JuLyY 2, 1897.] 
supposed, but a mixture of the colorless 
mercuri-ammonium compound with very 
finely divided metallic mercury. 
N. Tarver, who introduced the use of 
thioacetic acid as a substitute for hydrogen 
sulfid in the laboratory, has, in the Gazzetta 
chimica italiana, a study of the action of 
thioacetic acid on salts of bismuth. The 
thioacetate of bismuth is decomposed by a 
small amount of water with the formation 
of a thiobasic salt (CH,COS), BiS, and 
this on treatment with sulfuric acid gives a 
sulfate (CH,COS), Bi SO,, and on treatment 
with iodin the corresponding iodid. ‘These 
new compounds are of interest as being the 
first compounds of quintivalent bismuth in 
the marsh-gas series. 
J. L. H. 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 
THE Senate has agreed to the provisions in 
the tariff bill admitting free of duty books in 
print more than twenty years, books in foreign 
languages and such as are devoted to scientific 
research, and books and scientific instruments 
imported for public and educational institu- 
tions. 
PERHAPS the most noteworthy additions to 
the United States National Museum during re- 
eent years have been the rich collections of 
pre-historic pottery, made in the pueblo region, 
during the last two seasons, by Dr. J. Walter 
Fewkes, of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 
The success attending his operations in the past 
has led to a provision for continuing the work, 
and he has recently set out to the field for the 
third time. His design is to survey and exca- 
vate the ruins known among the Indians as Kin- 
tiel, near Navajo Springs, Arizona. He is 
accompanied by Dr. Walter Hough, of the 
United States National Museum. 
THE keen appreciation of the importance of 
research on the part of Secretary Wilson has 
already given fresh impetus to various lines of 
scientific work in the Department of Agricul- 
ture. The more important operations are 
carried forward without change of personnel ; 
it seems to be the policy to maintain and 
SCIENCE. 
21 
strengthen the bureaus built up through the 
zeal and ability of well-known scientific men; 
and, at the same time, scientific character is 
given to certain of the lines of work hitherto 
regarded as administrative. One of the recent 
changes is the appointment of Mr. John Hyde 
as Statistician of the Department. Mr. Hyde 
became widely known through his connection 
with the Eleventh Census, and he has more 
recently been known in scientific circles as 
editor of the National Geographic Magazine 
and as a writer on political economy. 
Masor J. W. POWELL is on the coast of 
Maine, engaged in researches concerning shell 
mounds, in the interest of the Bureau of 
American Ethnology. 
PROFESSOR SOUILLARD, astronomer at Lille, 
has been elected a corresponding member of the 
Paris Academy of Sciences. 
DUBLIN University has conferred the degree | 
of D. Sc., on Professor William Ramsay, Major 
P. A. M’Mahon, D.D., and Professor Wilhelm 
His, of Leipzig. 
Dr. RUDOLPH LEUCKART and Dr. Karl Neu- 
mann have been made Knights of the Prussian 
Order of Merit in Science and Art. 
THE Royal College of Surgeons of England 
has conferred the John Tomes prize on Mr. C. 
F. Tomes, F. R. S. 
THE Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschaw states 
that, at a recent meeting of the Academy of 
Sciences of Vienna, Ritter y. Arneth was 
reelected President ; Dr. Suess, Vice-President; 
Professor Huber, General Secretary, and Dr. 
Hann, Secretary of the Mathematico-Physical 
Section. Dr. Gautsch y. Frankenthurm and Dr. 
Exner, of Innsbruck, were elected correspond- 
ing members; Lord Lister, honorary foreign 
member; and Dr. Vogel, of Pottsdam ; Herr 
Karpinsky, Director of the Geological Institute 
of St. Petersburg ; Dr. Gegenbauer, of Heidel- 
berg, and Herr Brioschi, of Milan, correspond- 
ing members. 
M. LE GENERAL DE TILLO announced ata 
recent meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences 
that the sum of 25,000 francs had been sub- 
scribed in Russia to the Lavoisier monument 
fund. 
