ceeding about two miles farther out, off No-mans-land, the surface temperature was 62°, and the bottom, in 18 fathoms, was 584°, showing a decrease of 5° within this short distance, both at the surface and bottom. A few miles farther out, at the same depth, the bottom temperature was 57°, which was the lowest temperature obtained. A short distance west of No-mansland, on a gravelly bottom in 11 fathoms, where cod-fish are caught in winter, the temperature was 63° at the surface and 59° at the bottom. Off the mouth of Narragansett Bay, about sixteen miles south from Newport, the depth over a limited area is 29 fathoms, which was the deepest water found. At this locality the surface temperature was 62° and the bottom 59°. The bottom, in these deeper waters, was generally composed of soft mud, filled with innumerable tubes of worms and Amphipod crustacea, among which a species of Ampelisca, which makes a soft flabby tube, two or three inches long and covered with mud, is extremely abundant. At the last named locality numerous specimens of the rare and beautiful Epizoanthus Americanus V. was found coating the shells inhabited by hermit-crabs (Eupagurus Bernhardus) and finally absorbing the shells entirely. This remarkable Actinian has been found previously only on two occasions,-first on a deep bank off the coast of New Jersey, by Capt. Gedney; and since in deep water off Massachusetts Bay. With this was also found a rare Holothurian (Molpadia oölitica), previously known only from specimens taken from fish stomachs.

The various muddy bottoms in the deeper and colder areas yielded nearly the same assemblages of animals, most of which are either strictly northern types, many of them not before observed so far south; or else species of wide range extending much farther north as well as south. Among those of special interest are the following: of RADIATA, Edwardsia farinacea V., previously known only from the Bay of Fundy, Thyonidium sp.; of MOLLUSCA, Molgula pilularis V. and Glandula mollis Stimp., both known before only from the Bay of Fundy, Cyprina Islandica, Cardita borealis, C. Novangliæ, Yoldia sapotilla, Y. limatula, Nucula proxima, N. delphinodonta, Cardium pinnulatum, Astarte quadrans, A. castanea, A. lutea (?) Perkins, Lyonsia hyalina, Anatina papyracea, Lucina filosa, Callista convexa, Crenella glandula, Modiolaria nigra, M. corrugata, Pecten tenuicostatus (young P. fuscus Lins.), Buccinum undulatum, Chrysodomus pygmaeus (large and abundant), Crucibulum striatum, Margarita obscura, Cylichna alba; of ANNELIDS, Clymene torquata Leidy, Ophelia simplex Leidy?, Trophonia sp., Sternaspis fossor, Aphrodite aculeata (large and common), Nephthys (large species), Sipunculus Bernhardus, and species of Nereis, Lumbriconereis, Aricia, etc.; of CRUSTACEA, species of Ampelisca (abundant),

=

Unciola irrorata, and several other Amphipods, Crangon vulgaris, Pandalus annulicornis. On sandy bottoms Echinarachnius parma was very abundant, as it was, also, everywhere in the sounds, for it is a widely diffused species, occurring as far south as Great Egg Harbor; Molgula arenata St. also occurred, with a few other species of interest. A large species of sandy For aminifera, often a quarter of an inch in diameter, was abundant. In the channel between Gay Head and No-mans land the bottom is gravelly and stony, and here some very interesting species were found; among the RADIATA were Alcyonium carneum Ag., Edwardsia (new species), Grammaria gracilis St., and many other hydroids, Cribrella sanguinolenta, Asterias vulgaris V, Ophiopholis aculeata Gray, Euryechinus Drobachiensis V.; of AsCIDIANS, Amouroucium pallidum V., Molgula papillosa V., Cynthia carnea V., C. hirsuta Binney, C. partita St., all northern species except the last; of shells many of the northern forms already named and some additional species; of CRUSTACEA, Eupagurus Bernhardus, Cancer borealis (thrown on shore and fragments dredged), C. irroratus, with numerous Amphipods.

The brief lists of species given above are quite sufficient to show the marked northern character of the fauna in the deeper waters of this region. Several of the northern shells enumerated above have also been dredged by Mr. Sanderson Smith in Gardiner's Bay, L. I., and some of them have long been known from Montauk Point. Mr. Linsley, in his catalogue of the shells of Connecticut,* also records many of the same northern species with a few additional ones, from Stonington. I have been informed by Mr. H. C. Trumbull, who collected the shells attributed to Stonington, that all these northern species were obtained by him from the stomachs of haddock, &c., which were taken within a few miles of Stonington. This would indicate that the northern cold current has a decided influence as far westward as that locality, beyond which its influence has not yet been traced.

SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

I. CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.

1. On nitrous and hyponitric acids.-HASENBACH has repeated the experiments of Nylander on the nature of the red vapors formed in the oxidation of arsenous by nitric acid. By condensing these vapors, Nylander obtained a blue liquid boiling at 13° C., which appeared to have the formula NO2, and therefore to be isomeric with hyponitric acid. Hasenbach employed an apparatus constructed entirely of glass, and dried the liquid product ob

*This Journal, I, vol. xlviii, 1845.

tained with calcined cupric sulphate. The deep blue liquid obtained began to boil at 2° C., giving off much nitric oxide; the thermometer then rose rapidly to 10° C.; between 10° and 13° but little nitric oxide was given off. Between 13° and 22° the temperature rose rapidly, and at 22° the remaining portion of liquid passed over with the brown-red color of hyponitric acid. As the author could obtain no liquid with a constant boiling point between 10° and 13°, this portion of liquid was analyzed and found to have nearly the composition of hyponitric acid, NO2. The vapor density of this liquid, 2.177, also corresponded with that of hyponitric acid, which is 2.061 as calculated from the formula. The vapor when passed through a heated tube became colorless, but the color appeared again in the colder portion of the tube. Further investigation proved that the compound boiling between 10° and 22° was a mixture of much hyponitric with a little nitrous acid. The general results of the author's investigation are as follows:

(1.) The assumption of Nylander that in the oxidation of arsenous by nitric acid, of density 1:33, an isomer of hyponitric acid is formed, is without foundation. In this case, according to the concentration of the nitric acid, either hyponitric acid, or a mixture of nitrous and hyponitric acid, is formed.

(2.) Hyponitric acid and nitric oxide unite at a high temperature to form nitrous acid, which may in this manner be prepared chemically pure.

(3.) Hyponitric acid and chlorine under the same circumstances unite to form chloronitric acid, NO,Cl.

2

(4.) Bromonitric acid, NO,B2, could not be obtained pure by this process, as the product is decomposed by boiling.

(5.) Iodine and hyponitric acid do not combine at a high temperature.

(6.) Cyanogen and hyponitric acid give, with the aid of heat, a highly explosive compound, perhaps cyanonitric acid, NO,Cy. (7.) Chlorine, bromine and cyanogen do not unite in the cold with hyponitric acid, or do so only to a very limited extent.

(8.) Nitrous acid and oxygen unite at ordinary temperatures to form hyponitric acid.

(9.) Sulphurous acid and carbonic oxide unite with hyponitric acid, even at a low temperature, to form compounds not further investigated.

All these facts speak in favor of the assumption that the moleN2; that of the vapor above No; 100°, on the contrary, NO,.-Journal für prakt. Chemie, Band iv, p. 1. (New Series.)

cule of fluid hyponitric acid is {

W. G.

2. New method of separating magnesia from potash and soda. SCHEERER separates the alkaline metals from magnesia in the following manner: The solution of the chlorides of the bases which may contain ammoniacal salts is to be evaporated, in a platinum vessel, not quite to dryness; a larger quantity of powdered ammonic oxalate is then to be stirred in, the whole heated to perfect AM. JOUR. SCI.-THIRD SERIES, VOL. II, No. 11.-Nov., 1871.

dryness, and finally gently ignited, care being taken to expose every portion of the saline mass to the same high temperature. The mass is then to be heated with water-heated to the boiling point and filtered. The magnesia remains on the filter as carbonate, while the alkalies are present in the filtrate as carbonates per- : fectly free from magnesia. The separation here depends, partly upon the formation of magnesic oxalate, which is decomposed by ignition into carbonate, partly upon the fact that the temperature at which ammonic oxalate is decomposed is higher than that at which ammonic carbonate is volatalized. The ammonic oxalate must of course be so pure as to leave no residue on ignition. In the presence of sulphuric acid the method is not applicable, probably because the ammonic sulphate is decomposed after the oxalate. -Journal für prakt. Chemie, B. iii, p. 476.

W. G.

3. On the methylation of the phenyl group in anilin.-BERTHELOT observed some years since that small quantities of ethylamin are formed by the action of alcohol upon ammonic chloride at a high temperature. The reaction, which in this case takes place with great difficulty, was employed by Bardes, chemical director of the anilin color factory of Poirrier and Chappat in Paris, for the production of methyl anilin, dimethyl anilin, ethyl anilin and diethyl anilin, methylic or ethylic alcohol and chlorhydrate of anilin being heated together. In this reaction, however, other products are formed at the same time with the salts above mentioned, and these have been examined by Hofmann and Martius, who operated upon very large quantities of material, repeating the process twice in succession upon the same material. The very beautiful and interesting results of this investigation are as follows: The methylation or ethylation takes place in two distinct phases, the first being the introduction of methyl or ethyl into the phenylammonia; the second, the replacement of the hydrogen of the phenyl itself by methyl or ethyl. So far as the final results are concerned, these reactions may be expressed by the equations:

It can, however, scarcely be doubted that methylic chloride and water are always formed first, and that methylic chloride is the true agent of substitution. In the basic oils submitted to examination, the authors discovered besides dimethyl anilin four other dime

thylated monamines-namely, dimethylated toluidin, xylidin, cumidin and cymidin; in symbols the compounds:

The terminal member of this group is still wanting, and would have the formula:

€(CH,)s N.
(CH3)2

The authors remark that the names selected do not necessarily imply that the compounds are identical with those already known, since they may be only isomeric with them. Thus the xylidin already known may not give by methylation with methylic iodide a dimethyl xylidin identical with the above, but only one isomeric with it. Thus we already know a solid and a fluid modification of toluidin. By treatment with methylic iodide, solid toluidin yielded a dimethyl base, which in many respects resembled that mentioned above, but which yet did not appear to be certainly identical with it, although the tertiary monamines derived from both bases appeared to exhibit no differences whatever. The authors promise a further investigation of the whole subject, and chemists will look with the greatest interest for their results.-Berichte der Deutschen Chem. Gesellschaft, Jahrgang iv, p. 742.

W. G.

4. On the derivatives of hydric phosphide which correspond to ethylamin and diethylamin.-A. W. HOFMANN has succeeded in obtaining phosphorus compounds corresponding to ethylamin and diethylamin. The process consists in digesting an alcoholic iodide with iodide of phosphonium and a metallic oxide. When, for instance, one part by weight of zinc-white, four of iodide of phosphonium, and four of iodide of ethyl, are digested together for six to eight hours, at a temperature not exceeding 150° C., a nearly white crystalline mass is obtained, which is chiefly the iodide of ethly phosphin, the reaction being expressed by the equation:

2€2H ̧I+2Ph ̧I+ZnO=2P(€2H ̧)H ̧I+ZnI2+OH2.

In this case, however, a certain quantity of diethyl phosphin is always formed, the reaction being expressed by the equation: 2¤ ̧H ̧I+PH ̧I+ZnO=P(€2H ̧)2H2I. ZnI2+OH„.

The tertiary and quaternary derivatives of phosphonium are not formed in this reaction. These, Hofmann had already shown, might be obtained by the action of the alcohols themselves on phosphonic iodide. The separation of the mono- and di- compounds