Miscellaneous Intelligence. 489 



resemblance to those of South Africa, Arkansas, and Kentucky 

 in composition, texture, inclusions, and weathering. No careful 

 search for diamonds has been made in the peridotite of Syracuse, 

 though the nature of the material would seem to justify such 

 attempts as much as the peridotite of Kentucky, on which con- 

 siderable work has been expended." 



III. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. The Ring Burner of Dr. Wolcott Gibbs ; by Wallace 

 Goold Levison (communicated.) — In a biographical notice of 

 Dr. Wolcott Gibbs by Dr. C. L. Jackson in this Journal for 

 March, 1909 (pp. 253-259), there is a reference (p. 256) to his 

 invention of the Ring Burner where the writer states that it dates 

 from 1873. I think it should date from 1869. 



While a student under Dr. Gibbs in the laboratory of the Law- 

 rence Scientific School, where I graduated in 1870, what he called 

 a Ring Burner was frequently used by me and others in the 

 laboratory during some part of the years 1869 and the early part 

 of 1870. It consisted of a circular iron tube perforated with 

 small holes at intervals around the inside of the ring through 

 which the gas issued and provided small blue flames directed 

 toward the center. It was supported on a ring stand and could 

 be adjusted to surround a crucible or other container and grad- 

 ually lowered as occasion required, thus permitting the fusion of 

 the contents of the crucible to be conducted from the top to the 

 bottom, and extreme effervescence of the assay avoided until a 

 complete frit or fusion was effected. It somewhat resembled the 

 ring burners now in general use in gas stoves, except that the 

 flames issued from the inside toward the center instead of from 

 the top upward. Perhaps it is to some later form of the instru- 

 ment that Dr. Jackson referred, or, perhaps we had then the 

 privilege of using it before an account of it was officially published. 



Attention may also be called to a typographical error on p. 240, 

 vol. 1, Sept. 1870, where the writer's name is given as W. G. 

 Leison. This is in the title of an article on "Contributions from 

 the Laboratory of the Lawrence Scientific School : 1. On the 

 precipitation and determination of the metals of the Magnesium 

 Group as Oxalates." This paper has been repeatedly quoted, 

 but with the error noted in the author's name. 



2. Publications of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. — 

 Recent publications of the Carnegie Institution are noted in the 

 following list (continued from p. Ill) : 



No. 27, Vol. III. Bacteria in Relation to Plant Diseases ; by 

 Erwin F. Smith. Pp. viii, 309 ; 47 pis., 155 figs. 



No. 90-A. Vol. II. Guide to the Materials for American 

 History, to 1783, in the Public Record Office of Great Britain ; 

 by Chaeles M. Andrews. Pp. viii, 427. 



