October 12, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



569 



NOTES ON INORGANIC CSEUISTBY. 

 A NEW mineral from copper mines near the 

 Burra in South Australia is described in the 

 Journal of the Chemical Society (London) by 

 G. A. Goyder. It is called sulvanite and is a 

 thiovanadate of copper, this being the first re- 

 corded instance of a sulfid mineral containing 

 vanadium as one of its principal constituents. 

 The formula of the new mineral seems to be 

 SCUjS, V2S5 or Cuj'VSj, cuprous thiovanadate. 



An article by W. H. Hess on the origin of 

 cave saltpeter is found in the Journal of Geology. 

 Many of the caves in limestone regions of this 

 country contain notable deposits of earth very 

 rich in saltpeter. This is particularly true of 

 the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, where may 

 still be seen the remains of the vats and wooden 

 pipes used in the manufacture of saltpeter for 

 gunpowder during the War of 1812. Indeed it 

 is said that had it not been for this saltpeter 

 and that from some other similar caves, this 

 war could not have been successfully waged. 

 During the Civil War much saltpeter was ob- 

 tained from the Southern Caves. It has always 

 been rather assumed that the origin of these 

 saltpeter deposits is to be found in the guano 

 from the bats, which swarm in immense num- 

 bers in parts of these caves. This, however, 

 the author of this paper dissents from, holding 

 that these deposits have come from evajioration 

 of water which has percolated through the sur- 

 face soil above, from which it has taken up the 

 soil nitrates. Similar nitrate deposits are some- 

 times found under rock-ledges. The paper 

 cites in proof of this position analyses of cave- 

 earth, cave-bat guano, and of the water which 

 drips from above into the Mammoth Cave. 



Since the hypochlorites are formed by the 

 electrolysis of solution of chlorids, efforts have 

 been made to utilize the reaction in technical 

 chemistry. A study of this character is re- 

 ported in a recent Comptea Sendus by Andre 

 'Brochet. He finds that in concentrated solu- 

 tions in its later stages, the electrolysis of hypo- 

 chlorites resembles that of the chlorids, tending 

 toward the same limits. It would therefore 

 follow that the preparation of concentrated so- 

 lutions of hypochlorites from the chlorids can 

 hardly be hoped for by direct electrolysis. 



We copy from Nature the prizes offered in 

 chemistry by the Sociite d^ Encouragement pour 

 V Industrie Nationals for 1901. 1,000 francs for 

 the utilization of any waste product; 2,000 

 francs for a publication useful to chemical or 

 metallurgical industry ; two prizes of 500 francs 

 each for scientific researches, the results of 

 which can be utilized in industrial work ; 2,000 

 francs for an improvement in the manufacture 

 of chlorin ; 1,000 francs for the discovery of a 

 new alloy useful in the arts ; 2,000 francs for a 

 study of expansion, elasticity and tenacity of 

 pottery clays and glazes, for a scientific study 

 of the physical and mechanical properties of 

 glass, for a new method of manufacturing fum- 

 ing sulfuric acid and sulfur trioxid, and for the 

 manufacture of a steel possessing specially use- 

 ful properties by the introduction of a foreign 

 element. Competition is open to all, but the 

 memoirs, which must be sent in before Decem- 

 ber 31st, must be written in French. 



J. L. H. 



BIOSEUBI AND ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 

 The brief Report of the Director of the Man- 

 chester Museum for 1899-1900 shows the steady 

 progress of this active Museum, which has re- 

 cently acquired the Schill collection of butter- 

 flies and moths and the Layard collection of 

 weapons and other implements from the Pacific 

 islands. The experiment has been tried of 

 opening the Museum on the first Wednesday of 

 each month, and on this occasion having certain 

 portions of the collections explained by some 

 member of the staflf. The result has hardly 

 met with the success it merits, since the at- 

 tendance has been small, particularly so when 

 it is remembered that Manchester has a popu- 

 lation of over half a million. The latest publi- 

 cation of the Museum is ' Notes on some 

 Jurassic Plants in the Manchester Museum,' 

 by A. C. Seward. 



The Annual Report of the Director of the 

 Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, has recently 

 been issued and shows a decided specialization 

 in the line of fossil vertebrates, one-third of the 

 Museum staflf being accredited to the Depart- 

 ment of Paleontology, Mr. J. B. Hatcher being 

 the curator. The collections made in 1899 



