Apeii,23, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



651 



sionary about 1770 (-Luces delOtomi,' pp. 

 303). We have others, but it is one of the 

 most valuable, and is carefully edited. 



The assertion has been several times ad- 

 vanced by Mexican writers that there is a 

 relationship between the Otomi and the 

 Apache, that is, the Athapascan stock. I 

 made a careful comparison of one hundred 

 test words between the two groups, and 

 sent the results to the Congress of Ameri- 

 canists at Stockholm, but I am informed 

 that the paper has been lost. It showed 

 that a sufficient number of verbal similari- 

 ties exist to render either linguistic rela- 

 tionship or admixture probable. 



D. Gr. Brinton. 

 Univeesity of Pennsylvania. 



NOTES ON INOBQANIC CHEMISTRY. 



In a recent number of the Comptes Eendues 

 P. de Wateville describes a method of grow- 

 ing crystals with a transparency and luster 

 analogous to those of cut and polished 

 stones. The small crystal is so mounted 

 that while growing in a saturated solution 

 it can be continuously rotated on itself with 

 a speed of several rotations a second. In 

 alum crystals thus grown at 50°, dodeca- 

 hedron and cube faces progressively dis- 

 appear, those of the octahedron alone finally 

 remaining. Potassium and ammonium 

 alums, copper sulfate and sodium chlorate 

 are said by the author to give particularly 

 fine results. 



In the American Chemical Journal for April 

 Professors Jackson and Comey, of Harvard, 

 describe a peculiar hydrogel formed by the 

 action of nitric acid on potassium cobalti- 

 cyanid. When a strong solution of the 

 latter salt is boiled with an equal volume 

 of concentrated nitric acid for two hours it 

 suddenly changes into a dark red semi solid 

 gelatinous mass. This jelly is insoluble in 

 acid or salt solutions, but somewhat soluble 

 in cold or boiling water, and more so in 

 water at 60°. This solution can be evap- 



orated without gelatinizing, and the residue 

 from evaporation when moistened with 

 water decrepitates with a series of insignifi- 

 cant explosions to a red powder, almost in- 

 soluble in cold water, but somewhat soluble 

 in water at 60°. The formula from analysis 

 is KH2Co3(C]Sr)jj,H20, provisionally called 

 monopotassium cobaltocobalticyanid. Sev- 

 eral other salts (barium, silver and copper) 

 of the acid were made. A similar jelly has 

 been formed by the authors by the action 

 of nitric acid on potassium ferricyanid. On 

 boiling potassium ruthenium nitrosochlorid, 

 KjEuCI.NO with potassium cyanid in 

 quantity insufficient to convert it into the 

 ruthenocyanid, the writer has obtained a 

 similar hydrogel with almost identical prop- 

 erties. 



According to the recently published re- 

 port of the Russian Department of Mines 

 for 1895, the production of platinum for 

 that year was 9,700 pounds, a decrease of 

 1,700 pounds from that of the year preced- 

 ing. The production of all other mineral 

 products showed a decided increase, except 

 that of gold, which decreased slightly. The 

 largest relative increase was in mercury, the 

 production of which, 500 tons, was more 

 than twice that of the previous year. 



J. L. H. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 At a meeting of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia, held the 13th inst., 

 the following was unanimously adopted : The 

 Academy of Natural Sciences, of Philadelphia, 

 has received, with profound sorrow the an- 

 nouncement of the death of Professor Edward 

 Drinker Cope. It is fitting that this meeting 

 should place on record a minute expressive of 

 its sense of the loss sustained. The Academy 

 witnessed the beginning and the end of his long 

 labors. It was to its halls he came as a student 

 in 1859 and it was to them he paid his last visit 

 before his final illness. The lustre thrown upon 

 the society by his researches is but a reflex of 

 the spirit of this remarkable man, who exibited, 



