July 13, 18SS.J 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



31 



<97iiieral -&Qtt$. 



Stellar Studies. — We learn that Mr. J. Ellard Gore, 

 F.R.A.S., etc., has in the press a volume entitled 

 "Planetary and Stellar Studies : papers on the Planets, 

 Stars and Nebulae." It will shortly be published by 

 Messrs. Roper and Drowley. 



Manufacture of Aluminium. — A new company for 

 the production of this metal is being formed in London. 

 It holds a number of valuable patents and improved 

 processes, and hopes to produce aluminium, not in small 

 globules, but in ingots weighing above one cwt., and at 

 the price of is. per lb. If these expectations are realised 

 the metal will meet with an immense demand. 



Scientific Training. — We are glad to learn that in 

 one at least of the four Inns of Court there are being 

 delivered lectures on mechanics, electrical engineering, 

 toxicology, and psycho-pathology. Much time, trouble, and 

 perhaps failure of justice will be avoided in patent-cases, 

 complaints of nuisances, and charges of poisoning if 

 counsel can thus be rendered competent to appreciate 

 the evidence of experts. 



The Origin of the Diamond. — Professor Simmler, 

 supposing that the liquids occasionally found enclosed in 

 diamonds are liquefied carbonic acid, suggests that the 

 diamond may be formed by the crystallisation of a solu- 

 tion of carbon in such liquid carbonic acid. It is certainly 

 known that diamonds have exploded without ostensible 

 cause, a fact so far in harmony with Professor Simmler's 

 supposition, but it has not yet been proved that carbon 

 is soluble in liquid carbonic acid. The experiment is 

 worth trying. 



Curious Phase of Combustion. — M. Hirn sent lately 

 to the Academy of Sciences an account of a very remark- 

 able phenomenon which came under his observation. 

 Having extinguished a spirit lamp, he saw a luminous 

 point remaining for more than eight hours on the 

 charred part of the wick, and finally traced it to a little 

 block of carbon, the sides of which did not exceed a 

 millimetre in size. This little block played the part of 

 a platinum coil heated to whiteness, and remaining in- 

 candescent in the vapours of alcohol. 



Petroleum in the Punjab.— According to Indian 

 Engineering, quoted in Invention, Mr. Noble, of Canada, 

 a great " oil " man, has obtained a concession from the 

 Government of India to prospect for three years in the 

 Punjab for mineral oil, and at the end of that time the 

 right to take up 50,000 acres in case of success, with the 

 privilege of supplying the whole of the North-Western 

 Railway system with lubricating oil. His men and 

 machinery are going out in September to begin opera- 

 tions. _ Mr. Noble is a brother of Colonel Noble, R.A., 

 Superintendent of the Government Powder Works' 

 Waltham Abbey. ' 



The Permanence of Climate. — It has been lately 



asserted on theoretical grounds that the nor! hern 

 hemisphere reached its maximum temperature in the 

 thirteenth century, and that the climate has since been 

 growing progressively colder. A fact recorded in Cosmos 

 does not agree with this supposition. On demolishing 

 an old house at Thil, on the banks of the Rhone, there 

 has been found a tablet of wood bearing the inscription 

 in an old patois, " Le Rone a iele, 1670," which can 

 only mean "the Rhone has frozen." Now as this 

 exceedingly rapid river has never been frozen in the 

 subsequent 218 years, we can scarcely admit that the 

 climate of France has been deteriorating. 



The Properties of Aluminium. — MM. Friedel and 

 Crafts have determined the melting-point, the boiling- 

 point, and the vapour-density of aluminium, and have 

 laid the results before the Academy cf Sciences. The 

 vapour-density had been previously determined by MM. 

 Sainte-Claire Deville and Troost at the boiling tempera- 

 tures of mercury and of sulphur, and found to agree 

 with the formula AL CJ 6 . Recently. MM. Nilson and 

 Petterson have made a series of observations at a higher 

 temperature, and deduced the formula Al Cl 3 . It results 

 from the experiments of Friedel and Crafts, made 

 between 218? and 440 C, that the density is constant 

 for more than 200 , and answers to the formula generally 

 admitted. 



Research. — We have received the first number of a 

 new monthly journal, published in Liverpool, called 

 Research. In the introductory programme it is stated that 

 a careful digest will be given of what has been and 

 is being accomplished by workers of the first order. Also 

 that the special value and bearing of this knowledge will 

 be pointed out, as well as how such work may be 

 supplemented, and how new lines of inquiry may be 

 started. Such a programme is comprehensive, if not a 

 little too ambitious, but we shall cordially welcome the 

 fulfilment of what is promised. It is true that in the 

 first number there is a total absence of the digest and of 

 the teaching above referred to, but we cannot but 

 suppose that this inconsistency will disappear in the 

 next number. We notice also that most of the infor- 

 mation given, under various headings, is essentially of 

 a local character. 



Anti-Science. — In a book bearing the strange title of 

 "The Anointed Seraph; the Last Made First," written 

 by G. H. Pollock (Sherry, Washington), may be read 

 the following passage :— " The earth which we inhabit, 

 and of which we are a part, was made up through in- 

 volution of all the various products and qualities of the 

 disturbed solar lights. Water came from Taurus, 

 oxygen from the Great Bear, amativeness from Capri- 

 cornus, copper from the Whale, steel from the Little 

 Bear, gems from Scorpio, black hair from Aquarius, gold 

 from the Crown, salt from Orion, mercury from Mer- 

 cury, sulphur from Jupiter, alkaline substance from 

 Venus, diamonds from Andromeda, verdigris from the 

 sun spots, iron from Hercules, silver from the Pleiades, 

 soapstone from the Hydra, loadstone from the Pole 

 Star. The life of the world was the nature and per- 

 sonality of the digressor from the seventh sun, who 

 through the progress of involution became inverted, 

 passing from the divine to the material state." Leaving 

 our readers to ponder over this jumble, we can only ex- 



