SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
107 
the other, including six species of vibrios, does not require oxygen, and 
indeed ceases to exist if exposed to this gas. The second is the true ferment 
of putrefaction. He proposes two new terms by which to designate these 
distinct classes of beings — Aerobia and Anacrobia, the first signifying that 
the beings included by it possess the power of living when exposed to 
ordinary air, the second expressive of an inability to exist under those 
conditions. He suggests also that the latter be termed Zymics a 
ferment), from the property they have of developing putrefaction ; and 
that the former be negatively styled Azymics. — Comptes Dendus, 2 6. 
Discovery of the Metal Thallium . — We find that Mr. Crookes, in a letter 
to the editors of the Philosophical Magazine , has ably defended himself 
from the insinuations and assertions of M. Lamy, to the effect that 
thallium had not been discovered in the first instance by Mr. Crookes. 
English chemists are aware that since an early period in the }^ear 1861 
Mr. Crookes has devoted his attention to this subject, and that in the 
month of April in that year he announced “ the existence of a new 
metalloid, probably of the sulphur group ” ( Philosophical Magazine'). 
Now, it appears that M. Lamy has been also engaged in the study of this 
metaland its compounds ; but, on his own admission, he did not commence 
his researches till fifteen months subsequent to the published investigations 
of Mr. Crookes : this, however, does not prove anything as to the priority 
of isolation of the metal. Not so, however, the facts disclosed in the 
communication to the July number of the Philosophical Magazine , in 
which the whole matter is dealt with in a most impartial spirit. M. Lamy 
read a paper before the Societe Imperiale, at Lille, on the 16th of May, 
1862, in which he described thallium as a metal. This was his first 
communication, and, by a reference to the proces-verbaux of the society, 
we perceive that his discovery of the metal was made at some period 
between the 2nd and the 16th of that month. We have also the evidence 
of Mr. Quin* to the effect that on the 7th of June in 1862, M. Lamy, 
when at the International Exhibition, showed him an ingot of the metal. 
This, then, is M. Lamy’s case. On the other side we have a letter, dated 
17th April, 1862, from Mr. Quin to Mr. Crookes, stating his desire that a 
specimen of the metal thallium should be exhibited. If more convincing 
proof of Mr. Crookes’s claims be necessary, we have the fact that a spe- 
cimen of the metal was displayed at the opening of the Exhibition, on 
May 1st, 1862, and that there w*as affixed to the specimen a card with the 
following inscription : — (( Thallium : a new metallic element, discovered 
by means of spectrum analysis. ... It appears to have the characters 
of a heavy metal, forming compounds which are volatile below a red heat. 
It is reduced from its acid solutions by zinc, in the form of a dense, 
black powder, difficultly soluble in hydrochloric acid, readily soluble in 
nitric acid,” &c. The , only conclusion deducible from these facts is 
this : — Mr. Crookes had exhibited the metal at least sixteen days before 
M. Lamy announced his discovery of it and exhibited it to the society 
at Lille. 
* Ex-superintendent of classes 2, 3, and 4, International Exhibition. 
