the life-long friend of Graham, had consented to preside on the occasion; he therefore vacated the chair in favour of Mr. YOUNG, who briefly introduced the Lecturer.

{CHEMICAL NEWS!

February 7, 1879.

to the Lecturer, called attention to a diagram on the wall recording the rates of passage of gases by diffusion, effusion, transpiration, and by the peculiar passage through such "colloid septa as non-crystalline metals or indiarubber; and he stated that before Graham's time these valuable physical constants were absolutely unknown. They had listened with inuch interest to the connection which had been traced between Graham's law of diffusion and the science of molecular physics, as well as to the account of Graham's work generally, so carefully set before them by Graham's pupil and friend.

PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES.

SOCIETY.

Ordinary Meeting, December 24, 1878.

J. P. JOULE, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., &c., President, in the Chair.

Note on the Intensity of Moonlight," by HARRY GRIM-
SHAW, F.C.S.

At the meeting of this Society held on the 26th of November, 1878, some remarks were made upon the relative intensity of moonlight, daylight during a thick fog, and the diffused light of the electric arc.

The opinion was then expressed by some members that it was very doubtful whether it was possible to read printed type of anything like a small size by the brightest moonlight in this country.

Mr. ROBERTS briefly traced the influence of Black and Thomson in turning the attention of Graham to the study of molecular physics, to which he patiently devoted his life. In connection with the law of diffusion of gases, the Lecturer claimed that Priestley made in 1799 an observation on the escape of hydrogen from a cracked jar. The subsequent and independent discovery of this phenomenon by Doebereiner in 1823 has hitherto been considered the starting-point of the experimental study of gaseous diffusion, to which it undoubtedly attracted Graham's attention. After a brief notice of the influence of Eastern and Greek thought on the study of molecular movement, allusion was made to Sir Christopher Wren's model representing the effects of all sorts of impulses MANCHESTER LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL that result from the impact of hard globulous bodies, which, according to Dr. Sprat (historian of the Royal Society), he proposed as the principles of all demonstrations in natural philosophy, it being considered "that generation, corruption, and all the vicissitudes of nature are nothing else but the effects arising from the meeting of little bodies, of different figures, magnitudes, and velocities." Herapath's revival of Bernoulli's view as to the movement of gaseous particles was considered, and Mr. Roberts then described in detail the experiments that enabled Graham to establish the law of the diffusion of gases, and he illustrated experimentally the passage of gases through porous bodies, such as unglazed earthenware and artificial graphite, as well as through a layer of the hard translucent variety of opal known as hydrophane. The mode in which Graham studied the diffusion of the momentum of gases, by observations on viscosity as indicated by rates of flow through capillary tubes, was then described. It was pointed out that his law of diffusion forms the basis of the science of molecular mechanics, and his measurements of the rates of diffusion prove to be the measure of molecular velocities which have been so profoundly investigated mathematically by Clerk-Maxwell, Clausius, and Boltzmann, and experimentally by Loschmidt in developing the dynamical theory of gases. Mr. Roberts then considered the passage of gases through colloid or jelly-like bodies which have no sensible pores, dwelling more especially on the separation of oxygen from air by the transmission of air through a thin film of india-rubber, a circumstance of special interest from a physiological point of view. The liquefaction of gases formed The subject of one of Graham's earliest papeis in 1826, and it occupied his attention at intervals during his life. He held the view that hydrogen when absorbed by palladium is reduced to the metallic form, a supposition which has received strong confirmation from the success that has attended M. Raoul Pictet's efforts to solidify this gas; and that distinguished physicist stated in a letter to Mr. Roberts that it is probable Graham's indication of the density of solid hydrogen will prove to be nearly correct. Allusion was then made to Graham's opinion that the various kinds of matter now recognised as different elementary substances may possess one and the same ultimate or atomic molecule existing in different conditions of movement, the varying degrees of rapidity of this movement constituting, in fact, the difference between the elementary bodies. In other words, if the molecular energy of a so-called element could be changed, the element would be dissociated, a view of special interest in relation to the researches of Lockyer. The lecture was illustrated by many effective experiments, and concluded with the statement that it had not been instituted from the merely special interest of Graham's researches to the physicist and chemist, but in honour of the labours of a life, the memory of which will be as enduring as its work, and to stimulate others to investigate as patiently and earnestly the varied phenomena whose basis is "Molecular Mobility."

Sir WILLIAM THOMSON, in proposing a vote of thanks

The light of the moon on the 8th of December being of considerable intensity, I took the opportunity of making the experiment, which I have previously, at different times, performed more roughly, with sufficient accuracy to form some standard of comparison. The result was that I found it possible to read with certainty a still smaller type than I had previously known it possible to peruse. The types on which I experimented were those of a newspaper, and known technically by the printers as "minion," "bourgeois," and "nonpareil." These are all smaller than the letters of the Proceedings of the Society, which I believe is called “small pica." The first two are what are ordinarily used for such printing at that of newspapers and the cheaper periodicals, whilst the last ("nonpareil ") is a very small letter indeed. The last paragraph of this note is printed in the type in question. The printed matter in the "minion" and "bourgeois" letter was read with comparative ease; the "nonpareil" had to be perused slowly, but could be made out with certainty,

The time at which the above experiment was performed was 8.15 p.m., and the evening of course bright and cloudless. The moon was full at 7.49 p.m. the following evening. The observers were three in num. ber, who all succeeded in reading the three types, and it should perhaps be added, as a quantity affecting the results, that the “eyes” were all comparatively young, being under the age of thirty.

CORRESPONDENCE.

WATER ANALYSIS.

To the Editor of the Chemical News. SIE,—I have perused with much interest Dr. Tidy's valuable paper on "Water Analysis," published in the January number of the Journal of the Chemical Society, and am of opinion that he has done good service in drawing attention to the most accurate methods to be adopted in the examination of waters, more especially to the employment of the two-foot tube and the action of permanganate during the first hour.

The point which still remains to be discovered, however is where to draw the line; this is the main question, and

NEWS

The question was not to open a polemic on a train of research interrupted by the death of its author, but to preserve the trace of it in science. As to M. Pasteur's theory that certain organisms derive combined oxygen from sugar instead of free oxygen from the atmosphere the burden of proof rests with him and not with dissidents. Formation of Organic Ultramarines.-M. de Forcrand. The author concluded that it might be possible to obtain organic ultramarines by heating silver ultramarine

is by no means decided by any paper on water analysis | contain merely the beginnings of a series of experiments yet published. For years past our text-books, both English and foreign, have stated that when the total impurities of a sample of water reach beyond a certain figure the water is to be condemned. But this is a mere assertion which has been copied from one book into another for the last thirty years or more. The fact is, we possess at present no positive data whereby to condemn a sample of drinking-water, and cannot possess such data until physio: logical experiments have been made to prove when and why a given kind of water is bad or good. In most cases it is not difficult to prove a water good for drinking, but quite the reverse to establish that it is injurious to health or unwholesome, unless it be very bad indeed.

What the chemist requires is to be able to state with certainty that a water which discolours so much permanganate in an hour is unwholesome. How much permanganate of a given strength may a water discolour and yet be good for drinking? That is a point of the utmost importance, which Dr. Tidy's laborious and interesting investigations have not solved any more than his predecessors' in the same branch of research have done. Of the hundreds of analyses which pass through my hands every year there are none which give me so much trouble and anxiety (I can use no other word) than drinking-waters. Let us suppose that the ingredients of a well-water consist of carbonate of lime, 25 grains; sulphate of lime, 18 grs.; nitrates and chlorides of magnesium, calcium, and sodium, 20 grs; organic matter, 7 grs.; total, 70 grs,; and that the microscope shows neither microphytes nor animalculi in the water or slight deposit it may leave on standing; that the 7 grains of organic matter consist almost entirely of crenate of ammonia which can be separated by alcohol. Is such a water unwholesome to drink? If so, why? Now let us suppose that these 7 grains of organic matter are some putrescent matter in a state of decomposition. Would the water then be injurious to health? I must confess that we have no positive answer to this important question. (And 7 grains of organic matter is more than is present in the great majority of waters used for drinking.)

with the chlorides or iodides of the alcoholic radicles He caused an excess of hydriodic ether to react upon silver ultramarine for fifty to sixty hours at 180° in a closed vessel, and obtained thus an ethyl-ultramarine in the form of a grey powder.

Separation of Ethyl-amines.-E. Duvillier and A. Buisine.-By the process which the authors have adopted they succeed in separating di-ethyl-amin as a perfectly crystalline body. The methyl-amins appear to act in the same manner.

No. 2, January 13, 1879.

Researches on Ozone and the Electric Effluve.M. Berthelot.-Hydrogen and oxygen mixed in the proportions of two vols. of the former to one of the latter, do not combine under the influence of the effluve, whether in sealed concentric glass tubes or in a tube surrounded with a lamellar spiral of platinum and placed over mercury. The tension of these experiments was about equal to that which gives sparks of 7 to 8 centimetres in length through air when operating with an induction coil fitted with condensers. Doubtless on increasing the tensions progressively nearly up to those which produce disruptive discharges water would be formed. But it is important to show that this formation does not ensue with tensions such as the above and in conditions where a very notable quantity of ozone is produced. The resistance of hydrogen to combination under these circumstances is so much the more remarkable as the conditions are precisely those in which oxygen combines with metals, with sulphurous and arsenious acids, iodine, and even with nitrogen. Vapour of water is not decomposed by the effluve in these conditions, and oxygen does not combine with water to form pro-hydrogen peroxide. On the other hand, carbonic oxide and oxygen combine under the influence of similar electric tensions, though even in presence of an excess of oxygen a portion of carbonic oxide remains uncombined. Reciprocally it does not prevent the incipient decomposition of carbonic acid, and in a mixture of equal volumes of carbonic acid and oxygen after twelve hours 5 per cent of the gas was decomposed into carbonic oxide and oxygen. This oxygen contained a very strong proportion of ozone or of percarbonic acid. The decomposition of pure carbonic acid by the effluve, effected in a space free from mercury and from oxidisable bodies, gives rise to special phenomena very worthy of interest, as they lead us to suspect the existence of percarbonic acid. The gas formed attacked mercury with extreme violence. It may be considered either as oxygen very rich in ozone or as containing a strong dose of percarbonic acid, C206.

The thing to be determined is, as I said before, where
to draw the line. On what authority are we to condemn
a water as unfit for drinking? Perhaps the permanganate
solution as used by Dr. Tidy may help to solve the
blem. The questions which require to be solved are
apparently very sinple:-

(1.) How much organic matter in a putrescent state
(i.e., how much permanganate in the hour) may be
tolerated in a specimen of water before that water
is condemned as unfit for drinking?
(2.) How much nitrates and chlorides may be present
in a gallon of water before this water is pro-
nounced unwholesome ?

These questions cannot be answered by mere supposition or conjecture.

Let me recommend these points to medical men who are devoting themselves to the examination of drinkingwater. I am, &c.,

T. L. PHIPSON, Ph.D., F.C.S., &c.
Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry,
Putney, London, S.W.
February, 1879.

Formation of Ethers of Hydraeids in the Gaseous State.-M. Berthelot.-The author gives some new determinations to permit the calculation of the heat

CHEMICAL NOTICES FROM FOREIGN disengaged by the gaseous products of the union of the

SOURCES.

NOTE.-All degrees of temperature are Centigrade, unless otherwis others Exclusively Anærobian? Are all these expressed.

Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances, l'Académie de

des Sciences. No. 1, January 6, 1879. Reply to M. Pasteur.-M. Berthelot.-The_author points out that the posthumous papers of Claude Bernard

carbides of hydrogen with the halogens and the hydracids. Are three among the Lower Species with which we are Occupied Species Exclusively Erobian and Beings to be Ranked in Two Classes, or in Three as M. Pasteur has Successively Admitted, or in One, as I have Recently Indicated ?-M. Trecul.-The author concludes that organised ferments are merely particular conditions of species more or less complicated, which are modified according to the media they inhabit.

Chemical Notices from Foreign Sources.

The Royal Institution of Great Britain.-At the General Monthly Meeting held on Monday, February 3, 1879, Warren De la Rue, D.C.L., F.R.S., was elected Secretary of the Royal Institution, and William Spottis woode, D.C.L., Pres. R.S., wis elected Manager.

Ammonia Tables.-Can you inform us if there are any tables

published of liquor ammonia strengths, taking into consideration the
different temperatures as well as the specific gravity? For instance,
if liq. am. is o'895 at 35° F. what sp. gr. will it be at 60° F., and vice
versa?
We find that all the tables in Watts, Ure, and Miller always
suppose the temperature to be 60°, but as we bottle at all temperatures
it would assist us if we had a table that could be relied upon.-
W.R.E.

pounded, and again reconstructing the original metal

THE CHEMICAL NEWS. from these materials. Still less has he realised the dream

VOL. XXXIX. No. 1003.

THE DISSOCIATION OF THE ELEMENTS.

of the alchemists by transmuting one metal into another. But if we are on this account to refuse to his hypothesis that fair examination to which it is so well entitled, we are establishing a dangerous precedent, and incurring the charge of gross inconsistency. Who, for instance, has seen and handled an atom, or even a molecule? Yet we admit the existence of such portions of matter, we ascribe to them certain properties, and we even speculate on their relative positions in complex bodies, because by so doing we can, to the best of our knowledge, most satisfactorily explain certain phenomena. This is precisely the evidence in favour of the undulatory theory of light or of the kinetic theory of gases. They are accepted as best accounting for the facts of the respective cases. Just so with Mr. Lockyer's hypothesis of the dissociation of the elements; it explains, with a completeness hitherto unattained, a number of difficulties in solar and stellar physics. If we admit that "the solar phenomena in their totality are due to dissociation at the photospheric level, and re-association at higher levels," we can then understand the ascending and descending vertical currents in the solar atmosphere, the absorption in sun-spots, and their association with the faculæ, as well as the seem

IT has fallen to the lot of modern chemists to witness a discovery in their science which, if duly verified, must be pronounced of importance almost beyond parallel. The formation of endless compounds, the speculations on their "constitution," the synthesis of organic bodies, the detection of new metals,-all, in short, that can be done with or deduced from the isolation and combination, the arrangement and re-arrangement of the so-called elements, falls into a secondary position in comparison with the complete reversal of our accepted notions concerning those elements themselves. It is therefore incumbent upon us all to rise to the level of the occasion. We must neither, in view of the dazzling prospect thrown open before us, give too free rein to the "scientific imagination," nor should we carry scepticism further than candour sanc-ingly continuous spectrum of the corona and its peculiar tions and than the interests of Science require.

It can scarcely be denied that some among us have sinned in both these directions.

In considering the evidence laid before us in support of the decomposition of our present elements, we must remember that the discovery does not break upon us unannounced and unprepared. Whoever has heedfully dwelt on the philosophy of chemistry must admit that, as research has been pushed further and further, the primary and indecomposable character of those sixty odd bodies which we have been taught to call simple has been rendered more and more doubtful. If we consider their comparative properties we find groups which present such features as might be expected from a compound formed by some body, x, with successively increasing proportions of another, y. But we should be compelled almost to write the history of chemistry from the beginning of the present century were we to enumerate all the phenomena and all the considerations which caution us against ascribing to the "elements" more than a merely provisional character. As Mr. Lockyer judiciously points out, with the application of increasing temperatures we have increasing dissociation, and on the faith of the principle of continuity we may expect that still higher temperatures will act in the same direction as lower ones have already done. The only reply is, that hitherto we have had no satisfactory proof that this has been done in any one instance. This difficulty Mr. Lockyer's recent researches seem to have overcome. It is a matter of some importance to note that these researches were not undertaken in the hope of decomposing the elements. The object in view was a knowledge of the chemical nature of the sun, in pursuit of which the observer was compelled to form his present conclusions. It will not be necessary or us to recapitulate the evidence which has been given in detail in the CHEMICAL NEWS for January 3rd and 10th of the present year. We will .erely cite the experimental conclusions that "the common lines visible in the spectra of different elements at high identical temperatures point to a common origin, and that the different lines visible in the spectra of the same substance at high and low temperatures prove that at the former dissociation goes on as continuously as a. all 'ower temperatures."

All this, however, it ay be objected, is not direct experimental evidence, analytic and synthetic, such as chemists are able to produce in favour of the compound nature of water. Mr. Lockyer has not, e. g., taken a gramme of copper and decomposed it, exhibiting, in a state of isolation and in due proportion, each of the various more elementary elements of which it is com

structure, the excess of supposed calcium in connection with minimum sun-spots, and, contrarywise, the connection between an excess of so-called hydrogen with a maximum of sun-spots.

Even at present, therefore, until some fact is shown to be irreconcilable with Mr. Lockyer's views, we consider ourselves perfectly justified in giving them our provisional adhesion, as a working hypothesis to be constantly tested by reference to observed phenomena.

As regards what may be called laboratory verification, there is a difficulty in the way which at first sight may seem insurmountable.

Let us suppose that we have volatilised and dissociated an element, say copper, and that we have, floating in the voltaic arc or in any other region of intense artificial heat, the vapours of its unknown constituents, which we may call x and y. The problem is to withdraw these vapours from the arc and from each other without allowing them the opportunity of re-associating and so re-constituting the original copper. If we allow the temperature to decline, this result must, it should appear. inevitably follow. suppose we volatilise and dissociate two or more elements together; is it not at least conceivable that on re-association they might form new combinations? Thus, suppose we have a vapour mixture of—

But

Is it not possible that x might combine not with y but with y' or y", forming bodies which it would be easy to distinguish from the alloys and other compounds of our reputed elements. It will be of course desirable to submit all our simple bodies to degrees of heat higher if possible than have ever been attained before and under every conceivable modification of circumstances. Above all, spectroscopic research will have to be instituted and scrutinised from this novel point of view. Perhaps by some of these methods we may succeed in penetrating to a deeper, a more fundamental series of elements to which our present supposed simple bodies stand in the relation of mere compourds, and of scrutinising their relations and studying their combinations.

But even if it is not given to man to advance farther than a mere knowledge that our present elements are not ultimate and primary species of matter-and this is all to which Mr. Lockyer, so far, lays claim it is scarcely possible to over-rate the value of the discovery. Our views of the constitution of the universe are rendered far grander and broader. The atom instead of being, as was

--

66

New Method of Determining Vapour-Densities.

recently thought, a "manufactured article " alike throughout the universe and incapable of change is now seen to depend for its nature and very existence upon the thermic condition of its medium. The elements of the planet are decomposed in the sun to a degree dependent upon its temperature. And perhaps the bodies which there resist all further change, and would to a rational being capable of inhabiting our central orb appear as simple, may be decomposed in hotter stars, or in that great body round which, as some astromomers tell us, all the heavenly bodies are describing a revolution. On the other hand, in planets colder than our earth bodies which we are capable of resolving into components might prove apparently elementary. The "elements" in each planet, comet, and sun are therefore the result of a process not altogether heterologous to the " struggle for existence "which elimimates from our earth all organic forms not in harmony with its general conditions; and from this point of view Mr. Lockyer may be saluted as the Darwin of the inorganic world.

(CHMMICAL NEWS, 1 February, 14, 1879.

b (Fig. 1) is the specific gravity vessel of glass, containing 100 c c., and about 200 m.m. high as regards the cylindrical lower part. The stem above is about 600 m.m. high. d is a caoutchouc stopper closing and fitting well above. a is a narrow, almost capillary, evolution-tube, through which the air escapes in the process, and bubbles up into the graduated tube, e, filled with water, and standing in the little pneumatic trough of glass, f, over water. At the lower part of the apparatus, which must be perfectly clean and dry to begin with, a little asbestos is placed to break the fall of the little glass tube, g, with weighed subs.ance, which at the proper time is dropped in at d. The bath of glass, c, for bodies boiling up to 300°, may be furnished with water, xylen, aniline, ethyl benzoate, amyl benzoate, diphenylamin, according to the boiling-point of the

or

A NEW TEST FOR COBALT.
By T. TATTERSALL.

If a solution of a cobalt salt be mixed with cyanide of potassium, a cinnamon-coloured precipitate takes place, the precipitate, as is well known, being soluble in a slight excess of the reagent to a clear yellow liquid. But if now a few drops of yellow ammonium sulphide be added, a blood-red colour is obtained, even in presence of nickel salt, or any soluble cyanide except the copper compound, which completely prevents the reaction. Colourless ammonium sulphide will not produce the red colour. It may also be obtained, though not with the same degree of delicacy, by using Na2SO3 or SnCl2.

Hayfield Printing Co., Hayfield.

(f)

Asbestos

VICTOR MEYER'S NEW METHOD OF
DETERMINING VAPOUR-DENSITIES.

By WATSON SMITH, F.C.S, F.I.C.

I HAD been for some time looking out wistfully for a truly reliable and accurate method, and one not possessing too much intricacy and risks of failure, for the determination of the vapour-densities of the highest boiling hydrocarbons, wherewith I should be able to settle once for all any possible question as to the molecular integrity of the bodies I had considered to be isomeric dinaphthyls. This want has just recently been supplied in the most complete manner, and the point mentioned quite settled, by means of a method so simple, universally applicable, easy and rapid of execution, and withal accurate, that it deserves a foremost place amongst scientific methods. Especially for the worker in the fields of original research will this method indeed be a great boon, and, in fact, amongst inethods of its kind, will no doubt take the very first place. Prof. Victor Meyer, of Zürich, has for some time been work ng upon and perfecting methods of vapour-density determination. The present method is the improved form of one described in the Deut. Chem. Ges. Ber., xi., 1867, and is described by V. Meyer and Carl Meyer in the Deut. Chem. Ges. Ber., xi., 2253 (i.e., the last issue). I have been astonished with the accuracy of the results this method yields, considering the celerity and ease of the determination, and I thought it would be doing good service to help to spread the news of the discovery of a method of vapour. density determination scarcely requiring more time or trouble than the determination of a melting- or boilingpoint. With this method the temperature of the bath and the size and contents of the vessel employed do not need to be considered in the calculation.

substance determined. And these bodies do not need
be pure. It is only requisite, in short, to know that the
bath furnishes a uniform and constant temperature suffi-
cient easily to vapourise the substance. The substance
is weighed out in a little tube, open at one end, and the
amount taken should be such that its vapour will occupy
somewhat less than half the volume of the cylindrical
part of the apparatus, b (fig. 1.) The glass bath, c, is
placed on wire gauze and heated with a Bunsen's burner.
If the substance boil over 300°, then the lead bath (fig. 2)
is used. This is merely an iron tube, mounted on three
legs. Pieces of lead are thrown in and melted by the
heat of a large Bunsen's burner with fifteen jets. To
prevent the glass cylinder from touching the iron sides of
the tube it is enclosed in a sort of wire cage, as in fig. 2
(s.) The apparatus must be cautiously and gradually
introduced into the lead bath, else it is cracked or broken.
When the lead bath is employed the requisite tempera-
ture for vapourising the substance is ascertained simply
by placing a little of the substance in a narrow test-
tube, and dipping this under the surface of the molten
lead, and both observing and applying the ear and listen-