144 



SCIENCE. 



Vol. XV. No. 369 



meteorological observations and the keeping of meteorological 

 registers form a part of the common education of the people. ' ' 



W. M. D. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



At the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Monday evening, 

 Feb. 17, Mr. George F. Kunz of New York lectured on precious 

 stones, showing lantern illustrations of the Paris Exposition. 



— The next meeting of the j^imerican Branch of the Society for 

 Psychical Research will be held at the rooms of the Boston So- 

 ciety of Natural History, comer of Berkeley and Boylston Sti-eets 

 on Tuesday, March 4, at 8 p.m. Professor William James will 

 preside. An abridgment of papers by Mr. Frank Podmore and 

 Mr. F. W. H. Myers, on ' 'Phantasms of the Dead, ' ' will be read 

 by the secretary. No admittance except by ticket. 



— The New York Minej-alogical Club made an excursion on 

 Feb. 32 to Philadelphia, to visit one of the principal mineral 

 localities and some important collections. Leaving by the 8 a.m. 

 express, they reached Broad Street Station at 10.10. Here the 

 party was met by representatives of the Mineralogical Section of 

 the Philadelphia Academy. Thence, under the guidance of Mr. 

 Theodore D. Rand, they went by rail to the Soapstone Quarry, on 

 the Schuylkill, crossing exposures in the vicinity of the quarry, 

 of most of the rocks of Philadelphia. Returning to Broad Street 

 between 1 and 3 p.m., they visited the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences during the afternoon, and the celebrated cabinet of Mr. 

 Clarence S. Bement. The return to New York was by the ti-ain 

 leaving Broad Street at 8 30 p. m. 



— In the "Third Annual Report of the Henry Draper Me- 

 morial," attention is called to the fact that the K line in the spec- 

 trum of C UrsiB Majoris occasionally appears double. The spec- 

 trum of this star has been photographed at the Harvard College 

 Observatory on seventy nights, and a careful study of the results 

 has been made by Miss A. C. Maury, a niece of Dr. Draper. The 

 K line is clearly seen to be double in the photographs taken on 

 March 39, 1887, on May 17, 1889, and on Aug. 27 and 28, 1889. 

 An examination of all the plates leads to the belief that the line 

 is double at intervals of fifty-two days, beginning March 37, 1887, 

 and that for several days before and after these dates it presents a 

 hazy appearance. The doubling of the line was predicted for 

 Oct. 18, 1889, but only partially verified. The star was, however, 

 low, and only three prisms could be used, while the usual number 

 was four. The only satisfactory explanation of this phenomenon 

 as yet proposed is that the brighter component of this star is itself 

 a double star, having components nearly equal in brightness, and 

 too close to have been separated as yet visually; also that the 

 time of revolution of the system is one hundred and four days. 

 When one component is approaching the earth, all the lines in its 

 spectrum will be moved toward the blue end, while all the lines 

 in the spectrum of the other component will be moved by an equal 

 amount in the opposite direction if their masses are equal. Each 

 line will thus be separated into two. The predicted doubling of 

 the lines of C Ursse Majoris on Dec. 8 was confirmed on that day 

 by each of three photographs. Two more stars have been found 

 showing a similar periodicity. 



— The Engineer of Jan. 31 contains a leading article on color- 

 blind engine-drivers, and it is interesting to note what the lead- 

 ing technical journal has to say on the subject : ' ' We do not say 

 that no accident was ever brought about by the inability of a 

 driver to distinguish between a green light and a red one, but 

 we can say that nothing of such an accident is to be met with in 

 the Board of Trade Reports. ' ' Our contemporary is of opinion 

 that the testing of the sight of locomotive men should be made 

 under working conditions, i.e., with actual signal lights. 



— We learn from Nature of Feb. 6 that a paper on mortality 

 from snake-bite in the district of RatnagheiTy was read before 

 the Bombay Natural History Society by Mr. Vidal, of the Bom- 

 bay Civil Service. Many of the deaths in that district are, . he 

 says, due to a small and insignificant-looking snake, called 

 ' ' foorsa ' ' by the natives. It is a viper rarely more than a foot 

 long, and is so sluggish that it does not move out of the way till 



trodden on. Thus it is much more dangerous than the stronger 

 and fiercer cobra. 



^ A new and very simple method of synthesizing indigo has 

 been discovered by Dr. Flimm of Darmstadt {Ber. deut. chem. 

 Ges., No. 1, 1890, p. 57). In studying the action of caustic 

 alkalies upon the monobromine derivative of acetanilide,, 

 CuH^.NH.CO.CHoBr, a solid melting at 131.5°, it was found, 

 that, when this substance was fused with caustic potash, a product 

 was obtained which at once gave an indigo-blue color on the 

 addition of water, and quite a considerable quantity of a blue 

 solid resembling indigo separated out. The best mode of carrying 

 out the operation, according to Nature, is described by Dr. 

 Flimm as follows : ' 'The monobromacetanilide is carefully 

 mixed with dry caustic potash in a mortar, and the mixture in- 

 troduced into a retort and heated rapidly until a homogeneous, 

 reddish-brown melt is obtained. This is subsequently dissolved 

 in water, and a little ammonia or ammonium-chloride solution 

 added, when the liquid immediately becomes colored green, 

 which color rapidly changes into a dark blue ; and in a short 

 time the blue coloring-matter is for the most part deposited upon 

 the bottom of the vessel in which the operation is performed. 

 The fused mass may also conveniently be dissolved in dilute hy- 

 drochloric acid, and a little ferric chloride added, when the for- 

 mation of indigo takes place immediately. The collected blue 

 coloring-matter may be readily obtained pure by washing first 

 with dilute hydrochloric acid, and afterwards with alcohol. ' ' 

 That this blue substance was really common indigo was proved 

 by the fact that it yielded several of the most characteristic re- 

 actions of indigotin, such as solubility in aniline, paraiHne, and 

 chloroform; its sublimation; and the formation of sulphonic 

 acids, which gave similar changes of color with niti-ic acid to 

 those of indigotin. The final proof was afforded by its reduction 

 to indigo white, and re-oxidation to indigo blue by exposure to 

 air. Moreover, the absorption spectrum of the coloring-matter 

 was found to be identical with the well-known absorption spec- 

 trum of indigo : hence there can be no doubt that indigo is really 

 formed by this very simple process 



— A recent telegram from Tashkent, says Nature^ announced 

 that Col. Pevtsofi" and M. Roborovsky had discovered a convenient 

 pass to the north-western part of Thibet, from Nia, and had 

 amounted to the great tableland. The plateau has there an 

 altitude of 13,000 feet above the sea, and the country round 

 is desolate and uninhabited, while towards the south the- 

 plateau is well watered and wooded. The Tashkent telegram 

 is so expressed that it might be supposed to mean that two- 

 separate passes had been discoverd by the two explorers. But 

 the news received from the expedition at St. Petersburg on 

 Dec. 26, and dated Oct. 37, shows that both explorers proposed 

 to leave the oasis of Keria (100 miles to the east of Khotan) 

 on the next day, for Nia (65 miles farther east) , and there to 

 search for a passage across the border-ridge which received from 

 Prjevalsky the name of the "Russian Ridge.!' This immensfr 

 snow-clad chain separates the deserts of eastern Turkestan from 

 the trapezoidal space, the interior of which is quite unknown 

 yet, and which is bordered by the ' 'Russian Ridge' ' and the- 

 Altyn-tagh, in the north-west; the ridges of Tsaidam and, those 

 named by Prjevalsky "Columbus" and "Marco-Polo," in the 

 north-east; the highlands (explored by Prjevalsky in 1879-80) 

 at the sources of the Blue River, in the south-east; and a long, 

 yet unnamed ridge, which seems to be a prolongation of the 

 Tan-la, in the south-west. The pass leading to that plateau 

 from Nia, and now discovered by the Russian expedition, is 

 situated some 80 miles to the east of the well-known pass, 

 across the Kuen-lun Mountains, which leads from southern 

 Khotan to Lake Yashi-kul. M. Roborovsky's intention is 

 evidently next to move up the Tchertchen River, and to 

 endeavor to reach the ridges "Moscow" and "Lake Unfreezing" 

 (11,700 feet high), which were visited by Prjevalsky from the, 

 east during his last journey. Having succeeded in finding a 

 pass to Thibet in the south of Nia, Col. Pevtsoff proposes, as 

 soon as the spring comes, to proceed himself by this pass to 

 the tableland, while M. Roborovsky probably will be despatched. 



