394 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 479. 



On September 20, 1901, similar experiments 

 required much more time to bring about sim- 

 ilar results. Since then I have repeatedly- 

 killed half-grown toads in the same manner, 

 while in a number of instances I was unable 

 to kill any. 



On October 5, 1903, while carrying 22 cot- 

 ton boll weevils over a cotton plantation in a 

 vial of 30 c.c. capacity three specimens of 

 Euschistus fissilis were suddenly introduced. 

 The secretions were powerfully ejected by 

 these bugs when in the bottle, and in ten 

 minutes the weevils were dead. This experi- 

 ment was repeated the same day with equal 

 success. 



On October 14 and 18, 1903, repeated trials 

 of the preceding experiments resulted in com- 

 plete failures. 



On December 2 four specimens of Brocliy- 

 mena annulata were put in a bottle of 45 c.c. 

 capacity, and these killed a blow fly and three 

 stable flies in nine minutes, and quieted a 

 centipede in fifteen minutes, but the latter 

 recovered. 



On December 6, 1903, a repetition of the 

 experiments of December 2 showed that twenty 

 minutes more time was required to obtain 

 similar results. 



On December 9, 1903, the experiments of 

 December 6 were failures. 



On December 13, 1903, four fine specimens 

 of Brochymena annulata were found hiber- 

 nating under kindling wood. With these 

 many experiments were made. They were 

 put in the same vial used December 6 and 9, 

 and when introduced in a warm room the 

 secretions were discharged with much greater 

 effect than in any of the above experiments. 

 Two blow flies and two stable flies, each in- 

 troduced separately, were killed in five 

 minutes. After twenty minutes a centipede 

 was introduced. Although motionless after 

 eight minutes, the specimen recovered. After 

 this time no more specimens could be killed, 

 although many were introduced. 



In all the experiments above referred to the 

 vial was kept tightly corked except when speci- 

 mens were introduced. Although other in- 



sects could be killed, the bugs themselves suf- 

 fered, apparently, no inconvenience. 



Albert F. Conradi. 

 Agricultural College, 

 College Station, Texas, 

 December 15, 1903. 



NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 

 mendeleef's conception of the ether. 



The Chemisches C eniralblatt contains the 

 abstract of a paper by Mendeleef published in 

 the journal Prometheus on the subject of an 

 attempted chemical explanation of the ether. 

 From a realistic standpoint it is not satisfac- 

 tory to ascribe to the ether the properties of 

 weight and chemical individuality. It can 

 not consist of matter now known, disseminated 

 in an exceedingly attenuated condition, be- 

 cause it penetrates all matter, nor can it be 

 the ' Urstofi^,' since this would involve the 

 possibility of the annihilation and evolution 

 of atoms. It must rather be considered as a 

 definite chemical substance so light that its 

 molecular velocity is great enough to over- 

 come gravitation; it is without chemical affin- 

 ity; it-s power of diffusion is so great that it 

 can penetrate all bodies, and hence can not 

 be weighed, although it actually possesses an 

 extremely small weight. Mendeleef would 

 thus consider the ether to be the first mem- 

 ber of the argon group in the periodic system, 

 or what he calls the zero group, and places 

 immediately before the alkali group. By ex- 

 trapolation he posits an element in this group 

 immediately before hydrogen, with an atomic 

 weight of about 0.4. This he considers pos- 

 sibly identical with coronium. The ether 

 must have a still smaller atomic weight, whose 

 value, owing to this double extrapolation, is 

 extremely doubtful, but certainly can not be 

 over O.IY. For this ether as an element he 

 proposes the name Newtonium. That the 

 ether molecule can escape the attraction of 

 the largest bodies of the universe its velocity 

 must be, according to the kinetic theory of 

 gases, at least 2,240 kilometers per second, and 

 from this its atomic weight would be about 

 one millionth that of hydrogen. 



By means of this conception, it becomes 

 jpossible to account for radio-activity, without 



