430 
rOPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
alcohol and in acetic acid, and crystallises from these solutions, on the 
evaporation of the solvent, yielding orange-yellow coloured crystals ; its 
aqueous solution mixed with acetic acid, and brought to boiling point, im- 
parts to silk and wool immersed in that bath a beautiful and durable golden- 
yellow colour. — Cos77ios, July 3. 
Imp7’ove77ie7it m the I*7'epa7'atio7i of Ca7'honic Oxide. — In its most valuable 
and well-prepared summary of foreign chemical progress, the Chemical News 
gives the following abstract of a paper on this subject: When the gas 
just alluded to is evolved from a mixture of oxalic and sulphuric acids, as is 
well known, a mixture of carbonic acid and carbonic oxide gases is obtained. 
This mixture of gases the author causes to pass through a tube made red- 
hot in a suitable furnace and filled with charcoal previously well re-burnt ; 
and, after having washed the gas through a solution of potassa, and also 
lime-water, he thus obtains a bulk of the pure carbonic oxide gas three 
times larger than would be the case if the carbonic acid simultaneously 
formed were not decomposed by the red-hot charcoal, which must be free 
from yielding any carburetted hydrogen gases. 
An i77\proved BimserHs Filter. — Mr. R. S. Dale, in a letter to the Che7nical 
Neics, dated September 8, writes to say that he has made some improve- 
ments of use to chemists. In the place of the cone of platinum foil recom- 
mended by Bunsen, he now uses a cone made either of platinum or copper 
gauze. When the fluid which passes through the filter does not act on 
copper, he prefers the latter. The cones are cut j ust as Bunsen describes, 
but can be fitted to the funnel direct, that is, without the use of a matrix 
of plaster-of-Paris. This is accomplished by pressing the cone into the 
funnel to be used, with a piece of wood turned as nearly as possible to the 
proper angle. lie adds that during the last three months, in which these 
cones have been in almost daily use, he found them to filter much quicker 
than the foil cones, and with quite as little risk of breaking the paper. 
GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY. 
The Fossils of the Calraire g7'ossicr." — The Royal Academy of Belgium 
have determined to publish in 4to the fine memoir by MM. Cornet and 
Briart on this subject. 
A Fossil Tid)ula7'ian . — Dr. P. Martin Duncan has discovered, conjointly 
with TI. M Jenkin.s, a new genus of tubularian Ilydrozoa from the carbonifer- 
ous formation. It is called Palacocoryne, and was described in a paper read at 
one of the late meetings of the Royal Society. Val<xoco7'y7ie is a new genus 
containing two species, and belongs to a new family of the Tubularidae. 
The forms described were discovered in the lower shales of the Ayrshire 
and I.anarkshire coal-field, and an examination of their structures deter- 
mined them to belong to the Ilydrozoa, and to be parasitic upon Fenestellao. 
The genus has some characters in common with Binieria (St. Wright), and 
the polypary is hard and ornamented. Tlie discovery of the trophosome, 
and probably part of the gonosome of a tubularine hydrozoon in the Palaeo- 
zoic strata brings the order into geological relation with the doubtful Sertu- 
