460 Scientific Intelligence. 



phosphorus is heated in a sealed tube with methyl alcohol at a 

 temperature not below 250°, for several hours, the phosphorus 

 disappears completely. The products are phosphoreted hydrogen 

 and phosphines as gases, and as a residue phosphoric and phos- 

 phinic acids to some extent, but principally tetramethyl-phos- 

 phonium hydrate (CH 9 ) 4 POH. Ethyl alcohol gives similar 

 results with tetrathylphosphonium hydrate as the principal 

 product. — Bull. iSoc. Chim., IV, i, 146. h. l. w. 



4. Oeuvres Completes de J.-C. Galissard de Marignac, par E. 

 Adoe. Two volumes 4to, pp. lv + 701, and 839. Society de 

 Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Geneve (1907). — These mag- 

 nificent volumes are a worthy memorial to the celebrated Swiss 

 chemist, and the bringing together of all his published work is a 

 valuable contribution to the history of modern chemistry. The 

 work includes an excellent biographical notice and a portrait. 

 Marignac's scientific work extended from 1840 to 1887. It is 

 characterized by its quantity, as well as by its variety and 

 importance. His researches were chiefly in the domain of inor- 

 ganic chemistry ; he made many important contributions to 

 chemical theory, but probably his most important investigations 

 were in connection with the determinations of atomic weights, as 

 he was the pioneer in the application of the most refined and 

 painstaking methods in this line of work. h. l. w. 



5. Outlines of Industrial Chemistry • by Frank Hall Thorp. 

 Second edition, revised and enlarged, and including a chapter on 

 Metallurgy by Charles D. Demond. 8vo, pp. 618. New York, 

 1907 (The Macmillan Company). — The applications of chemistry 

 in manufacturing operations are of much importance and interest 

 to students of chemistry. The text-book under consideration 

 gives an excellent outline of this subject. The descriptions are 

 clear and concise, matters of detail properly belonging to special 

 hand-books being omitted. The illustrations are numerous and 

 well adapted for their purpose. The new edition brings the sub- 

 ject well up to the present time, and includes a chapter on ele- 

 mentary metallurgy. h. l. w. 



6. Note on the Decay of Ions in the Fog Chamber '• by C. 

 Barus (communicated). — The following results are chosen at 

 random from a large number of similar data for all ranges of 

 nucleation up to 10 6 per cubic centimeter. They were obtained 

 in the endeavor to standardize the coronas of cloudy condensa- 

 tion by aid of the decay curves, in case of ions produced in dust- 

 free wet air, by radium or by the X-rays acting from without. 









Table : — dn/dt = en + bn? 













10 s b= -001 



c = 



•0356 







Time, t 



, elapsed 



Nuclei per cm 3 



Si 



iccessive 







since 



a = 







10~ 3 n, observed 



10 6 (- 



-dn/dtf/n' 2 



io- 



~hi computed 



! 



sec. 





310 





1-5 





310 



5 







107 





— 





107 



10 







55 





1-6 





60 



20 







29 





2-4 





28 



30 







17 





5-2 





16 



40 







9 





— 





10 



50 







7 





— 





6 



