582 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 21. 



which is independent of all theories, partly 

 that which, as seen in the above quotation 

 from Tornier's paper, is analogous to Amer- 

 ican Neo-Lamarckism. It differs from the 

 American school in the cardinal point, how- 

 ever, that judgment is suspended as to the 

 inheritance of acquired characters. 



H. F. O. 



THE PREPAEATION OF ARGON. 



Since the announcement, by Lord Eay- 

 leigh and Prof. Eamsay, of the isolation of 

 a new constituent of the atmosphere, any 

 information as to the nature of this sub- 

 stance has been received with interest by 

 the scientific world. Guntz has recently de- 

 scribed, in the Comptes Rendus, a modification 

 of the method used by Eayleigh and Ram- 

 say for its preparation. This author has 

 substituted lithium for magnesium, thereby 

 securing the absorption of the nitrogen 

 more readily at a lower temperature. The 

 preparation of pure lithium in quantity has 

 hitherto been a difficult problem, but Guntz 

 has devised a simple method for its prepara- 

 tion in large quantities. 



This consists in the electrolytic decom- 

 position of a mixture of equal parts of 

 lithium chloride and potassium chloride, the 

 latter being introduced to lower the temper- 

 ature at which the decomposition takes 

 place. The decomposition is carried on 

 in porcelain crucibles and the molten lithium 

 poured into molds. It is fi'ee from iron and 

 sdica, but contains a small amount of potas- 

 sium chloride. 



The experiment showing the presence of 

 argon in atmospheric nitrogen and its ab- 

 sence from chemical nitrogen, the latter 

 term being used for nitrogen obtained from 

 chemical substances by decomposition, con- 

 sists in introducing the nitrogen into a 

 glass tube containing the lithium in a boat. 

 The glass tube is connected with a manom- 

 eter to show the change in pressure. Upon 

 heating the metal to dull redness, combina- 



tion of the nitrogen and lithium takes place 

 with incandescence. The manometer after 

 the operation shows a pressure of about 

 10 mm. Upon introducing another vol- 

 ume of nitrogen and repeating the opera- 

 tion about the same amount of argon is 

 obtained, and this process can be continued 

 until the tube is filled with argon. If, 

 however, chemical nitrogen is used there is 

 total absorption, showing that atmospheric 

 nitrogen contains some constituents not 

 present in chemical nitrogen. 



J. E. Gilpin. . 



HELION. 



Prof. Eamsay has kindly sent us the 

 following abstract of his paper on ' Heliou, 

 a Gaseous Consistent of certain Minerals.' 

 Part I., received by the Eoyal Society on 

 April 27th : 



An account is given of the extraction of 

 a mixture of hydrogen and hehon from a 

 felspathic rock containing the mineral cle- 

 veite. It is shown that in all probability 

 the gas described in the preliminarj^ note 

 of March 26 was contaminated with atmos- 

 pheric argon. 



The gas now obtained consists of hydro- 

 gen, probably derived from some free metal 

 in the felspar, some nitrogen and helion. 

 The density of helion, nearly free from 

 nitrogen, was found to be 3.89. From the 

 wave-length of sound in the gas, from which 

 the theoretical ratio of specific heats 1.66 is 

 approximately obtained, the conclusion may 

 be drawn that hehon, like argon, is mona- 

 tomic. Evidence is produced that the gas 

 evolved from cleveite is not a hydride, and 

 a comparison is made of the spectra of 

 argon and helion. There are four specially 

 characteristic hues in the helion spectrum 

 which are absent from that of argon ; they 

 are a brilliant red, the Dg line of a very 

 brilliant yellow, a peacock-green line, and 

 a brilliant violet line. One curious fact is 

 that the gas from cleveite, freed from all 



