536 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 353. 



4. History of libraries and library adminis- 

 tration. 



5. Paleography, classical and naediseval ; 

 diplomatics ; administration of archives. • 



The studies in the schools of bibliography 

 should lead up to the degree of Doctor of Phi- 

 losophy as the studies in any other school. To 

 create a special degree in ' library science,' as 

 has been done in the library schools, seems un- 

 necessary. 



Aksbl G. S. Josephson. 

 The John Crerar Library, 

 Chicago, Sept. 7, 1901. 



NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 

 It has been often claimed that the presence 

 of nickel in dust is a sufficient criterion to dis- 

 tinguish it as being cosmic rather than terres- 

 trial in its origin. Hartley and Ramage have, 

 however, shown in a paper recently read before 

 the Royal Society that nickel is found in soot, 

 and hence that nickeliferous dust may be of 

 terrestrial origin. They also called attention 

 to the wide distribution of gallium in small 

 traces, being found in all aluminous minerals, 

 in many flue dusts, in many iron ores, and in 

 soot and atmospheric dust. A dust is described 

 which is probably of cosmic origin. It fell on 

 a calm night in November; 1897, was magnetic 

 and very uniform in composition, and unlike 

 volcanic dust or the dust of any known terres- 

 trial source. 



AcoNTiNUATiON of Gautier's work on the rare 

 elements in the crystalline rocks reveals not 

 only the presence of nitrogen and argon, but 

 also iodin and arsenic. Helium was not found. 

 The gases of mineral waters and the gases issu- 

 ing from the earth's crust into the atmosphere 

 seemed to be formed by the action of water at 

 high temperature upon the nitrids, argonids, 

 carbids, sulphids, arsenids and other accessory 

 constituents of the igneous rocks. 



The action of manganese dioxid and other 

 finely-divided substances in facilitating the lib- 

 eration of oxygen from potassium chlorate at a 

 low temperature, is considered by some to be 

 merely mechanical. After a series of experi- 

 ments at the Explosives Committee's laboratory 

 at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, Sodeau comes 

 to the conclusion " that the supposed ability of 



chemically inert solid particles to facilitate the 

 decomposition of potassium chlorate is unsup- 

 ported by experimental evidence, and, if ex- 

 isting, is inadequate to explain even a small 

 fraction of the great facilitation produced by 

 the oxids of manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, 

 and copper. The action of the latter substances 

 would therefore appear to be entirely chemi- 

 cal." 



The discovery, or rather the isolation, of a 

 new element has been announced by M. De- 

 margay, in the Comptes Bendus. Some fifteen 

 years ago Sir William Crookes called attention 

 to an anomalous band in the spectrum of sama- 

 rium, which he attributed to a hypothetical 

 meta-element which he called S^. A few years 

 later De Boisbaudran described a series of lines 

 in the spark spectrum of samarium, and called 

 the element which he supposed their cause ZC. 

 The element causing the band and the lines 

 has now been isolated by Demaryay and named 

 Europium. It has an atomic weight of about 

 151, and in its properties lies between gado- 

 linium and samarium. 



A NEW and interesting case of isomorphism is 

 noted by Guthier in the Berichte, between one 

 of the modifications of potassium tellurate, 

 K2Te04,2H20, and potassium osmiate KjOsO^,- 

 2HoO. Mixed solutions of these two salts 

 crystallize out together. This is one of the 

 very few instances in which tellurium shows 

 an analogy with the metals of the eighth group 

 of the periodic system. 



A PAPER has recently appeared in the Journal 

 de Pharmacie et de Chimie, by E. Jungfleisch, on 

 the ' Sulfur Industry in Sicily. ' The output has 

 increased from 150,000 tons in 1860 to 447,000 

 tons in 1898. The world's production at these 

 two dates was 157,000 and 488,000 tons, Sicily 

 thus furnishing about 90 per cent. The price 

 during this period has not varied very largely, 

 having been 120 francs in 1860, 142 in 1875, 

 100 in 1880 and 92 francs a ton in 1898. The 

 amount of sulfur in the ore varies from a very 

 rare richness of 75 per cent, to 20 or 25 per 

 cent, of sulfur in the ordinary ore. A 30-per- 

 cent, ore is considered rich, while ores are 

 worked with as little as 10 or even 8 per cent. 

 Poorer ores than this cannot be worked profit- 



