CHEMISTET. 79 



of an Asiatic than an American type. Her disposition too is mild and playful, her 

 manners gentle and communicative, differing from the sullen, taciturn, and forbid- 

 ding ways of the Indian. It is well known, that some authorities maintain that the 

 California Indians are of Asiatic origin, — Malays, who have been thrown in some 

 way on the American shore, from the Pacific Islands. The notion also prevails 

 among many of the tribes bordering on the Gulf of California, (among the Ceris, for 

 instance,) that they are of Asiatic origin. The girl seems either of Asiatic origin, 

 or of Asiatic and American Indian mixed. She is no specimen of a degenerate 

 race, but an exceptional specimen, such as occurs, not unfrequently, in all races. 

 Hairy women have lived before her, without any suspicion of brute paternity. The 

 conformation of her mouth, in so far as it is abnormal, is more likely the result of 

 disease, than a character of a tribe. 



CHEMISTRY. 

 Ozone. — Dr Andrews has made a series of experiments on Ozone as derived from 

 various sources. He finds that from whatever source it is obtained, its properties are 

 always the same, contrary to the statements of some chemists. He fully confirms 

 the idea that ozone ia not a compound body, but oxygen in an altered or allotropic 

 condition. 



Protoxides of Iron, Manganese and Tin. — These oxides which are difficult to 

 obtain by the ordinary processes, can be readily formed, according to Liebig, by 

 heating the protoxalates of the metals, after they have been dried at about 250° F. 

 The protoxide of iron is not quite free from metallic iron, the oxide of manganese is 

 green, and burns when touched with a red hot body, the oxide of tin behaves in a 

 similar manner, and the formation of these two compounds may be used as a good class 

 experiment. Liebig confirms Rammelsberg's formula for the artificial protoxalate 

 of iron, differing from the native salt (Humboldtite) by half an equivalent of water. 

 Iodo-nitrate of Silver. — Dr. Schnauss has examined the salt composed of iodide 

 and nitrate of silver, first observed by Preuss. It is obtained by boiling the iodide 

 with a strong solution of the nitrate, and crystallizes in acicular crystals. It blackens 

 very rapidly when exposed to day-light, much more so than its constituents, and 

 this probably accounts for the sensitiveness imparted to iodide films by the presence 

 of free nitrate, a fact well known to photographers. Schnauss gives the formula 

 Ag 0. NO 5 + Ag I, but Weltzien, who has examined what seems to be the 

 same salt, gives the formula 2 Ag 0. N O 5 + Ag I. 



Salts of Cadmium. — Yon Hauer has published two papers on various double 

 chlorides of cadmium, (see page 13 of this number), and throws out the suggestion 

 that a subchloride may exist corresponding to Marchand's suboxide. Greville Wil- 

 liams has obtained analogous combinations of chloride of cadmium (and of bismuth 

 and uranium) with organic alkaloids. 



Double Cyanides. — By acting on the ferri-cyanide of potassium, with ammonia 

 or soda and grape sugar, Reindel has obtained curious salts of the formula 

 K» N H*, Cy* + 2 Fe Cy and K 3 Na, Cy* + 2 Fe Cy. 



Oxygenation. — Knhlmann has shown that certain essential oils possess the power 

 not only of absorbing oxygen from the atmosphere, but also of communicating it to 

 bodies susceptible of oxidation, and he shews how this fact may become of import- 

 ance as affectiDg the colours used in painting, which may be changed by this as 



