322 Scientific Intelligence. 



through the liberality of Mr. Albert Eraraett Kent, was opened in 

 1888 under the direction of Professor F. A. Gooch. The original 

 research work accomplished in the laboratory since that time by 

 Professor Gooch and his students is now presented together in 

 these two volumes. One hundred and eight papers are included, 

 the larger part of them upon analytical processes in inorganic 

 chemistry. A critical review of these papers is not called for in 

 this place since almost all of them have been published in the 

 pages of this Journal from vol. xxxix, 1890,. to the current 

 volume. This collection of papers speaks most strongly for the 

 large amount of excellent original work which has been accom- 

 plished in this laboratory. 



5. Magnetic Effect of Electrical Convection. — A discussion of 

 the experiments of Rowland and of Cremieu upon this subject is 

 given by II. A. Wilson in the July number (pp. 144-150) of the 

 Philosophical Magazine ; the object of the paper being to point 

 out that Cremieu's failure to confirm Rowland's results is to be 

 attributed rather to the methods employed than to the non- 

 existence of these effects. The author's conclusions are stated as 

 follows: 



" (1) That in Cremieu's attempt to detect the electrostatic effect 

 of a varying magnetic field, the effect of the steady magnetic 

 field on the charging currents was left out of account, and that 

 his latter effect is equal and opposite to the former. 



(2) That, consequently, Cremieu's negative result constitutes 

 an indirect proof of the existence of an electrostatic effect of a 

 varying magnetic field, of the amount usually predicted theoreti- 

 cally. 



(3) That in Cremieu's attempt to repeat Rowland's experiment, 

 his addition of a metallic screen placed close up to the fixed sec- 

 tors should cause a current to be produced which should almost 

 entirely compensate the desired effect. 



(4) That Cremieu's partial failure without the additional 

 screen, is quite possibly due to defective insulation of his sectors." 



The experiments of H. Pender upon the same subject, briefly 

 stated in the Johns Hopkins University Bulletin No. 152 (this 

 Journal, xii, p. 173), are discussed at length in the August num- 

 ber of the Philosophical Magazine. 



6. The Effect of Amalgamated Gases on Resistance ; by Wil- 

 liam Rollins. (Communicated.) — As the result of experiments 

 with X-light tubes, I concluded that we depend on gases amalga- 

 mated with the terminals of a vacuum tube for an efficient cathode 

 stream for producing X-light. It, therefore, seemed desirable to 

 see if the partial removal of these gases would in any way change 

 the resistance of the metal forming the terminals. Spiral ter- 

 minals were made, the ends of each spiral being brought to the 

 outside of the tube so that a current could be sent through the 

 spirals before the X-light tube was pumped and after as much 

 gas as possible had been removed from the metal by heat, elec- 

 tricity and pumping. Mr. Oelling and Mr. Heinze constructed 



