SEPTEMBER 22, 1899. ] 
printed in full in the Chemical News. The dis- 
covery of the element, to which at first the 
name monium was given, resulted from photo- 
graphic researches on phosphorescent spectra, 
it giving a very characteristic group of lines in 
the ultra-violet. The concentration of vic- 
torium is accomplished first by the fractional 
decomposition of the mixed nitrates of the 
yttrium metals by heat. The nitrates of the 
earths of the cerium group decompose more 
readily, and those of the yttrium group less 
readily than that of victoria, so that after a 
large number of fractionations the victoria col- 
lects in the middle portions. These middle 
fractions are then submitted to fractional pre- 
cipitation with oxalic acid, many times re- 
peated, and finally the portions richest in 
victoria are converted into sulfates and frac- 
tionally precipitated with potassium sulfate. In 
the purest condition thus far obtained, victoria 
is a pale brown powder, less basic than yttria 
and more basic than most of the oxids of the 
terbia group. Assuming the oxide to be Ve,.0,, 
the atomic weight of victorium is about 117. 
The most marked characteristic of victoria is 
its spectrum. 
Ve Wp Jats 
ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 
In the annals of the South African Museum, 
Mr. L. Péringuey describes a method, dis- 
covered by Rey. J. A. O’Neil, for capturing 
both sexes of the members of the hymenopterous 
genus Mutilla. By seizing the female in such a 
way as to induce her to produce her well-known 
stridulation, the males immediately appear and 
are easily secured, at times even settling on the 
hand of the captor. As the sexes are certainly 
known in but 16 out of the 169 South African 
species, the practice of this ‘sembling’ method, 
as it is styled, is to be recommended. 
THE report of the Australian Museum for 1897 
records the mounting of a specimen of the 
Galapagos tortoise Testudo nigrita brought to 
Sydney, New South Wales, by the American 
whaler Winslow, in 1853. At that time it 
weighed 53 pounds, while at the time of its 
death, in 1896, its weight had increased to 368 
pounds, a more rapid rate of growth than such 
animals are usually credited with. 
SCIENCE. 421 
AccoRDING to Mr. Etheridge of the Colombo, 
Ceylon, Museum, by far the largest cobra 
ever recorded is one measuring 7 feet 9 
inches taken at Jaffna, but as the measurement 
was made on a skin, it is possible that the 
maximum length attained by this deadly snake 
is not far from 7 feet 6 inches. 
Mr. ETHERIDGE discusses the use of formol 
at some length, stating that its great fault is its 
bleaching property, and that pure glycerine can 
alone be trusted to keep color, because it ex- 
cludes those great destroyers of animal colors, 
air and water. Formol in combination with 
various salts will preserve color for a greater or 
less length of time, but not permanently. 
Thus a three per cent. solution of formol, 
saturated with common salt, preserved the color 
of Oreastes turitus for about eighteen months, 
and then the specimen faded completely in a 
few days. Epsom salt in combination has the 
curious property of keeping the fugitive blues, 
greens and violets of the wrasses for at least a 
year, although destructive to the colors of other 
fishes. 
Ir will doubtless surprise many to be told 
that the mastodon is far more common in 
American museums than is the African elephant. 
The skeleton of Jumbo in the Am. Mus. Nat. 
Hist., New York City, is almost the only speci- 
men of this animal in the country, while there 
are at least ten mounted skeletons of mastodon 
and teeth and bones without number. It is 
not too much to say that not a week elapses 
without some published account of the dis- 
covery of mastodon remains and while most 
of the specimens are poorly preserved, or con- 
sist only of individual teeth, yet in the aggre- 
gate their number is very considerable. Orange 
and Ulster counties, N. Y., appear to have 
been favorite burying places for the mastodon, 
and from the character of the ground it is 
evident that many specimens will yet come to 
light from these localities. 
1B, A\y Ibe 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 
Tue Astronomical and Astrophysical Society 
of America, which, as we have already stated, 
was recently established at the third Conference 
ef Astronomers and Astrophysicists held at the 
