SEPTEMBER 10, 1897.] 
tion of the cerium oxid to ‘resonance;’ the 
vibrations of the thoria molecules are not 
synchronous with those of the Bunsen flame, 
but the presence of a small amount of ceria 
brings them in accord, as a bit.of wax will 
bring into accord two tuning forks of 
slightly different pitch. This, Drossbach 
thinks, is the reason that the mantles for 
the Welsbach burner must contain ceria as 
well as thoria. 
In the Zisch. angewante Chemie, Lunge and 
Millberg add a fresh chapter to the contro- 
versy regarding the solubility of quartz 
powder in alkalies. They find that the 
solubility depends very largely on the fine- 
ness of the powder; if fine enough the 
quartz dissolves completely in both caustic 
soda and caustic potash on boiling, and the 
carbonates exercise a decided solvent action. 
Since clays and similar derived material 
contain crystallized silica in a state of ex- 
tremely minute subdivision, there is hence 
no method now known of accurately deter- 
mining the proportions of crystallized and 
amorphous silica present. 
In January last at Hannover, after a pe- 
riod of cold weather, there fell on the ris- 
ing temperature a snow in the form of com- 
pact balls. Many of these balls were 
simple and completely transparent, and 
consisted of single, simple, spherical erys- 
tals. These are described by F. Rinne in the 
Jahrbuch fiir Mineralogie. Apparently they 
were crystallized rain drops, but all efforts 
to make them artificially were without re- 
sult. They resembled the chondrites of 
many meteorites, and these also Dr. Rinne 
finds it impossible to form artificially. 
W.SteEtzER in the Pharm. Centr.-Halle 
records the examination of several solvents 
for ozone. Olive oil dissolves 100 volume 
per cent. of ozone, and this preparation is 
manufactured by Spranger, of Berlin, under 
the trade name of ‘electron.’ Codliver 
oil takes up 200 volume per cent, ozone, 
SCIENCE. 
405 
and loses thereby its disagreeable taste and 
odor. Spranger’s ‘tincture of ozone’ is 
a solution of ozone in terpene and is prob- 
ably a chemical compound. One sample 
examined had lost little of its ozone in fif- 
teen months. Fats and oils which contain 
no oleic acid and which do not absorb 
iodin, such as vaseline and other petro- 
leum oils, do not dissolve ozone. 
Vo IM, 1a, 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 
THE prize established by the city of Moscow 
to be awarded at each International Medical 
Congress for the medical work of greatest bene- 
fit to mankind has been bestowed by the pres- 
ent Congress on M. Henri Dunant, the founder 
of the Red Cross Society. 
PROFESSOR VON KOLLIKER, of Wurzburg, who 
recently celebrated his eightieth birthday and 
the fiftieth anniversary of his appointment as 
professor, has been awarded the gold Comenius 
medal of the Imperial Leopold-Carolina Acad- 
emy of Halle. ‘ 
Ir is proposed to erect a tablet in honor of 
Professor Giuseppi Sanarelli, the discoverer of 
the microbe of yellow fever, at the University 
of Sienna, of which he is an alumnus. 
THE death is announced, at the age of sixty- 
nine years, of Dr. Jules Bernard Luys, known 
for his researches on the brain and nervous sys- 
tem, and less favorably for his publications on 
hypnotism and telepathy. 
WE regret also to record the death of Mr. 
Isaac N. Travis, taxidermist and naturalist in 
the American Museum of Natural History, New 
York. 
Mr. W. W. WOOLEN proposes to present to 
the city of Indianapolis fifty-six acres of land 
for a botanical garden and an ornithological 
preserve. 
THE late Marshall Harris bequeathed $60,000 
for a public library in Oshkosh, Wis., on condi- 
tion that an equal amount be collected, and ex- 
Senator Sawyer, of Wisconsin, has subscribed 
$25,000 towards the amount. 
EMPEROR FRANCIS JOSEPH, of Austria, has 
given his consent to the union of the two great 
