4:98 Scientific Intelligence. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



I. Chemistry and Physics. 



1. The Presence of Cobalt and Nickel in Vegetables. — 

 Bertrand and Mokragnatz have worked out a process for the 

 quantitative determination of very minute amounts of these 

 two metals in complex mixtures, and they have thus examined 

 the ashes of twenty vegetables, selecting preferably the parts 

 used as food, and including carrots, onions, potatoes, spinach, 

 lettuce, the fleshy part of apricots, tomatoes, beans, several 

 grains such as wheat, oats, buckwheat, maize, and a single fungus, 

 the chantarelle. The amounts of the fresh substances employed 

 for the analyses were one kilogram of the grains and two 

 kilograms of the softer materials. The cobalt and nickel 

 were obtained as potassium cobaltic nitrate and nickel dimethyl- 

 glyoxime. The results were positive for nickel with all of 

 the plants, while cobalt was found in all but two of them, the 

 carrots and the oats. The amounts for a kilogram of fresh 

 substance varied for cobalt from less than 1/200 milligram up 

 to 0.3 mg. (in buckwheat), and for nickel from 0.01 mg. 

 (tomatoes) to 2.0 mg. (peas). 



These results are interesting, since heretofore there have been 

 but a few, perhaps uncertain, statements in regard to the 

 presence of cobalt in the ashes of plants, and still less informa- 

 tion concerning nickel. It as yet unknown whether the presence 

 of these metals in vegetables is merely accidental, or whether 

 they are a phvsiological requirement. — Comptes Bendus 

 173, 458. h. l. w. 



2. Standard Methods of Chemical Analysis ; by "Wilfred W. 

 Scott. 8vo. Volume I. pp. 714; Volume II. pp.' 616. New 

 York, 1922 (D. Van Nostrand Company. Price $10 net). — 

 This very important work of reference now appears as a revised 

 and much enlarged third edition, which, on account of its size, 

 has been divided into two volumes. On the title-page Mr. Scott 

 designates himself as the editor of the work and gives a list of 

 thirty-six principal collaborators, but by far the greater part 

 of the book has been prepared by him. 



The work is a very impressive one in furnishing a vast amount 

 of reliable information in regard to analytical chemistry. The 

 first volume takes up the elements in alphabetical order and 

 discusses their detection, their separation from other elements, 

 and the gravimetric, volumetric, and other methods for their 

 estimation. This volume also gives an elaborate and excellent 

 series of tables of useful data, including a very extensive one 

 dealing with conversion-factors. The second volume deals 



