oe an “Al oo) ‘) ae teks ts We OH tai i x au ns ae i } i 4 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, SHOWING THE OPERATIONS, EXPENDITURES, AND CONDITION OF THE INSTITUTION FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1887. fase Vie Raed WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, 1889, ge FirtieTH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION. ¢ ‘ Concurrent resolution adopted by the House of Representatives July 28, 1888, a Senate October 1, 1#88. ‘ a ' Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That there gue of the Report of the Smithsonian Institution and of the National Museum for th ending June 30, 1886 and 1887, in two octavo volumes for each year, 16,000 extr of each, of which 3,000 copies shall be for the use of the Senate, 6,000 copies -s use of the House of Representatives, and 7,000 copies for the use of the Smi . Institution. i II th es “ - a LETTER ‘SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, e Es Mh annual report of the Board of Regents of that Institution to the end of ) June, 1887. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, es.” Washington, D. C., July 1, 1887. - the Congress of the United States: - In accordance with section 5593 of the Revised Statutes of the United “States, J have the honor, in behalf of the Board of Regents, to sub- mit to Congress the Shital report of the operations, expenditures, and condition of the Smithsonian Institution for the year ending J une 30, 1887. . te I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, = SPENCER F. Barrp, Secretary of Smithsonian Institution. = 2 eae Eon: JOHN J. INGALLS, ‘g _ President of the Senate, pro tem. Seton. JOHN G. CARLISLE, Speaker of the House Be Representatives. ; : Ill ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION TO THE END OF JUNE, 1887. SUBJECTS. 1. Proceedings of the Board of Regents for the session of January, 1887. 2. Report of the Executive Committee, exhibiting the financial affairs of the Institution, including a statement of the Smithson fund, and re- ceipts and expenditures for the year 1886—87. 3. Annual report of the Secretary, giving an account of the operations and condition of the Institution for the year 1886-87, with the statistics of collections, exchanges, ete. 4. General appendix, comprising a selection of miscellaneous memoirs of interest to collaborators and correspondents of the Institution, teachers, and others engaged in the promotion of knowledge. The report of the National Museum for the year 1886~87 will be pub- lished in a separate volume. LY. i} mile ~ / 3 } CONTENTS. = Page Resolution of Congress to print extra copies of the Report..........-.-...---. II Letter from the Secretary, submitting the Annual Report of the Regents to CONGRESS ote aah Lo RSE eS RSS AB Ones Ae RAR OD OCU OEAE EEN Hom Seeeear is a acess III menor laabyjecis OL bhe Annual Report: o>)... 5 «<<. sscse fececs csueiee cess ceece IV SNUG PONM COO TROPONUi sc saeercins soe Seas ysee ans clias skeen es one ane eocisa sees Vv SPARRO He INCE Os to SOR Son an ona Soca acawas aanaistan ie ceewee omens Vil Monmihcrsexopicio or wie Establishment ::-:.......5-s.2..2c20 5 Som senldaceen se on Ix Beemepents of the Smithsonian Institution -----...~--- .-- +. +--+... 22 +--+ 2-22 sa-- x JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS ..---------.-------- SF | ReEporT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE for the year 1886—87._..........---- XV ; Wondmion om tne tondraly |, W887 Seco cee sacs women == cose edocs cece . XVII TPLBG BIO Soa ORR ELIS VA ey eg a i RE as ee eee ae XVII 4 BIMBESMONUULCS MOM CNG VERE ofa --¢- eeeeect nce eeseee = eee eee : 7 Aid for collecting antiquities from the Isthmus of Panama...--..-.--- 7 Pop CatIONS 2S. oc aa ae eee tee e cla ae een aes eee eee 8 Classeswof publications =. oo. 26 osceee oe ee dee estas eosin ee ee 8 Smithsonian Contributions to Kmowledge.......-.- .--.5. ---- -s-----6 8 Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections....,.....2. 2-2. -2-+ --e0--ceeee 8 List of institutions in United States receiving publications........ 8 Volume xxviii of Miscellaneous Collections..............-...-... 8 List of Astronomical Observatories ...-.. .-< 2.2. ce<0 coos eens eas 8 Volume xx1x of Miscellaneous Cojlections :..-.-..2.2.. .2-25.---- 9 Scientific Writings of Joseph Henry ¢.-022.. e252 eee os eolteemeeee 9 Volume xxx of Miscellaneous Collections ...-....... Sees 2 eee 9 Miscellaneous Papers relating to Anthropology......---.--------- 9 Bulletins of the U.'S: National Museum... 2.) 5220 soce- aoe oe eee 2 9 Bulletin No! 80. Ssa2 so. Ves sci eee ee ow cece hae ee a ee 9 Bulletin No. 31-..-.--- wsdaitisedes seeeesinemeeen = weeees Soeonices nee 10 Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum -.-.--.......---.....---.-. 10 Circular respecting exchanges of birds or birds’ eggs......--.---- 10 Circular on the lending of typical specimens.-.-.--..-..----.--.--.- 10 Volume 1x of National Museum Proceedings...--.....-....--....- 10 Smithsonian Annual Reportss-co. we aan Sos eae ee eens Piao see 10 Report for 1884, Part 11 (National Museum Report) ..--...--..... 10 Report for 1885, Part 1 (Smithsonian Report) ....-..---.-..---.-.-: 11 Report of Secretary, S. F. Baird, for 1885~86...-....---.-.-.--.--- 11 Publications of the Bureau of Ethnology...-..--....--- Mena Sstadose- 11 Fourth annual report, (for 188283) posse -t-- cece pees eee ee es eee il internmationalexchanges! (2 s-fs se sse cee + ese ae seen sacle et ee ee eee 12 Foreign and domestic exchanges for the fiscal year...........---. Beer 12 Transportation facilities \..2- 222-5 s=-2-.n=o ace o-ca eee eee 13 Government exohanves a. oj. oe osc eos aoe) eee meen eka eee 13 Assistance by the Government. ..-.....-.....--.....-. Bee Stn 14 Insufficiency of the Government exchanges..---.....2+ -.-222 e000 e0e ae 15 Pabrary of the Inshitetion seo. .ccecs enue ences i ences Meme ee eee eae 16 Additions tor the tseal years. --2 5 .-sccn nlisee ssuals wotiidcisWetm mals sciee (TRS ET TN AO A SST Aa aes aed 7 eS Aaa Sona Oe aS Mea Advance of Science in the last half century, by T. H. Huxley.......... Asionomy tor L886; by _William ©. Winloclk. 200 ,o225csos.2255-cceeoes Astronomical. Bibliography for-1886 .-. 2.2.0. 262 26. +25 eee neces North-American Geology for 1886, by Nelson H. Darton.............--- Bibliography of North-American Paleontology for 1886, by John Belknap MU ARIEO Heryaia aie nist cial acoe ete So aia iaito Sap cis (ecielowiele wel am oeis cis Sas Sa ee oe Vulcanology and Seismology for 1886, by C. G. Rockwood..-..-.......- Bibliography of Vuleanology, ete:, for 1886) 2.22.22 22250225 see ne Geography and Exploration in 1886, by William Libbey ....-...-.---.. Physica lecosbyaGeorge. fb. Barker; socs..-5-accases~. see eseneeee ear Bibliography of Physics for 1886, by George F. Barker .----..-.--. Chemistry in! 1886; by HW. Carrington Bolton’:.. .s.-\s22. 22s le. 222 bs. Bibliography of Chemistry for 1“86, by H. Carrington Bolton-....-. Mincralorym IseG uby Hdward'S; Dana i... (23. -.).5222.2 2. 2esse sees List of mineral species and papers on same for 1886 .-.......-...-.-. Biblooraphy of Mineralogy, for l886 Js. J2es5)-- 22 52-252" sce eaee ODIO Mati GSO, Ye LbEOGOre Gill, comes = aoe cto wee ch os «Seow weeks Anpanopolory in 1585, by: Otis T. Mason-\...52-- 2 52-2 -f2oseenne ecccee Bibliography of Anthropology for 1886.......-....---..-...----.-- Me NAC MU UANEO USM APERS 28 eh nasiaseel snes Saisie te ciSae ie esa ns sesso ers sensi ane ML MOY Dis aMNEN LIS1O) 752 eaten wo ~ oseis videos eae ee se stase Mound in Jefferson County, Tennessee, by J. C. McCormick -......---. Ancient mounds and earthworks in Floyd and Cerro Gordo Counties, lows, soy; Clements, Webster 2a. sa. cscia.\c5 ea ssee wan se see teeee {Indian graves in Floyd and Chickasaw Counties,-Iowa, by Clement L. NVONSUBTia ss minee cate mn eee ioe Slots ce eine cee eins ces we Sseeiee. sees Ancient mounds in Johnson County, Iowa, by Clement L. Webster-.... Ancient mounds in Iowa and Wisconsin, by Clement L. Webster .----- Mounds of the Western prairies, by Clement L. Webster. ..-.-......-.- The Twana, Chemakum, and Klallam Indians of Washington Territory, Bye ViwRoM GUS Same momo eae a ne abas ste, nos! Sesser cae ta ania aiden MUCHOMALONES, Dye bak ep SUVUSLa: occ Saiisa men cee So es che steeaccotwaccs PMC MNES MEXICO, DY Sa Dsiki VANS) oss c mwa some diac ae Seneee Coes Biographical Memoir of Arnold Guyot, by James D. Dana .-.--....---.- aE PI CEUOLAING fee atone eas oa cise ok Sok snes cciedct twice ecte wcadseadeecees 50 590 593 5Y8 603 Vill CONTENTS. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Ancient mounds, ete., in Jowa, and in Wisconsin: Fig. 1. Section of mound near Flood Creek... 2 222. 22.2 coccew ce cese sose- 2. Map showing location of moundS2ose2 2 ses aecee ae np anise tare omen y Diagram Of. Mound INO: 14S esse an cee setae atin ae oieieieiee Diagram of mound) Nov 2) Soe cceas aac eee ea eee ae ee . Map showing location of ancient fortification........:--.---.----- . Mound, supplementary to those of Fig. 2 .--.-..----.----2---- o-0- ; Vertical section of Indiam-gtaves-22-- eeca- ee ase eee eee . Map showing position"of mounds=.-o.22-ee. soe o-oo eee 9. Method of flint chipping ilustratedé-22 22. -= -- 2-2 5--- -e eee Anchor stones: Plate, 1p Pionres land?) esse se = Sone ac. ete e se namie ale tea aetna DT SHMIOUECS '5;)/4; ANG Os cace se seemee naan on eneie ae ae eee Ti, Hanes! Grand 722 cele cieoetal fale ta aaa lee te a el eet tay oiate eee Antiquities in Mexico: Fig. 1. Fragment of sculptured porphyry from Mexico.........--.---..--- DIANA Sw a i —e oe Tee SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. MEMBERS EX OFFICIO OF THE “ ESTABLISHMENT.” (January, 1887.) GROVER CLEVELAND, President of the United States. JOHN SHERMAN, President of the United States Senate. MORRISON R. WAITH, Chief-Justice of the United States. THOMAS F. BAYARD, Secretary of State. DANIEL MANNING, Secretary of the Treasury. WILLIAM C. ENDICOTT, Secretaryeof War. WILLIAM C. WHITNEY, Secretary of the Navy. WILLIAM F. VILAS, Postmaster-General. LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR, Secretary of the Interior. AUGUSTUS H. GARLAND, Attorney-General. MARTIN V. MONTGOMERY,. Commissioner of Patents. REGENTS OF THE INSTITUTION. (Full list given on the foliowing page.) OFFICERS OF THE INSTITUTION. SPENCER F. BAIRD, Secretary, Director of the Institution, and of the U. S. National Museum. SAMUEL P. LANGLEY, G. BROWN GOODE, Assistant Secretaries. WILLIAM J. RHEES, Chief Clerk. REGENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, By the organizing act approved August 10, 1846 (Revised Statutes, title LXXxIII, section 5580), **The business of the Institution shall be conducted at the city of Washington by a Board of Regents, the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, to be composed named of the Vice-President, the Chief-Justice of the United States [and the Gov- ernor of the District of Columbia], three members of the Senate, and three members of the House of Representatives, together with six other persons, other than members of Congress, two of whom shall be resident in the city of Washington, and the other four shall be inhab- itants of some State, but no two of the same State.” REGENTS FOR THE YEAR 1887. The Vice-President of the United States: ; p JOHN SHERMAN (elected President of Senate Dec. 7, 1885). JOHN J. INGALLS (elected President of the Senate Feb. 26, 1887). The Chief-Justice of the United States: ~ Morrison R. WAITE. Term expires. United States Senators: SAMUEL B. Maxey (appointed May 19, 1881)_...-.-.....---..--=< Mar. 3, 1887 JUSTIN S. MORRILL (appointed February 21, 1883)--....----.-... - Mar. 3, 1891 SHELBY M. CULLOM (appointed March 23, 1885).-.....---.------- Mar. 3, 1889 RANDALL L. GIBSON vice Senator MaxEy (appointed Dec. 19, 1887). Mar. 3, 1889 Members of the Honse of Representatives: OTHo R. SINGLETON (appointed January 12, 1886)...--........-- Dec. 28, 1887 ~ WiiiiaM L. WILSON (appointed January 12, 1886)........--..--- Dec. 28, 1887 WILLIAM W. PHELPS (appointed January 12, 1886)...-...-....-.- Dec. 28, 1887 Citizens of Washington: JAMES C. WELLING (appointed May 13, 1884)...............-..--- May 13, 1890 MonTGOMERY C. MEIGS (appointed December 26, 1885)......---. Dec. 26,1891 Citizens of a State: ASA GRAY, of Massachusetts (first appointed in 1874)............. Dec. 26, 1891 Henry Corrée, of Pennsylvania (first appointed in 1874). ......-. Dec. 26, 1891 Noan Porter, of Connecticut (first appointed in 1878)....-. .-.- Mar. 3, 1890 JaMES B. ANGELL, of Michigan (appointed January 19, 1887). .... Jan. 19, 1893 Morrison R. WAITE, Chancellor of the Institution and President of the Board of Regents. ; Executive Committee of the Board of Regents. JAMES C. WELLING. HENRY Coppshe. MONTGOMERY C, MEIGS. x _ JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. WASHINGTON, January 12, 1887. In accordance with a resolution of the Board of Regents of the Smith- sonian Institution fixing the time of the annual session on the second Wednesday in January of each year, the Board met this day at 10:30 o'clock A. M. Present: The Chancellor, Chief-Justice MoRRISON R. WAITE; Hon. JOHN SHERMAN, Hon. JusTIN S. MORRILL, Hon. SHELBY M. CULLOM, Hon. OTnO R. SINGLETON, Hon. WILLIAM W. PHELPS, Dr. ASA GRAY, Dr. HENRY CoPpPEs, Dr. JAMES C. WELLING, General MONTGOMERY C. MEIGS, and the Secretary, Prof. SPENCER F. BAIRD. Excuses for non-attendance were read from Dr. NoAH PORTER and Hon. WILLIAM L. WILSON. - The Chancellor announced that since the last meeting of the Board one of its most valued and eminent members had deceased, Rev. Dr. JOHN MACLEAN, of Princeton, N. J.; whereupon Dr. Welling, chair- man of the Executive Committee, offered the following: THE LATE DR. MACLEAN. I trust that without too much presumption I may venture to offer a brief minute in humble tribute to the memory of our honored and la- mented colleague, the late Dr. Maclean, not because I chance to hold the place he lately filled with so much dignity and usefulness on your Ex- ecutive Committee, but because it is perhaps my good fortune to have known that venerable man for a longer period than has fallen to the lot of any other member of this Board. And yet I do not come with any words of formal eulogium. This is not the hour and this is not the place in which to essay anything like an elaborate delineation of the character which was expressed in the life and services of our late dis- tinguished friend, a character no less remarkable for its beauty than for its strength. The memoir of his long and useful career has already been written else- where in the record of a well-spent life, dedicated to the glory of God and the welfare of man. It is written in the annals of the great College, whose story he has told so well that for all the sons of Princeton it must remain ‘‘a possession forever,” and which he was called to serve in every xI XII JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. post of duty and honor, from the humblest to the highest, rising by easy gradations, because by a natural ascent, from the chair of Tutor to that of Professor, from the chair of Professor to that of Vice-Presi- dent, and from the chair of Vice-President to the honors of the Presi- dency in a critical period, when he was able to lay broad and deep the sulid foundations on which others have builded. It is written in the annals of the Church to which he gave his sincere adhesion, whose pul- pit he adorned no less by the sanctity of his life than by the steadfast- ness of his faith, and for the defense of whose doctrine and order he was called again and again to stand in its courts of highest judicature. It is written in the annals of the Smithsonian Institution, for whose pros- perity he was willing to spend and be spent till the last day of his mortal career. And above all it is written in the pious recollections of a countless host of scholarly men, scattered in all parts of the land, who from year to year went forth from Nassau Hall carrying with them the name and memory of John Maclean embalmed in their hearts by a thousand acts of kindness and of love which transmuted the temporary ties of academic relation into ‘hooks of steel,” binding to him a suc- cessive swarm of youth during two generations of men. Of thé ripeness and range of Dr. Maclean’s scholarship there is no room to speak within the limits of this brief chronicle. He preferred to read the Bible of the old dispensation in the original Hebrew, not only that he might get as near as possible to “the lively oracles of God,” but because Hebrew was to him a familiar tongue. In the Greek language and literature he was a master and for long years an expert professor. The Latin tongue he wrote with a facility and grace which caused his pen to be put in frequent requisition whenever, for the pur- poses of academic disquisition, a draught was to be made on the stately speech of ancient Rome. As a preacher, he was sound and logical. Asa teacher, he was solid and thorough, looking rather to the substance than the form of his instruction. As an executive officer, he had that ‘wisdom of business” which Lord Bacon praises, because he never sought an end which he did not believe to be right, and therefore he was able to pursue all the ends he aimed at with the directness in- spired by a clear intelligence and a pure heart. In all things he was the very soul of Christian honor. Great and good as teacher, preacher, and ruler, the man in Dr. Mac- lean was something greater, better, and broader than any of the forms or manifestations under which he was officially called to reveal himself in the performance of his public functions. The man should always be greater than the functionary. As the altar which sanctifies the gift is greater than any gift that can be laid upon it, so Dr. Maclean was greater in the sweetness and light of his gentle and candid nature than was apparent to those who never knew the ‘ hidden man of the heart;” for high and holy as were his gifts in the sigat of men, those gifts re- ceived their best consecration from the altar of the sanctified manhood on which he reverently laid them. JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. XIII Under the inspiration of these sentiments, I respectfully submit the following resolutions: Whereas, since the date of the last meeting of the Board of Re- - gents of the Smithsonian Institution, its members have been called to mourn the loss of their venerable and distinguished colleague, the late Rev. John Maclean, D. D., LL. D., sometime President of Princeton College, who held the office of Regent for the term of eighteen years, during seventeen of which he served on its Executive Committee with no less credit to himself than usefulness to the Institution: Therefore, be it Resolved, That with a high appreciation of the varied, abundant, and intelligent labors which the late Dr. Maclean brought to the cause of cul- ture, of truth, and of righteousness throughout the whole of his long, useful, and honorable career; with a grateful sense of the manifold services he rendered to the Smithsonian Institution, for whose welfare he worked without weariness and watched without flagging, even after he had begun to feel the burden of age; with profound sorrow for his death, mingled with reverence for his beautiful memory, and with thanksgivings for the serene and peaceful close of a finished life, as full of years as it was full of honors, we hereby testify and record our ad- mniration of the exalted Christian character with which he dignified and adorned every station that he was called to hold in the eyes of men; our respect for the solidity of the learning which supported him in the high discharge of every professional duty, whether in the pulpit, the academic chair, or the post of executive administration; and lastly, in special recognition of the grateful savor which his genial presence never failed to shed on the deliberations of this council-chamber, our cheerful and loyal homage to the dignity of bearing and amenity of manners which made him as courteous in debate as he was wise in coun- sel, as gracious in all the relations of private life as he was inflexible in the maintenance of Christian honor and conscientious in the perform- ance of public duty. Resolved, That this preamble and resolution be spread on the min- utes of the Board in respectful tribute to the services and memory of our venerated colleague, and that a copy of these resolutions be trans- mitted to the family of our deceased friend in token of the share we fain would take with them in this bereavement. The resolutions were unanimously adopted by a rising vote. The Chancellor announced the election, by joint resolution of Con- gress, of Dr. James B. Angell, President of the University of Michi- gan, to fill the vacancy in the Board occasioned by the death of Dr. Maclean. The annual report of the Executive Committee for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886, was presented by its chairman, Dr. Welling, who stated that it gave him pleasure to inform the Board that his colleagues, Dr. Coppée and General Meigs, and himself, after making a thorough and minute examination of the accounts, looking at every voucher and verifying the books and certificates, had not found a single error of omission or commission, and he was therefore able to say that there was the most gratifying evidence of the efliciency of the financial manage- XIV JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. ment of the Institution, a fact especially noteworthy when the great magnitude and the variety of its transactions are considered. He also called attention to a slight change in the form of the report, as now presented, from the reports lately presented to the Board. It was, however, a recurrence to the old practice, which had been changed a few years ago at the suggestion of a former member of the committee. It is the custom of the Institution every year to make advances for cer- tain operations, which are subsequently refunded, and these advances, with the amounts received from sales of publications, re-payments for freight, etc., have been deducted from the gross expenditures. The statements in the report of the Executive Committee, as recently com- piled, gave only the net or actual outlay from the income of the Smithson fund. But now it is thought better to spread the actual ag- gregate of these transactions on the record, so as to exhibit the full magnitude and distinctive nature of the operations. A statement is therefore made in the present report of the Executive Committee under the head of “ Receipts for conducting special researches ani collections,” and ‘*‘ Repayments,” to which we would direct attention. He also stated that the committee had deemed it advisable to make a statement of all the moneys received and handled by the Institution on account of trusts committed to it by Congress, and on the last page of the report it would be seen that an exhibit was presented giving an abstract of everything under this head. On motion of Mr. Sherman the report was received and adopted. The Secretary presented his annual report for the year ending June 30, 1886, which in accordance with a resolution of the Board had been printed in advance of the meeting. General Meigs asked if there was any point in the report that Pro- fessor Baird wished to emphasize or to ask action on, particularly in regard to additional buildings for the Museum. Professor Baird replied that there was not; thatin regard to the new building for the Museum the Board had already taken action and rec- ommended it to Congress several years ago. On motion of Mr. Cullom the report was accepted and approved. On motion of Dr. Welling the following resolution was adopted: Resolved, That the income of the Institution for the fiscal year end- ing June 30, 1838, be expended by the Secretary with full discretion as to the items, subject to the approval of the Executive Committee. The Secretary presented a communication to the Board requesting permission to appoint Prof. S. P. Langley as Assistant Secretary in charge of Exchanges, Publications, and Library, and Mr. G. Brown Goode as Assistant Secretary in charge of the National Museum. On motion of Mr. Morrill it was— Resolved, That the appointment by the Secretary of Prof. S. P. Lang- ley and Prof. G. Brown Goode as Assistant Secretaries of the Smith- sonian Institution be approved. JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. XV A communication from M. M. Campbell, referred by the Secretary of the Interior, recommending the establishment at the Smithsonian In- stitution of a department of language and the introduction of a uni- versal alphabet, was read. Mr. Singleton stated that the Library Committee of Congress, of which he was chairman, had a similar proposition now under considera- tion; and on motion the communication was laid on the table. Dr. Gray, from the special committee on the publication of the scien- tific writings of Professor Henry, reported that the work would form two volumes of about 500 pages each, the first of which was completed and a copy was upon the table. The second would be ready in a few weeks. A certain number would be given to the family of Professor Henry, and the remainder would be subject to the discretion of the Secretary. On motion, the Board then adjourned sine die. REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. The Executive Committee of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution respectfully submits the following report in relation to the funds of the Institution, the appropriations by Congress for the Na- tional Museum and other purposes, and the receipts and expenditures for the Institution and the Museum, for the year ending June 30, 1887. Condition of the fund July 1, 1887. The amount of ths bequest of James Smithson deposited in the Treasury of the United States, according to the act of Congress of August 10, 1846, was $515,169. To this was added, by authority of Congress, act of February 8, 1867, the residuary legacy of Smithson and savings from annual income and other sources, $154,531. To this $1,000 was added by a bequest of James Hamilton, $500 by a bequest of Simeon Habel, and $51,500 as the proceeds of the sale of Virginia bonds owned by the Institution, making in all, as the permanent Smith- son fund in the United States Treasury, $703,000. Statement of the receipts and expenditures of the Smithsonian Institution, July 1, 1886, to June 30, 1887. RECEIPTS, BCEHOn THAN DULY iT ABEG! is se -cccts os onlsetwietc clei ca be Sued aces $24, 784.17 Eotereat on the fund, January 1, 1887..-...2.. 200 once ceceee 21, 090, 00 asherom) sales.of publications: ..c....05....5.sesc0 ve $561. 44 Cash from repayments of freight, ete -.........-...- 799. 18 —_ 1,360. 62 MeN eM MeO hea ae oe wind acon San Ge «aS ab8.- cae sents $47, 234. 79 ; EXPENDITURES. Building: Repairs, care, and improvements ............-. $1, 403. 34 MUTMGMrS ANC AKTULCS c.f. cia --- sccc'souc 2, 312. 97 — $3,716.31 * This includes the semi-annual interest, $21,090, received July 1, 1886. H. Mis. 600 II XVII ol er ee AE») eee EP Bey Oy a - cae ee ae XVIII REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. Expenditures (carried over) <.252. --sccede = o-seen eeeeeae . $3,716.31. General expenses: ; MISCHA LS) i Aced oan se crae vee ant eee See ere $590. 00 Postage and telegraph .........-.. --00. .----- 523. 02 Biamoueryes cia s cence oles = See teeter 633. 25 General printing =_. 5 --2-sisee SSE eee PSAIGI Te lees a, 1, 839. 65 1.96 LISS SS ee ia BE lt (A a $106, 500.00 | 100, 508, 83 5, 991.17 Armory: Reba ies erie Sten iin Sci we cig caine awe fo a cine anal | eee, Sap eee ee 8. 25 TSC) Re Se RG a ne ee 4 BES. Fal i a abe 168. 40 46.14 Farniture and fixtures: Rios) ee SE et eee cultalteortcte teers alll «bce scl soe it 6 1 bee Sie ae BOIS, Baie Or AL a 3, 967. 79 45. 05 RRS eR Re) I AN 40,000.00 | 37,190.20 | 2,809. 80 New building—sidewalk, 1885 ..... LOU SSG| Poteet ses k 101. 38 None Teating and lighting, etc., 1887....|..........-- 11,000.00 | 10,603. 27 391.73 XxX REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. RECAPITULATION. The total amount of the funds administered by the Institution during the year ending 30th of June, 1887, appears, from the foregoing state- ments and the account-books, to have been as follows: Smithsonian Institution. Hromebalance: of: last year sc—2 te oa eee ene ee $24, 784.17 From interest on the Smithson-fund=.-2. 222-50 --2. 252 .-- cee 21, 090. 00 From MM. K: Jesup) for collections.-.-55 222 )s-=-escmee= $87. 21 From J. Hotchkiss for research. ---.-.-: --22-2sce---. 34.28 —_——_ 124, 49 From repayments for freight, explorations, etce....... $799.18 From sales of Smithsonian publications......... a oc-s / DOL.A4 ——_-__ 1, 360. 62 —— $47, 359. 28 Appropriations committed by Congress to the care of the Institution for the year 1887, and balances of appropriations unexpended in previous years: Reconstructing and furnishing eastern portion of Smith- sonign padding 22st ye cass sas o> Oonmae saeee ae eee $70, 600. 00 intemabionalexcnan Css sce teeme! sclera ane lel aelete tert 10, 000, 00 Hihnolosicall researches = 5 -ee cide ae ote 40, 869. 13 Smithsonian Institution, building repairs.............--- 15, 000. 00 Preservation of. collections, -. aa): aso acces sace cece ae 108, 397. 49 JENGA Gl JAN O io Beds Hee SAS Sogo Secsease ceccier 222.79 Pnimiture ‘and fixtures... ss acceea cote seca eee temas 44, 013. 00 Museum building sidewalk <.-0 0). cece see se meen ae 101. 38 Heating, lighting, electric and telephone service......... 11, 000. 00 ——_—— 300, 203.79 $347, 563. 07 The committee has examined the vouchers for payments made from the Sinithsonian income during the year ending 30th June, 1887, all of which bear the approval of the Secretary of the Institution, and a cer- tificate that the materials and services charged were ia to the pur- poses of the Institution. The committee has also examined the accounts of me) National Mu- seum, and find that the balances above given correspond with the cer- tificates of the disbursing officers of the Interior and Treasury Depart- ments. The quarterly accounts current, the vouchers, and journals have been examined and found correct. Statement of regular income from the Smithsonian fund, to be available for use in the year ending 30th June, 1828. ibalanceonvhand June 30) 1887 22 s2ec sce eine cele eleta eine ee ee $1, 423.14 interest: due and receivable, July 1, US87e toe eclewicnme saps aia aloe eee 21, 090. 00 Interest due and receivable, January 1, 1888. ............--2.-.2- .220.--. 21, 090, 00 Total available for year ending June 30, 1888 ............-- ...c0.-- $43, 603. 14 Respectfully submitted. JAMES C. WELLING, HENRY COPPEE, M. C. MEIGS, Executive Committee. WASHINGTON, July 21, 1887, REPORT OF PROFESSOR BAIRD, SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1887. To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution : GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to present herewith the report of the operations and condition of the Smithsonian Institution for the year 188687. There is also given, in accordance with established usage, a summary of the work performed by the branches of the public service placed by Congress under its charge, namely, the National Museum and the Bu- reau of Ethnology. THE BOARD OF REGENTS. By the organic law of August 10, 1546, the Vice-President of the United States is made a member of the Board of Regents; and in the absence of a Vice-President, it has been held that the President of the United States Senate occupies the same position. At the date of the last annual report, Hon. John Sherman, by virtue of his office as the acting Vice-President pro tempore, was a Regent of the Institution. In consequence of his resignation of that office, the Hon. John James In- galls was elected by the United States Senate its President, February 26, 1887; and is accordingly a Regent. The only other change in the Board since the last annual report is the vacancy occasioned by the death of the Rev. Dr. John Maclean (fer- merly president of Princeton College), who was so long identified with the history of the Institution and so closely associated with its late Sec- retary, Professor Henry. Dr. Maclean died August 10, 1886, and as a just mark of respect to his memory the building was closed on the day of his funeral, August 13, 1586. The action of the Board in regard to Dr. Maclean was the adoption of the following resolutions after an eloquent and feeling tribute had been paid to his memory by Dr. James C. Welling, chairman of the Execu- tive Committee, whose remarks ‘in full will be found in the journal of proceedings of the Board of Regents: ‘¢ Whereas since the date of the last annual meeting of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, its members have been called H. Mis. 600 1 1 2 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. upon to mourn the loss of their venerable and distinguished colleague, the late Rev. John Maclean, D. D., LL. D., sometime president of Prince- . ton College, who held the office of Regent for the term of eighteen years, during seventeen of which he served on its Executive Committee with no less credit to himself than of usefulness to the Institution: There- fore, be it ‘‘ Resolved, That with a high appreciation of the varied, abundant, and intelligent labors which the late Dr. Maclean brought to the cause of culture, of truth, and of righteousness throughout the whole of his long, useful, and honorable career; with a grateful sense of the manifold serv- ices he rendered to the Smithsonian Institution, for whose welfare he worked without weariness, and watched without flagging even after he had begun to feel the burden of age; with profound sorrow for his death, mingled with reverence for his beautiful memory, and with thanksgiv- ing for the serene and peaceful close of a finished life, as full of years as it was full of honor, we hereby testify and record our admiration of the exalted Christian character with which he dignified and adorned every station that he was called to hold in the eyes of men; our respect for the solidity of the learning which supported him in the high dis- . charge of every professional duty, whether in the pulpit, the academic chair, or at the pest of executive administration; and lastly, in special recognition of the grateful savor which his genial presence never failed to shed on the deliberations of this council chamber, our cheerful and loyal homage to the dignity of bearing and amenity of manners which made him as courteous in debate as he was wise in council, as gracious in all the relations of private life as he was inflexible in the maintenance of Christian honor and conscientious in the performance of public duty. *“* Resolved, That this preamble and resolution bespread on the minutes of the Board in respectful tribute to the services and memory of our venerated colleague, and that a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to the family of our deceased friend in token of the share we fain would take with them in this bereavement.” Congress by joint resoiution, approved by President Cleveland Jan- uary 19, 1887, filled the vacancy on the Board of Regents occasioned by the death of Dr. Maclean by the election of Dr. James B. Angell, president of the University of Michigan. FINANCES. The Smithson fund in the Treasury of the United States remains the same as stated in the last report, $703,000. The receipts and expenditures for the year ending 30th of June, 1887, are as follows: RECEIPTS. Cash on hand July 1, 1886 (including July in- terest onthe fand) .2. sUViZe shies Bes $24, 784.17 , Interest on the fund January 1, 1887 ......... 21, 090. 00 Cash from repayments, sales, ete............- 1, 360. 62 Watalseeeipts:: . Se ee ee ee eee eee REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. pa and (2) the archzological maps of States and districts, showing the dis- tribution of given types, which are made from all the data obtainable, including additions and verifications made by the mound exploration division of the Bureau. Mr. Gerard Fowke, in addition to assisting in the preparation of the report on the field work which is to constitute the first volume, has made a study of the stone articles of the collection, and Mr. H. L. Reynolds jr. has made a study of the copper articles collected, both with a view of preparing papers for the third volume of the report. The paper by Mr. Reynolds is nearly completed. Mr. Pilling continued his bibliographic studies during the year, with the intention of completing for the press his bibliography of North American languages. After consultation with the Director and a num- ber of gentlemen well informed on the subject, it was concluded that the wants of students in this braneh of ethnology would be better sub- served were the material to be issued in separate bibliographies, each devoted to one of the great linguistic stocks of North America. The first to be issued related to the Eskimo, forming a pampblet of 116 pages. The experiment proved successful, and Mr. Pilling continued the prep- aration of the separates. Late in the fiscal year the copy of the bibliog- raphy of the Siouan family was sent to the Public Printer. It is Mr. Pilling’s intention to continue this work by preparing a bibliography of each of the linguistic groups as fast as opportunity will permit. Mr. Frank H. Cushing continued work, so far as his health permitted, upon his Zufii material until the middle of December. At that time he gave up office work and left for Arizona and New Mexico, intending to devote himself for a season to the examination of the ruins of that region with the view of obtaining material of collateral interest in con- nection with his Zui studies as well as in hope of restoring his impaired health. Mr. Charles C. Royce, although no longer officially connected with the Bureau, has devoted much time during the past year to the com- pletion of his work upon the former title of Indian tribes to lands within the United States and the methods of securing their relinquishment. This work, delayed by Mr. Royce’s resignation from the Bureau force, is now nearly completed and will soon be ready for publication. Dr. H. C. Yarrow has continued the preparation of the material for his final report upon the mortuary customs of the North American Indians. The collection of data from various sources has been practi- cally completed, and nothing now remains but the classification and elaboration of the great amount of material into its final form, which work is in an advanced state. Mr. William H. Holmes has continued the archzologic work begun in preceding years, utilizing such portions of his time as were not ab- sorbed in work pertaining to the Geological Survey. A paper upon the antiquities of Chiriqui aud one upon textile art in its relation to 24 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. form and ornament, prepared for the sixth annual report, were com. pleted and proofs were read. During the year work was begun upon a review of the ceramic art of Mexico. 32-2552 37 49 CUS S ee e 2 | GNOLW EVs ccseecs aise eee 19 31 GU ADO ce co cclceen = 1 Hy letosaifenll a ae Gesonedec 12 20 Weneznelas:<..s sceec. + 1 10) MOMMA ANITA soc. ceteleyeeee e 2 2 RUSSIA soos Rosaceae 52 74 ASIA. DETVIA jo socc scious caemee 1 1 NSS) D2 oye Ss ae ee eae 35 33 (CIAO ES Se BEEeke See aes 3 ANMeWwedeNel cs ce cots cece ee 26 44 Lica ieee ee eee ee 23 SL eS WileZerland! {22% oeeec 51 66 Jags eee eee Soe 9 Top PET Rey ee See ace rsceese ee 1 1 REMV hee cea go's oe clsc.e\ es 5 Ball BOOKS?s esc croors cen eleee aati 34 AUSTRALASIA. | Books in west room of Patent Office lbrary ° New South Wales. ...-..- 7 13 (Document No. 198) ap- | Queensland ,--.....-...-. a 1 ProximMate-< + -s--- = =- 400 700 South Australia .....--.- 1s 1 -|- - UNE ee rn 1 | 2 || Mopars et ce se Saye 3,594 5, 730 A subject arrangement of all the titles obtained, in form of a card catalogue, is in course of preparation, and of this [ beg to give a sum- mary, Showing the number of recommendations received on any of the branches of science designated in the original plan: Subject. Agriculture Animal products and fisheries-. - Archeology Archeology and art Architecture Architecture and engineering.... Art Assyriology Astronomy Botany Brewing and distillations. ..--.-. Birds Bridge engineering Chemistry Chemistry and physics...-..---. iV Eon OUNeelInG 22 soe face to< = Classical philology Comparative anatomy Se eee ee ee ee ee ee er ry sew eens eee wee woes eeee Reier- Apes Refer- ences, Bubjedks ences. (en RC OSUOINOS ; ao se,8 Se omemc eae 3 Si) Pidtiea tion, seis tae tooe gees 192 6 || Education of deaf and dumb .... 2 oO | "Hilectricity +.-.--..--.-----5 45. GO 10 || Electrical engineering ..--...-.-. Bi) ZN Bleeino ty PMS \e< sane ans dere x 6 Abr Pano Col iNe veers seem se meta ee 59 26 || Engineering ard industries . .... 528 FAO OTC ee Bese eenteneee eer rel tama gcrs oon 3 SSU VEG OOD Veen] eee tse c ee ae = ee 160 Pill ODCIRG) Meme ooo etocss obs a. s vi ANAS) scr tee ~ aah te as Solos Sars 2 2 }Generaliacience..--+-2---.------ a 105:||(Georraplivyies_-- 25 -esess edocs 340 14:|| Graphic atie....\..2.--.--~s25>- 16 54 || Historical science --............ 82 DM | REMBTODV aeete tetde naa na ton clwecac 27 30 || Industries .::52:.sscss: ie wectoine s 12 32 REPORT ON EXCHANGES. : Refer- : Refer- Subject. ance Subject. eniges INSGCIS Soa. cee pete ee Ree 86 || (Namismaties!. 222 55-2 5.- eee 13 Instruments of precision--..---- 2) Ovdnanee:.ac con scons 52ce mae eee 15 International Jaw: ----2- 2222 -2<- 6 || Paper and printing. .-....-..... 4 Invertebrate paleontology .. ---- P1Oi| (Patentshec ce sepa sate eee eee 1l Librariaw’s art and bibliography - 150s ME Cd aocoo yaaa er tee cae see ee 33 Literature, ancient and classical - ie Philology She ocean cone 16 Pitholopy 2s s2sse see eae ees 68 Photography Be rete 13 TOPIC (th cess ae eo emcees Walt RBIS py. Soe oe gecko cre) Sa rere 14 Machine construction..-.--..... 16 || Political economy -..-.-.-<.--+- 3 Mam alseens 152 2oeoscie ote a 58 || Political science .-.--....--.-.-. 41 Marine invertebrates .......---- 50) rime mopors= 2a oa see eee ri MMavheMaiCs = sao 2. sae alee 167|"EPsychologys: ss... ae sao 28 Mathematics and algebra.....-- 27 || Railroads ase se secse- 2 — eee i Mechanical engineering. .....-... 1S) Reptilessec 322) pe ea ese eee 10 Mechanics and machinery .-.---. 5 || Sanitary engineering -.-.--. ..-. 8 Medicine and surgery-..-------- 7 ||| sOClal’ Selene) poses one eee eee 24 Metallumoye to-eyse sole eine ee 24 || Sport) 220 Sioa esses eee eee 5 Marine engineering. ~-----2---5- LOi|||Statistlesscceenecsee see aoc 80 Metaphysics and psychology ---. TS; || Velesraphy- 2225 eects sere ae 1 MiCTOSGOPYse- eae eee Sane eee 19)|) Textile fand dyeing 2-25.22 --=— 3 Military engineering ..-...---...- Zs |e heol0 sya sae eee 170 Multtary SClences a.5- 25-22-45 => S36. Dade oh22o2.c4- ine ~ seem oreise 17 Wihenn ya. See Sor eoseenadeSuu 50? Windtenoimesrp-c seme 4 Mineralogy, chemistry, and Johns Hopkins University ex- PHYSICS ie 2 ooo as sarees aces ear 3 changellist <2 522. --o506 eee 805 MIMIC Bee ees ease ee eee 101 || Patent Office Library, west Mining and metallurgy -.-....-.. 3 room, list of books.--.-..----. 700 MUBIC 2-2 bs ae tee ease ooeeee 8 —_—— Navaliarehitecture ..2-. <<.) - 28 5, 756 Nawal'artssosa-o* ot ecniseceeeee 113 || Less duplication of titles....... 26 Naval engineering .....-.--. =... 12 —_— Navalomachineryes--s+ sees eae 11 Totalite- 2c. es see ee eae | > 5730 As shown by the geographical arrangement, 3,594 distinct titles, rep- resenting 5,730 references, were reported by the collaborators, and it was part of my instructions to ascertain how many of these were already correspondents of the Institution. Subtracting from the number of titles the 400 approximated from the unclas sified list of books in the west room of the Patent Office Library, and the 866 published in the United States, 2,328 foreign serials remain, and of these 792, or 34 per cent., occur in our list of foreign correspond- ents, which number, however, will be increased to some extent by the correction of titles, given in many cases but very indistinetly, and by the assignment to the proper society on the list of correspondents of magazines and journals properly to be designated under the name of the society; and it is believed that upon that correction nearly one-half of all the foreign titles given may be considered as correspondents of the Institution. I beg here to state that owing to the press of routine duties all the work connected with the library inquiry has been performed by me in my leisure hours. Work performed.—During the past year 61,940 packages, represent- . ing a weight of 141,263 pounds, were received. Of these 10,294 were REPORT ON EXCHANGES. _ 33 for domestic distribution, and these were sent out through the United States Post-Office. The remainder was for foreign and Government distribution, requiring 692 packing-boxes with a bulk of 4,122 cubic feet. The total number of entries were, for domestic exchanges 20,590, and for the foreign branch 51,917 entries. The ledger shows 9,561 running accounts, of which 7,396 are with cor- respondents abroad and 2,165 with domestic establishments and individ- uals. For foreign transmission 15,298 invoices required to be written, of which 12,430 were returned properly receipted, and which had to be credited on the respective accounts. Of domestic invoices 4,924 were returned by consignees and entered. Letters received during the year 1,131, and 1,217 were written. In the following table 1 beg to give a detailed statement of the amount of work performed during each month of the year: Work performed during the fiscal year 1886-87. Sep- Novem-| Decem- July. | August. ete October. ey har: Packages received : NTN OSes wis Sle Sas cece on 3,071 | 6,163 | 3,761 | 3,425 | 11,026 4, 339 WENN s Sone sects lee 19, 892 | 14,258 | 10,222 | 9,012 | 15,504 | 11,887 Entries made: | ON ee Se ces ant 3,168 | 8,812] 4,108] 2,582) 1,828 5, 064 WMOMESUIG Greece socks 1,974 | 1,800] 1,840| 2,838); 2,148 1,314 Ledger cards: een om rial a nana einen sane} aa slaoeia| Case coed lon tine a|tecar abe Domestic-.--... Seat niemimeysl|jmmaessta niall mnrow! Sinn viale’oowel| (vss eretesie| SSS ese estes eee Domestic packages sent. ...--.-- See 900 920 | 1,418] 1,074 657 inwolces writtem..-....... 22... 1,126 | 1,398; 1,124! 1,048 467 1, 880 Cases shipped abroad..-......--. 103 65 AP coke 58 49 Receipts recorded: LA SLY Tp ag pe a LL OZOR IS LOLS eee oss 1,226 | 1,230 4,474 WoMeshies 342-83 252 2/32 228 596 158 448 501 500 882 etters' recorded!) 2222.5, 5i<.2.2- 97 105 2 53 96 102 Letters written.\.....2)..2...-..- 131 38 | 25 14 103 30 Jan- Feb- | Ee he Total vary. | ruary March.; April. | May. | June. lfor year. | Packages received: TOME fo Se no soon 3,505 | 2,754 | 12,238 | 2,531 | 3,183] 5,124] 61,940 VION ONL as as aos ame 8,646 | 7,393 | 15,711 | 9,512 | 11,322 | 17,204 | 141,263 Entries made: Inorg ho es ee ere 4,642 | 3,430 | 2,706 | 2,684] 3,712| 9,181 | 51,917 Momestte =~... «2-3 1,722 | 1,210] 1,598] 2,326 618 | 1,202] 20,590 Ledger cards: | LS ea ee eee meee cece lemeainnsa| tiene meks|aeeciengelewes oeee 7, 396 LOG CSCS) aK RS eee aoe (ea ee a Sol ee ene Se ee he oe) eee Seine 2, 165 Domestic packages sent - 861 605 799 | 1,163 309 601 | 10,294 Invoices written .....-.. 959 551 897 | 837 | 1,464 | 3,537 | 15, 288 Cases shipped abroad -.| 38 29 71 21 | 91 | 95 692 Receipts recorded : LVN ee eee | 874 189 296 852 673 573 | 12,430 Domestic ..._..2-.- 381 84 196 | 620 255 303 | 4,924 Letters recorded -...... 101 81 96 108 182 78 1, 131 Letters written .....-.. 88 159 195 | 141 156 137] 1,217 H. Mis. 600-3 34 REPORT ON EXCHANGES. Transportation companies.—The only change which has taken place in the relations of the Institution to the transportation companies extend- ing the privilege of free freight on all Smithsonian exchanges was caused by the dissolution of the Monarch Line, plying between London and New York. Satisfactory arrangements, however, have been made with Messrs. Barber & Co., of New York, to forward the cases to London at a mere nominal charge, while the incoming cases from England con- tinue to be transported free of cost, by the Cunard and Inman Lines. A full list and account of the transportation lines to which the Insti- tution is indebted for the privilege of free freight was given in the Smithsonian Report for 1886. Centers of distribution.—No changes have taken place among the dis- tributing agents abroad, all of whom deserve the warmest thanks for the prompt and efficient manner in which they have discharged their mostly voluntary duties. For a complete list of agents for the distribution of Smithsonian ex. changes, I beg to refer to the report for 1886. Shipments made to foreign countries.— With the increase in the busi- ness a more rapid method of intercourse had to be devised, and now the shipments have become very frequent, with but very short inter- vals. ’ The following table exhibits the dates of transmissions during the present year to each of the foreign countries corresponding with the Institution : ’ Shipments to foreign countries. Country. i. Date. AL PCUA 2 cae seoaceie = 5 -/ December 16, 1886. Argentine Republic. ..-..-. July 29, November 8, 1886; January 24, June 27, 1887. Austria-Hungary -...-.---- July 23, August 25, September 14, October 15, December 11, December 27, 1886; January 29, February 10, Feb- ruary 25, March 11, April 19, May 3, May 12, May 19, June 1, June 18, June 30, 1837. Below 2 cece ss acercees July 28, September 28, December 14, 1886; January 18, February 16, May 23, June 20, June 29, 1527. IBOlVi ae ae ieciccen nee ee September 7, 1886. Lent VAP AR see Bee ye Resse July 30, November 8, 1886; January 24, June 27, 1387. British America ..--..-.-.- August 5, August 17, October 25, November 11, December . 3, December 17, 1886; March 22, 1837. British Colonies .......... August 5, November 6, 1886. Cape Colony ...:.. 2082355: December 16, 1886. Chili..... ee SR AR i ey July 30, 1886; January 24, June 27, 1887. HIN af Fe8 sce encrs aes ees February 21, 1887. Coiombia, United States of | July 31, 186. Gusta Rica. i. 2< 0.) eases August 1, 1886. ONBAGE Ss Soon onic ce eloss March 19, 1887. [Di ee ee Sena eee July 28, September 27, 1886; February 18, June 25, 1887. INGUACOR sebkene. oc otece July 31, 1886; January 24, 1837. OYA Misodaceqepesl Shae see December 16, 1886. FRANCE. pocket oe 3s = s) 54-2 July 26, August 25, September 11, September 14, Octo- ber 21, November 24, December 3, December 14, 1586; January 18, January 28, February 10, February 29, March 25, March 31, May 2, May 9, May 12, May 19, June 14, June 18, June 30, 1837. REPORT ON EXCHANGES. 35 Shipments to foreign countries—Continued. Country. CS STH a ea Sa88 Bae coeibees Great Britain and Ireland. Greece Hayti -. 7A eee ee wee ee ee wee eee New South Wales New Zealand Norway Peru - Queensland Russia Sandwich Islands--.....--. South Australia Spain ee ee ee wee ee eww wee eee eee Surinam Tasmania Turkey Uruguay \WASUG VAT sh a \VULCE Cd a a Date. July 23, August 11, August 25, September 14, October 15, December 11, December 16, December 27, 1886; Janu- ary 7, January 20, February 10, February 25, March 11, March 16, April 19, May 3, May 13, May 19, June 1, June 14, June 18, June 30, 1887. July 21, August 11, September 5, October 18, December 9, December 18, December 29, 1886; January 27, Febru- ary 11, March 12, April5, April 21, May 3, May 13, May 19, May 20, June 2, June 14, June 18, June 28, 1887. February 18, June 24, 1887. April 1, 1887. March 19, 1887. July 30, November 1, 1886; January 31, May 23, June 21, 1887. September 27, 1886; February 17, 1887. | July 13, August 3, November 11, 1886; February 21, 1887. July 26, September 22, November 23, 1886; January 8, January 17, March 17, April 29, May 21, June 18, 1887. August 3, November 11, 1886; February 21, March 14, 1887. July 27, August 5, October 29, November 28, 1886; Jan- uary 21, June 25, 1887. August 2, November 6, 1886; May 27, 1887. August 2, November 6, 1886; May 28, 1887. July 2, July 29, August 25, 1886; March 15, June 11, June 21, 1887. July 31. 1886; January 24, 1887. August 5, September 29, 1886; February 19, June 21, 1887. August 2, November 6, 1886; May 27, 1887. July 27, September 30, December 1, 1886; January 12, February 2, April 28, May 12, May 24, June 20, 1887. July 31, 1886. August 2, November 6, 1886. August 3, September 28, 1886; February 19, May 25, June 24, 1887. July 6, July 27, September 25, 1886; March 26, April 25, May 25, June 24, 1887. July 29, October 30, 1886; February 1, April 29, June 20, 1887. September 21, 1886; January 24, 1587. November 6, 1886. July 28, 1886; June 14, 1887. July 31, 1886. July 31, 1886. August 2, November 6, 1886; May 27, 1887. March 19, 1887. In addition to the above transmissions of Smithsonian miscellane- ous exchanges, the following sendings of Government exchanges were made: PPO OnTHEAISAIONA Onioe OREN. J) 28% tee ae cok elses tcccae ccc Sok ccesecescleeewee One transmission One transmission One transmission Se ee ee ee ee ee a ee ee ee ed 36 REPORT ON EXCHANGES. It has been suggested that the intervals between the receipt, by the Smithsonian Institution, of packages and their delivery to the consignee might perhaps be lessened by some improved method of transmission. If there is ground for complaint of tardiness in the delivery, such charge can certainly not be made against the exchange office, in which but very small delays occur between the receipt of exchange packages and their transmission. In order to illustrate this assertion I now beg to submit the follow- ing tables of transmissions to France, Germany, Great Britain, and Italy. In each case twenty invoices have been selected at random, ex- tending over a period of almost three years, and their bistory has been traced from the ledger accounts as follows: FRANCE. By exchange office. Acknowledged. Sender. secon ; Received. Sent. By agent. |By consignee. Boston Society of Natural History | 2353, | Dec. (5, 1884 Same 27, 1885-2. ae cceeneee Mar. 1,1885 U.S. Geological Survey ..-....-..-. | 2461 | Feb. 19,1885] Apr. 1,1885 | May 29,1885) May 22, 1885 Bureau of Ethnology .-.---...--... | 2473 | Apr. 14,1885 | Apr. 17,1885 | May 28,1885 | May 30, 1885 U.S. Geological Survey ..--....-..| 2511 | May 11,1885! May 15,1885 | June 23, 1885 | June 30, 1885 Smithsonian Institution .-.....---| 2516 | July 38,1885 | July 10, 1885 | Aug. 20, 1885| Aug. 24, 1885 Geological Survey of Pennsylvania.| 2527 | Sept. 15, 1885 | Sept. 17, 1885 | Oct. 21,1885 | Oct. 28, 1885 Boston Society of Natural History: 2561 | Oct. 14, 1885 | Nov. 7, 1885 | Dee. 14,1885 | Mar. 20, 1886 California Academy..-..-- al 2587 | Apr. 2,1886 Apr. 29,1886 | May 28,1886 | June 4, 1886 New York Academy of Science ... 2596 | May 28, 1886 | June 18, 1886 | Aug. 28, 1886 | Aug. 21, 1886 U.S. Geological Survey....-....... 2599 | July 10, 1886 | July 26,1886 | Aug. 30,1886 | Sept. 11, 1886 Smithsonian Report 1884 .......... 2609 | Aug. 24, 1885 | Aug. 25, 1886 | Sept. 28,1886 | Oct. 20, 1886 Acta Mathematica .......-.... .-. 2617 | Aug. 31,1886 | Sept. 11,1886 Oct. 9,1886| Oct. 1, 1886 NauticalvAlmanac 225 5..,0- 25.0228 } 2633 | Sept. 20,1886 | Oct. 21,1886 | Nov. 24,1886 | Dec. 8, 1886 California Academy ’..--..-....-.... 2731 | Oct. 25, 1886 | Nov. 24,1886 | Jan. 20,1887 | Jan. 26, 1887 American Philosophical Society ... 2735 | Jan. 13,1887 | Jan. 28,1887) Mar. 4, 1887| Mar. 10, 1887 U.S. Geological Survey ..-.... -- 2783 | Feb. 7, 1887 | Feb. 10,1887 | Mar. 11, 1887 | Mar. 16, 1887 New York Academy of Science --. 2783 | Mar. 22, 1887 | Mar. 22, 1887 | Apr. 26,1887| May 1, 1887 Bureau of Ethnology.......--..--. 2761 | Apr. 29, 1887 | May 2, 1887 | June 8, 187 | June 11, 1887 American Academy, Boston....... 2845 | Apr. 19, 1887 | May 9. 1887 | hanes 9, 1887 | June 17, 1887 Smithsonian Report 1885, Part 1_.. 2855 | June 17, 1887 | June 18, 1887 | Aug. 3, 1887 | Aug. 11, 1887 GERMANY. Bureau of Ethnology.-....-.-.-.... 307L | Dec. 23, 1884 | Jan. 13, 1885 | Mar. 3, 1885 | June 30, 1885 IDTAW 0). HLOMMAN 2s 200256 ecloce 3091 | Feb. 24, 1885 | Mar. 18, 1885 | Apr. 22,1885 June 25, 1885 U.S. Geological Survey ..-........- 3147 | June 26, 1885 | June 30, 1885 | Aug. 25,1885 | Oct. 22, 1885 Department of the Interior....--. 3165 | July 13,1885 | July 17,1885 | ...do -.--..-. Oct. 21,1885 Boston Society of Natural History 3213 | Oct. 14,1885 | Nov. 6,1885 | Dec. 16,1885 Feb. 5, 1$86 U.S. Geological Survey -.......--. 3223 | Feb. 9, 1886 | Feb, 24,1886 Apr. 6,1886 May 18, 18+6 ane ican Philosophical Society. 3237 | Mar. 25, 1886 | Mar. 29, 1886 | May 12,1886 July 9,186 California Academy... c2cccssneees 3295 | Apr. 2,1886| May 3,1886| June 7.1886 July 12, 1§86 U.S. Geological Survey ...--.......- 3299 | July 10,1886 | July 23, 1886 | Aug. 24, 1886 Oct. 14, 1886 Smithsonian Report 1884,1.-...--. 3307 | Aug. 24,1886 | Aug. 25,1886 | Nov. 7,1886. Nov. 15, 186 Acta Mathematica ............... 3309 | Aug. 31, 1886 | Sept. 14, 1886 (Olas eaee Nov. 10, 1826 Wautieal Almanacs...) -.- 28 ase: 3311 | Sept. 21, 1886 | Oct, 15, 1886 Nov. 20, 1886 | Jan. 29, 1887 Smithsonian Report 1884, 11 .....-. 3313 | Dec. 238, 1886 | Dec. 27, 1886 ' Feb. 18,1887 | Mar. 24, 1887 Comptroller of the Curre HC yeaee = 3345 | Feb. 4, 1887 | Feb. 25,1887) Apr. 2, 1887) Apr. 20, 1887 Department of the Interior......- 3383 | Mar. 14, 1887} Apr. 19, 1887 | May 21,1887} July 7, 1887 e S. Aaa Sur yey alate ae 3637 | May 9,1887 | May 12, 1887 | June 15, 1887 Do. mithsonian Institution, 8— 311) Soca Se SS ee ae Oe ep aane 2 3737 | May 19,1887 | May 19, 1887 | June 18, 1887 Smithsonian Institution........... 3775 | June 14, 1887 } June 30, 1887 | Aug. 3, 1887 SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY. three stages which, in their logical relation, are successive. The first is the determination of the sensible character and order of the phenomena. This is Natural History, in the original sense of the term, and here nothing but observation and experiment avail us. The second is the determination of the constant relations of the phenomena thus defined, and their expression in rules or laws. The third is the explication of these particular laws by deduction from the most general laws of matter and motion. The last two stages constitute Natural Philosophy in its original sense. In this region, the invention of verifiable hypotheses is not only permissible, but is one of the conditions of progress. Historically, no branch of science has followed this order of growth; but, from the dawn of exact knowledge to the present day, observation, experiment, and speculation have gone hand in hand; and, whenever science has halted or strayed from the right path, it has been, either because its votaries have been content with mere unverified or unveri- fiable speculation (and this is the commonest case, because observation and experiment are hard work, while speculation is amusing); or it has been because the accumulation of details of observation has for a time excluded speculation. The progress of physical science, since the revival of learning, is largely due to the fact that men have gradually learned to lay aside the consideration of unverifiable hypotheses; to guide observation and experiment by verifiable hypotheses; and to consider the latter, not as ideal truths, the real entities of an intelligible world behind phenomena, but as a symbolical language, by the aid of which nature can be in- terpreted in terms apprehensible by our intellects. And if physical science, during the last fifty years, has attained dimensions beyond all former precedent, and can exhibit achievements of greater importance than any former such period can show, it is because able men, animated by the true scientific spirit, carefully trained in the method of science, and having at their disposal immensely improved appliances, have de- voted themselves to the enlargement of the boundaries of natural knowl- edge in greater number than during any previous half century of the world’s history. THREE GREAT RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS. I have said that our epoch can produce achievements in physical science of greater moment than any other has to show, advisedly; and I think that there are three great products of our time which justify the assertion. One of these is that doctrine concerning the constitution of matter, which, for want of a better name, I will call “molecular ;” the second is the doctrine of conservation of energy; the third is the doe- trine of evolution. Each of these was foreshadowed, more or less dis- tinctly, in former periods of the history of science; and, so far is either from being the outcome of purely inductive reasoning, that it would be hard to over-rate the influence of metaphysical, and even of theological, SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 69 considerations upon the development of ail three. The peculiar merit. of onr epoch is that it has shown how these hypotheses connect a vast number of seemingly independent partial generalizations; that it has given them that precision of expression which is necessary for their exact verification; and that it has practically proved their value as guides to the discovery of new truth. All three doctrines are intimately connected, and each is applicable to the whole physical cosmos. But, as might have been expected from the nature of the case, the first two grew, mainly, out of the consideration of physico-chemical phenomena while the third, in great measure, owes its rehabilitation, if not its origin, to the study of biological phenomena. 1, STRUCTURE OF MATTER. In the early decades of this century, a number of important truths applicable, in part, to matter in general, and, in part, to particular forms of matter, had been ascertained by the physicists and chemists. The laws of motion of visible and tangible—or molar matter had been worked out to agreat degree of refinement and embodied in the branches of science known as Mechanies, Hydrostatics, and Pneumatics. These laws had been shown to hold good, so far as they could be checked by observation and experiment, throughout the universe, on the assump- tion that all such masses of matter possessed inertia and were suscep- tible of acquiring motion in two ways, firstly by impact, or impulse from without; and secondly, by the operation of certain hypothetical causes of motion termed ‘“ forces,” which were usually supposed to be resident in the particles of the masses themselves, and to operate at a distance, in such a way as to tend to draw any two such masses to- gether, or to separate them more widely. With respect to the ultimate constitution of these masses, the same two antagonistic opinions which had existed since the time of Democ- ritus and of Aristotle were still face to face. According to the one, matter was discontinuous. and consisted of minute indivisible particles or atoms, separated by a universal vacuum; according to the other, it was continuous, and the finest distinguishable, or imaginable, particles were scattered through the attenuated general substance of .he plenum. A rough analogy to the latter case would be afforded by granules of ice diffused through water; to the former, such granules diffused through _ absolutely empty space. In the latter part of the eighteenth century the chemists had ar- rived at several very important geuveralizations respecting those prop- erties of matter with which they were especially concerned. However plainly ponderable matter seemed to be originated and destroyed in their operations, they proved that as mass or body, it remained inde- Structible, and ingenerable; and that so far, it varied only in its per- ceptibility by our senses. The course of investigation further proved that a certain number of the chemically separable kinds of matter were 70 SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY. unalterable by any known means (except in so far as they might be made to change their state from solid to fluid, or vice versa), unless they were brought into contact with other kinds of matter, and that the properties of these several kinds of matter were always the same, whatever their origin. All other bodies were found to consist of two or more of these, which thus took the place of the four “elements” of the ancient philosophers. Further, it was proved that in forming chemical compounds, bodies always unite in a definite proportion by weight, or in simple multiples of that proportion, and that, if any one body were taken as a standard, every other could have a number as- signed to it as its proportional combining weight. It was on this foun- dation of fact that Dalton based his re-establishment of the old atomic hypothesis on a new empirical foundation. It is obvious that if ele- mentary matter consists of indestructible and indivisible particles, each of which constantly preserves the same weight relatively to all the others, compounds formed by the aggregation of two, three, four, or more such particles must exemplify the rule of combination in definite proportions deduced from observation. In the meanwhile, the gradual reception of the undulatory theory of light necessitated the assumption of the existence of an “ wether” filling all space. But whether this ether was to be regarded as a strictly ma- terial and continuous substance was an undecided point, and hence the revived atomism escaped strangling in its birth. For it is clear that if the ether is admitted to be a continuous material substance, Demo- critic atomism is at an end, and Cartesian continuity takes its place. The real value of the new atomic hypothesis, however, did not lie in the two points which Democritus and his followers would have considered essential, namely, the indivisibility of the ‘‘atoms” and the presence of an inter-atomiec vacuum; but in the assumption that, to the extent to which our means of analysis take us, material bodies consist of definite minute masses, each of which, so far as physical and chemical processes of division go, may be regarded as a unit—having a practically perman- ent individuality. Just as a man is the unitof sociology, without refer- ence to the actual fact of his divisibility, so such a minute mass is the unit of physico-chemical science—that smallest material particle which under any given circumstances acts as a whole.* The doctrine of specific heat originated in the eighteenth century. It means that the same mass of a body, under the same circumstances, always requires the same quantity of heat to raise it to a given temper- ature, but that equal masses of different bodies require different quan- tities. Ultimately,it was found that the quantities of heat required to raise equal masses of the more perfect gases through equal ranges of temperature were inversely proportional to their combining weights. *““Molecule” would be the more appropriate name for such a particle. Unfortu- nately chemists employ this term in a special sense as a name for an aggregation of their smallest particles, for which they retain the designation of ‘‘atoms.” SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY. ce and heat. The phenomena of electrolytic decomposition showed that there was a like close relation between these units and electricity. The quantity of electricity generated by the combination of any two units is sufficient to separate any other two which are susceptible of such decomposition. The phenomena of isomorphism showed a relation between the units and crystalline forms; certain units are thus able to replace others in acrystalline body without altering its form, and others are not. Again, the laws of the effect of pressure and heat on gaseous bodies, the fact that they combine in definite proportions by volume, and that such proportion bears a simple relation to their combining weights, all har- monized with the Daltonian hypothesis, and led to the bold speculation known as the law of Avogadro—that all gaseous bodies, under the same physical conditions, contain the same number of units. In the form in which it was first enunciated this hypothesis was incorrect--perhaps it is not exactly true in any form; but it is hardly too much to say that chemistry and molecular physics would never have advanced to their present condition unless it had been assumed to be true. Another immense service rendered by Dalton, as a corrollary of the new atomic doctrine, was the creation of a system of symbolic notation, which not only made the nature of chemical compounds and processes easily in- telligible and easy of recollection, but, by its very form, suggested new lines of inquiry, The atomic notation was as serviceable to chemistry as the binomial nomenclature and the classificatory schematism of Linneus were to zoology and botany. Side by side with these advances arose another, which also has a close parallel in the history of biological science. If the unit of a compound is made up by the aggregation of elementary units, the notion that these must have some sort of definite arrangement inevitably suggests itself; and such phenomena as double decomposition pointed, not only to the existence of a molecular architecture, but to the possibility of modifying a molecular fabric without destroying it, by taking out some of the component units and replacing them by others. The class of neutral salts, for example, includes a great number of bodies in many ways similar, in which the basic molecules, or the acid molecules, may be replaced by other basic and other acid molecules without altering the neutrality of the salt; just as a cube of bricks remains a cube so long as any brick that is taken out is replaced by another of the same shape and dimensions, whatever its weight or other properties may be. Facts of this kind gave rise to the conception of “ types” of molecular structure, just as the recognition of the unity in diversity of the struct- ure of the species of plants and animals gave rise to the notion of bio- logical “types.” The notation of chemistry enabled these ideas to be represented with precision; and they acquired an immense importance when the improvement of methods of analysis, which took place about 72 SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY. Thus a definite relation was established between the hypothetical units the beginning of our period, enabled the composition of the so-called ‘““organic” bodies to be determined with rapidity and precision.* A large proportion of these compounds contain not more than three or four elements, of which carbon is the chief; but their number is very great, and the diversity of their physical and chemical properties is as- tonishing. The ascertainment of the proportion of each element in these compounds affords little or no help towards accounting for their diversities ; widely different bodies being often very similar, or even identical, in that respect. And, in the last case, that of isomeric com- pounds, the appeal to diversity of arrangement of the identical compo- nent units was the only obvious way out of the difficulty. Here again hypothesis proved to be of great value; not only was the search for evidence of diversity of molecular structure successful, but the study of the process of taking to pieces led to the discovery of the way to put together, and vast numbers of compounds, some of them previously known ouly as products of the living economy, have thus been artifi- cially constructed. Chemical work at the present day is, to a large extent, synthetic or creative; that is to say, the chemist determines, theoretically, that certain non-existent compounds ought to be pro- ducible, and he proceeds to produce them. It is largely because the chemical theory and practice of our epoch have passed into this deductive and synthetic stage, that they are en- titled to the name of the ** New Chemistry,” which they commonly re- ceive. But this new chemistry has grown up by the help of hypotheses, such as these of Dalton, and of Avogadro, and that singular conception of “bonds” invented to colligate the facts of *“‘ valency ” or “ atomicity,” the first of which took some time to make its way; while the second fellinto oblivion for many years after it was propounded for lack of em- pirical justification. As for the third, it may be doubted if any one regards it aS more than a temporary contrivance. But some of these hypotheses have done yet further service. Com- bining them with the mechanical theory of heat and the doctrine of the conservation of energy, which are also products of our time, physicists have arrived at an entirely new conception of the nature of gaseous bodies and of the relation of the physico-chemical units of matter to the different forms of energy. The conduct of gases under varying pressure and temperature, their diffusibility, their relation to radiant heat and to light, the evolution of heat when bodies combine, the ab- sorption of heat when they are dissociated, and a host of other molecu- lar phenomena, have been shown to be deducible from the dynamical and statical principles which apply to molar motion and rest; and the tendency of the physico-chemical science is clearly towards the reduc- tion of the problems of the world of the infinitely little, as it already *<© At present more organic analvses are made in a single day than were accom- plished before Liebig’s time in a whole year.”—Hofmann, Faraday Lecture, p. 46. SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 13 has reduced those of the infinitely great world, to questions of me- chanics.* In the meanwhile, the primitive atomic theory, which has served as the scaffolding for the edifice of modern physics and chemistry, has been quietly dismissed. I can not discover that any contemporary\, physicist or chemist believes in the real indivisibility of atoms, or in an inter-atomic matterless vacuum. ‘ Atoms” appear to be used as mere names for physico-chemical units which have not yet been sub- divided, and “molecules” for physico-chemical units which are aggre- gates of the former. And these individualized particles are supposed to move in an endless ocean of a vastly more subtle matter—the ether. If this ether is a continuous substance, therefore, we have got back from the hypothesis of Dalton to that of Descartes. But there is much reason to believe that science is going to make a still further journey, and in form, if not altogether in substance, to return to the point of view of Aristotle. The greater number of the so-called ‘‘elementary” bodies, now known, had been discovered before the commencement of our epoch; and it had become apparent that they were by no means equally similar or dis- similar, but that some of them, at any rate, constituted groups, the sey- eral members of which were as much like one another as they were unlike the rest. Chlorine, iodine, bromine, and fluorine thus formed a very distinct group; sulphur and selenium another; boron and silicon another; potassium, sodium, and lithium another, and soon. In some cases the atomic weights of such allied bodies were nearly the same, or could be arranged in series, with like differences between the several terms. In fact, the elements afforded indications that they were sus- ceptible of a classification in natural groups, such as those into which animals and plants fall. PERIODIC SERIES OF ELEMENTS. Recently this subject has been taken up afresh, with a result which may be stated roughly in the following terms: If the sixty-five or sixty- eight recognized “elements” are arranged in the order of their atomic weights—from hydrogen, the lightest, as unity, to uranium, the heavi- est, as 240—the series does not exhibit one continuous progressive modification in the physical and chemical characters of its several terms, but breaks up into a number of sections, in each of which the several terms present analogies with the corresponding terms of the other series. Thus the whole series does not run * a, 6,0, d,e, F, g, h, t, k, ete., but Dy Orley Ay HO, Dy. lls Oy: 5 Oy BEC S so that it 1s said to express a periodic law of recurrent similarities. Or *In the preface to ,his Mécanique, Chimique M. Berthelot declares his object to be ‘‘ramener la chimie tout entitre - - - aux émmes principes mécaniques qui régissent déji les diverses branches de la physique.” 74 SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY. the relation may be expressed in another way. In each section ot the series, the atomic weight is greater than in the preceding section, so that if w is the atomic weight of any element in the first segment, w+ wx will represent the atomic weight of any element in the next, and w+ a+ y the atomic weight of any element in the next, and so on. Therefore the sections may be represented as parallel series, the cor- responding terms of which have analogous properties; each successive series starting with a body the atomie weight of which is greater than that of any in the preceding series, in the following fashion: ad D oO c C V b B p a A a Ww w+ x w+t+ue+y This is a conception with which biologists are very familiar, animal and plant groups constantly appearing as series of parallel modifica- tions of similar and yet different primary forms. In the living world, facts of this kind are now understood to mean evolution from a com- mon prototype. It is difficult to imagine that in the not-living world they are devoid of significance. Is it not possible, nay probable, that they may mean the evolution of our “elements” from a primary un- differentiated form of matter? Fifty years ago such a suggestion would have been scouted as a revival of fhe dreams of the alchemists. At present it may be said to be the burning question of physico-chemi- cal science. In fact, the so-called * vortex-ring ” hypothesis is a very serious and remarkable attempt to deal with material units from a point of view which is consistent with the doctrine of evolution. It supposes the wether to be a uniform substance, and that the ‘elementary ” units are, broadly speaking, permanent whirlpools, or vortices, of this ether, the properties of which depend on their actual and potential modes of motion. It is curious and highly interesting to remark that this hy- pothesis reminds us not only of the speculations of Descartes, butof those of Aristotle. The resemblance of the “vortex-rings” to the * tour- billons” of Descartes is little more than nominal; but the correspond- ence between the modern and the ancient notion of a distinction be- tween primary and derivative matter is, to a certain extent, real. For this etherial ‘‘Urstoff” of the modern, corresponds very closely with the zpdrq 54m of Aristotle, the materia prima of his medieval follow- ers; while matter, differentiated into our elements, is the equivalent of the first stage of progress towards the észdrq Ay, or finished mat- ter, of the ancient philosophy. If the material units of the existing order of nature are specialized portions of a relatively homogeneous materia prima—which were orig- inated under conditions that have long ceased to exist and which remain unchanged and unchangeable under all conditions, whether natural or ) SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 15 artificial, hitherto known to us—it follows that the speculation that they may be indefinitely altered, or that new units may be generated under conditions yet to be discovered, is perfectly legitimate. Theoret- ically, at any rate, the transmutability of the elements is a verifiable scientific hypothesis; and such inquiries as those which have been set afoot, into the possible dissociative action of the great heat of the éun upon our elements, are not only legitimate, but are likely to yield results which, whether affirmative or negative, will be of great impor- tance. The idea that atoms are absolutely ingenerable and immutable “ manufactured articles ” stands on the same sort of foundation as the idea that biological species are “manufactured articles” stood thirty years ago; and the supposed constancy of the elementary atoms, dur- ing the enormous lapse of time measured by the existence of our uni- verse, is of no more weight against the possibility of change in them, in the infinity of antecedent time, than the constancy of species in Egypt, since the days of Rameses or Cheops, is evidence of their im- mutability during all past epochs of the earth’s history. It seems safe to prophesy that the hypothesis of the evolution of the elements from a primitive matter will, in future, play no less a part in the history of science than the atomic hypothesis, which, to begin with, had no greater if so great an empirical foundation. It may perhaps occur to the reader that the boasted progress of phys- ical science does not come to much, if our present conceptions of the fundamental nature of matter are expressible in terms employed, more than two thousand years ago, by the old “‘ master of those that know.” Such a criticism, however, would involve forgetfulness of the fact that the connotation of these terms, in the mind of the modern, is almost infinitely different from that which they possessed in the mind of the ancient philosopher. In antiquity, they meant little more than vague speculation; at the present day they indicate definite physical concep- tions, susceptible of mathematical treatment, and giving rise to innu- merable deductions, the value of which can be experimentally tested. The old notions produced little more than floods of dialectics; the new are powerful aids towards the increase of solid knowledge. 2. CONSERVATION OF ENERGY. Every-day observation shows that of the bodies which compose the material world, some are in motion and some are, or appear to be, at rest. Of the bodies in motion, some, like the sun and stars, exhibit a constant movement, regular in amount and direction, for which no ex- ternal cause appears. Others, as stones and smoke, seem also to move of themselves when external impediments are taken away; but these appear to tend to move in opposite directions, the bodies we call heavy, such as stones, downwards, and the bodies we call light, at least such as smoke and steam, upwards; and as we further notice that the earth below our feet is made up of heavy matter, while the air above our 76 SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY. Y heads is extremely light matter, it is easy to regard this fact as evi- dence that the lower region is the place to which heavy things tend— their proper place, in short—while the upper region is the proper place of light things; and to generalize the facts observed by saying that bodies which are free to move tend towards their proper places. All these seem to be natural motions, dependent on the inherent faculties or tendencies of bodies themselves; but there are other motions which are artificial or violent, as when a stone is thrown from the hand or ts knocked by another stone in motion. In such cases as these, for ex- ample, when a stone is cast from the hand the distance travelled by the stone appears to depend partly on its weight and partly upon the exer- tion of the thrower. So that the weight of the stone remaining the same, it looks as if the motive power communicated to it were measured by the distance to which the stone travels;—as if (in other words) the power needed to send it a hundred yards was twice as great as that needed to send it fifty yards. These, apparently obvious, conclusions from the every-day appearances of rest and motion fairly represent the state of opinion upon the subject which prevailed among the ancient Greeks and remained dominant until the age of Galileo. The publica- tion of the “ Principia” of Newton in 168687 marks the epoch at which . the progress of mechanical physics had effected a complete revolution of thought on these subjects. By this time it had been made clear that the old generalizations were either incomplete or totally erroneous; that a body, once set in motion, will continue to move in a straight line for any conceivable time or distance, unless it is interfered with; that any change of motion is proportional to the “force” which causes it and takes place in the direction in which that “force” is exerted, and that when a body in motion acts as a cause of motion on another the latter gains as much as the former loses, and vice versa. It is to be noted, however, that while, in contradistinction to the ancient idea of the in- herent tendency to motion of bodies, the absence of any such spon- taneous power of motion was accepted as a physical axiom by the mod- erns, the old conception virtually maintained itself in a new shape. For, in spite of Newton’s well-known warning against the * absurdity ” of supposing that one body can act on another at a distance through a vacuum, the ultimate particles of matter were generally assumed to be the seats of perennial causes of motion termed “attractive and repulsive forces,” in virtue of which any two such particles, without any external impression of motion or intermediate material agent, were supposed to tend to approach or remove from one another; and this view of the duality of the causes of motion is very widely held at the present day. Another important result of investigation, attained in the seventeenth century, was the proof and quantitative estimation of physical inertia. In the old philosophy, a curious conjunction of ethical and physical prejudices had led to the notion that there was something ethically bad and physically obstructive about matter, Aristotle attributes allirregu- SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY. Ct larities and apparent dysteleologies in nature to the disobedience, or sluggish yielding, of matter to the shaping and guiding influence of those reasons and causes which were hbypostatized in his ideal ‘*‘ Forms.” In modern science, the conception of the inertia, or resistance to change, of matter is complex. In part, it contains a corollary from the law of causation: A body can not change its state in respect of rest or motion without asufficient cause. But, in part, it contains generalizations from experience. One of these is that there is no such cause resident in any body, and that therefore it will rest or continue in motion so long as no external cause of change acts upon it. The other is that the effect which the impact of a body in motion produces upon the body on which it im- pinges depends, other things being alike, on the relation of a certain quality of each which is called “‘mass.” Given a cause of motion of a certain value, the amount of motion, measured by distance travelled in a certain time, which it will produce in a given quantity of matter, say a cubic inch, is not always the same, but depends on what that matter is;—a cubic inch of iron will go faster than a cubicinch of gold. Hence, it appears, that since equal amounts of motion have, ex hypothesi, been produced, the amount of motion ina body does not depend on its speed alone, but on some property of the body. To this the name of * mass” has been given. And since it seems reasonable to suppose that a large ' quantity of matter, moving slowly, possesses as wuch motion as a small quantity moving faster, ‘‘ mass” has been held to express ‘* quantity of matter.” It is further demonstrable that, at any given time and place, the relative mass of any two bodies is expressed by the ratio of their weights. When all these great truths respecting molar motion, vr the move- ments of visible and tangible masses, had been shown to hold good not only of terrestrial bodies, but of all those which constitute the visible universe, and the movements of the macrocosm had thus been expressed by a general mechanical theory, there remained a vast number of phe- nomena, such as those of light, heat, electricity, magnetism, and those of the physical and chemical changes, which do not involve molar mo- tion. Newton’s corpuscular theory of light was an attempt to deal with one great series of these phenomena on mechanical principles, and it maintained its ground until, af the beginning of the nineteenth century, the undulatory theory proved itself to be a much better working hy- pothesis. Heat, up to that time, and indeed much later, was regarded as an imponderable substance, caloric ; as a thing which was absorbed by bodies when they were warmed, and was given out as they cooled; and which, moreover, was capable of entering into a sort of chemical com- bination with them, and so becoming latent. Rumford and Davy had given a great blow to this view of heat by proving that the quantity of heat which two portions of the same body could be made to give out, by rubbing them together, was practically illimitable. This result brought philosophers face to face with the contradiction of supposing that a 738 SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY. finite body could contain an infinite quantity of another body; but it was not until 1843, that clear and unquestionable experimental proof was given of the fact that there is a definite relation between mechanical work and heat; that so much work always gives rise, under the same conditions, to so much heat, and so much heat to so much mechanical work. Thus originated the mechanical theory of heat, which became the starting point of the modern doctrine of the conservation of energy. Molar motion had appeared to be destroyed by friction. It was proved that no destruction took place, but that an exact equivalent of the energy of the lost molar motion appears as that of the molecular motion, or motion of the smallest particles of a body, which constitutes heat. The loss of the masses is the gain of their particles. Before 1843, however, the doctrine of the conservation of energy had been approached. Bacon’s chief contribution to positive science is the happy guess (for the context shows that it was little more) that heat may be a modeof motion; Descartes affirmed the quantity of motion in the world to be constant; Newton nearly gave expression to the com- plete theorem, while Rumford’s and Davy’s experiments suggested, though they did not prove, the equivalency of mechanical and thermal energy. Again, the discovery of voltaic electricity, and the marvellous development of knowledge in that field, effected by such men as Davy, Faraday, Oersted, Ampére, and Melloni, had brought to light a num- ber of facts which tended to show that the so-called ‘ forces” at work in light, heat, electricity, and magnetism, in chemical and in mechani- cal operations, were intimately, and in various cases, quantitatively related. it was demonstrated that any one could be obtained at the expense of any other; and apparatus was devised which exhibited the evolution of all these kinds of action from one source of energy. Hence the idea of the “correlation of forces” which was the immediate fore- runner of the doctrine of the conservation of energy. It is a remarkable evidence of the greatness of the progress in this direction which has been effected in our time, that even the second edi- tion of the “ History of the Inductive Sciences,” which was published in 1846, contains no allusion either to the general view of the “ Correlation of Forces” published in England in 1842, or to the publication in 1843 of the first of the series of experiments by which themechanical equiva- lent of heat was correctly ascertained.* Such a failure on the part ofa *This is the more curious, as Ampére’s hypothesis that vibrations of molecules, causing and caused by vibrations of the ther constitute heat, is discussed. See vol. ii, p. 587, 2d ed. In the Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, 2d ed., 1847, p. 239, Whewell remarks @ propos of Bacon’s definition of heat, ‘‘ that it is an expansive, re- strained motion, modified in certain ways, and exerted in the smaller particles of the body; ” that ‘ although the exact nature of heat is still an obscure and contro- verted matter, the science of heat now consists of many important truths; and that to none of these truths is there any approximation in Bacon’s essay.” In point of fact, Bacon’s statement, however much open to criticism, does contain a distinct ap- proximation to the most important of all the truths respecting heat which had been discovered when Whewell wrote. SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 79 contemporary, of great acquirements and remarkable intellectual pow- ers, to read the signs of the times, is a lesson and a warning worthy of being deeply pondered by any one who attempts to prognosticate the course of scientific progress. I have pointed out that the growth of clear and definite views re- specting the constitution of matter has led to the conclusion that so far as natural agencies are concerned, it is ingenerable and indestructible. In so far as matter may be conceived to exist in a purely passive state, it is. imaginably, older than motion. But as it must be assumed to be susceptible of motion, a particle of bare matter at rest must be endowed with the potentiality of motion. Such a particle however, by the sup- position can have no energy, for there is no cause why it should move. Suppose now that it receives an impulse, it will begin to move with a velocity inversely proportional to its mass on the one hand, and directly proportional to the strength of the impulse on the other, and will pos- sess kinetic energy, in virtue of which it will not only continue to move forever if unimpeded, but if it impinges on another such particle it will impart more or less of its motion to the latter. Let it be conceived that the particle acquires a tendency to move, and that nevertheless it does not move. It is thenina condition totally different from that in which it was at first. A cause competent to produce motion is operating upon it, but, for some reason or other, is unable to give rise to motion. If the obstacle is removed, the energy which was there but could not manifest itself, at once gives rise to motion. While the restraint lasts, the en- ergy of the particle is merely potential; and the case supposed illus- trates what is meant by potential energy. inthis contrast of the po- tential with the actual, modern physics is turning to account the most familiar of Aristotelian distinctions—that between ddvapyis and évgpyera. That kinetic energy appears to be imparted by impact is a fact of daily and hourly experience: we see bodies set in motion by bodies, already in motion, which seem to come into contact with them. It is a truth which could have been learned by nothing but experience, and which can not be explained, but must be taken as an ultimate fact about which, explicable or inexplicable, there can be no doubt. Strictly speaking, we have no direct apprehension of any other cause of mo- tion. But experience furnishes innumerable examples of the produc- tion of kinetic energy in a body previously at rest, when no impact is discernible as the cause of that energy. In all such cases, the presence of a second body is a necessary condition ; and the amount of kinetic energy, whichits presence enables the first to gain, is strictly de- pendent on the relative positions of thetwo. Hence the phrase energy of position, which is frequently used as equivalent to potential energy. Ifa stone is picked up and held, say, 6 feet above the ground, it has potential energy, because, if Iet go, it will immediately begin to move towards the earth ; and this energy may be said to be energy of position, because it depends upon the relative position of the earth and the stone. The 80 SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY. stone is solicited to move, but can not so long as the muscular strength of the holder prevents the solicitation from taking effect. The stone, therefore, has potential energy, which becomes kinetic if it is let go, -and the amount of that kinetic energy which will be developed before it strikes the earth depends upon its position,—on the fact that it is, say, 6 feet off the earth, neither more nor less. Moreover, it can be proved that the raiser of the stone had to exert as much energy in order to place it in its position as it will develop in falling. Hence the en- ergy which was exerted, and apparently exhausted, in raising the stone is potentially in the stone in its raised position, and will manifest it- self when the stone is set free. Thus the energy, withdrawn from the general stock to raise the stone, is returned when it falls, and there is no change in the total amount. Energy, as a whole, is conserved. Taking this as a very broad and general statement of the essential facts of the case, the raising of the stone is intelligible enough, as a case of the communication of motion from one body to another. But the potential energy of the raised stone is not so easily intelligible. To all appearance, there is nothing either pushing or pulling it toward the earth, or the earth toward it; and yet it is quite certain that the stone tends to move toward the earth, and the earth toward the stone, in the way defined by the law of gravitation. In the currently accepted language of science, the cause of motion, in all such cases as this, when bodies tend to move toward or away from one or another, without any discernible impact of other bodies, is termed a “force,” which is called “ attractive” in the one case, and “ repul- sive” in the other. And such attractive or repulsive forces are often spoken of as if they were real things, capable of exerting a pull, ora push, upon the particles of matter concerned. Thus the potential energy of the stone is commonly said to be due to the ‘‘force” of gravity which is continually operating upon it. Another illustration may make the case plainer. The bob of a pend- ulum swings first to one side and then to the other of the center of the are which it describes. Suppose it to have just reached the summit of its right-hand half-swing. It is said that the ‘attractive forces” of the bob for the earth, and of the earth for the bob, set the former in motion ; and as these “ forces” are continually in operation, they confer an ac- celerated velocity on the bob; until, when it reaches the center of its Swing, it is, so to speak, fully charged with kinetie energy. If, at this moment, the whole material universe, except the bob, were abolished, it would move forever in the direction of a tangent to the middle of the are described. Asa matter of fact, it is compelled to travel through its left-hand half-swing, and thus virtually to go up hill. Consequently the “ attractive forces” of the bob and the earth are now acting against it, and constitute a resistance which the charge of kinetic energy has to overcome. But as this charge represents the operation of the attractive forces, during the passage of the bob through the right-hand half-swing SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 81 down to the center of the are, so it must needs be used up by the pas- sage of the bob upward from the ceuter of the are to the summit of the left-hand half-swing. Hence, at this point, the bob comes to a momen- tary rest. The last fraction of kinetic energy is just neutralized by the action of the attractive forces, and the bob has only potential energy equal to that with which it started. So that the sum of the phenomena thay be stated thus: At the summit of either half-are of its swing, the bob has a certain amount of potential energy; and as it descends it gradually exchanges this for kinetic energy, until at the center it pos- sesses an equivalent amount of kinetic energy; from this point on- wards, it gradually loses kinetic energy as it ascends, until, at the summit of the other half-are, it has required an exactly similar amount of potential energy. Thus, on the whole transaction, nothing is either lost or gained; the quantity of energy is always the same, but it passes from one form into the other. To all appearance, the phenomena exhibited by the pendulum are not to be accounted for by impact; in fact, it is usually assumed that cor- responding phenomena would take place if the earth and the pendulum Were situated in an absolute vacuum, and at any conceivable distance from one another. If this be so, it follows that there must be two totally different kinds of causes of motion; the one impact—a vera causa, of which, to all appearance, we have constant experience; the other, attractive or repulsive *‘force”—a metaphysical entity which is phys- ically inconceivable. Newton expressly repudiated the notion of the existence of attractive forces, in the sense in which that term is ordi- narily understood ; and he refused to put forward any hypothesis as to the physical cause of the so-called “ attraction of gravitation.” As a general rule, his successors have been content to accept the doctrine of attractive and repulsive forces, without troubling themselves about the philosophical difficulties which it involves. But this has not always been the case ; and the attempt of Le Sage, in the last century, to show that the phenomena of attraction and repulsion are susceptible of ex- planation by his hypothesis of bombardment by ultra-mundane par- ticles, whether tenable or not, has the great merit of being an attempt to get rid of the dual conception of the causes of motion which has hitherto prevailed. On this hypothesis, the hammering of the ultra- mundane corpuscles on the bob confers its kinetic energy on the one hand, and takes itaway onthe other; and the state of potential energy means the condition of the bob during the instant at which the energy conferred by the hammering during the one half-are has just been ex- hausted by the hammering during the other half-are. It seems safe to look forward to the time when the conception of attractive and re- pulsive forces, having served its purpose as a useful piece of scientific scaffolding, will be replaced by the deduction of the phenomena known as attraction and repulsion, from the general laws of motion. H. Mis, 600-——6 82 SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY. The doctrine of the conservation of energy, which I have endeavored to illustrate, is thus defined by the late Clerk Maxwell: “The total energy of any body or system of bodies is a quantity which can neither be increased nor diminished by any mutual action of such bodies, though it may be transformed into any one of the forms of which energy is susceptible.” It follows that energy, like matter, is in- destructible and ingenerable in nature. The phenomenal world, so far as it is material, expresses the evolution and involution of energy, its passage from the kinetic to the potential condition and back again. Wherever motion of matter takes place, that motion is effected at the expense of part of the total store of energy. Hence, as the phenomena exhibited by living beings, in so far as they are material, are all molar or molecular motions, these are included un- der the general law. atWI HOw ASAE A New Oxide of Zirconium and its Utility in the Determination of this Element, —— Bailey.—By the action of hydrogen peroxide on zirconium sulphate the author obtained a white bulky precipitate, which proved to have the formula Zr.O;. This is a perfectly stable and definite body, less readily soluble in dilute sulphuric acid than ZrO,, and of positive utility in analytical determinations. Hydrogen peroxide does not pre- cipitate iron, aluminium, titanium, niobium, tantalum, tin, nor silicon ’ and the zirconium can be separated from all or any of these. With a moderately concentrated solution of hydrogen peroxide the precipita- tion is complete. (J. Chem. Soc., XLIx, 149.) Researches on Uranium, by Clemens Zimmermann; Third Paper, pub- lished after the author’s death by George Alibegoff and Gerhard Kriiss.—A careful examination of the reactions of the oxide of uran- ium, U;O0,, has led the author to the conclusion that the oxide U,O; of Péligot is a mixture, and that a body having this composition does not exist. Péligot’s results were based on the behavior of U;0, when ig- nited in the air. Zimmermann finds that U,O, ignited in the air loses varying quantities of oxygen, but if ignited in an indifferent gas, like N or CO,, the uranic oxide is gradually and completely converted into UQ,. U,0,; is only absolutely stable when ignited in a current of oxygen. The color of the U,O, varies with the method of preparation, and there- fore can not be used to control its purity, CHEMISTRY. 405 Determinations of the atomie weight of the element, conducted in several ways, lead to the value 239.02. (Ann. Chem., CCXXXH, 273.) New Compounds of Vanadium, by J. T. Brierley.—By mixing a blue solution of hypovanadium sulphate with a colorless one of an alkaline metavanadate the author has obtained the following series of new com- pounds: A soluble sodium salt, 2V204, V2O5, 2Na2O + 13H20. A soluble potassium salt, 2V204, V2O5, 2K.0 + 6H20. An insoluble potassium salt, 2V204, 4V205, 5K.0 + H20. A soluble ammonium salt, 2V204, 2V205, (NH4)20 + 14H, O. An insoluble ammonium salt, 2V204, 4V20;, 3(NH4)2 O +6 H20. The first named crystallizes well in hexagonal plates of considerable size, and black color. The last named is a precipitate insoluble in hot water. (Ann. Chem., CCXXXII, 359.) Non-ewxistence of Silver Subchloride, by Spencer B. Newbury.—The author has obtained the product called silver subchloride (Ag,C1?) by the three methods of Cavillier, Wetzlar, and Wohler, and after careful examination and analysis, finds that there is no evidence whatever of the existence of such a compound, and believes the substances supposed to be. silver subchloride are nothing but simple mixtures of silver and silver chloride. He also rejects the existence of the silver subcitrate obtained by Wohler and von Bibra, claiming that the loss of weight on heating silver citrate in hydrogen, the formation of carbon dioxide, and residue of metallic silver indicate the decomposition of citric acid and separation of silver rather than the formation of silver subcitrate. (Am. Chem. J., VIII, 196.) On Berthollet’s Fulminating Silver, by F. Raschig.—Although this substance was discovered by Berthollet nearly one hundred years ago, it has not been since closely studied, and its constitution has been un- certain. Berthollet obtained it by the action of ammonia on silver ox- ide. Raschig prepares it as follows: A solution of silver nitrate is pre- cipitated with sodium hydroxide, and the silver oxide is washed by decantation in the beaker and then transferred to a small flask. For each gram of silver nitrate used 2 c.c. of an ammonia solution, contain- ing 25 per cent. of NH;, is added to the oxide, which dissolves easily with very slight residue. The solution of fulminating silver thus ob- tained is divided into several portions, and each dish is covered with a watch glass and allowed to stand sixteen to twenty hours. The ammonia evaporates, leaving the fulminating silver as a black crystal- line mass. After washing it was analyzed by digesting with very di- lute sulphuric acid, which usually leaves a residue of metallic silver. The dissolved silver was precipitated with hydrochloric acid, and the ammonia determined in the filtrate as platinie chloride. The results 406 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1886. of sixteen analyses gave ratios approximating three atoms of silver to one of nitrogen, which gives the formula NAg;. The substance was also prepared by warming the ammonia solution of the silver oxide on a water bath, and by precipitating it with alcohol, and these samples gave the same results on analysis. Berthollet’s fal- minating silver explodes with a very slight concussion when dry, and even when moist must be handled with precaution. The explosive character of each sample analyzed was determined. It dissolves in potassium cyanide solution almost immediately, probably giving the re- action: NAg; + 3KCy + 3H,.0 = NH; + 3KHO 4+ 3AgCy (Liebig’s Annalen, CCXXX1H1, 93.) Compounds of the Nitrates of the Alkalies with Nitrate of Silver, by A. Ditte.—The author describes the preparation and characteristics of the following double salts: AgNO;, KNO;; AgNO;, RbNO;; NH,NO3;, AgNO; and shows that with sodium and lithium analogous double salts are difficult to obtain in definite compounds. No less than twelve reasons are presented for dividing the alkaline group of metals into two sections, one embracing K, Rb, Cs, NH,; and the other, Li and Na. (Ann. Chim. Phys. [6], v111, 418.) Decomposition of Potassium Chlorate, by Frank L. Teed.—In a previ- ous paper the author arrived at the conclusion that the decomposition of potassium chlorate by heat was represented by the equation: 1OKCIO; = 6KC1O, + 4KCl 4+ 30, but later experiments lead him to believe that the following is more nearly correct : 22K C10; = 14K C10, + 8KCl + 50, A majority of the author’s results fall within the limits calculated from these two equations. When the chlorate is heated with manganese dioxide it decomposes apparently without formation of perchlorate. In the discussion which followed the reading of this paper at the Chemical Society of London, Dr. Perey Frankland said experiments made in the South Kensington laboratory had lead to the equation: 8KC1O;=5KCI1O,+ 3KC1+ 20, (Chem. News, L111, 56.) For a further discussion of this subject see article by E. J. Maumené in Chem. News, Litt, 145. The Solvay Process of Manufacturing “ Soda.”—In our reports for 1883 and 1884 we chronicled the decline of the Leblane process and the rise of the so-called “ ammonia process” of manufacturing soda; we now CHEMISTRY. 407 note the establishment of a manufactory of carbonate of soda by the latter process in the United States. Solvay & Co. have established extensive works for conducting the process with which their name is connected in Belgium, France, Ger- many, Russia, and Austria; and a company of gentlemen, which has secured the right to work under all the Solvay patents, has erected works at Geddes, near Syracuse, New York State. These works pro- duced in 1885 14,651,500 kilos. of 98 per cent. carbonate of soda, and the production for 1886, with increased facilities, is estimated to reach 30,000,000 kilos. The purity of the product is shown by the following analysis of the brand known as ‘*‘ Pure Soda:” Analysis of ‘‘ Pure Soda.” Per cent. ron and al UMIMUNMORIG OSe= oso ce we caeacace esse eciesee se . 025 Silicate eft tee Pee lorat ostaiwin S wist arse Sas eloeta tiduceiees . 025 Canponaterole Mose ins sees esac Sak eee erhs cates - 404 Cavhonate OL MaAaCnesiaias. Sa 5o- Senna sisciecioeee) co ciae cn ~175 MOTI GEt OM SOU oie cicere ra aiciale ceca cs Aas ince ae oer . 904 Carbonate: Ob SOdaaases sce acet ows eaten clone. soe e se come 98. 730 100. 263 This product, being very pure, is especially adapted for glass making, soap making, paper making, scouring textile fabrics, and all the innu- merable uses to which this adjunct of civilization is continually put. The product of all the works making soda under the Solvay patents is over 220,000 tons per annum, and new establishments are rising in several localities. Composition of a Crystalline Scale formed in the Ammonia-Soda Process, by George W. Leighton.—The crystalline scale, formed on the inner surface of an iron tank, in which vapors consisting of ammonia, carbon dioxide, and small quantities of hydrogen sulphide are passed through brine holding in solution the chlorides of sodium, magnesium, and cal- cium, with a small amount of calcium sulphate, has been examined. It has the appearance of a boiler scale, from one to two inches thick, with a vitreous luster and greenish-gray color, although sometimes black on the surface. The scale is usually covered with crystal planes, which prove to be the terminations of prisms (probably monoclinic). Analysis gave results corresponding closely to the formula: MgC J;, Na,CO,, NaCl; and impurities consisting chiefly of CaCO;. This is not a mixt- ure, but an interesting triple salt analogous to some mineral species. (Proc. Am. Acad. Arts and Sci., xxi, 158.) ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. On the Formation of So called closed Chains, by Prof. Victor Meyer.— Carbon atoms possess the marked peculiarity of combining to form molecules in so-called chains, a property giving rise to the multiplicity 408 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1886. of organic bodies. In stearone no less than thirty-five carbon atoms unite to form a chain, which may be indicated thus : Hy, co O C) H; C—\C }/,—C—\ C ),— © A limit to the extent of open-chain structure can not be predicted, but the case is very different when closed chains are considered. While closed chains of three, four, five, and six links or atoms are numerous, the problem of forming rings having a greater number of links has been scarcely attacked by chemists. If bodies like anthracene and acridine, having double rings of the benzene type, be excepted, only two substances are known having seven links in the molecular ring. These are: is “hy ee C—C—C—C C—C—C | A | | | CO and OC—N—N Cea 9 dees: 8 H, H, Hp Carbazostyril. Suberone. The author has begun the study of the construction of rings having a number of links greater than six, and some of the results are as fol- lows: Sodium sulphide acts on iodide of methylene in accordance with the equation : CH,I,.+ Na,S=2NaI+CH,S But A. W. Hofmann has shown that the molecular weight of CHS is three times as great as thus indicated, and Meyer formulates this as follows: C;H 83 or H, H.C CH, By a study of the body formed in the re-action C,H,Br.+Na,S8=2NaBr+C,H,S8 the author arrives at the conclusion it should be formulated thus: | H,C —— S —— CH, CHEMISTRY. 409 which is an exampleof a closed chain of nine links. Further researches led the author to the discovery of a body having the following consti- tution: Hs) Hp4Hp Hy» Has Be fe surge eee Conil SS 0 Se ee Oe) H, H, H, which is the first example of a closed chain of twelve links. These bodies are quite unstable, as indeed might be anticipated from their complex structure. (Naturwiss. Rundschau, 1, 2, 1886.) Products of the Manufacture of Gas from Petroleum, by Henry E. Arm- strong and A. K. Miller.—This paper gives results of an investigation which the authors have conducted during several years, on the decom- position and genesis of hydrocarbons at high temperatures; their main object has been to throw light on the nature of the changes resulting from the decomposition of petroleum hydrocarbons at high temperatures, The authors have thus far recognized among the products of the manu- facture of oil-gas the following hydrocarbons: (a) Paraffines, only in traces. (b) Pseudolefines, or saturated hydrocarbons of the series C,H», such as occur in Russian petroleum; present in relatively small amount. (c) Olefines, viz, ethylene, propylene, normal amylene, hexylene, and heptylene; higher homologues being absent. (d) Pseudacetylenes, viz, crotonylene (dimethylenethane) and iso- allylethylene. (e) Benzenoid hydrocarbons, viz, benzene, toluene, the three isomeric dimethylbenzenes, the two trimethylbenzenes (pseudocumene and mesi- tylene), and naphthalene. (J. Chem. Soc. [London], 1886, p. 74.) Some Organic Substances of High Refractive Power, by H. G. Madan.— The author finds that naphthyl-phenyl-ketone has a refractive index of 1.666, which is even higher than that of carbon disulphide (1.63). Its dispersive power is almost exactly that of carbon disulphide. Metacinnamene has a refractive index of 1.593; monobromonaphtha- lene has a refractive index of 1.662, and the author thinks it may prove a valuable substitute for carbon disulphide for filling prisms, as it is much less volatile and inflammable. Mr. Madan mentions as a great desideratum a substance having all the excellent qualities of Canada balsam—colorless, neutral, permanent in the air, becoming fluid when moderately heated, but hard and tough when cold, and with a refractive index of at least 1.66. Such a substance would be invaluable for mount- ing microscopic objects. (Phil. Mag. [5], xx1, 245.) A Convenient Method of Preparing Organic Compounds. of Fluorine, by O, Wallach.—The author finds that organic bodies containing fluorine 410 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1886. can be readily obtained by the action of aqueous hydrofluoric acid on diazoamido compounds. He describes fluorbenzene (CgH;F1) boiling at 84° to 85°, parafluortoluene boiling at 116° to 117°, fluornitroben- zene, fluoranilin, and other bodies. It appears that the replacement of hydrogen by fluorine changes very little the boiling points of the bodies, but greatly increases tbeir specific gravities. (Ann. Chem., COXXXV, 255.) On Platoso-Oxalic Acid, by H. G. Séderbaum.—Doebereiner formerly obtained, by the action of oxalic acid upon the sodium salt of platinum dioxide, a salt of a copper-red color, which he regarded as platinous oxalate. Souchay and Lenssen assign it the formula PtNa,C,O,+4H,0. This salt has much analogy with the platinum sulphites, since the solu- tion gives neither the reactions of platinum nor those of oxalic acid. We may therefore regard this compound as the sodium salt of platoso- oxalic acid, which has been isolated. The salts of platoso-oxalic acid are very remarkable, because they occur in isomeric or rather polymeric forms. For the preparation of the sodium salt sodium chloro-platinate is heated with an equal weightof sodium hydrate. The residue is treated with water, which dissolves out sodium chloride, leaving a yellow pow- der, Na,O, 3PtO.,6H,0. More of it is obtained by the addition of hydro- chlorie acid to the solution of sodium chloride, avoiding excess. It is washed with cold water and washed with one and a half parts of crys- talline oxalic acid. Carbonic acid escapes, and there is obtained a solu- tion of an intense blue color, from which cold slender brown needles of a metallic luster are deposited. This salt is collected upon a filter and repeatedly washed with boiling water. There filters first a yellow solu- tion, then a greenish or blue one, and lastly a solution of a reddish- brown. From the last Jiquid the mass of the sodium salt is deposited on cooling, crystallized in capillary needles of a coppery luster. The first solution after some time deposits lemon-yellow prisms of an isomeric salt. The intermediate solutions deposit mixtures of the two salts. Both salts yield with silver nitrate a yellowish-white precipitate of microscopic crystals of the silver salt of platoso-oxalic acid. On decom- posing this silver salt with the calculated proportion of hydrochloric acid we obtain an indigo-blue solution, containing platoso-oxalie acid. We may obtain the salts of the acid either by the double decomposition of the sodium salts or by neutralizing the free acid with bases or ear- bonates. With the brown sodium salt there are obtained salts of a brown, greenish, or blue color; but with the yellow salt we obtain iso. meric yellow or orange salts. The free acid generally gives salts of the former class, i. e., of a dark color, but by repeated crystallizations yellow salts may be obtained. Several metals belonging to the zine group form dark-colored salts most readily ; others, for instance silver, yield yellow salts, and others again form with equal ease either dark or yellow salts. The tri- and tetia-atomic metals give both dark and yellow salts, but of CHEMISTRY. ; A411 a different composition. The dark salts are in general less soluble; their density is lower and they often contain a smaller number of mole- cules of crystalline water. The difference between the two classes of salts does not depend on the water of crystallization, because both dark and yellow anhydrous salts have been obtained, and because there exist both yellow and dark salts containing the same number of molecules of crystalline water. The salts of platoso-oxalic acid are in general sparingly soluble in cold dilute acids; they are insoluble in alcohol. In hot water some of them dissolve readily ; others are sparingly soluble. Most of them contain crystalline water, which they lose in part or entirely at 100°. They bear the temperature of 110° to 115° (though the ammonium salt is decomposed at 100°); but a little above this temperature they begin to decompose. If suddenly heated they are decomposed with detonation. Platoso-oxalic acid, PtC,O;H, +2H,0, the preparation of which has been described above, gives, when its solution has been evaporated in a vacuum, a red crystalline mass of a metallic luster. It dissolves readily in water with an indigo-blue color, but this color changes to yellow on heating or diluting with water. Yet the blue color returns on cooling or on concentration. There are two potassium salts, a brown one forming copper-colored needles of specific gravity 3.01, and a yellow one in hexagonal prisms of specific gravity 3.03. Both contain the same number of molecules of crystalline water. With the ammonium salts the case is similar. The dark sodium salt forms slender needles containing 4 molecules of crystalline water, whilst the yellow salt forms prisms with 5 molecules of crystalline water. There are three isomeric calcium salts: the brown one, with 64H,O; the 4-yellow salt, with 4H,O, losing one molecule water at 100°; and the y-yellow salt, with 8H,O, losing at 100°5H,O. There are also three strontium salts: a, dark, contains 34H.O and loses $H,O at 100°; 6, also dark, contains 6$H,O, and loses 3H,O at 100°; and yv, yellow, contains only 3 molecules of crystalline water and undergoes no change at 100°. These researches were made in the laboratory of Prof. P. T. Cléve. (Bull. Soc. Chim., 1886, 188.) Todo-aldehyde is obtained by P. Chantard by acting on an aqueous solution of aldehyde with a mixture of iodic acid and iodine. 5(CzH,O) + 41 + 10,H = 5(C,HI0) + 3,0 Iodo-aldehyde forms an oily, volatile, non-inflammable, colorless, limpid liquid, blackening rapidly on exposure to light. It decomposes at 80° C., but in solution may be heated to high temperatures without change. It acts as a strong caustic, attacking eyes and respiratory organs. Its density is 2.14 at 20°. It is soluble in all proportions in alcohol, ether, benzene, chloroform, etc. It combines readily with ani- line and other ammonia derivatives. (Comptes Rendus, cil, 118.) 412 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1886. Synthesis of Conine, by A. Ladenburg.—Conine, the volatile alkaloid which forms the poisonous principle of hemlock (conium maculatum), was discovered in 1827 by Giesecke, but was first obtained in a pure state in 1831 by Geiger. It has been often studied by chemists, nota- bly by Ortigosa, Blyth, Wertheim, and Kekulé and von Planta; the two latter gave it the formula C,H,;N, but itis now known to be C,H,,N. It forms a colorless, oily liquid of pungent odor, specific gravity = 0.89; boiling point 166° to 168°. It is easily soluble in alcohol and ether, sparingly in water, and forms crystalline deliquescent salts. It is an active poison. This natural alkaloid has been formed synthetically by Ladenburg inthe manner to be described. HugoSchiff,in 1871, thought he had effected this synthesis by the action of alcoholic ammonia on normal butyric aldehyde and subjecting the product to dry distillation, but the base thus obtained proved to be paraconine, an isomeric form. Ladenburg’s researches on the pyridine bases had already yielded him interesting results. The synthesis of piperidine was noted in our report for the year 1884. On the 25th of February he read a paper be- fore the German Chemical Society entitled ‘“‘ Experiments on the Syn- thesis of Conine,” in which he announced the preparation of a base very closely resembling this alkaloid, and in October he presented de- tails of this remarkably interesting synthesis, and proofs of the iden- tity of the artificial and natural substances. The process is as follows: Paraldehyde and a-picoline are heated for ten hours in closed tubes to a temperature of 250° to 260°. The allylpyridine thus obtained was separated from the unchanged picoline, purified and fractioned until it distilled at 187°.5 to 1929.5. The exact nature of this body was care- fully established by many tests. The q@allylpyridine was then sub- mitted in alcoholic solution to the reducing action of sodium, whereby a-propylpiperidine was obtained. The hydrochloride of this base, when purified, melted at 203° to 205°, and crystallized in silky-white needles. ? The base separated from this salt boiled at 166° to 167° and proved to have the greatest resemblance to conine. After a very careful study of its toxic and optical properties the author satisfied himself of the absolute identity of this dextro—a-propylpiperidine and conine, C,H,. CsHy». HN. (Ber. d. chem. Ges., X1x, 439 and 2578.) New Synthesis of an Inactive Borneol, by J. Bouchardat and J. La- font.—Berthelot accomplished the synthesis of the camphor of Borneo by treating camphor with potassium alcoholate, and Baubigny by the direct addition of hydrogen. The authors effect the transformation of terebene, or inactive camphene, C,H, through the medium of an organic acid into an ether of borneol, which by saponification yields a borneol having no influence on polarized light. With the exception of its in- active optical properties, the new body is identical with borneol. (Comptes Rendus, cu, 171.) CHEMISTRY. 413 Synthesis of Ammonium Cyanide by Electricity, by A. Figuier.—By passing a current of silent electricity through a mixture of one volume of methaneand two volumes of nitrogen, cyanide of ammonium is formed and noticeable by its odor. ; CH, + N, — CN. IN Ei The product was collected and its identity established. (Comptes Ren- dus, CII, 694.) Synthesis of Mellitic Acid and of other Benzo-carbonic Acids by Elec- trolyzing Water with Carbon Hlectrodes, by A. Bartoli and G. Papasogli.— By the electrolysis of distilled water with electrodes of pure carbon and a battery having an electromotive force equal to 1,200 Daniells, the authors obtained a black insoluble deposit (mellogen) and a very acid liquid which was found to contain mellitic, pyromellitic, hydromellitic, and hydropyromellitic acids. During the electrolysis carbon monoxide and dioxide’ with very little oxygen were evolved. Mellogen purified by precipitation from the aqueous solution by hydrochloric acid forms an amorphous, neutral, black. and friable body, insoluble in alcohols and soluble in water, to which it imparts an intensely black color. Mel- logen dried at 140° has the composition C,,H,O,, and has some analogy with Brodie’s graphitic acid C,,H,O;, but the two bodies are not iden- tical. Oxidizing agents convert it into benzo-carbonic acids. (Annales Chim. Phys. [6], v11, 349 and 364.) Products of the Electrolysis of a Solution of Ammonia with Coke Elec- trodes, by A. Millot.—A solution of ammonia containing 50 per cent. was electrolyzed with electrodes of coke purified by chlorine, and the chief products are an azulmic matter (which the author is still studying), urea, ammelide, biuret, and guanidine. The urea and guanidine probably arise from action of nascent carbon dioxide on .ammonia with elimina- tion of water. Biuret is probably formed by the action of carbon diox- ide on guanidine, and ammelide from the action of this gas upon biuret with the co-operation of urea. Cyanuric acid was sought but not found. These results differ from those of Bartoli and Papasogli, who added salt to the ammoniacal solution to render it a better conductor, and the nas- cent chlorine resulting destroyed the above-mentioned products. (Comptes Rendus, cm, 153.) Identity of Cadaverine with Pentamethylendiamine, by A. Ladenburg.— Brieger in the course of his remarkabie researches on ptomaines isolated from a cadaver a base having the formula C;H,,N;, and which he named cadaverine. This base was also discovered in decomposing fish. Brieger, noting the resemblance in properties between cadaverine and pentamethylendiamine, sent a small specimen of the former to Laden- burg for investigation. The latter chemist found the reactions of the two bodies similar in all respects except in their behavior with mercuric 414 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1886, chloride; but he sueceeded in transforming cadaverine into piperidine by a known process and thus fully established the identity of the two bodies. (Ber. d. chem. Ges., x1x, 2585.) On the Constitution of Levulose and Dextrose, by Heinrich Kiliani.— According to the author, levulose is a ketone alcohol, and has the con- stitution CH,OH | CO bron CHOH He tees This result was arrived at by studying the behavior of levulose with hydrocyanie acid. The question whether dextrose is an wieheae or an anhydride is not entirely settled, but the probable constitution is (Ber. d. chem. Ges., x1x, 767 and 1128.) Chlorophyll and the Reduction of Carbonic Acid by Plants, by C. Timi- riazeft.—On subjecting an alcoholic solution of chlorophyll to nascent hydrogen (by means of zine and acetic acid) the chlorophyll is reduced, and forms in dilute solutions a straw-yellow substance and in concen- trated solutions a substance of brown-red color. This substance has a well-defined spectrum, in which the band in the red portion character- istic of chlorophyll is wanting. The -most important property of this reduced chlorophyll is its rapid oxidation on exposure to air, with re- production of green chlorophyll. The author terms this new substance protochlorophylline, or, more briefly, protophylline. Solutions of protophylline can be preserved only in glass tubes her- metically sealed. If a solution of protophylline be sealed up in a tube together with carbonic acid and preserved in total darkness it retains indefinitely its color and characteristic spectrum, but on exposure to sunlight the solution turns green. The author remarks that in the absence of quantitative details he can not claim that this proves the reduction of carbonic acid by protochlorophylline in the presence of CHEMISTRY. 415 sunlight, but he can not find any other explanation of the facts. He thinks that there is evidence of the existence of protophylline in living plants. He also finds that by pushing the reducing action of nascent hydrogen further another and colorless substance is obtained, which is now under examination. (Comptes Rendus, CII, 687.) Acetophenone, a new Hypnotic.—Acetophenone, also called acetylben- zene, CsH;.CO.CH3;, has been found to possess valuable hypnotic properties. It is as yet only a laboratory product, but there should be no great difficulties in manufacturing it on a commercial scale. It is commonly obtained by distilling a mixture of calcium benzoate and cal- cium acetate, though many other methods are named in hand-books. - It forms at ordinary temperatures a clear, colorless liquid, having a per- sistent characteristic odor; at a lower temperature it forms large flaky crystals, melting at 209.5 C. Dr. Dujardin-Beaumetz, who has discov- ered its hypnotic properties, recommends it for simple insomnia, and says its use is not followed by disagreeable after-symptoms, such as nausea, headache, etc. He proposes for this substance the trade-name ‘“hypnone.” (Bull. Générale de Thérapeutique, 1886.) On Thionaphthenes, by Victor Meyer.—The author states that the first thiophene of the naphthalene series, which he names thionaphthene, has been obtained in his laboratory by A. Biedermann. It has the consti- tution H C aS einen = | HG pC CH RAEN S C | OH The author has obtained thionaphthene itself by the action of phos- phide of sulphur on cumarone, the analogies of which are shown by the following schemes: H H C C aN Bon HC C —— CH HC C — CH | | | I fe HC C CH HC Ag aah en 4 Ae pe Be ee C O H i Cumarone. Thionaphthene. (Ber. d, chem, Ges., XIX, 1432 and 1615.) 416 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1886. On Penthiophene and its Derivatives, by Karl Krekeler.—The existence of a body analogous to thiophene, but having five carbon atoms and one of sulphur in a closed chain, has been foreseen by Victor Meyer and others. The author obtained a methyl! derivative by acting on a. methyl- glutaric acid with sulphide of phosphorus, this acid being derived from levulinic acid, a substance on which the author has lately experimented much. The body has the formula CH, #-methylpenthiophene. This substance forms a colorless oily liquid, boiling at 154° C.; its spe- cific gravity = 0.9938 at 19° C. It gives the Laubenheimer color-test and otber colored reactions. (Ber. d. chem. Ges., XIx, 3266.) Thiocumarine and its Derivatives, by Fred. Tiemann.—By the action of phosphorus pentasulphide on cumarine the author obtained a sulpho- compound having the constitution CH:CH—CS “ CeH, Q Thiocumarine. This crystallizes in golden needles, easily soluble in alcohol, ether, and benzene, insoluble in water, and melting at 101°. By reacting on this body with hydroxylamine he obtained cumaroxime in long white nee- dles, melting at 131°. In appropriate ways the following compounds were obtained: Cumaroximethyl ether, dihydrocumaroxime, and a phenyl-hydrazine derivative of cumarine. (Ber. d. chem. Ges., XIX, 1661.) Benzoic Sulphinide, or so-called “‘ Saccharine.”—Dr. Ira Remsen, assisted by C. Fahlberg, in the year 1879, when engaged in researches originating with the former, discovered a substance which he named benzoic sulphi- nide. This body, which may also be called anhydrosulphaminebenz ic acid, was obtained by the oxidation of orthotoluenesulphamide, and in the original paper (by R. and F.) is thus described: ‘ Benzoie sulphi- nide is difficultly soluble in cold water. It is much more soluble in hot water, and can be obtained in crystalline form from its aqueous solu- CHEMISTRY. 417 tion. It crystallizes in short, thick prismatic forms, which are not well developed. Alcohol and ether dissolve it very easily. It fuses at 220° (uncorr.), but undergoes at the same time partial decomposition. It possesses u very marked sweet taste, being much sweeter than cane sugar. The taste is perfectly pure. The minutest quantity of the substance, if placed upon the tip of the tongue, causes a sensation of pleasant sweet- ness throughout the entire cavity of the mouth. As stated above, the substance is soluble only to a slight extent in cold water, but if a few drops of the cold aqueous solution be placed in an ordinary goblet full of water, the latter then tastes like the sweetest sirup. Its presence can hence easily be detected in the dilutest solutions by the taste. Orthonitrobenzoic acid has this same property, but the sweetness is by no means so intense as in the case of benzoic sulphinide.”. (Am. Chem. J., 1, 430.) On the 2d of February, 1886, Dr. Ivan Lewinstein read a paper before the Society of Chemical Industry on “ Saccharine,” in which he gives sole credit of the discovery of this sweet substance to Dr. Remsen’s assistant. The process of preparing it is the same, though he prefers for it the name benzoyl-sulphonic-imide, or the trade-name “ saccharine.” The constitution of this body is thus shown: Dr. Lewinstein gives the following account of the properties and pros- pective uses ot this substance: Saccharine presents the appearance of a white powder, and erystal- lizes from its aqueous solution in thick short prisms, which are with difficulty soluble in cold water, but more easily in warm. Alcohol, ether, glucose. glycerole, etc., are good solvents of saccharine. It melts at 200° C., with partial decomposition; its taste in diluted solutions is intensely sweet, so much so that one part will give a very sweet taste to 10,000 parts of water. Saccharine forms salts, all of which possess a powerful saccharine taste; it is endowed with moderately strong an- tiseptic properties, and is not decomposed in the human system, but eliminated from the body without undergoing any change. It is about two hundred and thirty times sweeter than the best cane or beet-root sugar. According to Dr. Stutzser, of Boun, who has carefully inves- tigated the physiological properties of this substance, saccharine, taken into the stomach in the quantities in which it has to be added to food -asasweetening material, has no injurious effect whatever on the human system. Stutzser has given to dogs about 5 grams a day, without ob- serving any ill effects in them, and when we consider that 5 grams are equal in sweetening power to rather more than 24 pounds of sugar, a quantity far larger than any one would like to consume in a day, his view seems amply corroborated by this fact alone; but, in addition to this, patients suffering from diabetes have now been treated for several months in one of the principal hospitals in Berlin, as [ am informed, without their feeling the least inconvenience by its use. Physicians must be glad to find in saccharine a substance, by means of which di- H. Mis, 600 27 418 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1886. abetic persons may enjoy food which has hitherto not been admissible in their case. Saccharine does not belong to the class of carbohydrates, and does not possess nutritious properties. The use of saccharine will therefore, as indicated by its properties, be not merely as a probable substitute for sugar, but it may even be applied to medicinal purpose where sugar is not permissible. The inventor was fully aware that in order to supply a perfect substitute for cane or beet-root sugar, some- thing else, viz, a similar substance, was needed for confectionery and similar purposes, besides sweetening properties, and he has also en- deavored to solve this problem. Dr. Fahlberg combines glucose with starch sugar, a substance very similar to cane or beet-root sugar, but inferior to these in sweetening properties, with saccharine, aud thus obtains a compound which he calls “ dextro-saccharine,” which, as far as the taste is concerned, is scarcely distinguishable from the best sugar. The quantity of saccharine used is in the proportion of one part to from 1,000 to 2,000 parts of glucose. Now, since the price of saccharine is at present about 50s a pound, we shall find that even at this price such a mixture would be very considerably cheaper than real sugar, but we ° must bear in mind the fact that there is great likelihood of the process of manufacture of saccharine being considerably cheapened. It will then be evident not only that saccharine is a most interesting compound, but that it may also be destined to become an article of pri- mary commercial importance. The future must decide as to the rey- olutions it may bring about in the coal-tar industry, in the cultivation of the soil now devoted to growing canes or beets, and in the sugar in- dustry generally and other industries connected with it; but as great and important commercial interests are in question, it is highly advisa- ble to look well into this matter, and not allow our foreign competitors in this and other markets to secure for themselves exclusively the ben- efit which this discovery may confer. There are in commerce small balls made from starch, to which has been added .05 per cent. of saccharine, of which one is sufficient to impart a very sweet taste, very similar to that of the best sugar, to a large cup of black coffee. Investigations on the Sulphinides, by Dr. Ira Remsen.—The benzoic sulphinide described in the preceding note has been further studied by the author. By the substitution of the ethoxyl group for hydrogen paraethoxybenzoic sulphinide was obtained, crystallizing in fine white needles, melting at 257° to 258°. This derivative has not the sweet taste characteristic of the benzoic sulphinide. Another derivative, para- brombenzoic sulphinide, crystallizing in long needles and subliming in feathery flakes at about 200°, has aremarkable taste. When first placed upon the tongue its taste is extremely sweet, fully as much so as that of benzoic sulphinide, a single small crystal being able to sweeten half a liter of water. After the sweet taste has passed an equally bitter taste takes its place, reminding one in its extreme bitterness of strychnine. This peculiarity can not be due to the presence of two substances of different degrees of solubility, since the purest specimens have this property. (Am. Chem. J., vii, 223.) Paranitrobenzoic Sulphinide, etc., by W. A. Noyes.—This body crys. tallizes in small leaflets and in fine needles, fusing at 209°. It is diffi. CHEMISTRY. AN) cultly soluble in cold water and (together with its salts) has an intensely bitter taste. Its structure is as follows: CO 1 er SN Oey = SO. 2 4 \ No, Para-amidobenzoie sulphinide, on the other hand, has an intensely sweet taste. Its solution, even when very dilute, shows a dark-blue fluor- escence. The author describes its salts with potassium, barium, aud silver. (Am. Chem. J., VIII, 167.) On Wrightine, by H. Warnecke.—This alkaloid, first isolated by Sten- house in 1864, from the seeds of Wrightia antidysenterica, an apocyna- ceous tree from India. It is the first known solid base oceurring in nature which is free from oxygen. If a trace of this base, dissolved in chloroform, is evaporated to dryness ina porcelain capsule, the residue covered with 2 to 3c.c. of water and strong sulphuric acid is added ina slender stream, a golden-yellow color spreads from the bottom of the capsule through the whole liquid, and turns to a green on standing for twelve hours. If 1 milligram of the alkaloid is rubbed up in a watch- glass with five drops of strong sulphuric acid and let stand exposed to the air for two hours, the liquid which was at first colorless, turns yellow- ish green and finally a pale violet. Ifthe above mixture is at once ex- posed in the neck of a flask to the steam of boiling water the mass turns dark green, and passes into deep blue on contact with a little water. (Ber. d. chem. Ges., XIX.) Chemical Aspects of Future Food Supply.—The chemical section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at the meet- ing in Buffalo, August, 1886, was numerously attended. The president of the section, Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, addressed the members on “The Economical Aspects of Agricultural Chemistry.” His concluding sen- tences on the Future Food Supply are as follows: ‘Since, with a proper economy, the natural supplies of potash and phosphoric acid, as we have seen, may be made to do duty over and over again, and last in- definitely, the economist who looks to the welfare of the future need have no fear of the failure of these resources of the growing plant. In- deed, it may be said that the available quantities of them may be in- creased by a wise practice of agriculture, based on the teachings ot agricultural chemistry. But with the increase of population comes an increased demand for food, and therefore the stores of available nitrogen must be enlarged to supply the demands of the increased agricultural product. It is certain, that with the new analytical methods, and the new questions raised by the investigations of which I have spoken, many series of experiments will be undertaken, the 420 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1886. outcome of which will definitely settle the question of the entrance of free nitrogen into vegetable tissues. If this question be answered allirmatively, agricultural science will not place bounds to the possible production of foods. If the nitrifying process does go on within the cells of plants, and if living organisms do fix free nitrogen in the soil in a form in which at least a portion of it may be nitrified, we may ex- pect to see the quantities of combined nitrogen increase pari passu with the needs of plant life. Thus, intensive culture may leave the gardens and spread over the fields, and the quantities of food suitable for the sustenance of the human race be enormously increased. In con- templating the agricultural economies of the future, however, it must not be forgotten that a certain degree of warmth is as necessary to plant development as potash, phosphoric acid, and nitrogen. If it be true, therefore, that the earth is gradually cooling, there may come a time when a cosmic athermancy may cause the famine which scientific agri- culture willhave prevented. Fortunately however for the human race the cereals, the best single article of food, are peculiarly suitable to a cold climate. Barley is cultivated in Iceland, and oatmeal feeds the best brain and muscle of the world in the high latitudes of Europe. It is probably true that all life, vegetable and animal, had its origin in the boreal circumpolar regions. Life has already been pushed half-way to the equator, and slowly but surely the armies of ice advance their lines. The march of the human race equatorwards is a forced march, even if it be no more than a millimeter ina millennium. Some time in the remote future the last man will reach the equator. There, with the mocking disk of the sun in the zenith, denying him warmth, flat-headed and pinched as to every feature, he will gulp his last mite of albuminoids in his oatmeal, and close his struggle against an indurate hospitality.” (Economical Aspects of Agricultural Chemistry, an Address by H. W. Wiley. Cambridge, 1886.) Recent Progress in the Coal-Tar Industry.— Under the above title Sir Henry E. Roscoe delivered a most valuable and interesting discourse at the Royal Institution on April 16, 1886. He refers the numerous products, whether dye-stuffs, perfumes, antipyretic medicines, or sweet principles to two great classes of hydrocarbons, the paraffinoid and the benzenoid hydrocarbons. The first is the foundation of the fats, and the second of the essences or aromatic bodies. Petroleum is the source of the first class and eoal-tar of the second, The following tables give an interesting view of the marvellous products of coal and their relative amounts. I. Products of distillation of 1 ton of Lancashire coal: 10,000 cubic feet gas. 20 to 25 gallons ammoniacal liquor (5° Tw.). 12 gallons of coal-tar (== 139.2 pounds, specifie gravity, 1.16), 13 hundredweight of coke, CHEMISTRY. 421 IL. Products of 12 gallons of was-tar: 1.10 pounds benzene (—1.10 pounds aniline) 2 0.90 pound toluene (0.77 pound toluidine) § 1.5 pounds phenol proper (—1.2 pounds Aurin). 2.44 pounds solvent naphtha (three xylenes). 2.40 pounds heavy naphtha. 6.30 pounds naphthalene (=5.25 pounds @-naphthylamine, 7.11 verinilline scarlet RRR, or 9.50 pounds naphthol yellow). ‘ 17.0 pounds creosote. 14.0 pounds heavy oil. 0.46 pound anthracene (= 2.25 alizarine 20 per cent.). 69.6 pounds pitch. = 0.62 pound magenta. III. Dyeing power of colors from 1 ton of Lancashire coal: | | | Dye yards of | Pounds. | Dye-stuff. flannel 27 | | | inches wide. 0.623 | Magenta .....:--: | 500 [or, 1.23 | Methylviolet .... | 1,000 ] | 9.50 | Naphthol yellow. | 3, 800 ee [Om deel Verminliiine.s: 22.7 | 2,560 |] eer INUUCO Bebe Senor 120 Recor. | DIATE. 2th oP 8s 0- *255 * Printers’ cloth. The distinguished lecturer illustrated the tinctorial power of the coal- tar products by exhibiting a party-colored flag showing the exact amount of color obtainable from 1 pound of Lancashire coal; this flag was made up as follows: Inches a ISVESEER TS GE 117 V2) ie Ss apes i pe a Se 8 x 27 AVAL Le tpptllcn Tina eles es 8 iano he nee he Oe roe ei ors Snel ok = oe OMe Ray De ll owapelentnin Glee aes ere esiaie nen atone Seno ec cites COL mo OPAC Oelrin Olas mer aise eat eyes aieiatome eens arate aralate siete (one LAM) 2827) Turkey-red flannel - 2.2.22... Sets ces ed cats iow one ATA RT The colors chosen are only a few among the numerous list of deriva. tives. This list comprises at present the following: 16 distinet yellows. 12 oranges. 30 reds. Derived from benzene, to- 15 blues. luene phenols, xylene, 7 greens. naphthalene, anthra- 9 violets. cene. Several browns. Several blacks. The coal-tar antipyretic medicines next engaged the lecturer’s atten- tion. Professor Dewar discovered in 1881 that quinoline belongs to the 422 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1886. uromatie series, and first observed that certain pyridine saits act as feb- rifuges; so he may be called the father of antipyretic medicines. Of these, kairine was discovered by Prof. O. Fischer in 1881, and its feb- rifuge properties were first noticed by Professor Filehne, of Erlangen. It is actually ethyl-tetraoxy-quinoline, and has the constitution fo CH.CH, CsH;,(OH) < pa )< N(CH) CH han EDs 5k Antipyrine, the second of these febrifuges, was discovered by Dr. L. Knorr, of Erlangen, and its physiological properties were studied by Professor Filehne. It has the following constitution: er, Mea C,H, ) C08, | | CO — CH; or ©,,H,,.N,0. For the preparation of these bodies and their physio- logical effects, as well as for brief notices of cumarine and vanilline, we refer to the original address. (Nature, XXXIv, pp. 111 and 133.) Statistics of the Coal-Tar Color Industry.—In a paper on the scientific development of the coal-tar color industry, by Prof. R. Meldola, before the Society of Arts, he gives some statistics showing the magnitude of the industry under discussion. In Germany a factory of about the third magnitude consumes at present 500 to 600 tons of aniline jer aunum. The Badische Company employ twenty-five hundred laborers and offi- cials, and the Hoechst Color Works (formerly Meister, Lucius & Briin- ing) employ