slightly acid. The results are accurate. The author has ingeniously applied these methods to the rapid analysis of alloys.

Schützenberger has announced the discovery of an allotropic condition of metallic copper, obtained by electrolysis of a solution of about ten per cent. of copper acetate, previously boiled, with two Bunsen or three Daniell cells, the negative platinum plate being placed parallel to the larger positive copper electrode, and three or four centimeters from it. The allotropic copper is then deposited on the platinum as a brittle metal in rugose plates of an aspect resembling bronze. Its specific gravity is from 8 to 8.2, that of ordinary copper being 6.9. The moist plates quickly oxidize on the surface in ordinary air. Allotropic copper is changed to ordinary copper by heat or by prolonged contact with dilute sulphuric acid.

Dumas has called the attention of the French Academy to the presence of oxygen in metallic silver, and has shown that where silver has been used in the determination of atomic weights, and, after careful purification, has been converted into minute grains after fusion in presence of borax, nitre, and air, it is liable to absorb oxygen in amounts varying from 50 to 200 cubic centimeters per kilogram. This may cause a notable error.

Von Meyer has put to the test the theory of De la Rive, that the so-called catalytic action of platinum is due to the formation of a superficial layer of oxide, which is subsequently reduced, and so on alternately, by examining the action of platinous oxide, platinic oxide, and platinic hydrate upon mixtures of hydrogen and carbonous oxide. He finds that these gases are both oxidized at the expense of the oxygen in the oxide of platinum, the proportion of hydrogen being much the larger. Upon a mixture of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbonous oxide the action of the platinum is directly the reverse, the carbonous oxide being burned in largest proportion. The author concludes from these experiments that the theory of De la Rive cannot be admitted.

ORGANIC.

Cloez has studied the hydrocarbons which are formed during the action of acids upon spiegeleisen, and has found that

several of these bodies are identical with those which exist in the ground, and are extracted on a large scale under the name of petroleum. This production of complex carbonized compounds, without any intervention of life, supports the views of certain geologists on the origin of petroleum. The reproduction of a large number of organic species might be realized by commencing with ethylene or methane, hydrocarbons furnished in this way by the action of mineral acids on cast iron.

Merz and Tibirca have published a simple and easy method of producing formic acid synthetically, which consists simply in passing carbonous oxide gas over alkali heated in a tube. They find ordinary soda-lime to be the best, and state that when a rapid current of carbonous oxide is passed over soda-lime heated in a tube to 200° or 250°, it is entirely absorbed, producing sodium formate. As an example of direct synthesis it forms an exceedingly instructive lecture experiment.

Bougarel claims to have isolated from the leaves of the cherry laurel a new organic acid, to which he gives the name phyllic acid. The leaves are steeped in boiling alcohol, the alcoholic extract treated with ether, the ether distilled off, the amorphous grains dissolved in dilute potash, and crystallized. On redissolving and adding an acid, phyllic acid is precipitated as a resinous mass, soluble in alcohol, but insoluble in water. It is without taste, has a density of 1.014, rotates the yellow ray 28° to the right, and fuses at 170°. Analysis gave it the formula C72 H64 O16 Further experiment showed that this acid was contained in the leaves of the quince, apple, peach, almond, lilac, and sycamore.

Atterberg has subjected to fractional distillation the socalled "wood oil," which is obtained as a first product in distilling the wood-tar made in Sweden from resinous woods, principally that of Pinus sylvestris. In this way he succeeded in isolating a terpene having the properties of australene, and another having the odor of fresh pine wood, and not identifiable with any other similar body. To this, therefore, the author gives the name sylvestrene. The two terpenes together constitute eighty per cent. of the oil. Sylvestrene has a density of 0.8612 at 16°, rotates the polarized ray 19.5° to the right in sodium light, and forms two M

compounds with hydrogen chloride. Heated with potassium hydrate, sylvestrene yields an oil having a strong pelargonium odor.

Remsen and Morse, of the Johns-Hopkins University, Baltimore, have studied the products of oxidation of bromethyltoluene and its analogues, with a view to determine the influence which one substituting group exerts upon a second or a third entering the same benzene nucleus, with particular reference to any differences in result due to the use of homologous radicals of the marsh-gas series. Since bromethyltoluene yields bromparatoluic acid on oxidation, the effect of the ethyl group is quite distinct from that of the methyl group in the molecule, opening up a new field for investigation.

Zulkowsky has sought to produce rosolic acid from a mixture of cresol and phenol precisely as rosaniline is produced from toluidine and aniline, the corresponding amines. For this purpose two molecules of cresol, one of phenol, and three of sulphuric acid were heated with arsenic acid to 120°. The mixture became dark brown and thick, and yielded to water a gummy substance with a metallic lustre, having all the properties of rosolic acid. The relation of this coloring matter to rosaniline is thus rendered quite apparent.

PHYSIOLOGICAL.

Livache has examined in the laboratory of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, in Paris, the gaseous products which are contained in the tissue of fruits. He finds that in perfectly healthy fruit the gases contained in its pulp consist entirely of oxygen and nitrogen in the proportion in which they exist in the air. In case this pulp is broken or torn, an oxidation results, and the oxygen is rapidly transformed into carbon dioxide. If the pulp thus mangled be left to itself, a true fermentation sets in, abundance of carbon dioxide is produced and disengaged, the oxygen disappears entirely, leaving the nitrogen unaltered.

Muntz has made a research upon the formation of alcohol in the cells of growing plants, and finds that when confined in an atmosphere of nitrogen or any gas not containing oxygen, the presence of alcohol can be invariably detected, even after only a few hours' exposure, while none appeared in

The experiments

other similar plants not thus treated. were made with beets, maize, geranium, cabbage, etc., and the results are regarded as confirming the views of Pasteur, that the alcoholic fermentation produced by ordinary yeast is simply an exaggeration of the normal action of all organic cells in the absence of oxygen.

Wilson has presented to the British Association a paper on the amount of sugar contained in the nectar of various flowers. A single flower of fuchsia contains 7.59 milligrams, of which 1.69 is fruit-sugar and 5.9 cane-sugar. A flower of everlasting pea has 9.93 milligrams, 8.33 being fruit and 1.60 cane; a raceme of vetch 3.16 milligrams, 3.15 being fruit-sugar, a single flower giving 0.158 milligram of fruitsugar. A head of red clover gave 7.93 milligrams, 5.95 being fruit and 1.98 cane, each floret giving 0.132 milligram, 0.099 being fruit-sugar; a flower of monk's-hood 6.41 milligrams, 4.63 being fruit-sugar. Approximately, then, 100 heads of clover give 0.8 gram of sugar, or 125 give a gram, and 125,000 a kilogram. As each head contains about 60 florets, it is evident that to obtain a kilogram of sugar 7,500,000 florets are required. Now as honey contains about 75 per cent. of sugar, 5,600,000 flowers would yield a kilogram of honey, or say two and a half millions a pound. Since this nectar is only of use to the flower by attracting insects to it, and in this way fertilizing the plant, as is evident from the fact that it is secreted at the time only when the visits of insects would be beneficial-i. e., when the anthers are shedding their pollen-it is interesting to notice. the connection now pointed out between the amount of nectar a flower secretes and the results of insect visits in changing the size, shape, color, etc., of the flower.

Böhm has shown by experiment that the common opinion that the starch in chlorophyll grains is in all cases the product of an intrinsic synthesis from carbon dioxide and water is entirely erroneous. Two positive and important conclusions follow from his researches: 1st, that the formation of starch in chlorophyll grains is in many cases the result of a metamorphosis of bodies not intrinsic to the cells in which this conversion takes place, but elaborated elsewhere by the plant; and, 2d, that this process of conversion is entirely in-dependent of the action of light, white or colored.

Schmidt has discovered that by the action of aqueous ammonia upon carbonyl sulphide, urea is produced. For this reaction it is only necessary to pass the carbonyl sulphide gas through a concentrated aqueous solution of ammonia. The solution becomes yellow, and on spontaneous evaporation evolves ammonium sulphide and carbonate, and leaves a residue of urea. Pushing the saturation further, there is formed a compound by direct union.

North has made an elaborate research on the effect of starvation, with and without severe labor, on the excretion of nitrogen by the human body, and finds that the increase of nitrogen excreted is very small, and comes solely from reserve nitrogenous material. The results of Flint, obtained in experiments upon Weston, he thinks are due to the fact that before his walk Weston had accumulated a large nitrogenous reserve, from which, and not from his muscles, came the nitrogen excreted.

Jaffe has examined the results of the ingestion of benzoic acid in birds, with a view to determine the form in which it is excreted. In the mammalia, benzoic acid when taken into the organism, as is well known, is excreted as hippuric acid. But Jaffe finds that no hippuric acid is formed by birds, the benzoic acid forming a new conjugated acid which he calls ornithuric acid.

TECHNICAL.

Frankland and Thorne have studied the luminosity of benzene when burned with non-luminous combustible gases. After many unsuccessful attempts to burn benzene with a smokeless flame, the authors determined the luminosity of benzene vapor after dilution with hydrogen, carbonous oxide, and marsh gas. These gases were passed through a carburetter containing benzene, kept at a constant temperature, and were burned from a fish-tail burner. The results were as follows: One pound avoirdupois of benzene gives, when burned with hydrogen, the light yielded by 5.792 pounds of spermaceti; with carbonous oxide, that of 6.1 pounds of spermaceti; and with marsh gas, that of 7.7 pounds of spermaceti. The authors point out that this dif ference is probably due in part to the different pyrometrical effects of the gaseous mixtures.

Muir has discussed at considerable length the use of gas