a good reading glass or other appliance. Remelt the naphthalene as above and dissolve in it exactly 0.5 g. of flowers of sulfur. Determine the point of solidification of this solution as above. To determine the molecular weight of sulfur from the data obtained, divide the number of degrees the freezing point was lowered by 100 (to find the number of degrees 1 g. sulfur in 1000 g. solvent would lower the freezing point) and divide the figure thus obtained into 7.1 (the molecular freezing point lowering for naphthalene). The results will only be approximate with the crude apparatus used, but if the experiment was carried out as accurately as possible, the figure obtained should fall between 254 and 263. These figures are approximately 8 times the atomic weight of sulfur, 32.064, thus showing that the molecule contains S atoms a t the temperature a t which naphthalene melts. The above method can be used for determining the molecular weight of any substance for which a suitable solvent can be found. The molecular lowering is, however, different for each solvent.
Drug, Peyote, Haled into French Court. Thc Tribunal of the Seine has been requested to place a ban on the sale of peyote, a drug obtained from the Mexican cactus, known by the same name t o the Indians, but labelled Eckinocatus willemsii by botanists. This species of cactus, scarcely larger than a man's hand, is cultivated in the mountains inhabited by the Huichoiz Indians and until recently was scarcely known to drug peddlers. Recently, two Bordeaux merchants began the exploitation of peyote in Paris. The novelty of it, its sacred character t o the Indians, the apparent lack of aftereffects and the fact that doctors consider it as non-habit forming. .created a brisk trade. I t produces a state of ecstasy unequaled by any other known drug in intensity and differs from them in that i t creates a kind of visual intoxication which the Indians call miraculous. In his delirium the subject "sees visions." The Tribunal of the Seine has been petitioned by Doctors Rouhier and Perrot t o have the public sale of peyote outlawed. The sale of the drug has already been forbidden in the United States and Germany. -Science Senice Magnetism Tests Metals without Harming Them. Mametism, working.silently . without injuring metal, is a testing tool coming mom and more into industrial and rcsearch use, Raymond L. Sanford, chief of thr magnetic section of the U. S. Bureau of Standards, recently told the American Institute of Electrical Engineen. Case-hardened chain, heat-treated forgings, and steam turbine bucket wheels are among the products now given a routine magnetic analysis t o detect flaws and insure quality. I n exploring the qualities produced by new steel treatments, in determining the changes that take place during the cooling or heating of a ferrous alloy, magnetic analysis is used by scientists investigating the properties of materials. Inspection of welds is facilitated by magnetic methods. Since welding is coming into larger industrial use, the magnetic test will facilitate the control of this modern method of joining metals together.-Science Service
