726 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 123. 



The Journal of the College of Science, 

 Imperial University, Japan, quoted in the 

 Chemical News for April 9th, gives the full 

 description of the atomic weight determina- 

 tion of tellurium by Masumi Chikashige, 

 already noticed in Science. Previous de- 

 terminations have been made from tellu- 

 rium associated with heavy metals, and the 

 figure found, 127.6, is higher than that of 

 iodin, below which it should be, according 

 to the periodic law. It has been thought 

 that some impurity of higher atomic weight 

 might account for the anomaly. Chika- 

 shige worked with a tellurium of a wholly 

 different (Japanese) origin, occurring as- 

 sociated with sulfur and selenium. He 

 also reaches the same result, 127. 6. It may, 

 however, be noted that if the supposed con- 

 tamination in the American and European 

 tellurium be due to a higher element of 

 the sulfur group, it would not be un- 

 natural to suppose the same element present 

 in the Japanese mineral, which contains 

 99.75 per cent, sulfur, 0.06 per cent, selen- 

 ium, and 0.17 per cent, tellurium. 



J. L. H. 



probably due to hydrogen, being produced 

 under conditions of luminosity not hitherto 

 known. Professor Pickering finds that by 

 writing Palmer's formula, connecting the 

 wave-lengths of the hydrogen lines, in the 

 form 



ASTSOPHYSICAL NOTES. 



In Circular No. 12 of the Harvard Col- 

 lege Observatory, dated November 2, 1896, 

 Professor Pickering published the discovery 

 on the Draper Memorial photographs of a 

 remarkable stellar spectrum, that of Zeta 

 Puppis (Mag., 2.5; P. A., 8" 0.1"; Dec, 

 —39° 43'). 



In addition to dark hydrogen lines and 

 K, there were two broad bright lines at ^ 

 4633 and 4688, and a peculiar series of dark 

 lines whose wave-lengths were rhythmically 

 related. These were A 4544, 4201, 4027, 

 8925, 3859, 3816 and 3783. It was at first 

 thought that they represented some new 

 element not yet found on the earth or in 

 the stars. Circular No. 16, of date Janu- 

 ary 12, 1897, announced, however, the im- 

 portant discovery that these lines are very 



the ordinary lines will be given when for tv 

 the even integers 6, 8, 10, etc., are substi- 

 tuted, and the new lines when the odd 

 integers from 9 to 21 are successively as- 

 signed to n. It appears that the lines for n 

 = 7 (A 5412), 9 (/I 4544), 11 (X 4201) and 

 13 {I 4027) have been hitherto recorded in 

 certain spectra of type lib. Professor 

 Pickering has since reported that three other 

 southern stars are somewhat similar to 

 Zeta Puppis in having part of the lines of 

 the new series. 



Meanwhile Professor H. Kayser, of Bonn 

 — whose work in conjunction with Professor 

 Runge on the harmonic relations of spectral 

 lines is so favorably known — also investi- 

 gated the origin of the new lines, and pub- 

 lishes his conclusions in two articles in the 

 Astrophysical Journal for February and April. 

 Hydrogen had been the only element hav- 

 ing harmonically related lines which had 

 possessed only a single series of such lines. 

 Now Kayser and Eunge have found that 

 two of the series of lines for an element end 

 at nearly the same place. Hence on exam- 

 ining the frequencies of the new lines, 

 Kayser concluded that they have this char- 

 acteristic and represent a new hydrogen 

 series, a conclusion confirmed in his second 

 article written after seeing Circular No. 16. 

 Thus the spectral relations of hydrogen 

 lines become normal. 



It is a matter of much interest to know 

 if the lines of the new series can be pro- 

 duced in laboratory experiments. If so, im- 

 portant information as to stellar tempera- 

 tures and pressures is likely to be o btained 



