Physios and Chemistry. 391 



to strain in the glass. Since gold, silver and copper are generally 

 considered isometric the above experiments would seem to prove 

 that they may be dimorphous. This sort of crystalline arrange- 

 ment of the metallic particles the author attributes to the fact 

 that the cathode particles are directed by the elective discharge 

 and these particles have therefore an electric orientation. If the 

 metal is oxidized, the double refraction disappears. Moreover 

 similar films electrolytically deposited are not doubly refractive. 

 He has observed moreover that the color of a silver layer thus 

 obtained is variable with the temperature of the electrode and 

 with the nature of the gas in the receiver. If such a film showing 

 a blue color be examined with a dichroscope, it will be observed 

 to be strongly dichroic. — Wied. Ann., II, xxvii, 59, January, 



1886. ' G. F. B. 



3. On the co7itinuous production of Oxygen by the action of 

 Calcium hypochlorite upon Cobalt oxide. — Bidet has modified 

 and improved Rosenstiehl's apparatus for obtaining oxygen by 

 the action of cobalt oxide upon a solution of calcium hypochlorite. 

 The generating vessel is a three-necked Woulff' s bottle, having a 

 lateral tubulure at bottom. In this bottle the cobalt oxide is placed, 

 the hypochlorite solution being poured upon it through the middle 

 tubulure, and the evolved gas passing off thi*ough one of the 

 lateral ones. The third tubulure carries a safety tube. The 

 delivery tube branches, one part going to the combustion tube or 

 other place where the oxygen is needed ; the other, to a two- 

 necked bottle of 5 or 6 liters capacity, which acts as a gasometer. 

 The second neck of this bottle carries a tube passing to the bottom, 

 which is connected with the water supply. A lower lateral 

 tubulure carries a recurved tube which rises to the top of the 

 bottle and delivers the overflow. If the cock on the first branch 

 of the delivery tube is closed, the oxygen generated passes into 

 the gasometer, forcing out the water. This gasometer thus acts 

 as a regulator causing the current of oxygen to be perfectly 

 steady ; even while the hypochlorite solution is being changed, 

 as it may be through the lower tubulure of the generating flask. 

 — Bull. Soc. Chim., II, xlv, 81, January, 1886. G. f. b. 



4. On the direct fixation of Atmospheric Nitrogen by certain 

 argillaceous Soils. — During the past two years, Berthelot has 

 conducted a set of experiments at the agricultural station of 

 Meudon, with a view to determine quantitatively the action of 

 argillaceous soils in fixing atmospheric nitrogen, in virtue of the 

 microscopic organisms which they contain. The experiments 

 were arranged in five series, carried on simultaneously, and neces- 

 sitating more than 500 analyses. The soil in the first series was 

 preserved in a closed room ; in the second, in the open field under 

 shelter; in the third, on the top of a tower 28 meters high, with- 

 out shelter; in the fourth, in hermetically closed flasks; and in 

 the fifth it was sterilized. After giving in detail the results of 

 the experiments, the author concludes that they establish the fact 

 that the soils examined, both sandy and argillaceous, possess the 



