626 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 433.. 



the actual summit of the mountain, and In- 

 dependence is 3,910 feet above sea-level, it 

 vyould give a final value for the elevation of 

 Mount Whitney of 14,548 feet. It may be 

 stated in this connection that the value which 

 was obtained by Secretary Langley as a result 

 of a very complete series of determinations 

 was 14,522 feet. Of course, this coincidence 

 is accidental, as the probable error in either 

 case is undoubtedly not less than ten or fifteen 

 feet. One object of this determination was 

 to show the availability of boiling-point ap- 

 paratus, which is light and convenient for 

 such determinations, as being very much more 

 reliable than the aneroid barometer, and rauch 

 easier for transportation than the mercurial 

 barometer. 



A second paper was read by Dr. S. A. 

 Mitchell, on ' The Discovery of New Gases 

 in the Sun,' in course of which it was shown 

 that the interdependence of the sciences is 

 nowhere better illustrated than in spectro- 

 scopic work, when astronomy, the most an- 

 cient of all the sciences, goes hand in hand 

 with physics to find a new chemical element. 

 In recent years, through spectroscopic re- 

 searches, several metals have been added to 

 the list of elements. In April, 1895, by in- 

 vestigations on a specimen of clevite, Earn- 

 say announced the discovery of terrestrial 

 helium which gives a line in its spectrum 

 agreeing with the D^ line, familiar for more 

 than twenty-five years in stellar, prominence 

 and chromospheric spectra. About the same 

 time, Eayleigh and Eamsay announced the 

 discovery of another new element which was 

 called argon. In the early smnmer of 1898, 

 Ramsay found two more gaseous elements, 

 neon and krypton, and subsequently a heavier 

 gas to which the name xenon was applied. 

 These five new elements, helium, neon, argon, 

 kr3rpton and xenon are found in atmospheric 

 air, and can be obtained from air by frac- 

 tional distillation by making use of the ex- 

 tremely low temperatures of liquid air and 

 liquid hydrogen. Atomic weights have been 

 assigned as follows: helium, 4j neon, 20; 

 argon, 40; krypton, 82, and xenon, 128; and 

 the gases seem to form a series in the periodic 



table of elements between the fluorine and, 

 sodium groups. 



Investigations carried out on photographs 

 of the 'flash' spectrum at the Sumatra eclipse 

 of 1901 enabled Dr. Mitchell to find that the 

 remarkable variations in the intensities of 

 the lines of the ordinary solar spectrum and 

 of the ' flash ' spectrum (for one does not 

 looh to be the reversal of the other) are due 

 to the different heights to which the vapors 

 of the various metals ascend above the sun's 

 surface. As a consequence, although helium 

 lines are not found in the ordinary solar 

 spectrum, the helium lines in the spectrum 

 of the chromosphere are very bright, indeed. 



In view of the similarity of the new gases,, 

 neon, argon, etc., to helium, and as the helium 

 lines are such prominent ones in eclipse spec- 

 tra, it was expected that the new atmospheric 

 gases — at least the lighter ones, neon and 

 argon — might appear in the sun's atmosphere. 

 A detailed comparison of the lines of the- 

 flash spectrum measured by Dr. Mitchell with 

 those of the new gases lately published has led 

 to the discovery that neon and argon are both 

 present in the chromosphere, while it is doubt- 

 ful whether krypton and xenon are there or 

 not. S. A. Mitchell, 



Secretary of Section. 



COLUMBLV UNIVERSITY GEOLOGICAL JOURNAL CLUB.. 



March 6. — Dr. Julien showed some very 

 large chlorite pseudomorphs after garnet from 

 the Spurr mine, Marquette, Mich., a single 

 crystal measuring almost four inches in diam- 

 eter. Professor Grabau reviewed Dr. A. E. 

 Ortmann's paper on ' The Geographical Dis- 

 tribution of Fresh-water Decapods and its- 

 Bearing upon Ancient Geography.' 



March IS. — ^Dr. A. F. Rogers discussed 

 crystal habit and methods of expressing it. 

 Dr. Julien reviewed a paper by M. J. Fuller in 

 the Journal of Geology (November-December,. 

 1902) on the etching of quartz in the interior 

 of conglomerates. Professor Grabau reviewed 

 from the American Journal of Science (Au- 

 gust, 1902) a paper by W. M. Davis on the 

 terraces of Westfield River of Massachusetts. 



March 20. — The following papers were re- 

 viewed : Charles Schuchert, ' On the Manlius 



