any other character than that of mere hints, intended to awaken regard to a fuller investigation of analogous cases, as they may from time to time present themselves.

It was not far from the month of August, 1834, that the newspapers announced the fall of a blazing meteor in the night, in the town of Norwich, Conn. İts descent was unaccompa nied by any report, and the mass of matter in its course, came near falling upon the roof of a house, missing it only by the space of about two feet, and nearly burying itself in the rather soft earth of the door-yard. The phenomenon occasioned much fright to the occupants of the house, who were only females. It was seen however, by others. The mass of matter occupying the cavity was of a flattened form, and nearly as large over as a man's head. It had the appearance (in the words of a neighbor who saw it and who described it to me a few weeks after) of a mass of earth, stuck together by the infiltration of tarry matter. And such he took it to be, supposing that some mischievous persons had prepared a fire-ball, and projected it on fire into the air, with the intention of alarming the inmates of the house. I was shown the cavity said to have been produced by the ball; but the specimen had been given to a medical student, who had sent it to his preceptor, residing in or near Albany, N. Y. The circumstances were on the whole so discouraging to the idea of its being a genuine meteorite, that I gave the subject no further consideration. It may not be too I. te, to recover further information respecting its character.

On the evening of the 23d of April, 1855, at Ochtertyre House, Crieff, in Perthshire (Scotland), a young woman saw from the third story, a shooting star or meteorite, falling with a brilliant light. It struck the gravel walk near to the house. She instantly called two other females, "who saw as it were, a bright object on the gravel, like the sun shining on a large diamond." Two of them ran out of the house and round a court-yard to the spot, taking matches and a candle with them. As soon as they got to the spot, one of them picked up two cindery frag ments, which were too hot to hold, and which emitted a strong sulphurous smell. The other felt something hot under her foot, which she also picked up. It had a similar character with the other fragments. At first it was believed that these masses had actually falien from the heavens; but a closer investigation into their character left little doubt that they were merely fragments of ordinary cinder, derived from a neighboring furnace, situated upon a stream, whence gravel had been obtained for dressing the walks. Being at Sheffield in England, when the subject was undergoing investigation, I was favored by Sir William Keith Murray, at whose residence the occurrence took place, with an inspection of one of the specimens, and was satisfied that a correct general view had been taken of their character. Nevertheless, as

the confidence of the gentleman referred to, was full and entire in the integrity of the witnesses of the phenomenon, it would seem to be an instance, in which the sulphurous matter of a shooting star was not completely consumed before reaching the ground, and that much of the residuum suffered oxydation after it struck upon the cinder of the walk.*

My meteoric cabinet has contained for many years, a few grains of a mixture of carbonaceous and earthy matter in a pulverulent state, sent to me in 1845 by Mr. Black, of Elizabethtown, Essex county, N. Y., (then a member of the Legislature of New York), as having fallen in his wood-yard during the winter of 1844 and

1845.

As an appendix to this unsatisfactory list of supposed meteorites may be added a statement concerning a specimen, the half of which is in my possession, so puzzling in its properties as to leave me in great doubt, whether to arrange it among terrestrial or celestial productions. Its history is briefly as follows. It was brought to Dr. Gibbs of Columbia, S. C., by a poor woman resident in the vicinity, under the impression I believe, of its having fallen from the skies; and as such, was presented to me by Dr. Gibbs. Its size is about that of an ordinary fig, which fruit in a compressed state, it somewhat resembles in figure. Its surface was nearly black, rough and without a glaze. It seemed hollow, and reminded me of an impure, brown iron-stone œetite. On breaking it open, it presented an irregularly shaped cavity, holding nearly a thimble full of silicious sand, and had upon its interior walls, little pellets (half the size of a mustard seed) of pure lead, almost exactly resembling those found in the Hemalga (Chili) meteoric iron.

SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

I. CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.

1. On Ammonia-Chromium bases.-FRÉMY has discovered a class of ammonia-chromium bases, analogous to those formed by cobalt, iridium and rhodium. The author, who appears to be ignorant of what has already been written upon the subject, distinguishes two isomeric modifications of the sesquioxyd of chromium, one of which he terms "chromoxyd" and the other "metachromoxyd," the latter being the soluble and the former the insoluble modification. When metachromoxyd is treated with ammonia in the presence of a salt of ammonium it dissolves completely, forming compounds which are distinguished by their beautiful violet rose red color: alcohol precipitates from these solutions beautiful violet substances, which the author terms amido-chrom compounds, but the analyses of which are not given. These substances are easily decomIt was found by Dr. Heddle of Edinburg, that the cinder still retains distinct traces of sulphur.

posed; among the products of their decomposition the author has discovered an ammonia-chromium base which has the formula Cr2O3.4NH3. The constitution of the salts of this base may be represented by the general expression Cr2O3. 4NH3+3A, in which A represents one equivalent of acid. The solutions are almost pure rose-red-the chlorid, which the author considers as a hydrochlorate, has the formula Co2O3. 4NH3+ 3HCl. The salt crystallizes from an acid solution in the form of beautiful regular octahedrons; it forms crystallizable double salts with the chlorids of platinum and mercury. In addition, the author has discovered two other salts, which appear to contain different bases.—Comptes Rendus, xlvii, 883.

2. On the preparation of Alizarin.-VILMORIN has given a simple method of preparing alizarin from commercial garancin. Garancin is to be treated two or three times with a solution of pure ammonia alum in water, containing half as much alum as the garancin employed. The liquid after filtering has a very beautiful scarlet orange color. It is to be evaporated with repeated stirring, so that the alum may form only small crystals which are encrusted with amorphous alizarin. This product is to be dried, then rubbed to powder, and treated in a water bath with boiling bisulphid of carbon, which dissolves only the alizarin and leaves the alum which may then be employed again. The solution of alizarin in bisulphid of carbon has a brilliant gold yellow color; it is to be filtered and on cooling yields groups of crystalline needles, with a silky lustre. In place of bisulphid of carbon, boiling absolute alcohol may be employed.Chemisches Central-Blatt, No. 24, 1859.

3. On Wolfram-Steel.-F. MAYR has prepared an alloy of steel with tungsten which appears to possess very valuable properties. Its tenacity, according to experiments made at the Polytechnic Institute at Vienna, exceeds that of all other varieties of steel hitherto examined, being equal to, on the average, 1159 cwt. to the square inch of section. The method of preparing this steel is not described; the ore of tungsten, as is well known, exists abundantly at Zinnwald in Bohemia and has hitherto found no practical application.-Chemisches Central Blatt, No. 25, 1859.

4. On several new Alcohols.-BERTHELOT has shown that cholesterine, Borneo camphor and meconine may be regarded as alcohols, since when subjected to the action of acids, water is eliminated and a class of neutral substances produced analogous to the ethers. The author's method of experimenting consists in enclosing the alcohol and acid together in a sealed tube, and exposing the mixture for eight or ten hours to a temperature of 200°. Under these circumstances combination usually occurs with facility. The compounds of cholesterine with stearic, benzoic, butyric and acetic acids, are solid and crystallizable; more fusible than cholesterine, more or less soluble in ether, very slightly soluble in boiling alcohol. Their physical properties, fusibility, etc., are intermediate between those of the waxes and resins. When treated for a long time with the hydrated alkalies at 100°, these ethers are resolved into cholesterine and acid which remains united with the alkali. The author concludes from his analyses, that the true formula of cholesterine is that of Gerhardt, viz.: Č52H44O2. Meconine in combining with acids loses four equivalents of water; the author succeeded in preparing a benzoate and stearate. He farther points out the relations which exist between meco

nine, C20H1003, and the products of its oxydation, viz.: opianic and hemipinic acids; C20H10O10 and C20H10O12. These relations are the same as those between olefiant gas C4H4, aldehyd Call4O2, and acetic acid C4H404.

Orcine, C14H8O4, also appears to enter into combination with acids, though the quantity of matter at the author's disposal did not permit him to determine this with absolute certainty.

Borneo camphor C20H18O2 plays the part of an alcohol, which the author proposes to call camphol. Camphol combines easily with muriatic acid at the temperature of 100°, and with the organic acids at 200°. The ethers are neutral, colorless, more fusible than camphol, sometimes liquid and sometimes crystallizable. In their formation, two equivalents of water are eliminated. The chlorhydric ether of this alcohol closely resembles the compound formed by the action of muriatic acid gas upon oil of turpentine, and commonly known under the name of artificial camphor, the only difference between them consisting in their power of rotating polarized light. The author did not however succeed in obtaining camphol by heating artificial camphor with an alcoholic solution of soda. Ordinary camphor may be regarded as the aldehyd of camphol, which latter can be obtained from it by boiling with an alcoholic solution of caustic potash. A peculiar acid is at the same time produced which has probably the formula C20H1604 and which the author calls camphic acid. Camphol is the type of a series of alcohols, represented by the formula Can Han-202.—Ann. de Chimie et de Physique, Ivi, 51.

5. On a new Product of the decomposition of Trinitrophenic Acid.By the action of cyanid of potassium upon picric acid, Hlasiwetz has prepared a new acid which he terms isopurpuric acid, and which is isoineric with the purpuric acid obtained from uric acid. Two parts of cyanid of potassium are to be dissolved in four parts of water, the solution warmed to about 60° and the hot solution of one part of picric acid in nine parts of water added with constant stirring. On cooling, the solution becomes a soft mass of crystals, which after purification are brown red and scaly, and reflect a green light. These crystals are the potash salt of the new acid; they are slightly soluble in cold, but perfectly soluble in boiling water. The solution has a very intense and pure purple color. The salt explodes on heating, and gives precipitates with several metallic solutions. The formation of this substance may be expressed by the equation

C12H3N3O14+3(C2NH)+2HO=C16H5N5O12+C2O4+NH3. The author has analyzed and described various salts of the new acid and has compared its physical and chemical properties with those of purpuric acid. According to Grailich's observations, isopurpurate of ammonia is both crystallographically and optically similar to murexid. In fact, it is difficult to decide from the author's memoir, upon what grounds a distinction is to be made between purpuric and isopurpuric acids.-Ann, der Chemie und Pharm., cx, 289.

W. G.

6. Sir H. Davy's Discovery of the Alkaline Metals: correction of a prevalent historical error in relation thereto.-It has frequently been a matter of regret that in the history of the world the progress of science has held a secondary place to that of bloodshed, tyranny and political in

trigue. The most trifling acts of kings and generals are recorded and commented upon, and any misstatement in regard to them is soon detected and pointed out to the confusion of the erring historian. But it is often found to be otherwise in the history of those things which have most benefitted mankind. The most reckless statements in regard to these pass unchallenged as unworthy of notice or rectification, and are disseminated by each succeeding writer until the authority in favor of the error preponderates (numerically at least) over that in favor of the truth.

A striking instance of this occurs in relation to Sir H. Davy's great discovery. Seeing it stated in Lardner's Hand-book of Electricity that it was with the great battery of two thousand pairs of plates belonging to the Royal Institution that Davy succeeded in decomposing the alkalies and resolving them into metals and oxygen, and knowing that such was not the fact, it occurred to me to look up the statements of other physicists upon this point. I was aware that Pouillet in his "Traité de Physique" (from which Lardner has largely copied) makes a similar statement; but this I was prepared to expect in the works of an associate of those savans who alleged to Napoleon that they were prevented from anticipating Davy's discovery only by the want of an apparatus of sufficient power. But that an English philosopher should fall into such a mistake somewhat surprised me, and I was still more astonished to find that British authors, long before the time of Lardner and Pouillet, had given currency to the same misstatement. Indeed so powerful was the array of testimony in favor of this error (at least so far as the number of authors went) that I was at one time tempted to doubt my own clear recollection of Davy's own record, and it was only by again turning to it that I could reassure myself. There however he mentions distinctly that the battery used consisted of only one hundred pairs of six inch plates; and still further, in a note to the Bakerian lecture for 1808, he states that many have been deterred from repeating these experiments, supposing that a battery of enormous power is required, and corrects this false impression by stating that one to two hundred pairs of plates in moderate action is amply sufficient. Seeing then that Davy himself deemed this error of sufficient importance to merit correction, perhaps I may be excused for calling attention to the propagation of it by so many respect

able authors.

Turner's Chemistry is the earliest work in which I have found this error. In Murray's system (1819) the facts are minutely and correctly stated, but the power of the battery is not given. But what astonished me most was to find that Leithead, Secretary to the London Electrical Society, in a work published in 1837 ("Electricity-its nature, operation and importance," &c.) and dedicated to no less an electrician than Sir M. Faraday, the friend and pupil of Davy, makes the same erroneous statement in his book, page 183.

From Turner and Pouillet the error has spread to a host of minor authors until our scientific literature has become infected with it to a wide extent. Golding Bird, whose means of obtaining correct information were no doubt ample, seems to have labored under the impression that the discovery was made with the great battery; and even de la Rive in