560 



SCIENCE. 



structure of the region where the copper occurs in 

 northern Texas and the Indian Territory. He had re- 

 ceived specimens from that region long ago and recog- 

 nized their similarity to the copper ores of New Mexico, 

 where in the upper portion of the Triassic formation 

 copper forming concretions and replacing wood occur in 

 many localities, and have been more or less mined for. 

 In one locality near Abiquini very extensive galleries 

 have been cut in the sandstone in search of copper 

 which there replaces branches and trunks of trees and 

 forms concretions wh'ch are irregularly scattered through 

 the rock. Here the work was done by the early Spanish 

 explorers perhaps 200 years ago, and the remains of the 

 furnaces in which the copper was smelted are still to be 

 seen at the mouth of the mine. Still further west, in 

 southern Utah, the same formation carries copper and 

 considerable silver, at Silver Reef enough to pay well 

 for mining, but in no locality yet known are the deposits 

 of copper ore sufficiently concentrated and continuous to 

 make mining for that material profitable, so it would 

 doubtless be found in Texas and the Indian Territory. 

 The copper was deposited with the Triassic rocks from 

 a shallow sea in which an unusual quantity of copper 

 was held in solution. This impregnated the sediments 

 found at the bottom replacing wood and forming as 

 nodules about some nucleus. The aggregate quantiiy of 

 copper in this formation was enormous, but, except where 

 by the erosion of the beds it accumulated at the surface 

 and could be picked up without any expense in mining, 

 it would hardly pay to attempt to obtain it by ordinary 

 mining processes. 



The wood replaced by copper Dr. Newberry said was 

 undoubtedly all coniferous, and different from any now 

 living. The beds which contained the cuprified wood 

 also contained much that was silicified. Of this he had 

 examined many specimens under the microscope and had 

 found the peculiar dotted cells which are characteristic of 

 the coniferae, and these grouped in such a way as to 

 prove the trees to have belonged to the Araucarian group 

 of conifers. So far as yet known the angiosperms, or 

 higher order of plants, did not make their appearance on 

 the earth's surface until after the copper bearing recks of 

 the southwest had been deposited. 



THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 



The November meeting of this Society was held on Fri- 

 day evening, November 4th, with Vice-President Leeds in 

 the Chair. 



The following gentlemen were duly elected members: Dr. 

 C. W. Volney, Dr. Witthaus, Messrs. C. E. Munsell.W.W. 

 Share, J. D. O'Connor, and Day. The first paper of the 

 evening was " On some New Salts of Thymole Sulpho- 

 acid, and some new facts concerning the same," (a second 

 paper) by Mr. J. H. Stebbins, Jr., S. B. The sodium salt 

 having the formula 



C 6 H a (CH.) (C S H,) (NaS0 3 ) O Na+2iH a O 

 was described, and also the free sulphur salt had its char- 

 acteristics enumerated. 



Mr. Stebbins followed with a second paper " On the 

 Combination of Diazo Compounds with Thymole Sulpho- 

 Acid." 



In this he described the experiments which he performed 

 in his work, the results of which were given in the first 

 paper. Both were technical and not of any popular in- 

 terest. 



The third paper was by Dr. C. W. Volney, and was en- 

 titled, " The Constitution of the Explosive Derivatives of 

 Glycerine." 



In this communication the author tried to prove that the 

 nitro-glycerine was composed by the substitution of the 

 nitrogen trioxide (NO s ) instead of the nitrous oxide NO.,, 

 making the formula CtH, (N0 3 ) 3 instead of C 3 H 6 (NO,) 3 , 

 and secondly, he showed how it was possible to substi- 



tute chlorine for the nitrogen trioxide and so produce a 

 new explosive compound. 



This paper provoked much discussion on account of the 

 theoretical arrangement of the atoms necessary to sustain 

 Dr. Volney 's statement. 



Subsequently the Committee on Nominations reported 

 that the following ticket was recommended to the Society 

 for their votes at the December meeting. 



Corresponding Secretary.— P. Casamajor. 



Recording Secretary. — J. H. Stebbins, Jr. 



Treasurer. — M. Alsberg. 



Librarian. — Geo. A. Prochazka. 



Curators. — A. J. Rossi, Wm. Rupp, A. A. Fesquet. 



Cotntnittce on Publications.— Arno Behr, A. R. Ledoux, 

 H. Endemann. 



Committee on Nominations. — A. H. Elliott, O. H. 

 Krause, J. P. Battershall, J. B. F. Herrishoff, T. O'C. 

 Sloane. 



Board of Directors. — P. Casamajor, J. H, Stebbins, Jr., 

 H. Morton, C. F. Chandler, M. Alsberg, E. R. Squibb, 

 W. H. Nichols, W. H. Habershaw, E. Waller, A. H. Gal- 

 latin, Geo, A. Prochazka. 



ON THE NATURE OF THE DIPHTHERITIC 

 CONTAGIUM. 



By Dr. H. C. Wood. 



The lecturer began by stating that the researches which 

 formed the basis of the present address had been made 

 under the auspices, and, indeed, at the suggestion, of the 

 National Board of Health, by Dr. Henry F. Formad and 

 himself, who were jointly responsible for the facts and 

 inductions and jointly deserving of whatever reprobation 

 or approbation might be due. The full text of the work 

 is now h the hands of the National Board, and will be 

 shortly published by them as an appendix to their annual 

 report, and the lectufer desired that criticism be withheld 

 uniil this was done, as the memoir will contain much 

 that cannot be spoken of in the present lecture. 



In the spring of 1880 work was begun by inoculating 

 rabbits with diphtheritic membrane taken from the throats 

 of patients at Philadelphia. An account of the labors of 

 the lollowing summer has been already published, but it 

 seems necessary to epitomize them here. It was found 

 that only in a very few cases was anything like diphtheria 

 produced in the rabbit by inoculating with the membrane. 

 The inoculations were practised by putting pieces of the 

 material sometimes under the skin, sometimes deep in 

 the muscles. Many rabbits died after some weeks, not 

 of diphtheria, but of tuberculosis. In a series of experi- 

 ments it was shown that this tuberculosis was an indirect 

 and not a direct result of the inoculation, and that any 

 appaient relation between the two diseases is only appa- 

 rent, not real. Next, 'he tracheas of a series of rabbits 

 were opened and false membrane inserted. It was 

 found that under these circumstances a severe trachitis 

 was frequently produced, and was attended by an abun- 

 dant formation of pseudo-membrane. Careful studies 

 made of the false membrane of diphtheria and of this 

 false membrane showed that the two were identical, both 

 containing in abundance fibrin fibres, corpuscular ele- 

 ments, and various forms of micrococci. To determine 

 whether other inflammations of the trachea than that 

 cau?ed by diphtheria or its membrane are accompanied 

 by the formation of false membrane, a number of ex- 

 periments were made, and it was demonstrated that the 

 production of false membrane has nothing specific in it, 

 but that any trachitis of sufficient severity is accompanied 

 by this product. Careful studies also showed that this 

 false membrane does not differ in its constitution from 

 that of true diphtheria, except it be that the micrococci 

 are not so abundant in it. We always found some mi- 

 crococci, and in some of these traumatic pseudo-mem- 



*AN ADDRESS MADE BEFORE THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



