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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. .XII. No. 2c 



bring the whole profits of the trade into Russian hands, and offer 

 greater financial facilities. 



This route, although more expensive than the transport by sea 

 through the Suez Canal, is preferred, as the quality of the tea thus 

 transported is better. 



One of the important considerations which induce the Russians 

 to urge the building of the Pacific road is purely political. The 

 Chinese boundary is at present almost unprotected, and it would be 

 extremely difficult to concentrate an army of considerable strength 

 anywhere east of Semipalatinsk. It is true that the boundary as 

 far east as Manchuria is guarded by the best of protections, — a vast 

 desert. Still greater weight is attributed to the connection with 

 Vladivostok, the only harbor Russia possesses on the open ocean. 

 Without the railroad, Vladivostok is of very little value, as the Coast 

 Province is not able to furnish provisions for the garrison and fleet. 

 It is hoped that its value will be greatly enhanced by the construc- 

 tion of the railway. A glance at the map will show that the latter 

 follows for a long distance the boundary : therefore, in case of war 

 with China, its safety appears very doubtful, and, indeed, it has been 

 proposed by military authorities that it would be more advisable to 

 build the road farther north. 



From an engineering point of view, there are no serious obstacles 

 to the building of the road, except the bridging of the large rivers 

 of West Siberia, and the passing of the enormous swamps of that 

 region, which would probably make the road far more costly than 

 the Transcaspian Railway. There are no steep grades that would 

 present serious difficulties. 



The distances of the several sections of the line are given as 

 follows : — 



Miles. 



Tyumen to Tomsk 800 



Tomsk to Irkutsk 1 ,050 



Irkutsk to Stryelka .... 800 



Stryelka to Usuri 1,000 



Usuri to Vladivostok 300 



Total 3,950 



The cost of construction is estimated at from five to seven hun- 

 dred million rubles. The whole distance from St. Petersburg to 

 Vladivostok is estimated at six thousand miles ; and the time neces- 

 sary for accomplishing this distance, at from sixteen to seventeen 

 days. To this must be added a few days for the journey from 

 Japan and China to Vladivostok, and from St. Petersburg to west- 

 ern Europe. Thus the journey from eastern Asia to Europe might 

 be made in from twenty to twenty-two days instead of from thirty 

 to thirty-five days, which it takes steamers to run from China to 

 England. 



It seems improbable that the effect of this road upon the trade of 

 the world will be as important as that of the American Pacific roads. 

 The political condition of Siberia is not favorable to an energetic 

 development of its resources and to an extensive immigration ; and, 

 the length of the road being so great, it is doubtful whether it 

 would be able to divert the carrying-trade to any great extent from 

 the steamers using the Suez Canal route. 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS IN WASHINGTON. 



Do Solids act Chemically upon Each Other? Mr. Spring's Experiments 

 do not prove it. — The Transit of Venus and the Solar Parallax. — 

 An Eighth Sternum Rib. — Measurements of Crania. — Adultera- 

 tion of Condiments. — A New Fibre from the Stalk of the Cotton- 

 Plant. 



Chemical Action between Solids. 

 One of the most interesting papers read before the Washington 

 Philosophical Society last spring was one by Mr. William Hallock 

 on the formation of alloys at lower temperatures than the melting- 

 points of either of their constituents. An abstract of the paper was 

 published in Science (xi. No. 265) at the time. Mr. Spring, a dis- 

 tinguished chemist of Belgium, has been pursuing researches in the 

 same field as Mr. Hallock, and has criticised some of the latter's 

 work. At the last meetirjg of the Philosophical Society Mr. Hal- 

 lock turned the tables on Mr. Spring by examining some experi- 

 ments, a description of which had been published, to prove that 

 <;hemical action takes place between solids. 



Mr. Hallock began by mentioning one or two experiments illus- 

 trative of his theory of the formation of alloys, as referred to above. 

 He placed potassium and sodium in contact, arranging a thermom- 

 eter to register the temperature. As they united, the temperature 

 fell 2°.4 C. below that of the room. A block of ice and one of 

 rock-salt, the temperature of each being reduced 10° or 12° C. be- 

 low the melting-point of the ice, when brought into contact, began, 

 immediately the formation of the solution of salt. 



One of Mr. Spring's experiments to show chemical action be- 

 tween solids consisted of placing copper filings and sulphur in con- 

 tact. The sulphur attacked the copper. Mr. Hallock doubted 

 that this was a case of chemical action between solids, and pre- 

 pared the following described experiment to satisfy himself. A 

 piece of bright copper and a small mass of sulphur were placed 

 near, but not in contact with each other. After a time the face of 

 the copper was blackened by the sulphur. Thinking it barely pos- 

 sible that particles of copper might fly across the space between, 

 them, Mr. Hallock then varied the experiment as follows : The 

 copper and sulphur were placed in a glass tube, with a wad of ab- 

 sorbent cotton an inch thick between them. The experiment was 

 varied in several ways, in one case the tube being filled with dry 

 air, in another the air exhausted, and in a third the tube being 

 filled with oxygen, etc. In every case the copper was affected by 

 the sulphur, although in some more than in others. Mr. Hallock's 

 conclusion was that the chemical action did not take place between 

 the copper and the sulphur as a solid, but that the active agent 

 was the vapor of sulphur. In the same manner re-action took 

 place between copper and mercuric chloride, the vapor of the latter 

 passing through absorbent cotton. 



Mr. Hallock does not deny that chemical action may take place 

 between solids, — indeed, he is inclined to think that it does, — but 

 he holds that Mr. Spring's experiments do not prove it. 



The Solar Parallax. 



Prof. William Harkness, a member of the United States com- 

 mission to observe the transit of Venus, in a long paper read before 

 the Philosophical Society at its last meeting, gave a very interest- 

 ing description of the instruments used in observing the transit and 

 in photographing the sun. Great labor, much of it very perplexing 

 and occupying many weeks, was required to measure lenses used,- 

 and determine their focal distances, to ascertain the peculiarities of 

 mirrors, etc., as preliminary to the observations. Professor Hark- 

 ness described this work. About sixteen hundred photographs 

 were secured, most of which have already been finished. The 

 methods of reduction were also explained. 



In the latter part of his paper, Professor Harkness spoke of the 

 solar parallax and its related constants, introducing a series of in- 

 tricate calculations which he has made to determine the latter. 

 Among them may be mentioned the sun's distance from the earth 

 as found by his calculations, 9^,385,000 miles ; as computed from 

 data furnished by the transit of Venus, 92,521,000 miles; the 

 moon's distance from the earth, 238,852.4 miles ; the moon's mass, 

 ftIts I the velocity of light, 186,298.4 miles per second; sun's 

 parallax, 8867" ±.001 2". 



An Eighth Sternum Rib. 



At one of the meetings of the Anatomical Society during the late 

 Medical Congress in Washington, Dr. Lamb of the Army Medi- 

 cal Museum spoke briefly of a singular phenomenon he had ob- 

 served in his examination of human breast-bones. It was the oc- 

 currence, in a number of specimens, of an eighth rib, the cartilage 

 that is usually found below the seventh rib being fully developed 

 into a rib. Dr. Lamb first saw a specimen of this kind about ten 

 years ago. While teaching, he had occasion to observe the subject 

 he had before the class with great care, and was surprised on one 

 occasion, on counting the ribs, to find that there were eight. He 

 made no further investigation at the time, presuming that the 

 phenomenon might be of comparatively frequent occurrence. 



More recently Dr. Lamb has given the subject more attention, 

 and now has in his own collection four specimens, while in the 

 Army Medical Museum there are eight more. In all these cases 

 the phenomenon occurs in negroes, but one additional specimen is 

 that of an Indian. 



Dr. Lamb has made a thorough search of anatomical literature 



