528 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. in. No. 66. 



accompanies, or rather produces, the discharge 

 at moderate or high pressures. At the high 

 exhaustion the energy of the discharge would be 

 largely confined to the ether vortices. The ab- 

 sence of the ordinary light phenomena of re- 

 flection, etc. , would follow from the nature of 

 vortices. 



The first article of the number is by C. E. 

 Beecher, on the 'Morphology of Triarthrus.' 

 This is a continuation and an extension of 

 earlier articles by the same author upon the 

 structure of Trilobites. The results given are 

 presented on a plate showing the dorsal and 

 ventral views of the species, Triarthrus Bechi. 

 These have been made from drawings based, the 

 first upon three specimens, and the second upon 

 two, all in a very exceptional state of preserva- 

 tion. The perfection with which the appen- 

 dages of the trilobite are preserved and the 

 life-like position in which they are shown is 

 most remarkable. The author is enabled to 

 draw from them definite conclusions in regard to 

 the relations and functions of these organs of 

 which so little has been knov/n hitherto. 



A. E. Ortmanu discusses the subject of the 

 existence of climatic zones in Jurassic times, 

 with special reference to the arguments for them 

 given by Neumayr. He contends strongly 

 against Neumayr's views and states his 

 conclusion finally that the diflferences ob- 

 served in the faunas of the Jurassic deposits 

 are not caused by climatic differences. J. E. 

 Wolff describes an occurrence of the rare 

 rock, theralite, from Costa Rica, from speci- 

 mens collected by Prof. R. T. Hill. The rock 

 bears a close similarity to the original type from 

 Montana. The possible existence of a zone of 

 alkaline rocks continuing from the northwestern 

 United States on the east border of the Rocky 

 Mountains is suggested. C. H. Smyth, Jr. , de- 

 scribes in detail an occurrence of gabbro and 

 associated gneiss near Russell, St. Lawrence 

 county, N. Y. The gneiss is regarded as de- 

 rived by the metamorphism of the gabbro re- 

 sulting finally in entire re-crystallization and 

 the removal of all cataclastic structure. Another 

 extended petrological paper is by W. H. Weed 

 and L. V. Pirsson, forming the first part of a 

 memoir upon the Bearpaw Mountains, in Mon- 

 tana. This is a region which has been hitherto 



but little investigated geologically. After a brief 

 statement of the general geology, the relation 

 of the sedimentary rocks, largely Cretaceous, 

 to the massive, igneous rocks and tuffs, the au- 

 thors go on to describe more particularly the 

 igneous rocks, including both the effusive and 

 intrusive forms. The former are most abun- 

 dant, forming the highest peaks and many of 

 the lesser summits of the region ; they are the 

 usual rocks of the foot hills, embracing dark- 

 colored basaltic tuffs, breccias and lava flows, 

 which are parts of the former volcanic cones. 

 They consist largely of lencite basalts. The 

 intrusive rocks described include various forms 

 of trachyte and quartz-syenite poi'phyry ; also 

 associated with the syenite, the rock shonkinite, 

 a type described by the same authors from Yogo 

 Peak, Montana. H. B. Bashore gives some 

 notes on glacial gravel in the lower Susque- 

 hanna. Robert Chalmers describes the Pleisto- 

 cene marine shorelines on the south side of the 

 St. Lawrence Valley, connecting them with the 

 terraces noted farther west along Lake Ontario. . 

 The occurrence of free gold scattered in scales 

 through the quartz and feldspar of a granite- 

 like rock from Sonora, Mexico, is described by 

 G. P. Merrill. He shows that the gold cannot 

 be regarded as of secondary origin, assuming 

 that the rock is a normal granite, the occur- 

 rence is novel and of decided importance. The 

 number concludes with a series of abstracts, 

 book notices, etc. 



AMERICAN CHEMICAL JOXJENAL, MARCH. 



The Molecular Weight of Sulphur. By W. R. 



Oendoeff and G. L. Teeeasse. 



In the course of an investigation on the 

 molecular weight of monoclinic sulphur some 

 remarkable results were obtained. Although 

 both the boiling-point and ft'eezing-point meth- 

 ods were used, the results from the latter were 

 not concordant and no conclusions can be drawn 

 from them. The results obtained by the other 

 method are as follows: 



1. The molecular weight of sulphur in liquids 

 whose boiling-points are below the melting- 

 point of sulphur, as for example, benzene and 

 toluene, is represented by Sg. 



2. In liquids boiling above the melting point 

 of sulphur, the molecular formula is Sg. 



