SCIENCE. 



247 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



[ The Editor docs not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous communi- 

 cations^ 



PYROLOGY. 



To H. C. Sorby, Esq., F.R.S., LL. D , etc. 



My Dear Sir, — As you arc the only scientific Englishman 

 of note who seems to have studied blowpipe crystallizations 

 with the view of applying your observations geologically, 

 I will not apologize for addressing you on this interesting 

 subject, and I do so publicly for the following reason, 

 which I think ought to be made public : 



The last ten years of my life have been wasted in vainly 

 trying to show that blowpipe chemistry, if studied on the 

 rational basis of ordinary chemical analysis, i. e., employing 

 acids or alkalies and not salts, in the first place, as weapons 

 of attacking substances, will inevitably lead to new discov- 

 eries and most interesting results in what scientific men of 

 all branches are agreed to term their common pursuit — the 

 revelation of Nature's secrets, — but my humble efforts have 

 been met, in England, not merely with what Mr. Crookes has 

 called "the conspiracy of silence," but with the most deter- 

 mined, if not underhand, opposition. Indeed, a foreigner 

 considering the circumstances related to him, in which 

 neither my purse, nor time, nor mental efforts, have been 

 spared — hitherto, only to my own disadvantage — said "it 

 appeared more as if I had been trying to commit a felon)' in 

 England than to advance science there." I readily admit 

 that the three exceptions to this category of eminent scien- 

 tific enemies constitute a trinity of talent not easily found 

 elsewhere, but then there aie only three, if three of the 

 leading men of science in Britain, and I fear therefore, that 

 it was rather unadvised of me to forward my paper on this 

 subject to you for presentation to the British Association, 

 lately assembled at Swansea, and which was returned to 

 you by the Secretary of the Chemical Section (to whom you 

 seem to have forwarded it) as being " Unsuitable." 



It will therefore afford you some consolation to learn that 

 this paper, so ignominiously rejected at Swansea, was read 

 before the German Association at Dantzic, on the 23d of 

 September, by one of the chemists on the Swansea Com- 

 mittee, Professor Gilbert Wheeler, of the University of 

 Chicago, United States of America, who had it translated 

 into German for the purpose, and he informed me that one 

 of the learned gentlemen there expressed " his astonish- 

 ment " that the paper (a very brief one) had not been read 

 in England ; — adding, "in our country, when anything is 

 objected to in a paper, that constitutes the greater reason 

 for reading and discussing it." 



So much for personal matters, and now, putting individual 

 injustice or recognition aside, does it not appear to you that 

 the rejection of any contribution, however feeble, towards 

 the advancement of science "by a section of an association 

 originally organized for that purpose by two Scotsmen — 

 Sir David Brewster and Sir Roderick Murchison — shows a 

 lack of what Sir John Herschel terms "that central thread 

 of common sense on which the pearls of analytical research 

 are invariably strung?" 



The question seems to me not to be " Has England as 

 many learned piofessors as Germany or France ? " but have 

 the masses of the people — the people, tor instance, whom 

 we may see so devoutly thronging the public houses and 

 gin palaces in London on Sunday evening, when anything 

 in the shape of scientific instruction would be considered 

 " a desecration of the Sabbath " — have these poor religious 

 people as much opportunity and possibility, within their 

 little means, afforded them of acquiring practical scientific 

 knowledge (which after all, underlies all art and labor) as 

 the same classes have in Germany, France, or America? 



The following little anecdote, among many other simdar 

 ones, shows that they have not. The other day, passing a 

 book stall in the West of London, I asked a youth of 19 

 or 20, in charge, "if he had any books on chemistry?" 

 " Chemistry," said he — " what's that?" I rejoined to this 

 rather startling question — " I suppose you are a pupil of 

 the London School Board?" — to which he replied "yes." 

 I then said " what did they teach you, if they didn't teach 

 chemistry ? " — whereupon, to my grave satisfaction, he said 



" Oh, we learnt all about placental mammals, and verte- 

 brata and all that " — an answer which shows that Mr. Hux- 

 ley's remonstrances with the London School Board have 

 not been altogether in vain. 



With this little illustration of the state of things scientific 

 at our very doors I will conclude this letter, and propose, 

 with your leave, to consider in my next, the subject of your 

 admirable address to the geological section at Swansea, of 

 which you are President. 



W. A. Ross, Lieut. -Col., R. A. 



CHEMICAL NOTES. 



The Sun has a Sknsihle Inductive Action on the 

 Earth, even when its Magnetic Power is simply equal 

 to that of our globe, induction of the moon by the 

 Earth and Diurnal Lunar Variation of the Terres- 

 trial Compass. — M. Ouet has shown that the sun induces 

 the earth in various manners ; by its rotation, by the speed 

 of the earth in its orbit, by the rotation of the earth, and by 

 the variations which it experiences in its electric constitu- 

 tion. The electromotive forces due to the three first-men- 

 tioned causes are : — The first 14 times greater than the sec- 

 ond, and the second 72 times greater than the third. 



The Variations of the Coefficient of Expansion of 

 Glass. — J. M. Crafts has summed up, in his former papers, 

 the most important theories on the variation of the fixed 

 points of thermometers, but the variation of the coefficient 

 of expansion of glass, which presents a much more serious 

 inconvenience, has hitherto escaped notice. If this coefficient 

 varies, the interval between two fixed points varies, and the 

 graduation becomes inexact. In thermometers heated for 

 a long time to 355", the coefficient of expansion decreases, 

 so that whilst the zero-point is raised by / degrees, the point 

 ioo° is raised to ioo° + t+ 1. 



Tungstoboric Acid. — According to D. Klein, this acid 

 differs in its constitution from various other borotungstic 

 acids which have been prepared, and is the analogue of the 

 unknown decatungstic acid. It is formed by the union of 

 9 mols. tungstic acid, 1 mol. dimetaboric hydrate, with 

 elimination of 6 mols. water. Its composition is — 



9 W0 3 ,B 2 3 ,4H 2 0. 



Products of the Distillation of Colophonh m. — Ad. 

 Renard has isolated a carbide, which he names heptene, of 

 the sp. gr. 0.8031 at + 20 . It is without action upon polar- 

 ized light, and boils at 103 to 106 . He examined its be- 

 havior with reagents. 



Dilatation and the Compressibility of Gases under 

 Strong Pressures. — E. H. Amagat concludes from his re- 

 searches that the coefficient of expansion of gases for tem- 

 peratures above the critical temperature increases with pres- 

 sure up to a maximum, on passing which it decreases in- 

 definitely. The maximum diminishes for the more elevated 

 temperatures, and finally disappears. For pressures lower 

 than the critical pressure the deviation, which is at first posi- 

 tive at a temperature sufficiently low, becomes null, and then 

 negative as the temperature increases ; but, proceeding 

 from a certain negative value, it diminishes indefinitely 

 without changing its sign. For the pressures comprised 

 between the critical pressure and a superior limit, special 

 for each gas, the period during which the deviation is posi- 

 tive is preceded by a period where it is negative, so that 

 the deviation changes its sign twice. 



New Results of the Utilization ok Solar Heat Ob- 

 tained at Paris. — M. A. Pifrc's improved apparatus en- 

 ables him to utilize 80 percent, of the solar heat, thus obtain- 

 ing, at Paris, 12.12 cal. per minute and per square metre of 

 surface exposed to the sun. 



Remarkable Instance of Lightning Ascending Verti- 

 cally. — A. Trecul perceived, during the storm of the even- 

 ing of August 19II1, lightning ascending perpendicularly 

 behind the trees of the Place Jussieu, apparently from the 

 conductors of the wine magazine. 



