Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/197

 SCIENCE.

��nwra exercises o( tbit fancy. Indeed, the tue o[ tbe expression ' Blructiire of molecuJei' is in &uch cases quite uu warranted."

There is un(loubleiU_v a senae in which th« last statement is true, but there is another sense in which it 13 not true. We maj know K great deal about the chemical conduct of a compocind. — enough, indeed, to warrant u» iu partially expressing its structure in a formula, without positively knowing its molecular weight. The reason why "conclusions regarding the structure of the molecules ... are ver>- apt to degenerate into mere esercises of the &ncy," is not so much that the molecular weights are unknown, but rather that the true signification of structural formulas is not under- stood, and formulas ai'e iVequently constructed on an entirely inadequate basis of facts.

Taken all in all. the hook is deseiring of the highest praise, and its iuHuence can only be beneficial. It will arouse opposition, but it will at least cause those who oppose it to think ; and, if it should do this, it would be of valoe, though every word were false.

��NOTES AND NEWS.

. L. BlXBY of Chelsea, Vt., is taking bleps ta Introduce a system ot weather warnings through- out his state by means of blasts from facto ry-w bis ties. The signals are as fuUuws: after the first long, un- broken blast, usually given at about aeren A.M., a single fire-second blast indicates fair or probably fair weather for the day ; two blasts, foul weather; Uii'ee, fair changing to foul; four, foul changing Co fair; live, iloubtful or irregularly variable. After any of these, Ave short blasts signify a cold wavt or iin season ab I >: frosts. The managers of the Free preai at Burlington UQderUke to send the necessary telegrams on pay- ment of a small fee. Randolph is the first town to adopt the system: the signals are regularly given there now from a ten-inch steam- whistle.

— Herr J. Brautlecht bus been experimenting un Ibe transfer of bacteria from the soli to the atmos- phere. Ignited sand, gravelly soil, and a moderately clayey garden-soil, were moistened with liqiud eon- laining bacteria, and covered with glass bells. In a few hoars mlcrobln of the same kind as those con- tained in the liquid were found In great numbers in the moisture condensed on the sides of the bell. It sill be remembered that Angus Smith was one of the lir«t to point out that aqueous vapor conrlenseil un the walls of rooms contains micro-organisms,

— The Nitrate owners' committee ot Tarapaca hav« determined to oSer a prize of a thousand pounds for the best essay on the employment of nitrate in agri- eolture, so as to supplant other fertilizers. The essay is to be published by the committee in all modern languages. Moreover, five hundred tons of nitrate,

��subscrlti«d2by the manufacturers, are to be shipped to Europe and the United States, to be employed In experiments at the expeusa of the committee. A (and of four thousand |>ounds has been formed to carry out these various schemes, the object of which is to promote a demand for the nitrate.

— Dr. Edward Divers, principal ot the Imperial en- gineering college of Tokio, Japan, writes to the Chemi- cal n?ui«. informing the editor of a serious accideut which threatens to deprive him of the sight of one eye. He is anxious to put chemists and othen on their guard. A bottle containing phosphorus tri- chloride had dune duty for many years as a specimen for the lecture-table. Dr. Divers was carefully warming the neck of the bottle to liberate the stop- per, when the bottle burst in pieces with great vio- lence, the cornea and iris of the right eye being extensively wounded, and the aqueous humor dis- chai^ed.

— A sensation Los been caused iu Australia by the discovery of the gold-Held at llouut Morgan, near Rocbhampton, in QuLtJoslaud. The mine, it is esti- mated, contains gold enough to yield, after working, a profit of nine million pouuds. The curious fact Is that the localify is not one which a geologist would have pointed out as likely to contain gold. The theory put forward to account for the presence of gold there is that it is a secondary formation. The gold is not in the original matrix. Nature has already mined it. chemically treated It, sublimated it. and redejiosiled it. The discovery is likely to give a stimulus to 'prospecting' in Queensland, and also iu the other colonies.

— Professor Woldrlch, at a recent meeting of the Vienna anthropological society, read a paper on the latest prehistoric remains foun<l at Prerau, Several Eartloads of bones had been found Uiere while work' men were levelling for an orebard, and taken to the Oluiltz moseum. They were principally bones of mammoths, cave-bears, foxes, hares, etc, ; but min- gled with them were flint weapons, and some ot the bones bore traces of being worked and cut. Char- coal was also found in the surrounding earth.

— The board of commissioners in charge ot the lights on the coast of Scotland suggest that In cases of fog, when a light cannot reach its usual distance, the beam from a powerful source, such as electricity, might be depressed so as to concentrate the Intensity on the near-hand sea by slightly moving the flame out of the focus of the apparatus, and supplementing it by the use of suitable rcfiec:tors. They also look upon the question of the relative absorption of elec- tric light by fogs, compared with thai of light from other sources, as yet undetermined, and requiring strict investigation.

— The brewers' journal, published in Nuremberg. tli» Alhjemeine braaer- MRd Aufi/enzeifunQ, celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary by offering prizes for two essays on, 1°, The culture of hops; 2°, Barley as brew- ing-material : the best essay to receive a prize ot fifty ponnds; the ersay, in German, to be sent In to the editor before May 1, IBSD.

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