April 20, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



633 



The same evening two papers were read by 

 A. Scott, one on the preparation of pure hydro- 

 bromic acid in which the employment of sul- 

 furous acid is recommended in the place of 

 amorphous phosphorus. It is very difficult to 

 free the phosphorus completely from chlorin, 

 and arsenic is almost always present, which 

 gives rise to arsenious bromid in the hydro- 

 bromic acid and arsenites and arsenates in the 

 bromids made from this acid. When sulfurous 

 acid is used, the hydrobromic acid is easily freed 

 from the sulfuric acid formed by two or three 

 distillations, the last over barium bromid. 



The second paper by Mr. Scott was on a new 

 sulfid of arsenic, which is obtained in the proc- 

 ess of purifying phosphoric acid from the small 

 quantity of arsenic, derived from the impurity 

 in the phosphorus used. The new sulfid has 

 the formula As;,S, and unlike the other sulfids 

 of arsenic is insoluble in ammonia and am- 

 monium sulfid, but is soluble in ammonium 

 polysulfid, and is decomposed by caustic potash. 



In the last Berichte of the German Chemical 

 Society, L. Vanino and O. Hauser call attention 

 to an interesting reaction of lead peroxid. 

 When it is exposed in a dry or even moist con- 

 dition to a current of hydrogen sulfid, it glows 

 brightly and the hydrogen sulfid burns with the 

 blue flame of lead. The reaction is not only 

 suitable for a lecture experiment on its own 

 account, but it may be utilized for the ignition 

 of explosive mixtures. Wet gun cotton is in- 

 stantly exploded, and so are picrate powders, 

 powdered metals such as aluminium, zinc and 

 bismuth burn with brilliancy. Silver and bis- 

 muth peroxids act in a similar manner to lead 

 peroxid, cobalt and copper peroxids become 

 much heated in hydrogen sulfid, but do not 

 ignite it, while red lead, pyrolusite, and freshly 

 precipitated peroxid of manganese do not show 

 the reaction. 



It has lately been discovered by Moissan 

 that metallic calcium is soluble in liquid sodium. 

 On cooling the calcium separates out in brilliant 

 white hexagonal crystals of the pure metal. 

 The mass of sodium and calcium is put in ab- 

 solute alcohol at 0° when the sodium is gradu- 

 ally dissolved out and the crystals of calcium 

 remain. The metallic calcium is obtained by 



the action of metallic sodium on calcium iodid 

 and the whole process carried out in a closed 

 iron crucible in one operation. Crystals of cal- 

 cium may also be obtained by electrolyzing fused 

 calcium iodid at a low red heat. 



A PAPER has recently appeared in the Bul- 

 letin of the French Chemical Society, by A. 

 Gautier, on the normal occurrence of arsenic in 

 animals, including man. It appears to be al- 

 ways present in the thyroid gland, in lesser 

 quantities in the thymus and the brain, while 

 traces are always present in the skin and hair. 

 It does not appear to be in any other organs of 

 the body, and consequently would i)lay little 

 part in the toxicology of arsenic, as these or- 

 gans are rarely used for the detection of arsenic ; 

 the brain, however, is sometimes examined. 

 The arsenic appears to be in the form of nu- 

 cleins. 



J. L. li. 



TOBACCO, TOBACCO-PIPES AND SMOKINO. 



Perhaps the most American of all implements 

 and practices, the above have been described 

 and figured hundreds of times, but never in so 

 scientific a spirit as by Joseph D. McGuire, the 

 archaeologist, residing in Ellicott City, Mary- 

 land. His monograph appears among the 

 octavo publications or ' Reports ' of the United 

 States National Museum, Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, under the title : ' Pipes and Smoking 

 Customs of the American Aborigines, l)ased 

 on material in the United States Museum,' 

 1897, pp. 351-645, and last year also ap- 

 peared as a separate volume. Numerous 

 illustrations give us an idea of the richest 

 and most curious finds of sundry tribes, 

 partly of stone or wood, partly of terracotta 

 and clay, a large number of them having been 

 found in the mounds of the Ohio and Mississippi 

 valleys. The shape of the bowls arc of all de- 

 scriptions ; some represent birds, heads of birds, 

 mice and other rodents, toads, frogs, lizards, 

 men in a recumbent, sitting or siiuattiug pos- 

 ture, human hands and faces, etc. The tubular 

 shape was widely in use in ancient America, 

 though it looks very inconvenient to us; Mr. Mc- 

 Guire figures stone tubes with bone mouthpiece, 

 sandstone tubes, pottery tube pipes, red pottery 

 tube and bowl pipes, steatite tubular pipes, cop- 



