366 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 194. 



sorrow, fear, melancholj', despair, illness, 

 etc., and adds another — revenge. By nu- 

 merous quotations he shows that in many 

 primitive peoples, and those partly civilized, 

 a person would kill himself to spite another. 

 This he explains by the belief that the soul 

 of the suicide would have the power to 

 torment his enemy during the latter's life ; 

 not only this, but the death of the suicide 

 would be attributed by his kinsfolk to the 

 enemy and the penalty of blood-revenge 

 would be demanded. 



Doubtless this is true at times, but the 

 theory is rather too finely spun. Suicide 

 from an obscure motive of this nature is not 

 rare in civilized lands where such beliefs 

 and customs do not exist. Lovers kill 

 themselves that their cold lady-loves may 

 grieve (which they generally do not) ; 

 children kill themselves that their parents 

 may be sorrowful. Foolish, but human ! 

 D. G. Brinton. 



Univeesity of Pennsylvania. 



NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEBIISTRY. 

 From the twenty-eighth annual report of 

 the Deputy Master and Comptroller of the 

 Mint, 1897, Nature has taken a memorandam 

 by Professor Roberts- Austen on the treat- 

 ment of the surface of medals of silver and 

 bronze. For centuries silver medals have 

 been issued in England with the tables or 

 flat surfaces smooth and mirror-like, while 

 a more or less frosted surface has been given 

 to the portions in relief. Owing to the 

 ready discoloration of the polished surface, 

 in France it has been customary often to 

 use unpolished dies and to give the medals 

 a dead surface by rubbing with pumice. 

 More recently the sand blast has been used 

 for this purpose. This surface may be fur- 

 ther treated by immersion in a soluble sulfid, 

 or better in a platinum solution, when a 

 black surface is obtained which may be 

 more or less removed by rubbing with brush 



and pumice. Very beautiful shadow effects 

 may be obtained, and many medals were 

 thus treated at the (British) Mint in 1897 

 for the first time. 



In the case of bronze metals much of the 

 beauty of the earlier medals was due to the 

 fact that instead of being struck they were 

 cast, and a thin layer of oxid was ac- 

 quired in the process. Most modern 

 ' bronze' medals are really copper 'bronzed' 

 or artificially colored on the surface. The 

 production of this color is by various 

 methods, but generally by boiling with di- 

 lute solutions of certain salts, of which ver- 

 digris and sulfate of copper are the most 

 important. The finest work in this line is 

 that of Japanese artists, and its beauty 

 seems to be chiefly due to the quality of 

 the verdigris used. This verdigris, known 

 as ' Rokusho,' is produced by the action of 

 plum-juice vinegar on plates of copper con- 

 taining certain metallic impurities. Very 

 fair effects in bronzing are obtained with 

 ordinary European verdigris, and this pro- 

 cess is used in the British Mint. In France 

 medals are struck of true bronze, with a 

 high percentage of zinc, and the color is im- 

 proved by gentle heating, producing super- 

 ficial oxidation, but no true patination. 



At the recent meeting of the American 

 Association in Boston a paper was read by 

 Charles L. Reese on quartz crystals from 

 Diamond Post-office, near Guntersville, 

 Marshall county, Ala., which contain in- 

 clusions of petroleum. Some of the cavities 

 of these crystals measure as much as 

 2.3x1.8x1 mm. On warming, the petroleum 

 globule bursts and wets the walls of the 

 cavity. The contents of the cavities were 

 identified as petroleum by the yellow-green 

 fluorescence, the stain of the crushed crys- 

 tals on filter paper, and the characteristic 

 odor and smoky flame. Petroleum also oc- 

 curs in the neighborhood where the crystals 



were found. 



J. L. H. 



