60 The American Geologist. Ju, y- 1905 
tube and Bunsen valve. The material was dissolved in a small 
quantity of dilute hydrochloric acid. A few drops of the solutiqn 
quickly withdrawn and placed on a porcelain tile in contact with 
a solution of potassium ferricyanide showed a slight tinge of blue. 
A few drops of a solution of potassium sulpho cyanate were then 
quickly introduced into the flask when a red color was produced. 
The portion of the iron soluble in hydrochloric acid is therefore of 
both the ferrous and ferric forms. No attempt was made to de- 
termine each quantitatively on account of the small amount. 
The writer acknowledges his indebtedness to Alys Boies Carson 
for making the experiments of this investigation. 
NICHOLAS KNIGHT. 
Chemical Laboratory, Cornell College, 
July 4, 1905. 
PERSONAL AND SCIENTIFIC NEWS, 
Prof. W. W. Mills has been appointed state geologist 
-of Michigan to succeed Prof. A. C. Lane. 
Dr. O. C. Farrington has recently returned, from a long 
trip, to the Field Columbian Museum. 
Mr. W H. Harvey of Eveleth, Minnesota has been ap- 
pointed inspector of mines, with headquarters at Eveleth. 
Dr John M. Clarke. Director of Science and State Geol- 
ogist of New York, as well as one of the editors of this 
journal, has been seriously ill with appendicitis. 
Mr. George F. Lamb, a graduate of Ohio university 
and later a graduate student in geology at Ohio State uni- 
versity, has been elected professor of Biology and Geology 
in Mount Union college at Alliance, Ohio. 
The "Mining World" of Chicago has recently been 
purchased by a new stock company. The editorial staff 
"has been strengthened and enlarged, under the direction of 
Mr. D. T. Day. 
Prof. J. Volney Lewis of Rutger's college will devote 
the summer to a special investigation of the petrography 
of the Newark (Triassic) traps of New Jersey and their 
associated copper ores for the state geological survey. 
Dr. M. W. Twitchell, a graduate of Columbian univer- 
sity, Washington, D. C, and of Johns Hopkins university, 
Baltimore, Md., has been elected to fill the chair of geology 
in South Carolina college at Columbia, S. C. 
Mr. Ernest C. Brown, publisher of "Progressive Age," 
is preparing to publish a complete list of the engineers of 
