AUGUST 27, 1897. ] 
About the latter he writes: “ We cannot 
demonstrate the connection, but there is a 
striking parallelism between advancing 
civilization and the gradual increase of the 
skull in width.” This is an interesting 
statement, and it is to be hoped that Pro- 
fessor Niederle will make it the subject of 
a special study in the future. 
THE LANGUAGE OF THE MAMS. 
Tue Mams lived in the northwestern 
part of Guatemala and enjoyed an advanced 
indigenous civilization. Their capital was 
Zakeleu, the White Land, meaning the 
place of culture ; for in all the Maya dialects 
white is a metaphorical expression for 
civilized conditions. By some the Mams 
have been held to be the earliest of the 
Mayas to become sedentary and city build- 
ers. Their ancient native name was Zak- 
lohpakap, the White Cultivators. 
A vocabulary of their tongue was printed 
by Father Reynoso, at Mexico, in 1644, 
but is now so scarce that it is inaccessible 
to students. The Comte de Charencey has, 
therefore, conferred a favor on American- 
ists by republishing it in the Actes de la 
Société Philologique, Tome XXV. It con- 
tains nearly three thousand words, and 
offers ample material for comparisons with 
the other dialects of the stock. It is closely 
akin to the Quiche, and is still spoken in a 
number of villages. The volume may be 
had from C. Klincksieck, 11 Rue de Lille, 
Paris. 
D. G. Brinton. 
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 
In 1887 Professor Chroustchoff an- 
nounced the discovery of a new element in 
the monazite sand of North Carolina, to 
which he gave the name ‘russium.’ This 
discovery has not been confirmed by any 
other chemist, but, induced by the supposed 
discovery of ‘lucium,’ Professor Chroust- 
choff has again gone over his work, pub- 
SCIENCE. 317 
lishing a short report in the Journal of the 
Russian Chemical Society. According to 
Nature he has from 25 kilos of rare earths 
extracted 35 grams of russium. It has an 
atomic weight of 70.5 and its spectrum is 
characterized by a group of green and violet 
lines. He also claims to have resolved 
cerium into five components, differing in 
physical properties, and having atomic 
weights respectively of 138, 140, 142, 146 
and 156.5. He also finds, in addition to 
Auer’s neodymium and praseodymium, a 
third new constituent of didymium to which 
he gives the name glaukodymium. A de- 
tailed account of his work is promised at 
an early date. 
In the last Berichte, W. Hentschel gives 
an account of further investigations on the 
chloride of nitrogen, in which he finds the 
compound normally formed to have the 
formula NCI,, confirming the work of Gat- 
termann andof Balard. He also finds that 
this compound can take up more chlorin 
until its composition seems to be NCI,, but 
this is really a solution of chlorin in the 
chloride of nitrogen. His method of form- 
ing this exceedingly explosive and danger- 
ous compound is to bring together solutions 
of ammonium chlorid and sodium hypo- 
chlorite, and dissolve the chlorid of nitrogen 
formed, which partly separates out and 
partly remains in solution, in benzine. 
In the Pharm. J. Trans., C. H. J. Warden 
describes the method used in the Calcutta 
Medical Depot for the production of a pure 
silver nitrate from coin silver. The silver 
used contains copper and is dissolved in 
nitric acid and a portion of the silver ni- 
trate crystallized out in the usual way. As 
soon as the mother liquor is so concentrated 
that the silver nitrate crystallizing out is 
contaminated with copper it is evaporated 
to dryness, finely powdered and placed in a 
glass funnel stopped by an asbestos plug. 
It is then washed with pure concentrated 
