Septembee 30, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



439 



proceedings there was a discussion on ' Al- 

 ternation of Generations,' opened by Dr. 

 Lang, of Glasgow University. Dr. F. F. 

 Blackman, of Cambridge, gave a lecture of 

 a semi-popular character on the ' Lungs of 

 Plants.' 



The Friday evening lecture was by Pro- 

 fessor SoUas, F.R.S., on 'Funafuti — the 

 Study of a Coral Island,' and the Monday 

 evening lecture by Mr. Herbert Jackson on 

 ' Phosphorescence.' The lecture to work- 

 ingmen on Saturday evening was by Pro- 

 fessor Poulton, F.R.S., on the 'Ways in 

 which Animals Warn their Enemies and 

 Signal to their Friends.' 



The report of the Council of the Associa- 

 tion to the General Committee nominated 

 Professor Riicker as trustee in the room of 

 the late Lord Playfair, the other trustees 

 being Lord Eayleigh and Sir John Lub- 

 bock. The establishment of experimental 

 agricultural stations, of a hydrographic sur- 

 vey of Canada, the adoption of civil reck- 

 oning for astronomical purposes and the 

 establishment of a Bureau of Ethnology 

 under the auspices of the British Museum 

 were reported upon. 



In accordance with the regulations, the 

 retiring members of the Council are Profes- 

 sor Edgeworth, Mr. Victor Horsley, Mr. G. 

 J. Symons and Professor W. Eamsay. The 

 Council recommend the re-election of the 

 other ordinary members of the Council, with 

 the addition of Dr. W. H. Gaskell, F.E.S.; 

 Dr. J. Scott Keltic ; Major P. A. MacMahon, 

 F.R.S. ; Mr. L. L. Price and Professor W. A. 

 Tilden, F.R.S. An invitation to hold the an- 

 nual meeting of the Association in the year 

 1900 at Bradford, and an invitation from 

 Cork for a future meeting, were received. 



Professor Riicker, the General Treasurer, 

 showed in his report for 1897-98 that the 

 receipts amounted to £4,623 and the ex- 

 penditures to £2,920, leaving in hand a bal- 

 ance of £1,703. The investments amounted 

 to £11,137. 



NOTES ON INOBQANIC CEEMI8TBY. 



Two years ago Moissan described a car- 

 bid of tungsten of the formula WjC, pre- 

 pared by heating the metal or its oxid with 

 excess of carbon in the electric furnace. 

 In a recent Comptes Rendus P. Williams de- 

 scribes a new carbid of tungsten which has 

 the formula WC. It is formed by heat- 

 ing a mixture of tungstic acid and carbon 

 with iron in an electric furnace or even by 

 means of a powerful forge. The carbid 

 differs from that of Moissan by being un- 

 attacked by chlorin even at a red heat. It 

 is harder than quartz and is extremely dif- 

 ficult to decompose, water and hydrochloric 

 acid having no effect upon it at high tem- 

 peratures ; it is little affected by other acids. 

 In these respects it differs very materially 

 from most of the known carbids. 



To the last Zeitschrift fur anorganische 

 Chemie A . Piccini contributes a study of the 

 alums of titanium, formed by reduction of 

 titanic acid by the electric current in the 

 presence of sulfuric acid and an alkaline 

 sulfate. Piccini calls particular attention 

 to the advantage of using cesium and ru- 

 bidium salts in forming alums difiBcult to 

 crystallize, owing to the comparative in- 

 solubility of cesium and rubidium alums. 

 A very similar study was carried out at 

 Washington and Lee University last year 

 by Mr. E. A. O'lieal, and an account of it 

 presented by me to the Chemical Section of 

 the American Association at the Boston 

 meeting. The conclusions reached were 

 like those of Piccini. The cesium and 

 rubidium alums of iron and cobalt were de- 

 scribed in our paper. 



As an appendix to his paper Piccini de- 

 scribes the cesium manganese alum formed 

 electrolytically. Potassium and ammonium 

 manganese alums were described by Mitsch- 

 erlich. Repeated efforts have been made 

 in the Washington and Lee Laboratory to 

 form them according to Mitscherlich's de- 

 scription and in other ways, but without 



