438 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 331 



tained is collected and dried, and afterwards distilled with carbon, 

 when mercury and then phosphorus are distilled over. The mer- 

 cury may be reconverted into nitrate to serve as a second charge ; 

 and the liquors, after removing the mercury phosphate, yield, on 

 adding more potassium sulphate, a solution from which potassium 

 nitrate can be crystallized. 



— According to the Rome correspondent of the London Daily 

 News, the Pope has decreed, owing to the wishes expressed by 

 Padre Denza more than a year ago, that the works for the Astro- 

 nomical Observatory, to be erected in the Vatican, are to be begun 

 at once. The site selected is the tower over the rooms occupied 

 by the master of the Sacred College, it being the most elevated 

 building of the Vatican Palace. The cost is estimated at a million 

 of francs. 



— It is reported in the Chinese press that the Marquis Ts^ng, so 

 well known in Europe as the ambassador of China to this country, 

 has been appointed to the control of the Foreign Science College 

 in Peking. 



— The Botanical Gardens at Edinburgh are now for the first 

 time opened to the public on Sundays. 



— Dr. John Gibson, who has for some time been engaged in 

 superintending the physical work of the Fishery Board for Scotland, 

 has recently completed a series of investigations which are likely to 

 throw considerable light on ttie problems connected with ocean- 

 currents. The detailed results will appear in the next annual re- 

 port of the Fishery Board ; but, from a preliminary note communi- 

 cated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Nature states that it 

 appears that two chemically distinct kinds of sea- water are present 

 in the North Sea. The difference between these two waters is 

 rendered perfectly distinct by sufficiently accurate determinations 

 of the relation between chlorine and density, and is not due to 

 river-water flowing into the North Sea. Water in which the rel- 

 ative proportion of chlorine is high reaches the North Sea from 

 the surface of the Atlantic, round the north of Scotland and also 

 through the English Channel, while water in which the relative 

 proportion of chlorine is low flows into the North Sea from the 

 north, and has been found on the surface as far north as 79° north 

 latitude. The determinations of chlorine and density in the samples 

 of ocean-water collected during the " Challenger " expedition, as 

 published in the " Challenger " reports, seem to show that similar 

 differences of composition exist in ocean-waters. To judge from 

 these determinations, the mass of ocean-water, especially in south- 

 ern latitudes, approximates in chemical composition to that flow- 

 ing, as above mentioned, into the North Sea from the surface of 

 the Atlantic. The water in which the relative proportion of 

 chlorine is less appears to have been met with chiefly to the north 

 of the equator and to the south-west of the principal outlets from 

 the Arctic Ocean. This, as well as its chemical .composition, seems 

 to point to an Arctic origin. 



— A catalogue of minerals and synonymes alphabetically ar- 

 ranged for the use of museums, by T. Egleston, Ph.D., has been 

 published as Bulletin No. 3301 the United States National IVfuseum. 

 This catalogue was commenced in the year 1867, for use in ar- 

 ranging the collections of the School of Mines of Columbia Col- 

 lege ; but after many months' labor, when the work was nearly 

 completed up to that date, it was abandoned on account of the 

 press of other duties. In the last year, however, having occasion 

 to make some investigations, and finding it almost impossible to 

 get at the different synonymes of the various minerals on account 

 of the imperfections of the indices of the various works, the work 

 was taken up again and finished. It was found that the progress 

 of the science since 1867 had been so great that the work previ- 

 ously done had to be altogether abandoned, so that all that is left 

 of it is the general plan. It is hardly to be hoped that this cata- 

 logue is without errors, or that every name which has been pub- 

 lished has been found. There are, however, several thousand 

 more names contained in it than in any other published index. 



— In 1885, after peace had been declared between France and 

 China, the viceroy, Li Hung Chang, obtained the imperial sanction 

 for opening military and naval schools at Tien-Tsin, where Chinese 

 pupils could receive instruction in Western sciences. Consul 



Smithers of Tien-Tsin says that the military school has been in 

 operation five years, and has 150 pupils. It has four German pro- 

 fessors, and the instruction is entirely in the German and Chinese 

 languages. The naval school is divided into two departments, — 

 the executive, for the training of naval officers ; and the engineer- 

 ing, for the training of engineers. The number of pupils is 120, 

 selected from the different provinces of the empire, and the length 

 of the course is five years. The director of studies is assisted by 

 three English professors, two of whom belong to the English Navy. 

 The director himself, Yen Tsung Kwang, is a graduate of the for- 

 eign school at Foochow, and has served in the navy. A school for 

 instruction in telegraphy was organized in 1880, and at present has 

 forty-eight pupils. The instructors in this school are Danes, but 

 the instruction is given in the English language. A local medical 

 school, with a hospital attached, was founded some years ago by 

 the viceroy. This school is now about to be re-organized, with an 

 eminent foreign doctor at its head, the object being to qualify young 

 men for the medical profession, and attach them to the army and 

 navy as well as other branches of the public service. In addition to 

 the schools already mentioned. Consul Smithers, writing under date of 

 the 31st of December last, says that an Anglo-Chinese college was 

 to be opened early in 1889. The building for this college was 

 commenced in 1887. It is a fine Gothic structure situated on the 

 left bank of the Peiho, and has accommodations for 300 students. 

 In conclusion, the United States consul says, " When it is consid- 

 ered that hitherto the officers in the Chinese army and navy below 

 the rank of general and admiral have been taken from the unedu- 

 cated classes, and have obtained their commissions often by pur- 

 chase, and that both branches of the service have been without a 

 medical staff, the importance of the educational establishments at 

 Tien-Tsin, promoted and fostered by the viceroy, cannot be over- 

 estimated." 



— In an article on the Strong locomotive, in the May number of 

 the Engineering Joicrnal, it was stated that the run which the 

 Strong engine made from Jersey City to Buffalo on the Erie Rail- 

 road was the longest continuous run of which we have any record, 

 with the exception of a trip from Jersey City to Pittsburgh on the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad some years ago. This statement, which 

 was made from memory and without investigating the records, 

 was, it appears, erroneous, and is corrected in the June issue. The 

 train, which was famous at the time as the " Jarrett and Palmer 

 Fast Train," and which ran from Jersey City to San Francisco in 

 84 hours, was drawn over the Central Pacific Railroad from Ogden 

 to Oakland, 879 miles, by a single locomotive, which, like the 

 Strong locomotive, made stops at several points. The greatest 

 speed attained at any point on the journey was 60 miles an hour ; 

 the average speed for the whole distance, 36.8 miles an hour. The 

 engine which made this very unusual run was an ordinary eight- 

 wheel engine. No. 149, built by the Schenectady Locomotive 

 Works, having i5 by 24 inch cylinders and 5-foot drivers. Only 

 the necessary stops were made, and the full time was 23 hours, 59 

 minutes. As before noted, while neither this run nor the run of 

 the Strong locomotive were continuous in a certain sense, both of 

 the engines having made stops at several points, the run made 

 from Jersey City to Pittsburgh on the Pennsylvania Railroad was 

 really continuous, the engine having gone over the entire distance 

 without stopping, water being taken up from the track-tanks on the 

 way. This, of course, does not detract from the work done by the 

 Strong engine : it only shows that such runs can be made on oc- 

 casion ; but their rarity goes to prove that the making them is too 

 much for the ordinary locomotive. 



— The United States steamship "Yantic," Commander C. H. 

 Rockwell, U.S.N. , commanding, sailed from New York, May 11, 

 on a cruise off the coast to destroy derelict vessels, information re- 

 garding which was supplied by the United States Hydrographic 

 Office. May 18, in latitude 37° 35' north, longitude 69° 55' west, 

 she sighted the water-logged schooner " Alice Borda," of Camden, 

 N.J., with deck-houses, hatches, and mizzenmast gone, mainmast 

 out of step and leaning forward. Torpedoes were exploded astern, 

 under the bilge on each side, under the heel of the bowsprit, and 

 inside the port quarter, breaking her up very well. She was then 

 set on fire, and, it is supposed, went down on the night of the 



