October 21, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



525 



Gaseous State.' This is variously given 

 in the different text-books. 



Professsr O. C, Johnson gave ' A New 

 Test for Nickel,' which consists of the treat- 

 ment of the washed precipitates of nickelic 

 and cobaltic oxides with potassium iodide. 

 The presence of nickel is indicated by the 

 liberation of iodine. 



Dr. J. H. Kastle reported ' On the Oc- 

 currence of Barium and Strontium' in a 

 large number of Kentucky and Ohio lime- 

 stones. He drew out the point that where 

 one metal of a triad is present in large 

 quantities the other members of the series 

 are invariably also present. 



' The Estimation of Iron and Aluminum 

 in Natural Phosphates,' H. W. Wiley and 

 F. P. Veitch. 



'A Study of the Tellurides,' Cabell 

 "Whitehead. 



' Magnetic Ferric Oxide,' W. L. Dudley. 



'The Action of Various Bases on Me- 

 tallic Arsenites,' C. Wellington. 



' The Action of Chromic Acid on Hydro- 

 gen,' C. L. Reese. 



' The Action of Soft Waters on Metals,' 

 Ellen H. Eichards and Willis R. Whitney. 



' A New Method of Standardizing Hj'dro- 

 chloric Acid,' P. K. Cameron and J. A. 

 Emery. 



Dr. C. Loring Jackson, in his paper en- 

 titled ' Certain Peculiar Reactions of the 

 Tribromnitrophenols,' gave an account of 

 his work on the action of sodium malonic 

 ester, sodium acetoacetic ester and sodium 

 ethylate on tribromnitrophenols and related 

 substances with a view to determining why 

 the bromine is replaced by hydrogen. Dr. 

 A. B. Prescott's paper, ' On Certain Alka- 

 loidal Periodides and the Volumetric Esti- 

 mation of Alkaloids as Higher Periodides,' 

 gave probably the highest possible period- 

 ides, viz., triodide of morphine hydroio- 

 dide, hexaiodides of strychnine, brucine and 

 aconitine hydroiodides, and the octoiodide 

 of atropine hydroiodide. Dr. M. Gomberg 



reported on ' A Periodide of Bromtriphenyl- 

 methane,' the only organic perhalide desti- 

 tute of any element of the nitrogen family, 

 except Victor Meyer's iodonium perhalide 

 and Kastle's sulphonperiodide. 



' On Tetraphenylmethane,' M. Gomberg. 



' Hydrazo and Azo. Derivatives of Tetra- 

 phenylmethane,' M. Gomberg and A. C. 

 Campbell. 



' Camphoric Acid ; Synthesis of the 

 Neighboring Xylic Acid,' W. A. Noyes. 



' The Propyl Phosphines,' Peter Fireman 

 and E. G. Portner. 



' The Action of Ethers on Phosphonium 

 Iodide,' Peter Fireman and Ernestine Fire- 

 man. 



' The Oxidation of Formic Aldehyde by 

 Hydrogen Peroxide,' J. H. Kastle. 



Dr. Charles F. Mabery reported a con- 

 tinuation of his great work on petroleum. 

 In one paper, on the ' Unsaturated Hydro- 

 carbons in Canadian Petroleum,' with W. 

 O. Quayle, he stated that he had separated 

 compounds containing seven, eight, nine 

 and ten carbon atoms ; a regular series of 

 of sulphur compounds following the type of 

 C^H^^S beginning with C,. Some sulph- 

 oxides according to the type C^^H^^SOj were 

 formed from these compounds. In continu- 

 ing his work with E. J. Hudson ' On the Con- 

 stituents of California Petroleums ' from 

 different sources he found in some large 

 amounts of aromatic hydrocarbons, benzol, 

 toluol, xylols, etc., and smaller amounts of 

 naphthenea ; in others the reverse was the 

 case. Dr. Mabery also gave a paper 'On 

 the Constituents of Commercial Paraffine ' 

 and succeeded in separating, by distilling 

 under reduced pressure, a series of hydro- 

 carbons according to the type of C^H^^^.^ 

 beginning with Cj^ up to C,„. Working 

 with H. L. Schrom, he obtained only nega- 

 tive results in his ' Efforts to add Hydrogen 

 to Acetylene.' Sodium, amalgam, alumi- 

 num, and zinc with sulphuric acid, electroly- 

 sis and passing a mixture with hydrogen 



