July 31, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



99 



referred to its primary. A registering micrometer 

 has been devised, and, in the form constructed by the 

 Kepsolds, has proved a complete success, greatly in- 

 creasing the amount of vrork which the observer can 

 accomplish. Dr. Eikin proposes to devote the heli- 

 ometer for a year and a half to come to investigations 

 in stellar parallax. The plan of research mapped out 

 and already commenced will, it is hoped, if carried to 

 completion, furnish a reliable value of the relative 

 parallax of stars of the first and eighth magnitude. 



— The fourteenth meeting of the French associa- 

 tion will take place, says Nature, on Aug. 12, at 

 Grenoble. Verneuil, member of the Academy of 

 medicine, will be president. The public lectures will 

 be, ' On the new gallery of paleontology of the Paris 

 museum,' by Cotteau, ex-chairman of the Geological 

 society of France ; and by Rochard, general inspector 

 of the marine, on ' The victualling of France.' A 

 large number of medical questions will be dealt with 

 in the several sections of the congress. The Ferran 

 cholera experiments are sure to be discussed at full 

 length. Numerous excursions will take place in the 

 Alps, under competent guidance, as far as Chambery. 



— An abstract of the second report of Albert Wil- 

 liams, jun., on the mineral resources of the United 

 States for the years 1883 and 1884, has been issued in 

 advance of the report itself. From the abstract we 

 condense the following table, giving the value of the 





Value . 



Substance. 













1880. 



1882. 



1883. 



1884. 



Coal . . . 



$94,567,608 



$146,632,581 



$159,494,855 



$143,768,578 



Pig-iron . . 



89,315,569 



106,336,429 



91,910,200 



73,761,624 



Silver . . . 



41,110,957 



46,800,000 



46,200,000 



48,800,000 



Gold . . . 



33,379,663 



32,500,000 



30,000,000 



30,800,000 



Petroleum . 



24,600,638 



23,704,698 



25,740,252 



20,476,294 



Building- 











stone . . 



18,356,055 



21,000,000 



20,000,000 



19,000,000 



Lime . . . 



- 



21,700,000 



19,200,000 



18,500,000 



Copper . . 



8,886,295 



16,038,091 



18,064,807 



17,789,687 



Lead . . . 



1 2,102,948 



12,624,550 



12,-322,719 



10,537,042 



Salt. . . . 



4,829,566 



4,-340,140 



4,211,042 



4,197,734 



Cement . . 



- 



3,672,750 



4,293,500 



3,720,000 



Zinc . . . 



2,079,737 



3,646,620 



3,311,106 



3,422,707 



Mineral wa- 











ters . . . 



- 



- 



1,139,483 



1,665,490 



Natural gas . 



- 



215,000 



475,000 



1,460,000 



Minor m i n- 











eral prod- 











ucts . . . 



3,387,444 



15,995,830 



15,841,664 



15,205,464 





$322,616,480 



$455,216,689 



$452,204,628 



$413,104,620 



mineral products of the United States for 1882, 1883, 

 and 1884 respectively ; and to these we have prefixed 

 the values obtained by the U. S. census for 1880, 

 so far as known. No condensed table of quantities 

 could be made, owing to the variability of the units 

 of weight and measure employed. The great differ- 

 ence observable between the estimates for 1880 and 

 those of later years is probably due rather to the 

 methods employed for obtaining the mineral statis- 

 tics, than to any such rapid increase in the value of 

 the products as the figures would indicate. The 

 amount of copper produced has steadily increased 

 from 91,646,232 pouiids in 1882, to 117,151,795 pounds 



in 1883, and 145,221,934 pounds in 1884; but the 

 value of the product is less in the last year than in 

 1883. The value of the mineral waters produced 

 in 1884 is over one and a half millions of dollars, 

 nearly 69 million gallons being sold ; while the 

 amount of natural gas produced has been subject 

 to a rapid increase, particularly during the years of 

 the tariff agitation. The quantity of quicksilver pro- 

 duced has steadily diminished, while that of coal has 

 increased. In the list of minor mineral products we 

 have for 1884 such items as 2,000 tons of slate ground 

 as a pigment, 35,000 tons of iron pyrites, 10,900 tons 

 of felspar, 281,100 pounds of bromine, 10,000 tons of 

 manganese ore, 147,410 pounds of mica, 431,779 tons 

 of South-Carolina phosphate rock, 3,401,930 tons of 

 limestone used as an iron flux, 875,000 tons of New- 

 Jersey marls, 25,000 tons of heavy spar (barytes), 

 7,000,000 pounds of borax, and 1,800 troy ounces of 

 aluminum. The general diminution in the total 

 value of the mineral products of $3,012,061 from 1882 

 to 1883, and of $39,100,008 from 1883 to 1884, is due, 

 as a whole, more to a decrease in price than to a 

 decrease in the quantity produced. 



— The Botanical club of the American association 

 will hold its meetings during the week of the associ- 

 ation, the hours and place to be announced on the 

 daily programme, and not on Tuesday the 25th, as 

 erroneously stated in the circular of the permanent 

 secretary, and elsewhere. The first meeting will 

 probably be on Thursday morning, Aug. 27, at nine 

 o'clock. The club invites short and informal com- 

 munications on any botanical subject of interest. 

 This will obviate the necessity of presenting any 

 but the most important and well-digested botanical 

 papers before the biological section. Any person 

 interested in botany who is also a member of the 

 association may become a member of the club simply 

 by registering. 



— The chemical wonder of the London inventions 

 exhibition is said to be the manufacture of oxygen 

 by the process of Brin freres. They have made what 

 is really an artificial mineral lung of anhydrous oxide 

 of barium ; and with this, by an ingenious process, they 

 simply take up the oxygen from the atmospheric air. 

 First, the air is drawn, by means of a partial vacuum, 

 through a vessel of quicklime, which absorbs all the 

 carbonic acid and moisture, and reduces it to a mix- 

 ture of oxygen and nitrogen. These gases are then 

 drawn into the retorts, heated at 500°, and the arti- 

 ficial lung absorbs the oxygen, while the nitrogen is 

 drawn off to a gasometer for conversion into ammo- 

 nia, etc. The Brins have, for the first time, made 

 the artificial lung indestructible. The use of baryta 

 for the purpose is not unknown; but hitherto the 

 baryta has been perishable, and has required renewal 

 every four and twenty hours, at great expense. They 

 make it virtually indestructible and unchangeable. 

 In this way they claim to have effected an absolute 

 revolution in chemistry: for with a lung for the 

 machine, and the atmospheric air for the material, 

 they can make just as much oxygen as they like ; and 

 its u.<*es, present and prospective, are almost innu- 



