182 



SCIENCE. 



FN. S. Vol. VIII. No. 189; 



obtained, fluorid of aluminum being in- 

 soluble. 



In another number of the Comptes Eendus, 

 M. Lebeau describes fully the fluorid of 

 glucinum. It is exceedingly soluble in 

 water and even alcohol, and is deliquescent. 

 It fuses at a fairly high temperature in an 

 inert atmosphere, but heated in the air it 

 forms an oxyfluorid 5GIF^, 2G10, also sol- 

 uble in water, 



AccoEDiNG to Wm. A. Bone and John 

 Wilson, in the latest Proceedings of the 

 Chemical Society (London), acetylene when 

 exposed in closed glass tubes to the sun- 

 light is gradually decomposed. In June a 

 faint brownish deposit is observable at the 

 end of two or three days. No deposit is 

 found on any part of the tube not exposed 

 to the sunlight. The nature of the black 

 deposit has not yet been fully determined, 

 but it seems to be a very dense hydrocar- 

 bon; no benzene nor naphthalene could be 

 found. This decomposition is what might 

 be expected from the endothermic character 

 of acetylene, and it may possibly come to 

 play a part in the industrial manufacture. 



J. L. H. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 THE CHICAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



We have received the 14tli annual report of 

 the Chicago Academy of Sciences, covering the 

 year 1897. From the report of the Secretary 

 " and Curator, Mr. F. C. Baker, it appears that 

 the number of visitors to the Museum during 

 the year was over 245,000, including the formal 

 visitation of 133 classes from the Chicago 

 schools, attended by their teachers. Thirteen 

 popular lectures were given, with an aver- 

 age attendance of 300. The accessories to 

 the Museum numbered 15,457, twenty-eight 

 collections having been presented. The Pres- 

 ident of the Academy, Professor T. C. Cham- 

 berlin, in his report states that the sur- 

 vey of the natural phenomena of Chicago and 

 its environment, which has been in progress 



since 1892 under the auspices of the Academy,. 

 has made progress during the year. Its work, 

 has been so connected, by an informal under- 

 standing, with that of the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey as to avoid needless duplication 

 and to render the work of each serviceable to- 

 the other. As the fruit of this and by the gen- 

 erous assent of the Director of the United 

 States Geological Survey, a bulletin on the 

 Pleistocene formations of the Chicago area and 

 of the ovitlying territory, prepared by Mr. 

 Frank Leverett, of the National Survey, has- 

 been published by the Academy, and has al- 

 ready proved itself helpful to citizens of Chi- 

 cago and especially to students of the geol- 

 ogy and geography. An elaborate and amply 

 illustrated bulletin on the mollusks of the Chi- 

 cago area by Mr. Baker is now in press. Thre& 

 additional manuscript reports are essentially 

 completed, and it is anticipated that bulletins on 

 well-borings, on birds and on the Phenogamous 

 and Cryptogamous Plants of the region will b& 

 issued during the coming year. The National 

 Survey has during the year completed the field 

 work upon four of its standard atlas sheets, 

 embracing the greater part of Chicago and its 

 environment, based upon contour maps previ- 

 ously prepared. While these are wholly the 

 work of the United States Geological Survey, 

 and will be published by it, they contribute 

 effectively to the ends sought by the Survey of 

 the Academy, in the presentation to the people 

 of Chicago and to the schools, of ample and 

 trustworthy data relative to the natural phe- 

 nomena of the city and its environment. 



GENERAL. 



Professor Ktjdolf Virchow has been mad& 

 an Associate of the Paris Academy of Sciences. 

 He was for many years a corresponding mem- 

 ber. 



Professor Eoberts-Austen has been elected' 

 president of the British Iron and Steel Institute. 



Me. Herbert Bolton, who for the last eight 

 years has held the post of assistant keeper in 

 the geological department of the Manchester 

 Museum, has been appointed to the curatorship- 

 of the Bristol Museum. The Manchester Mu- 

 seum advertises for a successor to Mr. Bolton, 

 It offers a salary of $400 a year ! 



