440 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 115. 



harmony with the periodic system. The 

 same may be said of telluriam and cobalt or 

 nickel. Whether some or all of these ele- 

 ments are mixtures or whether their seem- 

 ingly anomalous atomic weights must be 

 explained in some other way does not as 

 yet appear. 



The action of the silent electric dis- 

 charge in eflecting chemical synthesis is 

 being studied by Losanitsch and Jovit- 

 schitsch at the Konigliche Hochschule at 

 Belgrade. The apparatus used is an ordi- 

 nary ozonizator, or, as they prefer to call it, 

 electrizator. Mixed gases are led through 

 the apparatus, exposed to the discharge of 

 a Ruhmkorif excited by a current of 70 

 volts and three to five amperes. Carbon 

 monoxid and water, also carbon dioxid and 

 hydrogen, are condensed to formic acid; 

 carbon dioxid and water yield formic acid 

 and free oxygen ; carbon monoxid and hy- 

 drogen give formaldehyde, which quickly 

 polymerizes, apparently to a polymer gly- 

 colaldehyde. Carbon dioxid and methane 

 condense to acetaldehyde, which soon forms 

 aldol. A general method for formation of 

 aldehj'des is thus presented. Nitrogen and 

 water condense directly to ammonium 

 nitrite, a fact known to Berthelot, and con- 

 sidered to have a bearing on plant nourish- 

 ment. Other interesting sj'ntheses were 

 obtained with sulfur compounds and with 

 ammonia. In general, the reactions seem 

 to be rather the reverse of those produced 

 by heat. 



The December Zeitschrift fill- physikalische 

 Chemie contains a study by Paul and Kronig 

 on the behavior of bacteria towards solu- 

 tions of different salts. All salts of the 

 same metal do not have the same germicidal 

 effect upon the spores of the anthrax ba- 

 cillus used for most of the experiments. 

 Thus mercuric chlorid is more deadly than 

 mercuric cyanid. Apparently those solu- 

 tions containing the largest number of free 

 ions of a metal possessing a specific poi- 



sonous character are most active. Mercuric 

 chlorid is more completely dissociated in 

 solution than the cyanid. Alkaline chlorids 

 are often used to promote the solution of 

 mercuric chlorid, but they also decrease 

 the antiseptic power of the solution, since 

 they diminish the dissociation and hence 

 decrease the number of free mercuric ions. 

 Dissolved in alcohol, mercuric chlorid has 

 practically no effect on anthrax spores. 



J. L. H. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



EEVUE DE MfiCANIQUE.* 



A NOTABLE addition to the list of technical 

 journals has been made in the establishment of 

 this monthly. Its editors. Messieurs Haton, 

 Bienayme, Bourdon, Briill, CoUiguon, De Com- 

 berousse, Flamaut, Hirsch, Imbs, Linder, Kaf- 

 fard, Roze, Sauvage, and the responsible col- 

 laborateur, Richard, all stand among the fore- 

 most men of applied science and engineering of 

 France. They include the distinguished head 

 of the Ecole des Mines, member of the Insti- 

 tute, the inspector-general of the navy, a 

 famous inventor and constructor, a past- Presi- 

 dent of the French Society of Civil Engineers, 

 two inspectors-general of roads and bridges, 

 two professors at the Conservatoire des Arts et 

 Metiers, the engineer-in-chief of po?!Ys et chaus- 

 sees, upon whom the French government is ac- 

 customed to rely for advice respecting all its 

 pubUc works and especially at its international 

 exhibitions, the inspector-general of mines, and 

 the engineer-in-chief, and also a representative 

 of the Ecole Polytechnique. 



This first volume opens with a prospectus indi- 

 cating the scope of the plans of the editors and 

 the field to be occupied by the new journal. The 

 leading article is an extensive paper, sixteen 

 pages, by M. Dwelshanvers-Dery, of the Univer- 

 sity of Liege; Determination des don-noes fonda- 

 meniales dans un essai de Machine a Vapeur, in 

 which the famous author gives, in full detail, the 



* Puhliee sotts le Patronage et le Direction technique 

 d'un Comite de Redaction, comnm' de MM. Haton de 

 LA GouplLLlisRE, etc.; Secretaire de Redaction, G. 

 RiCHAKD. Paris, P. Vicq-Dunod et Cie. Tome I., 

 No. 1, Janvier, 1897. 



