46 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVIII. No. 442 



This may be considered the germ, which, by its growth, may 

 quicken with its spirit all the other elements. Second, the Min- 

 nesota Historical Society, whose plan of orgauization, however far 

 it has lapsed from it, is so broad that it embraces the objects which 

 we seek, and which would be a powerful factor in any re organi- 

 zation for scientific work in St. Paul. Its library, its collections, 

 and its good will would go far toward causing the State legisla- 

 tures to vote enlarged funds for its sustenance, should the ideal 

 museum be made to include this society. Third, the Public Li- 

 brary of St. Paul should be mentioned as one of the elements at 

 hand which should be brought within the pale of this ideal muse- 

 um. There may be other libraries and organizations of which I 

 am not cognizant, whose usefulness and whose expressed aims 

 would be better subserved by a combination with others. 



Add to these elements an enlightened and wealthy community, 

 largely in sympathy with the advanced science of the day, and, I 

 think, we have mentioned every thing on which we can depend. 

 There are, however, other nearly allied institutions which might 

 be willing to co-operate, and, on the plan of "university exten- 

 sion," join in whole or in part in a general movement. I refer to 

 Macalester College and Hamline University. Should all these 

 elements express a willingness to join in the creation of a great cen- 

 tral scientific institution, for which I would retain the name of 

 " Museum," they should all be housed in one building or series of 

 buildings, and should be brought under one administration. Their 

 efforts would then be brought into sympathetic and harmonious ac- 

 tivity, and instead of smothered jealousy, one of the other, each one 

 would have its function so defined that they would help rather than 

 hinder each other, and the result would be a conservation of energy 

 and money, which now are sometimes lost by being duplicated 

 from different sources, or by being ill-advised and ill-directed. 



I have sketched out what appears to me to be the museum of 

 the future in Minnesota. I have indicated what should be its 

 plan and its purpose. I have shown the necessity existing for 

 such a scientific centre in this State, and I have lastly enumerated 

 the elements that might be united in such an institution in St. 

 Paul. The immediate steps that should be taken to bring about 

 such an end, it will be necessary for you to decide upon should it 

 be attempted. For nineteen years I have had the hope that such 

 a museum might arise in Minnesota, and that in my day I might 

 be in a measure instrumental in bringing it about. I would like 

 to inspire some of the wealthy friends of science who reside in St. 

 Paul with the faith which started some of the great museums of 

 the world, or with the consecration which actuated Agassiz, or 

 Smithson, or Eensselaer, or Franklin, in founding the institutions 

 which bear their names. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The effect of adding aluminum to steel ingots was discussed at 

 considerable length at the recent meeting of the American Insti- 

 tute of Mining Engineers, communications on the subject by Pro- 

 fessor J. W. Langley of Pittsburgh and Professor J. O. Arnold of 

 Sheffield being among the papers read. Professor Langley drew 

 attention to the very small quantity of aluminum required to 

 render steel castings perfectly sound. The aluminum, says Engi- 

 neering, is added in small pieces of from a quarter to a half pound 

 in weight, thro%vn into the ladle during the tapping after a small 

 quantity of steel is already in it. The aluminum melts almost 

 instantaneously, and diffuses with great rapidity throughout the 

 contents of the ladle. For open -hearth steel, containing less than 

 .05 per cent of carbon, five to ten ounces of aluminum are suffi- 

 cient for each ton of steel, while for Bessemer steel the amount 

 should be increased to from seven to sixteen ounces per ton. For 

 steel containing more than .5 per cent of carbon the aluminum 

 should be used cautiously in amounts of from four to eight 

 ounces per ton. Professor Arnold described briefly the results of 

 a number of experiments at the Sheffield Technical School, from 

 which he concludes that the action of aluminum is about twenty 

 times as powerful as that of silicon, and the resulting steel is 

 tougher and sounder than when silicon is used, provided that cer- 

 tain precautions against piping are taken. He considers that the 

 action of the aluminum is almost certainly chemical. The blow- 



holes in ingots are due to occluded gases, and it has been proved 

 by experiment that aluminum readily reduces carbonic oxide at a 

 temperature below that of melting steel. In one experiment Pro- 

 fessor Arnold blew forty gallons of pure carbonic oxide through a 

 crucible of molten steel containing aluminum, with the result that 

 the carbon in the steel was increased by thirty-five per cent, owing 

 to the reduction of the gas. He concludes that by using alumi- 

 num, manganese can be dispensed with, and a considerable saving 

 of time and fuel effected. 



— A new antiseptic, said to have certain advantages over those 

 hitherto in use, has been brought before the French Academy of 

 Medicine by Professor Berlioz of Grenoble. Extreme solubility, 

 harmlessness, efficacy, and rapidity of action are claimed for it. 

 It is called " microcidine," and, as described by Nature, is a com- 

 pound of naphthol and soda, is neither poisonous nor irritant, is 

 twenty times as active as boric acid, and much more soluble than 

 thymol, carbolic acid, etc. Microcidine has the form of a gray- 

 ish white powder. In a solution of three grams per litre it is 

 very slightly colored, but it does not stain either the hands or 

 bandages. For family use it is said to be of great service. 



— An apparatus has been recently constructed by M. Ducretet, 

 says Nature, for getting quickly in the laboratory a fall of tem- 

 perature 70° to 80° C. below zero, by means of the expansion of 

 liquid carbonic acid. The inner of two concentric vessels con- 

 tains, in alcohol, a serpentine metal tube communicating, through 

 a tube with two stopcocks, with the carbonic acid reservoir out- 

 side, and opening below into the annular space round the inner 

 vessel, in which are some pieces of sponge impregnated with alco- 

 hol. This two- walled vessel with coil is inclosed in a box. One 

 stopcock being opened wide, the other slightly, the carbonic acid 

 passes through the coil as snow, and turns to gas, with strong 

 cooling effect, and any of it not vaporized in the coil is dissolved 

 in the alcohol of the sponge. The gas escapes through a tube 

 passing through the outer box. The instrument, called a cryogen, 

 is pictured in Cosmos of June 2". 



— Experiments have lately been made by Herr Kegel {Bot. 

 Centralb.) with reference to the influence of external factors on 

 the smell of plants. In the front rank, as stated in Nature, ap- 

 pears the direct and indirect influence of light on the formation 

 of etheric oils and their evaporation. In the case of strongly fra- 

 grant flowers (as Reseda), heat and light intensify the fragrance, 

 which in darkness is lessened without quite disappearing. When 

 the whole plant was darkened, those buds only which were before 

 pi-etty well developed yielded fragrant flowers; the others were 

 scentless. If, however, only the flowers were darkened, all were 

 fragrant. Other plants open their flowers and smell only by night 

 (as Nicoiiana longiflora and Nyeterinia copensis). When these 

 plants were kept continuously in the dark, they, in course of time, 

 lost their scent, as they lost their starch. On being brought into 

 light again, both starch and fragrance returned. Besides light, 

 respiration has a decided influence on the fragrance. Nyeterinia, 

 inclosed in a bell jar with oxygen, behaved normally, but with 

 hydrogen the flowers did not open, and had no fragrance. In 

 general, the opening of flowers coincides with their fragrance, but 

 there is no necessary connection between these phenomena. 



— Dr. Anderson, in a recent paper on steel read before the Iron 

 Institute, London, explains the peculiar action of the solid iron 

 when thrown into molten metal. When thrown into a pot of 

 molten iron or steel the solid metal at first sinks, which shows 

 that its volume per unit of weight is less than the heated metal. 

 But soon the solid piece becomes heated, which causes it to ex- 

 pand, its volume is increased, and it rises and floats on the surface 

 of the molten mass. The action is the same with both iron and 

 steel. The experiment was frequently made by throwing a piece 

 of iron into melted steel. It could be seen to go down, and one 

 might think it was on account of the impetus which the iron had 

 attained in falling that height, but as a matter of fact if the iron 

 were put upon a fork and lowered, it would go down. In the 

 course of a few seconds it came up again, and kept on expanding 

 until the piece of iron was a considerable distance above the sur- 

 face of the metal. Then it decreased in volume, and of course 



