520 



SGIENGE. 



LN. S. Vol. V. No. 117. 



■ fully discussed and the exposures of Cass county 

 are treated in detail. 



■ The Geology of the San Francisco Peninsula : 

 By Andrew C. Lawson. A retort to the criti- 

 cism appearing in the preceding number of the 

 Journal, of the author's paper, by H. W. Fair- 

 banks. 



Note on the Geology of Southwestern New Eng- 

 land: By Wm. H. Hobbs. The structure of 

 the apparently anticlinal ridges of Berkshire 

 schist was studied in the ridge of schist imme- 

 diately to the south of the east Twin Lake in 

 the township of Salisbury and in the mass of 

 Tom Ball near Housatonic village. The obser- 

 vations obtained have been sufiiciently numer- 

 ous and reliable to show that the folds are 

 either overturned anticlines with easterly dip- 

 ping axial planes or nearly recumbent fanned 

 synclines with the axial planes inclined to the 

 eastward. The ridge south of Twin Lakes was 

 followed southward into Watewanchu Moun- 

 tain, where the limestone can be seen to pass 

 under the schist on the end of the fold. This 

 latter locality is, therefore, a crucial one and 

 shows that the apparent anticlines of schist are 

 nearly recumbent synclinal folds with the necks 

 compressed so as to produce a fan structui'e. 



Studies for Students. Deformation of Bocks V. 

 Supplementary Notes : By C. R. Van Hise. 

 Notes supplementary to the author's recent 

 papers with reference especially to the follow- 

 ing topics are given : Separation of the outer 

 crust of the earth into zones ; Plastic flow pro- 

 duces folding ; Complex folds ; Monoclinal an- 

 ticlines and synclines ; Position of cleavage in 

 anticlines and synclines ; Eelations of cleavage 

 produced by shearing and shortening ; Rela- 

 tions of cleavage and fissility to faults ; Rela- 

 tions of joints to bedding ; and Relations of 

 joints to folds. 



H. F. B. 



AMERICAN CHEMICAL JOURNAL, MARCH. 



On the Decomposition of Diazo Compounds : By 

 John J. Griffin. The author has studied the 

 reaction of ethyl and methyl alcobols with 

 paradiazometatoluenesulphonic acid in the pres- 

 ence of various substances, as sodium methy- 

 late, sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, zinc 

 dust, calcium carbonate, sodium ethylate and 



ammonia. When diazo compounds are decom- 

 posed by alcohols, one of the products formed 

 contains either hydrogen or an alkoxy group in 

 place of the diazo group. The influence of 

 temperature and pressure on this reaction has 

 been studied with a number of diazo com- 

 pounds, and the present research was a con- 

 tinuation in this line. When the substance un- 

 der investigation was decomposed in alcohol in 

 the presence of an excess of some alkali and 

 zinc dust, only the hydrogen reaction took 

 place; that is, the diazo group was in all cases re- 

 placed by hydrogen, the nature of the alcohol 

 in these cases having little, if any, influence on 

 the reaction. When the decomposition took 

 place in alcohol saturated with ammonia, the 

 ammonium salt of paratoluidinemetasulphonic 

 acid was formed. The product in each case was 

 converted into the amide and separated by 

 crystallization. The properties of this amide 

 were studied, and some of it was oxidized to 

 metasulphaminebenzoic acid, and its properties 

 and those of its salts were also studied. The 

 only exception noted was with calcium carbon- 

 ate, which had no influence on the diazo decom- 

 position. 



The fact that pure metatoluenesulphonamide 

 could be made in any desired quantity by these 

 reactions suggested transforming it into the 

 acid, to settle the contradictory statements 

 which have been made about its properties. 

 The pure acid and a number of its salts were 

 prepared, and the results indicated that the 

 substances hitherto obtained had not been pure. 



On the Colored Compounds Obtained from Sodic 

 Ethylate and Certain Aromatic Nitro Compounds: 

 By C. LoRiNG Jackson and M. H. Ittner. 

 A number of investigators have observed and 

 studied the strikingly colored substances 

 formed by the action of alkaline solutions on 

 certain aromatic nitro compounds. Some of 

 these colored substances have been isolated and 

 analyzed and some light has been thrown on 

 the conditions governing their formation. The 

 authors have prepared and studied the action 

 of about fifteen complex nitro compounds. The 

 duration of the color varied from a few seconds 

 to hours, related substances behaving in genera;l 

 alike. The explanation advanced by Victor 

 Meyer, that these compounds are salts formed 



