June 29, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



667 



detect traces of platimim if the solution con- 

 tains large quantities of iron or other ele- 

 ments. 



A second test of the residue from the aqua 

 regia solution after it has been dissolved in 

 hydrochloric acid to form the thick mass de- 

 scribed is to add to it potassium chloride 

 (KCl), which, if the dissolved residue con- 

 tains platinum, will precipitate yellow crystals 

 or potassium platinic chloride (lIJPtCl„). 



A third test may be made by adding to the 

 aqua regia solution ammonium chloride 

 (ISTH^Cl), which, if the solution contains plati- 

 num, will precipitate yellow crystals of am- 

 monium platinic chloride. 



The precipitates from the second and third 

 tests are both insoluble in alcohol but are sol- 

 uble in water and by heating may be reduced 

 to platinum sponge. 



The tests described above, though they are 

 comparatively simple and positive if made on 

 single grains, can not be relied upon if the 

 material tested contains other elements than 

 platinum. They should therefore be restricted 

 to grains of a single mineral picked from con- 

 centrates obtained by panning a sample of 

 either rock or gravel. 



The adequacy of the future supply of plati- 

 num in the United States, as far as it can be 

 assured, depends on the results of work of 

 three kinds — first, the determination of our 

 present supply, particularly of unmanufac- 

 tured platinum metals, in order that it may be 

 mobilized; second, systematic search for new 

 deposits, and third, scientific exploitation of 

 the deposits discovered, to assure their maxi- 

 mum yield. Work of the first two kinds is now 

 being done by the Geological Survey, and it is 

 hoped that work of the third kind — the techno- 

 logic work — may be in part done by means of 

 federal and private investigations. 



A detailed report on the production of plati- 

 num in 1916, with information on the world's 

 resources of this metal and hints for prospect- 

 ors, by J. M. Hill, of the U. S. Geological Sur- 

 vey, is now in preparation and will be ready 

 for distribution in July. Copies of this report 

 may be obtained by addressing the Director, 

 TJ. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



IS THE HOUSE OF TCUHU THE MINOAN 

 LABYRINTH? 



While going through a back number of the 

 American Anthropologist^ the writer's atten- 

 tion was attracted by the figure illustrated in 

 Fig. 1. This was in a short paper by Dr. 

 J. Walter Fewkes entitled " A Fictitious Euin 

 in the Gila Valley, Arizona." In this he 

 showed that this symbol which was first ob- 

 served by an eighteenth-century Spaniard 

 scratched in the sand by a Pima Indian did 

 not represent the plan of a ruin as previously 

 interpreted, but was used in some way in a 

 game "the house of Tcuhu " (Tcuhiki). 



It was curious but this diagram was famil- 

 iar to the writer and his familiarity came from 

 a distant part of the world. As shown in Fig. 

 2 this diagram appears on the reverse of a 

 silver coin of Cnossus in Crete of the Greek 

 Period (b.c. 200-67). In this case the figure 

 represents the Minoan Labyrinth. On other 

 coins from Cnossus it sometimes appears in a 

 square form, but even then it has the same 

 ramifications. A comparison of this Greek 

 coin, with House of Tchuhu when inverted, 

 shows that the two are identical in every 

 respect. 



There are three possible explanations for 

 the coincidence. First, these symbols may 

 have arisen independently in the new and the 

 old world. Secondly, the symbol may have 

 originated in the old world and have been 

 transported to the new in pre-Colmnbian 

 times. Thirdly, that the symbol was intro- 

 duced into America with the Spanish con- 

 quest. 



On the one hand, it has been pointed out by 

 Fewkes {loc. cit.) that the symbol or some- 

 thing like it was early known to the Pima 

 Indians, as the diagram in slightly modified 

 form appears scratched on the adobe wall of 

 the Casa Grande ruin among obviously Indian 

 pictographs. On the other hand, it is possible 

 that this diagram may have had a Spanish 

 origin. 



While it is quite generally accepted by 

 American ethnologists that such simple forms 



1 N. S., Vol. IX., 1907, p. 501. 



