394 



8CIENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 114. 



mound, by the Curator, Mr. David Boyle. 

 A photographic illustration and a plan are 

 added. There is no doubt of its artificial 

 origin and religious character, and it even 

 resembles the Ohio serpent mound in the 

 presence of the ' egg ' in front of the ser- 

 pent's head. Efforts will be made to pre- 

 serve it. A number of other mounds and 

 some graves are described, and a variety of 

 noteworthy specimens acquired by the Mu- 

 seum are mentioned and illustrated. At 

 the close of the report (which covers 117 

 pages) is a useful bibliography of the 

 archseology of Ontario, prepared by Mr. A. 

 F. Hunter. D. G. Brinton. 



University of Pennsylvania. 



NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 

 The last number of the Proceedings of 

 the Chemical Society contains the abstract 

 of a paper by W. N. Hartley and H. Eam- 

 age on the wide dissemination of some of 

 the rarer elements. A large number of 

 ores and minerals were examined by means 

 of spectrographic analysis. Most notable 

 is the wide distribution of gallium, which 

 was found in 68 out of 168 specimens, oc- 

 curring in most magnetites, bauxites and 

 blendes, and nearly half the clay ironstones 

 and manganese ores. Eubidium appears 

 to be even more widely distributed, occur- 

 ring iu most iron ores. Indium was found 

 in thirty minerals, including all the carbon- 

 ates of iron and tin ores and most blendes. 

 Thallium, while less widespread, was fre- 

 quently found. Iron and sodium were 

 found in every specimen and potassium in 

 all but two, one a blende and the other a 

 tin ore. Calcium, copper and silver were 

 found in all but a few cases. Such a wide 

 dissemination of gallium and indium is un- 

 expected, and the same might be said of 

 silver. Among metals not looked for by 

 the authors, titanium is known to be found 

 almost universally, and possibly the same 

 is true of gold. 



An interesting class of substances has 

 been discovered by Professor Wm. L. Dud- 

 ley, of Vanderbilt, formed by the action of 

 fused sodium dioxid on metals. The one 

 most carefully studied is a hydrated oxid 

 of nickel, of the formula ]Sri30j,2H20. It is 

 formed by heating nickel with sodium 

 dioxid in a nickel crucible to a cherry red. 

 The surface of the fusion soon becomes 

 covered with scaly crystals, which, after 

 cooling and washing, possess the composi- 

 tion given. They are lustrous, almost 

 black, apparently^ hexagonal plates, soft 

 and somewhat resembling graphite. They 

 begin to lose water at 140°, and thus pre- 

 sent the curious but not unique phenomenon 

 of a substance containing water, formed at 

 a high temperature and losing its water at 

 a much lower temperature. Other metals 

 appear to form similar compounds, buttheir 

 study is not easy, since fused sodium dioxid 

 attacks crucibles of porcelain, iron, silver, 

 gold or platinum. 



Before the Edinburgh University Chem- 

 ical Society on January 25th a paper was 

 read by Dr. Dobbin on ' Who introduced 

 the use of the balance into chemistry ? ' 

 After quoting from text-books many state- 

 ments which attribute to Lavoisier the dis- 

 covery of the law of conservation of energy, 

 and the first employment of the balance in 

 investigating theoretical questions in chem- 

 istry, the author showed that every step of 

 Black's classic investigation on ' Magnesia 

 Alba ' was made good by appeal to direct 

 quantitative experiments. Boyle also made 

 frequent use of the quantitative method of 

 experiment. The earliest attempt to de- 

 termine the accuracy of a view by appeal to 

 quantitative experiment was, according to 

 Dr. Dobbin, that of Van Helmont in his 

 well-known experiment upon the supposed 

 formation from water only, of 164 pounds 

 weight of the substance of a willow tree, the 

 weight of the earth in which this willow 

 grew having varied by only about two 



