664 



SGLENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 121. 



ing of amusement created by the author's 

 curious notions and chosen ' wild and wooly ' 

 style, on which latter he especially plumes him- 

 self. Only, it is out of place in the ' Biologia.' 

 It should have been issued by Bret Harte's 

 scientific society ' on the Stanislaw, ' and re- 

 ported upon by ' Truthful James.' 



Nor, in the hundreds of guesses of the 

 author, has he failed of some worth passing 

 reflection. His theory of the correction for 

 the bissextile year is at least suggestive. His 

 explanation of the ua katun; his comments 

 on the Cakchiquel calendar ; his reasons for 

 dismissing the cypher in Mayan numeration ; 

 his argument that the ancient system of com- 

 putation was to the end of a period instead of 

 the beginning of a new one — these and some 

 other thoughts may be rescued from the mass 

 of crude assertions as meriting separate consid- 

 eration. But, as a whole, the conviction will 

 be forced on the enlightened reader that the 

 cause of American archaeology has gained prac- 

 tically nothing, and has lost something, by the 

 publication of this heavy tome. 



D. G. Brinton. 



Univeesity of Pennsylvania. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 



AMERICAN CHEMICAL JOURNAL, APRIL. 



On the Butanes and Octanes in American Petro- 

 eum : By Chas. F. Mabery and Edward J. 

 Hudson. The authors have studied the very 

 volatile portions of petroleum, obtained by dis- 

 tilling the crude product during the cold winter 

 months, the distillation in some cases proceed- 

 ing from the heart of the atmosphere and being 

 regulated by cooling the still. In order to 

 identify the different hydrocarbons formed they 

 were converted into their chlorine substitution 

 products by bringing the vapor of the hydro- 

 carbon together with chlorine. The distilla- 

 tions were carried out with great care and 

 ingenuity and a number of derivations of butane 

 were made and studied. The results showed 

 that the petroleum contained no normal butane, 

 but isobutane. In isolating the octane the 

 authors found that a long series of distillations 

 had to be carried on to obtain pure products. 

 They state that these octanes do not begin to 



accumulate with any degree of purity until the 

 twentieth distillation. They obtain an octane 

 which they studied and also showed that the 

 petroleum contained no octane boiling above 

 125°. 



Naphthalene Tetrabromide : By W. R. Oen- 

 DORFF and C. B. Moyer. Naphthalene tetra- 

 chloride has been studied by a number of chem- 

 ists, but the corresponding bromine compound 

 had not been prepared until the authors of this 

 paper undertook its investigation. They found 

 it could be prepared by treating naphthalene, in 

 sodium hydroxide, with bromine. Cracked ice 

 was put in the flask and also around it to pre- 

 vent any decomposition taking place from the 

 heat developed. A white cystalline substance 

 was obtained which melted at 111° C. The 

 cystallography of this substance was studied, the 

 angles measured and the more common forms 

 drawn. Many attempts were made to obtain 

 an isomeric substance, but they all failed. The 

 molecular weight could not be determined by 

 the boiling-point method, but some rough de- 

 terminations of the molecular weight of the 

 tetrachloride were made and the composition 

 of the bromide deduced from this by analogy. 

 By this method and by analysis the composition 

 was shown to be C^^H^Br^. 



On Hydrocohaltocohalticyanic Acid and Its 

 Salts: By C. Loring Jackson and A. M. 

 COMEY. This work was undertaken in the hope 

 of preparing, from potassium cobalticyanide, 

 compounds analogous to the nitroprussides. 

 When this compound was boiled for some time 

 with strong nitric acid a gelatinous substance 

 was formed, which was found to contain all 

 the cobalt and to have the composition 

 KH2C03(CN)iiH20. This is the monopotassium 

 salt of hydrocobaltocobalticyanio acid. The 

 barium, silver, copper and zinc salts of the acid 

 were also prepared. "When the monopotassium 

 salt was treated with potassium hydroxide 

 cobaltic hydrate was precipitated and a sub- 

 stance was isolated from the filtrate which 

 proved to be potassium cobalticyanide. The 

 fact that the substance crystallized in needles 

 instead of in broad, rhombic crystals was prob- 

 ably due to a slight amount of impurity. While 

 some of the properties of these substances are 

 similar to those of the ferrocyanides and ferri- 



