Chemistry and Physics. 497 



element can be deduced in a rational and uniform manner by 

 taking into consideration all of his observations and deductions 

 (only a part of which have been touched upon here), and the por- 

 tion of each element which is metallic is thereby made evident. 

 It is not clear that the author has any good reason for using 

 metallic elements as a basis, for it might be argued that the 

 opposite change — non-metallic to metallic — was brought about 

 by increases in mass. It is not probable that many chemists will 

 accept these views as possessing any significance. — Chem. News, 

 xcvi, 1*76. h. l. w. 



2. The Vapor-tension of Sulphur at Low Temperatures. — By 

 passing gases over sulphur in such a manner that saturation took 

 place, condensing the sulphur in a cold tube and weighing it, Dr. 

 H. Gkuener of Adelheid College, Cleveland, O., has succeeded 

 in determining its vapor tension at temperatures between about 

 50 and 120° C. At the two temperatures just mentioned the pres- 

 sure of the vapor was found to be -00008 and -0339 mra respectively. 

 At 100° C, it was found to be -007""", and the same result was 

 obtained b} T boiling water in which finely divided sulphur was 

 suspended, passing the vapor through a column of solid sulphur, 

 condensing the water, and determining the sulphur in it. It is of 

 interest to know that as much as -013 g. of sulphur may be carried 

 off with the steam of 100 g. of water. Another interesting point 

 brought out in this investigation is the fact that sulphur is 

 scarcely oxidized at all by air below 100°, but that a trace of S0 2 

 is formed at that temperature. The author states that the odor 

 perceived when sulphur is heated to 100° is due to volatilized 

 sulphur and not to SO,,. — Zeitschr. anorgan. Chem., Ixvi, 145. 



H. X. W. 



3. Helium in Natural Gas. — The announcement of the discovery 

 of considerable quantities of helium in the natural gas from a 

 well in Kansas was made some time ago by D. F. McFarland. 

 Cody and McFarland have now examined for helium some 47 

 samples of natural gas, most of them from the Kansas region, 

 but including samples from Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Cali- 

 fornia and Louisiana. It appears that the gas originally exam- 

 ined contains more helium, 1*84 per cent, than any other of the 

 numerous samples, although there are two or three other gases 

 that contain nearly as much. However, it is noteworthy that in 

 only one case was no helium found, and that in most of the 

 gases its quantity was over - 10 per cent. The authors observe 

 that the helium content of a gas tends to increase with an increase 

 in nitrogen, although no direct relation between the two was 

 observed. The gases richest in helium contained over 82 per 

 cent of nitrogen. A further observation was made that in the 

 Kansas region the amount of helium present in the gases varied 

 according to the geological strata. — Jour. Amer. Chem. Soc, 

 xxix, 1523. h. l. w. 



