﻿476 Scientific Intelligence. 



In any event, the facts (1) that the position of P. Kjerulfi in 

 the Swedish Primordial is directly below the zone carrying the 

 British P. Hicksi ; (2) that it is clearly allied to P. olandicus, — 

 a Brachypleural species and an undoubted Paradoxides ; and, 

 (3) that it is a Menevian species in America ; all appear to me 

 to indicate that it is a Menevian species in Europe also, and 

 that the strata there affording it may be regarded as consti- 

 tuting a legitimate portion of the Swedish Paradoxides measures. 

 Schodack Landing, N. Y., Sept. 25th, 1886. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



I. Chemistry and Physics. 



1. On the Determination of Fusing points. — Roth has sug- 

 gested a new form of apparatus for determining fusing points. 

 It consists of a bulb 65 mm in diameter, having a neck 200 mm long 

 and 28 mm wide, within which is a straight tube closed at bottom, 

 15 mm wide, sealed to the outer tube above and passing down to 

 within ] h j mm of the bottom of the bulb. The outer tube has a 

 lateral tubulure closed by a perforated stopper, so that communi- 

 cation with the outer air may be opened or cut off at will. The 

 flask is filled to two-thirds its height with sulphuric acid. To use 

 the apparatus the substance is placed in the inner tube and the 

 temperature of the acid is gradually raised until fusion takes 

 place, the temperature being carefully noted by an accurate 

 thermometer placed within this inner tube. A comparison by the 

 author shows that the correction required when the thermometer 

 is placed in the sulphuric acid, brings the corrected fusing point 

 to the value directly observed by the method now described, 

 within the limits of the errors of observation. Thus the fusing 

 point of benzoic acid with the thermometer in the acid, is 121*5°, 

 and corrected 123'3° ; while the temperature observed directly 

 in the inner tube was 123°. Nicotinic acid fused at 228°, or cor- 

 rected at 234*6°; while the temperature observed in the tube was 

 235°.— Ber. Berl. Chem. Ges., xix, 1970-1973, July, 1886. 



G. F. B. 



2. On the Determination of Molecular Weights of Substances 

 by means of the Freezing points of their Solutions. — In order to 

 ascertain how far the method proposed by Raoult for fixing molec- 

 ular weights by means of the depression of the freezing point,* 

 was applicable to organic compounds, Paterxo and Nasini have 

 submitted to examination (a) several pairs of polymers, such as 

 aldehyde and paraldehyde, acetonitrile and eyanmethin, cyan- 

 amide and dicyanamide etc.; and (b) certain bodies whose molec- 

 ular weight is not as yet fixed, such as lapachoic acid and lapaclion , 



* See this Journal, xxix, 399, May, 1885. 



