174 



SCIENCE, 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 84. 



is said to take great pleasure in his fear experi- 

 ences, but this may be a case of mere reaction 

 from over-refined emotion, or it may be artistic 

 emotion. The whole subject demands a large 

 and detailed treatment. 



This volume adds little to our knowledge. 

 M. Ribot refers the very highest emotions to 

 the James-Lange theory, but only in a very 

 general way. Chapter XI. is an original study 

 of affective meraory and contains some inter- 

 esting matter. I incline to believe that the 

 memory of feeling' is a far more general fact 

 than M. Ribot makes it, and that, since the inter- 

 esting is the rememberable, it is the core of all 

 memory. All living in the past is filled with 

 resuscitated feelings, both recalled and recur- 

 rent, and both associated with images and with 

 correlated feelings. The difficulty in the study 

 of affective memory is to discriminate between 

 the new and the old, between the anger resusci- 

 tated with the thought of the insult and the 

 anger provoked by the thought. 



Esthetic feeling is, as usual, referred to super- 

 fluity of energy. However, this theory must 

 explain why great artists and poets are so often 

 starvelings. The truth is, superfluity expends 

 itself in the easiest channel for the individual, 

 which for most men is apt to be hunting or 

 fishing, or fighting. Superfluity may be one 

 condition of rise and progress of sesthetic, just 

 as there must be a certain fund of available en- 

 ergy for the rise of any higher emotion, but it 

 cannot in itself explain sestheticism. 



On the whole, while we can commend M. 

 Ribot' s work as a useful summary, we can not 

 speak highly of its originality, its thorough- 

 ness or its fairness of tone. It is often narrow 

 and dogmatic, and though the author is suf- 

 ficiently eclectic in his field it is an eclecticism 

 little vindicated. Hiram M. Stanley. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 

 AMERICAN CHEMICAL JOURNAL, JULY. 



Oxidation of Sodium Sulphide and Hydrosulphide 

 to the Sulphate by Electrolysis: By F. W. 

 DuRKEE. Sodium sulphide and hydrosulphide 

 are completely oxidized to sulphate when a 

 current is passed through the solution. When 

 carbon or copper electrodes were used, no oxida- 



tion took place ; but when platinum ones were 

 substituted, the formation of sulphate was quite 

 rapid. When the current is first passed through, 

 considerable hydrogen is set free at the negative 

 electrode ; but very little oxygen escapes at the 

 positive electrode. The oxygen is used up in oxi- 

 dizing some of the sulphide to thiosulphate, and 

 this in turn to sulphate, setting sulphur free. 

 This free sulphur, which separates as a white 

 cloud, is partly dissolved in the sulphides form- 

 ing polysulphides, which color the solution yel- 

 low. These polysulphides are in turn oxidized, 

 and so it continues until all has been oxidized to 

 sulphate, which point is reached when no fur- 

 ther separation of sulphur takes place. The 

 presence of these different products was shown 

 by quantitative determinations of the substances 

 present at different stages of the oxidation. 

 Both direct and alternating currents were used, 

 but the former were found more suitable for the 

 purpose. 



A Method for Obtaining Crystalline Silicon : By 

 G. De Chalmot. By heating a mixture of silica, 

 carbon and oxides of metals in an electric fur- 

 nace, crystals of silicon can be obtained. These 

 can be obtained in almost pure condition by 

 treating the product with hydrochloric and 

 hydrofluoric acids. When oxide of manganese 

 is used, a manganese silicide having the com- 

 position MnSij is formed. 



On Some Mercury Salts of the Anilides : By 

 H. L. Wheeler and B. W. McFarland, So 

 little attention had been given to the methods 

 of formation and reactions of these compounds 

 that no conclusions could be drawn as to their 

 structure. In this paper the authors give the 

 results of their work and conclude that the 

 metal is joined to the nitrogen and not to the 

 oxygen, as has been suggested. When for- 

 manilide is treated with mercuric bromide, a 

 mercuric formanilide is formed ; and when this is 

 treated with benzoyl chloride, halogen mercury 

 compounds are formed, which are undoubtedly 

 nitrogen derivatives. Nitrogen substituted 

 anilides, whose reactions can only be explained 

 on the supposition that the metal is joined to 

 nitrogen, are also formed. 



On the use of Antimony Trichloride in the Synthe- 

 sis of Aromatic Ketones: By W. J. Comstock. In 

 some cases antimony trichloride is preferable, as 



