504 



SCIENCE. 



THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 



The October meeting of the American Chemical So- 

 ciety was held Friday evening, the 7th inst., with Dr. A. 

 R. Leeds in the chair. The following new members were 

 declared elected : H. C. Heipe. Win. L. Leman, Dr. H. 

 Von Bauer, Lewis Habel, Dr. Lauber, Dr. P. Raden- 

 hauser, and Mr. A. L. Colby. The first paper announced 

 was by Prof. Leeds "On the Comparative Purity of City 

 Water." In consideration of the recent litigation in re- 

 gard to the pollution of the water of the Passaic river, 

 Prof. Leeds was appointed to investigate the purity of 

 the water from a chemical standpoint. The water supply 

 of the cities of Newark, Jersey City and Hoboken is 

 taken from the above mentioned river. Before it reaches 

 Newark, the sewerage of Paterson, a city of 50,000 in- 

 habitants, is emptied into it : besides this, along the river, 

 the stream receives the refuse from a number of factories. 



A short distance beyond Paterson, at a paper mill 

 where carbolized paper was manufactured, the entire re- 

 fuse was dumped into the river. In consequence of the 

 dissolving of the carbolic acid, its presence was soon de- 

 tected at Jersey City and Hoboken, and it became so ob- 

 jectionable that the water could not be used for drinking 

 purposes. Legal measures were at once adopted, and 

 the nuisance stopped. Simultaneous collection of speci- 

 mens of the drinking water of the leading cities of the 

 United States were collected, and a comparative examin- 

 ation of the organic matter (estimated according to the 

 permanganate method) undertaken. Without any other 

 special reference to the data given by Prof. Leeds, his 

 results were as follows :— 

 . The purity of drinking water: — 



r, Brooklyn ; 2, Rochester ; 3, Philadelphia ; 4, Balti- 

 more ; 5, New York ; 6, Washington ; 7, Newark, Jersey 

 City and Hoboken ; 8, Cincinnati ; 9, Boston ; 10, Oswego; 

 II, Wilmington, Del. 



In answer to questions which arose during the difcus- 

 sion of the paper, it was stated that during the past 

 summer an excessive amount of chlorine was found in 

 the analysis of the Passaic river, a fact contrary to all 

 previous experience, and one which was considered as 

 due to the extreme drought of the past summer so dimin- 

 ishing the amount of fresh water that the sea water had 

 extended quite a ways back up the river. A similar cir- 

 cumstance was stated in regard to the Hudson river this 

 year, the salt water being detected higher than usual. 

 In regard to the statements recently made by Prof. 

 Huxley in reference to the spread of disease by germs in 

 the water, a very significant fact was mentioned by Prof. 

 Leeds, in commenting on the rags used in the paper mills, 

 who stated that they were imported from the plague 

 stricken regions of Smyrna, and yet not one case of ana- 

 logous disease had been observed from those who used 

 the water, in which these rags were cleansed, for drink- 

 ing purposes. The desirable property of precipitating 

 out organic material from water by the use of the basic 

 chloride of iron was remarked by Dr. E. R. Squibb. 

 This fact has been used to advantage by one of the large 

 hotels at Coney Island. 



" Upon some new Salts of Thymole Sulpho Acid, and 

 some new facts concerning the same," was the title of 

 the second paper. It was by Mr. James II. Stebbins, 

 Jr., and was essentially a resume of some recent salts 

 prepared by him and description of their important char- 

 acteristics. 



• The third paper was by Dr. W. Hem pel, who gave in 

 the German language a descriptive "Exhibition of some 

 new Gas Apparatus." Not only were they exhibited, but 

 Dr. Hempel, in the presence of the Society, made analysis 

 of the illuminating gas (which he considers superior to 

 that used in Europe) and of the air. To those who are 

 especially interested in this branch his recently published 

 book will give the requisite information, and for the aver- 

 age reader a general description is almost impossible 

 without cuts. - M. B. 



MOUNDBUILDER SKELETONS* 

 I. 



By W. C. Holbrook, Coleta, III. 



The skeletons found in the mounds of Rock River 

 Valley, although always partially decomposed, present 

 the following anatomical peculiarities : — 



The cranium is small, low and broad. The super- 

 ciliary ridges are very large and cause the forehead to 

 appear even lower than it really is. 



The malar process and the zygoma small and low. 



Traces of a frontal suture are sometimes found in 

 adult skulls. In the skull of a child about six years old, the 

 suture was well developed. It appears that the two 

 lateral portions of the frontal bone did not then unite as 

 early in life as they now do, and that the traces of this 

 suture remained through life in some persons. In one 

 adult skull I found ten bones, viz. : two occipital, two 

 parietal, two frontal, two temporal, sphenoid and eth- 

 noid. The occipital was divided into hvo lateral por- 

 tions by an occipital stiture. 



The frontal suture was also well developed. The 

 sagittal suture, therefore, extended from the glabella 

 over the vertex to the forame?i magnum. 



The sagittal suture is usually quite short. In one 

 skull it measured only 4 67-100 inches, and the frontal 

 and the occipital bones in this specimen were normal. 



The supraorbital foramen is usually large and about 

 one-eighth of an inch above the orbit. I never saw a 

 supraorbital notch in a moundbuilder skull. Ossa tri- 

 quetra are very uncommon and are confined to the 

 lambdoid suture. This suture, together with traces of 

 an occipital suture sometimes form one or two large 

 triangular ossa triquetra in the superior angle of the 

 occipital bone. 



The posterior half of the synamus-suture is often com- 

 pletely grown up and the adjacent part of the temporal 

 and parietal bones completely united. 



The grooves for the arterie menigea media are very 

 deep, while the foresas that correspond to the brain are 

 shallow and indistinct. The frontal sinus large and 

 triangular in shape. The lower joint was large, massive 

 and broad. The teeth are usual remarkably sound. I 

 have never found but two or three " decayed teeth " in 

 all of my explorations. Toothache was not, therefore, 

 one of the troubles that beset the moundbuilders. 



The humerus presents one marked peculiarity. About 

 midway between the external and the internal condyloid 

 ridges, and in the center of the fossa for the coronoid 

 process of the ulvva, there is sometimes a well developed 

 foramen. 



In some mounds that contained fifteen or twenty per- 

 sons this foramen was found m more than fifty per cent, 

 of the humeri. I sometimes found it in both the right 

 and the left arms. When only present in one arm, 

 traces of an obliterate or grown up foramen were some- 

 times found in the opposite arm. Traces of this foramen 

 are quite frequent, and in all moundbuilder humeri, the 

 flat portion of bone between the condyloid ridges are 

 very thin. This foramen is usually small and circular. 

 Sometimes, however, it is large and triangular in shape, 

 the base of the triangle parallel with the trochlea and the 

 sides parallel with the condyloid ridges. A nutritious 

 foramen sometimes enters the lower end of the shaft of 

 the humerus at the superior angle of this triangular 

 foramen. I believe that the moundbuilders were slowly 

 outgrowing this Simian characteristic, for the humeri 

 containing the triangular foramens are found in the 

 oldest mounds, and are associated with the lowest fore- 

 heads and the smallest crania. In both the right and 

 the left humerus of the skeleton whose skull contained 

 ten bones, I found this foramen well developed. In the 

 more modern mounds this foramen is less frequently 

 found, and when present, is small and circular. The 



* American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1881, 



