could not fail to impress the native mind with a sense of the complete and inevitable character of the British triumph. Fighting coatinned throughout October, and even through November, although the Government in the early part of that month had declared the contest to be virtually over. Kreli was deposed, and his country annexed to Cape Colony. On April 6th, a South African exhibition was opened at Cape Town by Sir Bartle Frere. It was attended throughout with so great a success, that the Government proposed to hold another in 1878. Among the works of the year containing information on Cape Colony is "South Africa, Past and Present" (London, 1877). CHARLES I., Prince of Roumania, the second son of Prince Charles Anthony of Hohenzollern, was born April 20, 1839. In 1866 he was almost unanimously elected Prince of Roumania by a popular vote of the country. The task that awaited him was an extremely difficult one. He found the country in a wretched condition. Education was entirely unprovided for, the Treasury was empty, while no means were at hand to replenish it, and while, worst of all, the country was so torn by rival political factions that it seemed impossible to establish a stable government. It is generally admitted that during his reign the country has made decided improvements in all these respects. During the trouble that arose in 1875 between the Porte and her subjects in Bosnia and the Herzegovina, and which, in 1876, involved the tributary states of Servia and Montenegro, Prince Charles maintained an observant attitude, ready to take any measure which might seem best for the country. Upon the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish war, the time seemed to have come to proclaim the entire independence of the principalities from Turkey, and this was accordingly done by the Chambers. Prince Charles thus became the first Sovereign of an independent Roumanian state. In 1869 he married Princess Elizabeth of Wied. The only child of this union, a daughter, died in 1874. CHEMISTRY. Liquefaction of the Gases.Three highly important communications were made to the Paris Academy of Sciences toward the end of the year, all having reference to the liquefaction of gases. The first of these was from M. Cailletet. He recounted the famous researches of Faraday on this subject, and remarked that since that time the question has hardly been discussed at all. As Andrews has observed, those elastic fluids which were not condensed by light pressure, were supposed to be capable of resisting any pressure whatever. When Cailletet began his researches there were six gases which had resisted all efforts to liquefy them; these were hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, oxide of carbon, bi-oxide of nitrogen, and marsh gas. In the course of his experiments with the bi-oxide of nitrogen, M. Cailletet found that, at the temperature of +3° Cent., it may be subjected to a pressure of 270 atmospheres and still remain in the gaseous state; but on reducing the temperature to -11° Cent., a pressure of 104 atmospheres suffices to liquefy it. M. Cailletet further found that, on subjecting marsh gas to a pressure of 180 atmospheres (temperature not stated), and then withdrawing the pressure, there appears a mist (brouillard) in the gaseous mass. Now, this mist can be nothing else but marsh gas liquefied by the extreme cold and the compression. The above communication from M. Cailletet was read in the meeting of the Academy held on November 26th. In publishing it, on December 1st, the editor of a scientific journal in Paris remarks as follows: "Everything goes to show that oxide of carbon and oxygen, whose laws of compression are analogous to those of the preceding bodies, will also yield to M. Cailletet's method." The prediction was quickly verified, and more than verified, if the expression may be used; for, at the meeting of the same Academy on December 24th, M. Cailletet announced the liquefaction of oxygen, and M. Dumas read a letter from Raoul Pictet, of Geneva, stating that he too had liquefied oxygen, though according to a method very different from that of M. Cailletet. The latter's communication was to the effect that, on subjecting oxygen simultaneously to a temperature of -29° Cent., and to a pressure of 270 atmospheres, and then suddenly withdrawing the pressure, the volume of oxygen is filled with a mist which, beyond a doubt, consists of oxygen in the liquid, if not in the solid, state. M. Pictet's note stated that, on December 22d, he had liquefied oxygen, but, as it would appear, on a larger scale. His apparatus consisted of a retort of wrought-iron, holding chlorate of potash, and communicating with a very thick and very strong glass tube. The oxygen, set free by heat, accumulates in the tube, and itself produces a pressure of 320 atmospheres. It is then cooled to 140° Cent. below zero by the following process: Liquid sulphurous acid is made to circulate around tubes containing liquefied carbonic acid, and this, in its turn, being reduced to an extremely low temperature, is made to circulate around the tube containing the oxygen. The circulation is effected by the aid of four pumps driven by a steamengine of 15 horse-power, and they are kept working for several hours. If, now, the orifice of the tube containing the oxygen be suddenly opened, its release determines the appearance both of the "mist" mentioned by Cailletet, and also the production of a certain quantity of liquid, which remains in the tube. Both Cailletet and Pictet have since succeeded in liquefying all of the so-called "permanent gases." The subjoined woodcuts illustrate the respective apparatus and modus operandi both of Pictet and of Cailletet. In Pictet's apparatus (Figs. 1 and 2) are two pairs of compound ex duced through the funnel G, the lower orifice of which is opened and closed by a screw A piston, worked by the small wheel 0. worked by the large wheel, compresses the water in the cylinder. The water in the cylin 89 FIG. 3.-CAILLETET'S LARGE APPARATUS FOR LIQUEFYING GASES. A, Screw-press for compression; m, flint-glass cylinder inclosing the glass tube in which the gas is liquefied. 66 that Marignac mus meninm. This is st rest from the method the crystallizing out th fuoride, Marignac eva ed, obtaining a nearly sim fuoride, from w s metal Hermann's pape Ent of his methods o lk of this group, and des suwunds of Silver Salts.-I fs researches on the sen American Journal of M. Carey Lea reco which salts of silver may es to light, viz.: they m rtning: or they may rec and this may have a capac d visible either by receivin der passes through capillary metallic tubes to past year, is Neptunium, found by Hermann in After having obtained these results, at a session of the Academy on December 31st, M. Cailletet announced that he had won a complete victory over the other permanent gases. M. Dumas informed the members present at the session that the able experimenter had succeeded in liquefying nitrogen, atmospheric air, even hydrogen itself, which would seem to have been the most refractory gas of them all. An ver, or by decomposit nection with reducing these two last-menti previously present; i is produced entirely by whatever is added, but t ce which received the d dergoes decomposition atment. In both cases set up by the action o ated upon by light becom apt to attract a precip nation; in the other ca adly attacked by certai Now, while the silver hibit the greatest tender Images by the action of li mide, and chloride, Mr. The New Metals Davyum and Neptunium.- the insolubility of the sodium double fluoride, the same tendency is share M. Sergius Kern, of St. Petersburg, discovered, toward the middle of the year 1877, a new metal belonging to the platinum group, to which he gave the name of Davyum, in honor of Sir Humphry Davy. Dissolved in aqua regia, and treated with potassa, davyun yields a yellow precipitate, hydrate of davyum. Chloride of davyum, dissolved in a solution of potassic cyanide, yields, in crystals, a double cyanide of davyum and potassium. A concentrated solution of davyum chloride, with po and from tantalic acid by the ready solubility re, by other compounds, ages formed upon them m the above-mentioned s experiments, the auth lts of acids capable of fo early insoluble salts with le impregnated the sur ner. After drying, the p na solution of silver nitr 20 grains to the ounce tassic sulphocyanide, gives a red precipitate, tunic acid. Boiled with tin and hydrochloric a drop of nitric acid (spe the ounce of solution. T re having been worked were then simply dried, Peaked about a minute in f gallo-tanic acid, and t The salts thus formed on the a strong diffuse light, 13 seconds. They were the action of a very we , ammonium carbonate ide, the latter being use of the action of the o acid, neptunic acid gives, like columbic and ilmenic acids, a blue solution. From the pure crystallized double potassium fluoride, the atomic weight of neptunium was fixed as 118, its atomic volume as 18, and its specific gravity as 6.55. The formula of the acid is Np.01, (H2O)15. The sodium salt crystallizes in prisms. The author prepared metallic columbium and ilmenium in the pure form, and determined the amount of oxygen taken up by these metals on heating them in the air. Columbium required 20.49 and ilmenium 37.96 of oxygen; the amount obtained by Rose being 20.60, and by Marignac 38.00. Rose, therefore, it is clear, had pure columbium; while it is equally clear, according which, on being slowly cooled, yields large red crystals; if this precipitate be calcined, the sulphocyanureted davyum assumes the form of black powder. Davyum chloride forms double salts with chlorides of potassium and ammonium; these are insoluble in water, but highly soluble in absolute alcohol. The double salt of sodium and davyum is nearly insoluble in water and alcohol. Three experiments made to determine the density of davyum yielded, at temperature 24° Cent., these results, namely: 9.383, 9.387, 9.392. The author is of the opinion that the atomic weight of davyum is over 100-probably about 150 to 154. Another new metal, discovered during the Ss were as follows: ate and tartrate both gave The citrate showed a strong dion. Nothing of this Le tartrate. to Hermann, that Marignac must have had nearly pure ilmenium. This is stated to be a necessary result from the method of preparation. After crystallizing out the tantalumpotassium fluoride, Marignac evaporated and recrystallized, obtaining a nearly pure ilmenium-potassium fluoride, from which he prepared his metal. Hermann's paper concludes with an account of his methods of separating the metals of this group, and descriptions of their compounds. Sensitiveness of Silver Salts.-In continuation of his researches on the sensitiveness of silver salts (American Journal of Science and Arts, No. lxxvii.), M. Carey Lea recognizes three modes in which salts of silver may exhibit their sensitiveness to light, viz.: they may exhibit a visible darkening; or they may receive a latent image, and this may have a capacity of being rendered visible either by receiving a deposit of metallic silver, or by decomposition by alkalies in connection with reducing agents. In the former of these two last-mentioned modes, the image is produced entirely by the addition of silver not previously present; in the latter, no silver whatever is added, but that portion of substance which received the direct action of light undergoes decomposition by subse quent treatment. In both cases molecular change is set up by the action of light: the portions acted upon by light become, in the one case, more apt to attract a precipitate in the act of formation; in the other case they are more readily attacked by certain reducing agents. Now, while the silver compounds which exhibit the greatest tendency to form latent images by the action of light are the iodide, bromide, and chloride, Mr. Carey Lea finds that the same tendency is shared, though to a less degree, by other compounds, and that the latent images formed upon them may belong to either of the above-mentioned classes. In making his experiments, the author selected soluble salts of acids capable of forming insoluble or nearly insoluble salts with silver, and with them he impregnated the surface of very pure paper. After drying, the papers were floated on a solution of silver nitrate containing about 20 grains to the ounce, acidulated with half a drop of nitric acid (specific gravity 1.28), to the ounce of solution. The excess of silver nitrate having been worked out, one set of papers were then simply dried, and another set were soaked about a minute in a 10-grain solution of gallo-tanic acid, and then washed again. The salts thus formed on the paper were exposed to a strong diffuse light, some for 7, some for 12 seconds. They were next submitted to the action of a very weak solution of pyrogallol, ammonium carbonate, and potassium bromide, the latter being used to check the rapidity of the action of the other agents. The results were as follows: Silver citrate and tartrate both gave rather weak images. The citrate showed a strong tendency to irregular reduction. Nothing of this appeared in the case of the tartrate. separately investigated with every one of the As respects the action of tannin, which was above salts, it appeared that no substance insensitive in the absence of tannin acquired sensitiveness by its presence. It was also doubtful if in any case tannin increased the sensitiveness of any of these substances-a fact which, in view of the increased sensitiveness conferred by tannin on the silver baloids, is remarkable. New Acids.-A new acid of phosphorus and oxygen, standing between phosphorous and Salzer, of Worms. According to the old notaphosphoric acid, has been discovered by Th. tion, this acid, which has been named hypophosphoric acid, consists of 1 atom of phosphorus and 4 atoms of oxygen. It forms a rather insoluble salt. Salzer finds that the acide phosphatique of Pelletier is a mixture of phosphorous and hypophosphoric acids. C. Stahlschmidt has discovered a new organic acid, polyporic, occurring in certain fungi of the family polyporus, which grow on the stems of diseased or dead oaks. The empirical formula is C,H,O,. This acid has a yellow color, and is so completely insoluble in water that the slightest trace of a soluble polythe addition of salt or of sulphuric acid. In porate in water renders the liquid turbid on virtue of this property the soluble polypothe turbidity serving instead of the usual change rates may act as indicators in alkalimetry, of color. With all bases it forms well-defined salts, of which the soluble ones, those of the alkalies, form deep-purple solutions. On heatcombustion-tube along with zinc-powder, bening polyporate of potassium to redness in a its conversion into nitro-benzol. zol was obtained, which was identified by In a paper on the "Chemistry of Cocoa Butter," Mr. C. T. Kingzett described two new |