June 29, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



1021 



Excellency, the Governor-General of Can- 

 ada, Lord Minto, presiding. A deputation 

 of fellows of the Royal Society waited upon 

 Premier Sir Wilfred Laurier, and members 

 of his cabinet urging upon them the neces- 

 sity of erecting a national museum build- 

 ing in which to house, safely and well, the 

 immense collections which have been ac- 

 quired by the Geological and E"atural 

 History Survey of Canada since 1842. 

 This deputation consisted of Rev. Profes- 

 sor Clark, Dr. G. M. Dawson, Sir Sand- 

 ford Fleming, Sir James Grant, President 

 Loudon, Monseigneur Laflamme (rector of 

 Laval University, Quebec), Hon. Joseph 

 Royal, Dr. L. H. Frechette, Hon. Pre- 

 mier Marchand, Dr. George Stewart, Pro- 

 essor John Cox, of McGill University, and 

 the member of Parliament for Ottawa, 

 Dr. N. A. Belcourt. The deputation was 

 well received and a definite promise made 

 that an item would be placed in the supple- 

 mentary estimates for the coming year to- 

 ward the erection of a National Museum. 



Amongst the scientific papers which no 

 doubt prove of more interest to the readers 

 of Science than the historical or purely 

 literary of the French and English Sections, 

 the following are noted : 



MATHEMATICAL, PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL 



SCIENCES. 



On the Depression of the Freezing -Point by 

 Solutions Containing Sulphuric and Hydro- 

 chloric Acids : By James Barnes, M.A., 

 Dalhousie College, Halifax, N. S. Com- 

 municated by Professor J. G. MacGregor. 

 The object of this paper is to find out 

 whether or not the depression of the freez- 

 ing-point by solutions containing (1) sul- 

 phuric acid, and (2) sulphuric and hydro- 

 chloric acids, is calculable by the aid of 

 the dissociation theory and of electrically 

 determined ionization coefficients, and if so 

 on what assumption as to the mode of ion- 

 ization of the sulphuric acid. Kryoscopic 



observations on these solutions are of inter- 

 est because sulphuric acid is usually sup- 

 posed to divide into H and HSO^ as ions in 

 somewhat strong solutions and into 2H and 

 SOj in extremely dilute solutions, the 

 change from the one to the other mode of 

 ionization occurring gradually as dilution 

 is increased. The possibility of predicting 

 the depression, therefore, forms a test not 

 only of the general applicability of the dis- 

 sociation theory, but also of the electrical 

 method of determining the ionization coef- 

 ficients and of the current view of the 

 mode of ionization of sulphuric acid. A 

 modification of Loomis's method has been 

 used for the determination of the freezing- 

 points, and Kohlrausch's method for the 

 determination of conductivities. 



On the Relative Bulk of Weak Aqueous Solu- 

 tions of Certain Sulphates and their Con- 

 stituent Water: By Charles M. Pasea, 

 B.Sc, Dalhousie College, Halifax, IST. S. 

 Communicated by Professor J. G. Mac- 

 Gregor. 



Dilute solutions of several of the sul- 

 phates have been found to possess a smaller 

 volume than the water which they contain 

 when in the free state. The object of this 

 paper is to determine whether or not this 

 is so in the case of solutions of the sulphates 

 of sodium, manganese, cadmium and iron. 

 The requisite observations of density were 

 made with an Ostwald-Sprengel Pycnom- 

 eter, with an accuracy of about 1/200 per 

 cent, which in most cases was found to be 

 sufiicient for the purpose in hand. 



A Universal Electrical Measuring Apparatus : 

 By W. Lash Miller, B.A., Ph.D., and 

 F. B. Kenrick, B.A., Ph.D. 



Mathematical Notes : By J. H. McDonald, 

 B.A., University of Toronto. Communi- 

 cated by Professor Baker, Ph.D. 

 The paper is divided into three parts, and 

 deals with the development of theorems on 

 the following subjects : (1) Special bi- 



