E. P. FELT: A study of Panorpa and Bittacus. JULIUS NELSON: Temperature variations of cattle observed during extended periods of time, with reference to the tuberculosis test. L. H. BAILEY: Variation after birth. J. C. ARTHUR: The distinction between animals and plants. SECTION G. Botany. FREDERICK V. COVILLE: Poisoning by broad-leaved laurel. Botany of Yakutat Bay, Alaska. D. T. MACDOUGAL: The physiology of Isopyrum viternatrum L. The transmission of stimuli-effects in Mimosa pudica L. O. F. COOK: Personal nomenclature in the Myxomycetes. WILLIS L. JEPSON: The number of spare mother cells in the sporangia of ferns. H. L. BOLLEY: The constancy of the bacterial flora of fore milk. ERWIN F. SMITH: The watermelon wilt and other wilt diseases due to Fusarium. The southern tomato blight. Notes on the alkaline reaction of the vascular juices of plants. WALTER T. SWINGLE: Fungous gardens in the nests of an ant (Atta tardigrada Buckl.) near Washington, D. C. H. L. RUSSELL: A leaf rot of cabbage. B. T. GALLOWAY: Observations on the development of Uncinula spiralis. RODNEY H. TRUE: The effect of sudden changes of turgor and of temperature on growth. ALBERT F. WOODS: Recording apparatus for the study of transpiration of plants. G. M. HOLFERTY: Pressure, normal work and surplus energy in growing plants. N. L. BRITTON: Notes on the ninth edition of the London catalogue of British plants. THEO. HOLM: Obolaria Virginica L., a morphological and anatomical study. GEORGE MACLOSKIE: Root fungus of maize. Enantiomorphism in plants. CHARLES R. BARNES and RODNEY H. TRUE: A summary of a revision of the genus Dicranum. H. J. WEBBER: Experiments in pollinating and hybridizing the orange. FLORA W. PATTERSON: An Exoascus upon Alnus leaves. W. C. COVILLE: Crimson clover hair-balls.* B. D. HALSTED: Field experiments with beans. O. F. COOK: A peculiar habit of a Siberian species of Polyporous. H. L. BOLLEY: An apparatus for the bacteriological sampling of well waters. C. L. POLLARD: Methods of work on the national herbarium. ELIZABETH G. BRITTON: Some notes on Dicronella heteronnala and allied species. Corrections in descriptions of Coscinodon. WM. TRELEASE: Notes upon pignut hickories. B. D. HALSTED: Experiments with lime as a preventive of club-root. GEO. F. ATKINSON: Continuation of experiments upon the relation between the fertile and the sterile leaves of Onoclea. P. H. ROLFS: A hybrid egg plant-tomato plant. A. F. WOODS: A method of using formalin gelatine as a mounting medium. SECTION H. Anthropology. F. H. CUSHING: The dynasty of the arrow. STEWART CULIN: The origin of playing cards. The origin of money in China. Mustache sticks of the Ainus. JOHN G. BOURKE: Some Arabic survivals in the language and folk-usage of the Rio Grande valley. *This paper and those immediately following were read before the Botanical Club. ALICE C. FLETCHER: The sacred pole of the Omaha tribe. Indian songs and music. W. W. TOOKER: The mystery of the name Pamunkey. appellatives of the Siouan tribes of Virginia. WASHINGTON MATTHEWS: A vigil of the gods. The Algonquian W. Z. RIPLEY: A study in anthropo-geography as a branch of sociological investigation. STANSBURY HAGER: A melange of Micmac notes. J. W. B. HEWITT: Grammatic form and the verb concept in Iroquoian speech. The cosmogonic gods of the Iroquois. ARTHUR MACDONALD: Anthropometrical, psycho-neural and hypnotic meas urements. J. D. WRIGHT: The education of blind-deaf mutes. L. O. TALBOT: A study in child life. FRANZ BOAS: The Indians of Southern California. ALEX. F. CHAMBERLAIN: Word formation in the Kootenay language. Kootenay Indian personal names. R. G. HALIBURTON: The year of the Pleiades of prehistoric star-lore. The influence of prehistoric pigmy races on early calendars and cults, with notes on dwarf survivals. W. M. BEAUCHAMP: An Iroquois condolence. Old Mohawk words. J. MCKEEN CATTELL: Mental measurements in anthropology. F. W. PUTNAM and C. C. WILLOUGHBY: Some symbolic carvings from the ancient mounds of Ohio. F. G. WRIGHT: Account of the discovery of a chipped chert implement in undisturbed glacial gravel near Steubenville, Ohio. GEORGE LEITH: Notes on the bushmen of Transvaal. STEPHEN D. PEET: Village life among the cliff dwellers. The Palæolithic cult, its characteristic variations and tokens. The different races described by early discoverers and explorers. HARLAN I. SMITH: An Ojibwa transformation tale. F. H. CUSHING: The spider goddess and the demon snare. SECTION I. Economic Science and Statistics. J. W. SYLVESTER: A system of co-metallism. HENRY FARQUHAR: An international coinage. T. C. MENDENHALL: The law of chance, illustrated in railway accidents. W. L. O'NEILL: On suicide. E. L. CORTHELL: Growth of great cities. MARY J. EASTMAN: A cottage settlement in Spain. 2. Iowa Academy of Sciences.-The exceptional privilege is enjoyed by the Iowa Academy of Science of having its Proceedings published by the State. Volume ii of the Proceedings for 1894 has appeared, making a volume of 225 pages, containing a number of valuable papers on geology and other branches of science. Several papers on glacial and preglacial geology, on stratigraphical problems, on paleontology-one on "Synopsis of American Paleozoic Echinoids" by C. R. Keyes, and others are of importance to those interested in the geology of the Mississippi Valley. OBITUARY. PROFESSOR C. V. RILEY, the able and well known Entomologist of the Agricultural Department, died suddenly at Washington, D. C., on the fourteenth of September. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE [THIRD SERIES.] ART. XXXVII.-On the Wave Length of the D, Helium Line; by A. DEFOREST PALMER, JR. OWING to the recent increased interest in the wave length of the helium lines due to the discovery of terrestrial helium, I have been led to calculate some observations on the D, chromosphere line carried out by myself at the Physical Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University during February and March, 1893. The measurements were made on the large fixed telescope spectrometer, used by Dr. Louis Bell* in his determination of the absolute wave length of the D solar lines, with a plane speculum metal grating having about fourteen thousand lines to the inch and five inches of grating space. The telescopes of this instrument are 16.4cm clear aperture and about 2.5 meters focal length; and with the grating used I obtained good dispersion and excellent definition in the first spectrum to the right of the normal to the grating. All the observations were made in this spectrum on account of its superior definition. An image of the sun about 1cm in diameter was formed on the slit of the instrument by aid of a large Foucault heliostat, and an achromatic lens of about four inches aperture. Appliances were provided for moving the image laterally across the slit, and, by means of a total reflecting prism, for turning it about the direction of the beam as an axis to bring any desired point of the limb over the slit. *This Journal, vol. xxxv, p. 265. AM. JOUR. SCI.-THIRD SERIES, VOL. L, No. 299.-NOVEMBER, 1895. The D, line appeared only when the sun's image was tangent to the slit and then as a bright but very short line in the center of the field of view vertically considered. Its definition and intensity were found to vary greatly from day to day, and for different points on the sun's limb. In general, when a solar prominence lay across the slit the line was very broad and intense, but the definition of its edges was poor, thus rendering it impossible to set the cross hairs on it with accuracy. The best combination of intensity and definition was obtained by avoiding prominences and working only on very clear days. The observations were made by the ordinary micrometric method, the D, line being compared with the best solar standard lines in the field of view. The wave lengths of these standard lines, as taken from Prof. Rowland's "Table of Standard Wave Lengths,"* were Fe.. Fe. Fe. Na. D, 5896.154 Average value. 5887-028 Seventeen series of measurements were made, in each of which equal numbers of observations were taken on diametrically opposite points of the sun's limb in order to eliminate the effect of rotation. The wave length of D, was calculated from each of these series by Prof. Rowland's method of interpolation, on the assumption that, for the space used, the spectrum was essentially normal. The average of the seventeen values thus found gives 5875 939 006 for the wave length of the D, line, the probable error being calculated from the deviations of the several values from the mean in the usual manner. To test the accuracy of the observations and method of calculation, the wave length of the mean line was computed from the observations and found to be 5887-027, a value which differs only by 001 from the average of the wave lengths of the standard lines used, 5887-028. I am indebted to Prof. H. A. Rowland and Dr. J. S. Ames. for permission to use apparatus and for suggestions, and to Mr. W. S. Day for aid in making the observations. Wilson Physical Laboratory, Brown University, Oct. 17, 1895. * Astr. and Astro. -Phys., vol. xii, p. 321, and Phil. Mag., V, vol. xxxvi, p. 49. ART. XXXVIII.-Some additional Notes on Argon and Helium; by EDWIN A. HILL. AN English scientist in a recent letter, referring to the point made in my article on argon,* as to the inconsistency of regarding a free or nascent monatomic atom as devoid of chemical affinity, asks the very pertinent question whether I have considered the case of mercury vapor, which at 800° is monatomic and yet has practically no chemical affinity. I had indeed given this case some consideration, but lack of space kept me from referring to it in my previous article. Lord Rayleigh and Prof. Ramsay, in their original memoir, use the following language: "In conclusion, it need excite no astonishment that argon is so indifferent to reagents. For mercury, although monatomic, forms compounds which are by no means stable at a high temperature in the gaseous state, and attempts to produce compounds of argon may be likened to attempts to cause combination between mercury gas at 800° and other elements." The assumption evidently being, that at all ordinary temperatures, argon is heated to a point above that at which chemical affinity is strongly manifested. Of course argon may yet prove to be either a mixture or a compound of elements, but assuming it to be a single element, the important question still remains unsettled as to the number of atoms comprising its molecule. The ratio of the two specific heats, as derived from experiments on the velocity of sound in argon, has been shown to be about 165, approximating closely to 1.67, the value which, according to the theory of Clausius, proves the gas to have no energy of rotation. The conclusion, that therefore the gas is monatomic, depends on at least three things: 1st. On the correctness of the assumption that a gas, with little or no rotational energy, cannot be di- or n-atomic, but must be monatomic. In my article on argon (1. c.) I have endeavored to show, that the amount of rotational energy acquired by gaseous molecules will depend on the relation between the repulsive forces acting during the encounter, and the attractive forces aggregating the atoms into a molecule; and that even if the rotational energy be but slight, di- or n-atomicity may be possible, and monatomicity does not therefore necessarily follow. 2d. The conclusion also depends upon the correctness of the deduction of Clausius, that a ratio of the two specific heats of 1.67 proves the gas to have no rotational energy. This is *This Journal, May, 1895, p. 413. |