194 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol XII. No. 292. 



CALLOSITIES ON HORSES' LEGS. 



To THE Editor op Science : Your inquirer 

 concerning the callosities on horses' legs might 

 gain an indirect suggestion from Ernest Seton 

 Thompson's ' Wild Animals I Have Known ' 

 or — still more probably — from the same author's 

 recent articles in the Century Magazine on the 

 National Zoological Park. The suggestion that 

 these callosities are vestigial organs for the 

 secretion of specific perfumes gains some indi- 

 rect but interesting support from the use made 

 of their material by Rarey and other professional 

 ' horse-tamers.' 



W J McGee. 



NOTES ON INORGANIC CHENISTBY. 

 In a study of the radiation of uranium, Bec- 

 querel finds that these rays are deviated in a 

 magnetic field. When the uranium compounds 

 are treated with barium salts and the barium 

 then precipitated as a sulfate, the radio-activity 

 of the uranium is decreased, but Becquerel has 

 not been able in this way to obtain a uranium 

 salt which does not show some activity. 



A somewhat similar series of experiments is 

 described by B61a von Lengyel in the Berichte. 

 The barium sulfate obtained from the uranium 

 mixture was found to be strongly radio-active, 

 as well as the barium carbonate and chlorid 

 derived from this sulfate. The author con- 

 siders this synthesis of radio-active barium ren- 

 ders the existence of radium and polonium as 

 elements exceedingly doubtful. This reminds 

 one of the views of Le Bon that radium and 

 polonium are merely allotropic states of barium 

 and bismuth, corresponding somewhat to the 

 inactive and the phosphorescent calcium sulfids. 



Accounts have been published from time to 

 time in the Comptes Bendus by Paul Sabatier 

 and J. B. Senderens on the addition of hydro- 

 gen to acetylene under the influence of reduced 

 metals in a finely divided condition. The ac- 

 tion of copper, iron and cobalt have been most 

 recently described, the union taking place be- 

 low 200°. With copper, ethane, ethylene, and 

 other hydrocarbons are formed, and if hydrogen 

 is in excess no acetylene is unacted upon. With 

 iron in addition to ethane and ethylene, ben- 

 zene and higher unsaturated hydrocarbons are 



produced. Cobalt is found to give a much 

 larger yield o'f ethane than nickel. 



The direct preparation of a number of bi- 

 nary compounds of aluminum is described by 

 Henri Fonzes-Diacon in the Comptes Bendus. 

 The sulfld, selenid, phosphid, arsenid, and 

 stlbid are all formed by the ignition of a mix- 

 ture of fine aluminum powder with the element 

 in question. In the case of sulfur and selen- 

 ium, a little burning magnesium is necessary to 

 Ignite the mixture ; with antimony, sodium per- 

 oxid serves the same purpose. When these com- 

 pounds are treated with water, the hydrogen 

 compound is evolved in a very pure state. In 

 the case of phosphid the yield of the non-in- 

 flammable gas PH3 is practically theoretical, and 

 the same is true of arsin. The yield of stibin 

 is less good. 



A RECENT Bulletin of the College of Agricul- 

 ture of Tokyo, contains a paper by Dr. U. 

 Suzuki on the possible replacement of calcium 

 in plants by strontium and barium. From an 

 abstract in Nature it appears that both strontium 

 and barium salts are poisonous to plants, though 

 the addition of lime salts lessens the poisonous 

 action to some extent. This is apparently very 

 diflferent from the action on higher animals, 

 where, though barium is strongly toxic, stron- 

 tium has little if any toxic action. 



From Nature we note also a short article by 

 C. E. Stromeyer from the Memoirs of the Man- 

 chester Literary and Philosophical Society, on 

 the Formation of Minerals in Granite. He con- 

 cludes that the temperature of granite forma- 

 tion need not be limited, nor need the interior 

 of the earth be assumed as solid. The mineral 

 composition of granites depends not only upon 

 temperature and rate of cooling but also upon 

 pressure. ' ' Where the solid rock resting on 

 the molten material is of low specific gravity 

 and a bad conductor of heat the depth at which 

 granite rock would commence to solidify would 

 not be great, and most probably the quartz 

 would crystallize first, forming, say, quartz- 

 porphyry." In somewhat opposite conditions, 

 at greater depths and pressure the quartz would 

 remain fluid longer, forming feldspar-porphyry. 

 Every intermediate condition is also conceiv- 

 able. 



