomic- weight determinations. 



At the same meeting a paper was pre- 

 sented by E. Sonstadt on the dissociation of 

 potassium chloroplatinate in dilute solu- 

 tions and the production of platinum 

 monochlorid. When the chloroplatinate 

 is heated in a solution of 10,000 parts 

 water the solution becomes turbid, and 

 after some days' heating a precipitate is 

 formed, yellow and non-crystalline, and 

 consisting, according to the author, of hy- 

 drated platinum monochlorid, PtCl, while 

 hydrogen peroxid is left in the solution. The 

 monochlorid dissolves in solution of sodium 

 carbonate and acids, but is deposited ap- 



parently unchanged by subsequent dilution. 

 Much interest will attach to further study or 

 this salt, not only from its being the only 

 representative of univalent platinum com- 

 pounds, but also from its method of forma- 

 tion by direct dissociation. J. L. H. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



The United States Fish Commissioner, Mr, 

 George M. Bowers, has appointed Professor H, 

 C. Bumpus, Brown University, Scientific Direc- 

 tor of the Wood's Holl Station. Professor Bum- 

 pus is Secretary of the Trustees of the Marine 

 Biological Laboratory at Wood's Holl, and in the 

 past has been very closely associated with the 

 work done there. His recognized scientific at- 

 tainments and executive ability, as well as his- 

 local linowledge of Wood's Holl and the vicinity, 

 make this a most admirable appointment, full 

 of promise for the prosecution of the scientific- 

 and economic work of the Fish Commission un- 

 der the present administration. 



The daily papers have contained columns 

 and pages on the alleged discovery, by Professor 

 Samuel Schenk, of the University of Vienna, of 

 a method of regulating the sex of children, and 

 on the alleged discovery, by Dr. George Walte- 

 math, of Hamburg, of a second moon for the 

 earth. It may consequently be desirable to- 

 state that Professor Schenk has made no publi- 

 cation bearing on the production of sex, and that 

 no scientific evidence has been oflfered for the 

 existence of a second moon. 



Professor W. A. Rogers, died at Water- 

 ville, Me. , on March 1st, aged sixty-one years. 

 He was assistant professor of astronomy in the 

 Observatory of Harvard University from 187S 

 until 1886, when he accepted a call to the pro- 

 fessorship of physics and astronomy at Colby 

 University. He had expected to enter on a 

 professorship at Alfred University, N. Y., on 

 April 1st. Professor Rogers was a member of 

 the National Academy, and a past Vice-Presi- 

 dent for the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science. He made important 

 contributions to astronomy and physics, espe- 

 cially to the technique of measurement, of which 

 we hope to give some account in a future num- 

 ber of this Journal. 



