(33) 
(1) THE PERMANGANATE ABSORPTION-SPECTRUM : A CLAIM 
FOR PRIORITY. (2) A FORMULA FOR CALCULATING 
THE URANIUM SPECTRUM. 
(1) In Part VII, Section III, p. 47 of "Colour and Chemical Constitu- 
tion," published in these Transactions two years ago, I gave the formula — 
n = i = 1750 + 78 N (in which N represents the 7 natural numbers 
A 
from 0 to 6) by means of which the positions of the 7 absorption-bands of 
the permanganates in dilute water solution could be calculated. 
I now find that an Italian investigator, E. Adinolfi, has practically redis- 
covered this formula. He states his result as n = n ?> ± 75" 3 N, but his 
refers to the third (viz. the strongest) band, whereas my figure 1750 refers to 
the first band. Subtracting therefore 2 x 75'3 from his value of n 3 (viz. 1902 - 8) 
we get 1752-2. Adinolfi' s formula thus reads : 1 = 1752 2 + 75*3 N and 
is practically the same as mine, since the decimal points mean nothing in 
observations of this sort, which are not capable of a higher accuracy than 
01 per cent. The following table exhibits the results of the calculations : 
Adinolfi's formula. Moir's formula. Moir's observations. 
Adinolfi's observations are in the Journal of the Academy dei Lincei, 
1920, and are therefore inaccessible to me, but they apparently do not 
differ from mine by more than O'l per cent. It is probable that the 7 bands 
are really 10, 3 of which overlap and thus cause the great intensity of II 
and III, and also the small irregularity of the spacing. 
By James Moir. 
Line I . 1752 . 
Line II . 1827^ 
Line III . 1903 . 
Line IV . 1978 . 
LineV . 2053 . 
Line VI . 2129 . 
Line VII 2204 . 
1750 
1828 
1906 
1984 
2062 
2140 
2218 
1750 
1830 
1906 
1990 
2060 
2133 
2204 
