April 16, 1897.] 



SGIENGE. 



615 



habitants have an increased attraction for 

 American students. 



In the February number of the Journal 

 of the Anthropological Institute the eminent 

 antiquary, Dr. Oscar Montelius, offers some 

 new views on the subject. He identifies 

 the Etruscans of Italy with the Tyrrhe- 

 nians and the Pelasgians, and the earliest 

 Etruscan culture with the Mycenean. Both, 

 he believes, emerged from Asia Minor, the 

 Etruscans reaching Italy by sea about 1050 

 B. C, bringing with them their peculiar 

 alphabet. The ' Tursha ' of the Egyptian 

 inscriptions of the 13th century B. C, he 

 argues, were the Tyrrhenians. 



In the discussion which followed, some of 

 these views were opposed by Mr. Arthur 

 Evans and Mr. J. L. Myres, the former 

 maintaining that the ' root elements ' of the 

 Mycenean civilization were European and 

 not Asiatic ; and the latter referring with 

 approval to the theory that the Etruscans 

 belonged to the Hamitic stock of North 

 Africa, advanced on linguistic grounds by 

 myself. 



D. G. Beinton. 



University of Pennsylvania. 



NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 

 A RECENT number of Nature (March 11th) 

 contains an interesting review, by T. K. 

 Rose, of the extraction of gold by chemical 

 methods; much of the gold in ores is in a 

 state of very fine division, the particles be- 

 ing often less than one thousandth of an 

 inch in diameter, and sometimes less than 

 one twelve thousandth. Such particles are 

 much more readily dissolved by chemical 

 means than by mercury. In sulfid ores, too, 

 mercury is an unsatisfactory solvent. Such 

 ores have until lately been worked by the 

 chlorination process, which is now nearly 

 fifty years old. The sulfids must, however, 

 be very completely roasted, as the chlorin 

 has a greater preference for sulfids than for 

 the gold. "When alkaline earths are pres- 



ent, salt must be added in the roasting. 

 This however occasions, save in the im- 

 proved furnaces, a loss of chlorid of gold 

 by volatilization. The ore is generally 

 treated with chlorin water in large vats or 

 in revolving barrels under pressure. The 

 plant at Mount Morgan, Queensland, is the 

 largest in the world, 1500 tons of ore being 

 treated at a cost of $4.50 per ton, about 

 $25 in gold being recovered for each ton. 

 The gold is best precipitated from the 

 chlorin solution by hydrogen sulfid, though 

 iron sulfate or charcoal in boiling solution 

 may be used. On account of the expense 

 of roasting and the non-recovery of any 

 silver in the ore, the chlorination process is 

 being gradually superseded by the cj'anid 

 process, which, while hardly recovering the 

 gold as completely as the former, can be 

 used with sulfid ores directly, and which 

 recovers also any silver present. It has 

 been long known that potassium cyanid in 

 dilute solution dissolves gold, especially in 

 the presence of air, with the formation of 

 potassium aurocyanid, K Au (ON"),, and 

 this reaction is used practically in the pro- 

 cess introduced by MacArthur and the 

 Forrests. The action of the cyanid is 

 most rapid in one-fourth per cent, solution, 

 but at the best it is slow, and Sulman and 

 Teed propose to hasten it by the addition 

 of cyanogen bromid. The gold is precipi- 

 tated either by zinc shavings, or, less com- 

 monly, by electro- deposition with iron cath- 

 odes and anodes of lead foil. The use of 

 zinc is cheaper, but 1^ to 2 dwts. of gold 

 per ton of liquid remain unprecipitated, 

 and the gold obtained is only about 700 

 fine. The electrolj'tic process is more com- 

 plete and the bullion produced is very fine. 

 At the Worcester mine, in the Transvaal, 

 seventy tons of liquid are treated a day at 

 an expenditure of five horse power, and 

 12,000 square feet of surface of lead are 

 exposed. 



The cyanid process enables low-grade 



