May 14, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



763 



carefully examined it, blowing back the 

 plumage until the skin could be seen. It 

 is also safe to say, doubtless, that the cast- 

 off feathers were not eaten by the bird itself. 

 Hence it follows that unless the previous 

 plumage was made up of only two tail and 

 eleven body feathers, both of the former on 

 the same side — which was certainly not the 

 case — my Bobolink was unquestionably an in- 

 stance of color-change in the plumage without 

 ■moult." 



Dr. Chadbourne had already presented 

 evidence tending towards the same end in 

 ike Auk for October, 1896, and January, 

 1897, wherein he discusses change of color 

 in the Screech Owl, Megascojis asio. 



In The Ibis for October, 1896, Mr. John G. 

 Millais also discusses the problem of color- 

 change without moult, describing and figur- 

 ing feathers from the Eared Grebe, Colymbus 

 auritus, and Sanderling, Calidris arenaria, 

 showing the great probability of such 

 change taking place. The word probability 

 is used advisedly, for Mr. Millais figures 

 feathers in different stages from different 

 birds, and while this evidence may be very 

 strong it can not in the nature of things be 

 so conclusive as change of color in the 

 plumage of a bird kept under observation 

 day after day. 



In spite of all that has been written, the 

 moulting and change of color in birds is 

 comparatively little known, and it remains 

 a fine field of research for the investigator 

 who is willing to spend his time in the pa- 

 tient and careful collection of facts. 



F. A. L. 



NOTES ON INORGANIC CHESIISTBY. 

 Foe some time past there has been a 

 tendency on the part of an increasing num- 

 ber of chemists to attack the problems of 

 inorganic chemistry, profiting by the light 

 which the study of organic chemistry has 

 thrown upon the carbon and nitrogen atoms. 

 This is an encouraging tendency from the 



standpoint of theoretical chemistry, for 

 while the devotion of by far the largest 

 proportion of chemists, for several decades 

 down to the present time, to organic chem- 

 istry has widened vastly our knowledge of 

 organic compounds and the carbon atom, 

 yet the study of all other atoms is even 

 more necessary for the theory of chemistry. 

 Relatively very few inorganic compounds 

 have been studied and some of our most 

 familiar reactions are illy understood. So 

 far from the inorganic field having been long 

 ago worked out and exhausted, it is here 

 that the chemistry of the future will find 

 its most prolific harvest. Yet the field is 

 far harder to till and less productive of im- 

 mediate results. 



The Berichte of the German Chemical 

 Society might almost seem to be devoted to 

 organic chemistry, so large is the prepon- 

 derance, yet we find that the inorganic field 

 is not wholly neglected. In the last num- 

 ber Muthmann and Seitter contribute an 

 investigation of the sulfid of nitrogen, which 

 is in part a development of earlier work of 

 Demargay. When nitrogen sulfid IST^S^ is 

 treated with chlorin a theachlorid IST^S^Cl^ 

 is formed, as shown by Andreocci. When 

 sulfur chlorid is used, a compound of the 

 formula N^jS^Cl is obtained, and from this a 

 series of derivatives, including the bromid, 

 iodid, nitrate and thiocyanate. There thus 

 appears to be a comparatively stable univa- 

 lent group, ^"38^, which the authors be- 

 lieve to have a ring formula analogous to 

 that of benzine. 



In the same Berichte, Pawlewski, of Lem- 

 berg, gives a careful study of the physical 

 properties of sulfuryl chloride, SO,Clj, and 

 some of its chemical reactions. Professor 

 S5derbaum, of Gothenburg, in the same 

 number describes a reaction between acety- 

 lene and cupric salts. The cuprous acety- 

 lid has been long known, but that acetylene 

 gives a precipitate with cupric salts has 



