346 Scientific Intelligence. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE 



I. Chemistry and Physics. 



1. Lithium in Radio-active Minerals. — Experiments by Ram- 

 say having led him to the conclusion that copper in solution is 

 converted into lithium by the action of radium, it is of interest 

 to know whether or not lithium is present in uranium minerals 

 which contain copper. McCoy has found that samples of pitch- 

 blende from Colorado and Bohemia contain copper and give dis- 

 tinct tests for lithium, while a sample of gummite from North 

 Carolina showed the presence of lithium without showing any 

 copper. McCoy states that the latter case is no argument against 

 Ramsay's theory, because copper originally present may have 

 all disappeared. Indeed, it would appear to the reviewer that a 

 transformation rapid enough to be detected by laboratory tests 

 would be very likely to be completed in any of these minerals. 

 — Nature, lxxvii, 79. 



Mlle. Gleditsch has now made some quantitative determina- 

 tions of copper and lithium in several minerals, I. pitchblende 

 from Joachimsthal, II. pitchblende from Colorado, III. carnotite, 

 IV. chalcolite from Cornwall, V. autunite, VI. thorite, with the 

 folio win sr results : 





Cu, per cent. 



Li, per cent. 



Activity 



compared 



with uranium 



I 



1-2 



0-00017 



1-5 



II 



0-15 



0-00034 



1-75 



III 



0-15 



0-030 



0-52 



IV 



6-54 



o-oooi I 



2-0 



V 



o- 



0-00083 



1-48 



VI 



trace 



0-0033 



0-59 



The author is doubtful in some cases whether the lithium, 

 which was determined spectroscopically, came from the gangue 

 or from the mineral. It is her opinion that the results do not 

 show that Ramsay's theory is wrong, although they may not be 

 in its favor. — Gomptes Rendus, cxlvi, 331. h. l. w. 



2. Radium in the Earth. — There has been much interest and 

 discussion in regard to radium as the source of the earth's internal 

 heat. For instance, Rutherford calculated from certain data 

 that the temperature gradient at the surface would be about 

 accounted for by the presence of radium. Stkutt has more 

 recently reached some novel and interesting conclusions in regard 

 to this matter. From an examination of a large number of rocks' 

 he finds that ./there is very much more radium in all of them than 

 would be needed to maintain the earth's internal heat if the earth 

 were constituted of rock throughout. From this he concludes 



