it with sulphuretted hydrogen. The author also obtaine another compound, baphinitone, C24H2606, which by the action of bromine yields a tribromo derivative, C24H23 Br306. The PRESIDENT having thanked Dr. E. J. Mills for communicating this paper to the Society, Dr. C. R. A. WRIGHT, gave a short abstract of Part I. of CaCO3 to be deducted from the total quantity, for his memoir on "The Alkaloids of the Aconites: on the Ca contained in Ca3P208 : I have calculated the amounts of various substances (CaH4P208, &c.) which correspond to found amounts of Mg2P207, and those which correspond to given amounts of P2O5; for in some cases it may be convenient to calculate out the P205 at once. I may mention that the "atomic weight" of calcium is taken as 40, and that of platinum as 1972. PtC142KCl is calculated into K2O and PtCl 2AmCl into Am2SO4. It will be seen that these tables are arranged in a similar manner to those given by Fresenius, for the calculation of various substances found, into their required results. PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. CHEMICAL SOCIETY. Professor ABEL, F.R.S., President, in the Chair. AFTER the names of the visitors had been announced, and the minutes of the previous meeting read and confirmed, the names of Messrs. Edward Horatio Walker Sweete and Channell Law were read for the third time. They were then ballotted for and duly elected. The first paper, "On Barwood," by the late Professor ANDERSON, was then read by the SECRETARY. On extracting barwood successively with ether and with alcohol, and evaporating the solution, a crystalline compound, baphnin, C24H2008, is obtained, together with amorphous substances of a red colour. When baphnin in alcoholic solution is treated with acetate of lead, a white precipitate of lead baphate is obtained, together with baphnitin, C24H2406, which remains in solution. A similar decomposition takes place on submitting baphnin to the action of a solution of potassic hydrate. Baphic acid, C24H22O10, may be obtained from the lead precipitate by decomposing Crystallisable Alkaloids contained in Aconitum Napellus." After referring to his preliminary notice on the subject (containing an account of pseudo-aconitine, C36H49NO11, the uncrystallisable alkaloid of A. ferox, which, however, yields well-defined crystallisable salts) he stated that very different results were obtained with A. Napellus. In one batch of 1 cwt. of roots, which were worked up, two alkaloids were found, one of which, existing in comparatively small quantity, readily crystallised from ether, whilst the other did not. The latter, however, yielded crystalline salts, which have a bitter taste, but do not produce the peculiar prickling of the tongue so characteristic of aconite roots. This base, which is comparatively inert, may be called picraconitine, C31H45NO1o. The crystalline base aconitine, C33H43NO12, which possesses high physiological activity, can only be obtained pure after repeated crystallisation, first in the free state, and then as a salt, finally liberating the base by ammonia or an alkaline carbonate. In a second quantity of 2 cwts. of the roots worked up to a condensed extract by Messrs. Hopkin and Williams according to Duquesnel's process, only one crystallisable alkaloid, aconitine, was found. The hydrochloride, hydrobromide, and gold salt of this base, all of which are crystalline, were prepared and carefully examined. The PRESIDENT thanked the author for this communication on a subject so important, both from a chemical and medical point of view, and hoped that he would soon lay before them the results of his experiments on the changes produced on the alkaloid by various reagents. Mr. DAVID HOWARD remarked that it was a point of peculiar interest to ascertain how far the difference in the alkaloids was due either to diversity of species or to diversity of growth, occasioned by difference of climate or soil. Mr. W. N. HARTLEY, Mr. C. E. GROVES, and Mr. W. H. PERKIN called the attention of the members to marked differences produced in plants from circumstances of climate, soil, season of collecting, &c., which had come within their personal experience. Mr. J. WILLIAMS said he had every reason to believe that the different batches of roots employed had grown wild in Switzerland, and were even from the same bale. He was of opinion that the different results obtained were due to alterations in the process. In the first extraction a stronger acid was used: it was heated for a longer time, and having been made much more dilute had to be concentrated more. It was not improbable that the picraconitine was really an alteration-product of the aconitine. Dr. WRIGHT replied that he had at first been inclined formed by the action of hydrochloric acid on the aconitine, to believe that picraconitine was an alteration-product but Mr. Groves, of Weymouth, on extracting different samples of the roots by the same process, had in one instance obtained picraconitine, whilst in others it was not found. It would be interesting to ascertain if any alkaloid could be obtained from the marc. It was possible that the aconite existed in the extract in the form of a compound similar to a glucoside. The next paper was by Mr. G. S. JOHNSON, "On Potassium Tri-iodide." This was obtained by dissolving iodine to saturation in an aqueous or alcoholic saturated solution of potassium iodide, and evaporating slowly over sulphuric acid. At first potassium iodide is deposited in cubes coloured by free iodine, but these, after some days, are succeeded by lustrous prismatic crystals of the tri-iodide KI3, resembling iodine in appearance. It is very deliquescent, and is decomposed by water with liberation of CHEMICAL NEWS,} Nov. 24, 1876. Action of Water and Saline Solutions upon Lead. odine, but may be crystallised from alcohol. Two fine specimens of the crystals were exhibited. The last communication was "On the Coal-Gas of the Metropolis," by Mr. T. S. D. HUMPIDGE. The gases examined were those of the Imperial, five of the Chartered, collected at different stations, and the cannel-gas supplied to the Houses of Parliament, all during the month of May, 1876. The illuminating power was taken, and the gases carefully analysed, determinations being made of the carbonic anhydride, oxygen, nitrogen, marsh-gas, carbonic oxide, and the hydrocarbons absorbed by sulphuric anhydride. From a comparison of the results with those obtained by Dr. Frankland in 1851 (twenty-five years ago), the author is of opinion that the gas now delivered in London is no better than it was then, and that the increase in the illuminating power announced from the various testing stations is to be attributed to improvements in the test-burner; a comparison of the present referees' testburner with that used prior to 1860 showing a difference of more than three candles. Dr. FRANKLAND remarked that it seemed rather a melancholy fact, that although Parliament had spent much time and trouble on the matter, and had raised the standard from 14 to 16 candles, yet substantially the gas was the same as in 1851, and we were actually no better off now than we were then. Mr. W. VALENTIN said most of the photometric observations had been made in the morning or in the afternoon, when the gas was perhaps not so good as it was in the evening, the time when the Act of Parliament provides that it should come up to the standard of 16 candles. Some, at all events, of the percentage of hydrocarbons was due to naphthalene, and not to olefines or benzene. This was a source of great inconvenience, by causing obstructions in the service-pipes, &c. PHYSICAL SOCIETY. 223 Professor G. C. FOSTER, F.R.S., President, in the Chair. THE following candidates were elected members of the Action of Films of Water under Various Conditions." Prof. SHELLEY exhibited some of Sir Joseph Whit- Dr. STONE then projected on to the screen the spectra produced by the diffraction gratings which he exhibited at the last meeting of the Society. When received on a screen at a distance of about 25 feet they showed bright bands in the red and violet after transmission through a strong solution of permanganate of potash. Mr. Clark has since ruled for him gratings on the backs of right-angled prisms, and Dr. Stone has cemented-by means of glycerin The lines were two thousand and three thousand to the or oil of cassia-gratings on glass and steel on such prisms. inch. In reply to a question by Mr. VERNON HARCOURT, Dr. FRANKLAND said that in his experiments he had found that for a given quantity of hydrocarbon vapour, diluted with a mixture of marsh-gas and hydrogen, the illuminating power was sensibly the same whether the diluent contained 60, 25, or only 15 per cent of marsh-gas, from which he concluded that marsh-gas was as much without illuminating power as hydrogen. There could be no doubt that benzene gave a very much higher illuminating power than hydrocarbons of the CnH2n and Cn H2n+2 series, but he could not understand Berthelot's statement that coal-gas owed its illuminating power chiefly to benzene. Although this might be true of the Paris gas, it certainly was not of the London gas. He might state that all the gases mentioned in his report in 1851 were collected in the MANCHESTER LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL daytime, and the photometric power determined in the day. On reference to Mr. Humpidge's results it would be seen that one of his determinations, made at 9.30 a.m., came fully up to the standard, as it was 16.3. He thought the most important point in the paper was that it showed that the apparent increase in illuminating power was really due to the improvement of the test-burner, which with the same gas gave a light of 16 candles instead of 13 as the old one did. Mr. WILLS said his experience did not bear out the statement that the gas was no better now than it was twenty-five years ago. He was in the habit of examining the gas made by several of the large companies. They now supplied a gas up to the standard of 16 candles in stead of 12 candles as in 1851. Of this increase only two candles was due to improvement in the burner, and not three as stated by Mr. Humpidge, leaving a clear gain of two candles. The PRESIDENT, after some remarks on the gas manufactured at Woolwich by the Government, adjourned the meeting until Thursday, December 7, when the following papers will be read :-(1) "Analysis of a Species of Erythrophyll," by Prof. Church; (2) "On Phenylendiamin," by Dr. Otto Witt: (3) "On Calcium Sulphate," by Mr. Hannay. SOCIETY. Ordinary Meeting, October 3rd, 1876. . REV. WILLIAM GASKELL, M.A., in the Chair. "On the Action of Water and Saline Solutious upon Lead," Part II., by M. M. PATTISON MUIR, F.R.S.E., Assistant Lecturer on Chemistry, Owens College. 1. I have already in several places* described the results of various series of experiments, undertaken with a view to arrive at definite measurements of the solvent action of dilute saline solution upon lead, and to ascertain the circumstances which condition this action. The general results of these experiments may be summed up briefly as follows: (1.) Nitrates cause water to exert a very marked solvent action upon lead. (2.) Carbonates, sulphates, and chlorides greatly diminish the solvent action of water upon lead. (3.) These three salts, along with nitrates, greatly denitrates when present alone. crease or even stop the solvent action exercised by the *Proc. Glasgow Phil. Soc., 1871-72, 184; Soc. Sci. Congress, 1874 Manchester Lit, and Phil. Soc., 1875-6, 35. 224 Action of Water and Saline Solutions upon Lead. (4.) The amount of lead increases with the length of time during which the water remains in contact with the lead. (5.) Water charged with carbon dioxide exercises no very marked solvent action upon lead, but when the water is charged with the gas under pressure the solvent action is very greatly increased. 2. These or similar general conclusions had been arrived at by previous experimenters; but I have been able to give a considerable series of actual measurements of the amount of action exercised by the various solutions upon given surfaces of lead under stated conditions. 3. In carrying out the experiments alluded to above I was often struck by apparent discrepancies in the results A.-EXPERIMENTS CARRIED OUT IN CORKED FLASKS NEARLY FILLED WITH LIQUID, 500 cbc. IN each. Nature of Solution. Grms. per Surfaces of 42 B.--EXPERIMENTS CARRIED OUT IN BEAKERS HALF FILLED WITH LIQUID (500 cbc.) AND COVERED WITH UNSIZED PAPER; DIAMETER OF MOUTH OF BEAKER = 11.5 cm. 1'3 1.8 2'0 25 2.5 traces 0'3 0'3 0'3 0'3 0'5 0'7 0'7 0'7 0'7 IN BASINS FULL OF LIQUID (500 cbc.) AND COVERED WITH UNSIZED PAPER 2'0 4'2 25 0.6 CHEMICAL NEWS Nov. 24, 1876. Practical Portrait Photography. 225 D.-EXPERIMENTS CARRIED OUT IN CORKED FLASKS NEARLY FILLED WITH LIQUID (500 cbc.) THROUGH WHICH A STREAM OF AIR WAS CONTINUALLY PASSED. E. EXPERIMENTS CARRIED OUT IN BEAKERS HALF FILLED WITH LIQUID (500 cbc.) AND COVERED WITH UNSIZED .. Ammonium sulphate.. O'200 25 50 obtained; hence I was led to the belief that the action of dilute saline solution upon lead is one which may be very materially altered by what appear at first sight to be slight alterations in the conditions of the action. The object of the experiments detailed in the present paper was, if possible, to determine more narrowly what these conditions are. The questions to which I shall endeavour at present to give answers, partial though they must be, are these:-Does the amount of lead dissolved increase with increase of surface exposed to the action of the solvent? Does the free admission of air to the surface, or the passage of air through the body of the liquid influence the quantity of lead dissolved? Do the solvent actions of dilute saline solution upon lead continue during lengthened periods, or is there a limit reached after which little or no further action is exercised upon the lead? 4. And, in the first place, does the amount of lead dissolved increase with increase of surface exposed to the action of the solvent? In order to obtain an answer to this question experiments were carried out with the same solvent, but with varying surfaces of lead exposed, and under somewhat varying conditions of action. The results of these experiments are presented in Table I. These results do not point to a regular increase of lead dissolved associated with increase of surface exposed. In certain cases the amount of lead dissolved does increase most notably as the surface exposed is increased, but in other cases it diminishes. The other conditions affecting the solvent action appear to exercise a disturbing influence upon that one condition, the action of which it was desired to trace. Thus in the case of distilled water, whether the surface of lead exposed measured 25 or 50 sq. cm. when the action was allowed to proceed for 42 hours, the amount of lead dissolved was the same, nor did carrying out the experiment in a corked flask, a beaker, or a basin loosely covered with porous paper, materially affect the result. But when the action had proceeded for 340 hours, the conclusions to be drawn are found to be very considerably affected by the nature of the vessel employed. In closed flasks the amount of lead dissolved slightly decreased with increase of surface exposed; in beakers there was a very marked increase in lead dissolved with increase of surface exposed, while in basins again increase of surface was associated with decrease of solvent action. By looking at the experiments carried out in corked flasks I think it would be altogether unwarrantable to say that an increase of surface exposed is generally associated with an increase in quantity of lead dissolved. From the experiments carried out in beakers half filled I'4 2'5 3'5 with liquid and covered with porous paper I think the conclusion may be deduced that there is generally an increase of solvent action with increase of exposed surface; this is especially evident in the case of those salts which increase the solvent action (nitrates, &c.) and after the lapse of considerable periods of time-300 to 500 hours. The results of the experiments carried out in basins do not permit me to draw any general conclusion on the subject now under consideration; there is sometimes an increase, at other times a decrease, in the amount of lead dissolved associated with a fixed increase in surface exposed. It would almost appear as if exposure of the liquid to large surfaces of air was less fitted to promote solvent action than exposure to smaller surfaces of air. And the experiments carried out in flasks through which a stream of air continually passed seem to countenance some such conclusion as this. In these experiments there was invariably a diminution in the quantity of lead dissolved associated with an increase in the surface exposed. It is only in the last set of experiments carried out in beakers half filled with water, and loosely covered, and having one half of the lead immersed in the liquid and the rest exposed to the air-that an increase in lead dissolved is invariably associated with increase of surface exposed. So far as the first inquiry is concerned these experiments do not warrant the assumption of an invariable increase in the quantity of lead dissolved associated with an increase in the surface of lead exposed to the action of the solvent. (To be continued.) NOTICES OF BOOKS. By WILLIAM Practical Portrait Photography, &c. HEIGHMAN. London: Piper and Carter. THIS little work would have been a much more satisfactory performance had the author recollected its title and confined himself entirely to the manipulatory portion of photography, which he has treated capitally, instead of constantly interlarding his practical directions with dicta on the chemistry of the subject, which only serve to show once more that "a little learning is a dangerous thing." Mr. Heighman is evidently an expert manipulator who has pursued photography much more as an art than a science: hence his descriptions of the various processes and his remarks on the artistic part of the matter are all that can be desired. The chapters on "Photographic CHEMICAL NEWS, 226 The D-Lines Spectra Flame Examined by the Blowpipe. {CHNOV. 24, 1876. Esthetics," "Expression," "Pose," "Illumination," and | blast-furnaces, even in the upper part, was strikingly dis"Retouching," might be studied with advantage by many integrated. On analysis it was found that carbon had even of our first-class photographers, who are only too been deposited within the texture of the bricks to the frequently deficient in artistic taste and feeling. With extent of from 2'05 to 5'97 per cent, whilst the proportion this part of the book, however, we have but little concern. of potash present, amounting to 2.60 per cent in the The numberless formulæ published in the columns of original brick, was increased in one case to 7:54 per cent. our photographic contemporaries, which are generally the The issue further contains papers on the "Cassoninvention of some enthusiastic amateur who wants to Dormey Puddling Furnace," by Mr. E. F. Smith; on make his name famous, have long since become so bewil- "Cleveland Steel Rails;" on "Overcoming Steep Gradidering to the professional photographer who is desirous ents on Railways," by Mr. H. Handyside;" "Notes on of improving his art to the utmost, that a work like the Iron-Ore Deposits at Naeverhaugen, Bodo, Norway," by present, giving new and tried recipes, will be warmly wel- Mr. Thorsten Nordenfelt ;" on "Improved Casting Arcomed by him. The practical worker now-a-days has no rangements for the Siemens-Martin Process," by Mr. time for trying experiments; the consequence is that a Michael Scott; together with "Reports on the Progress new formula or the improvement of an old one is quite a of the Iron and Steel Industries in Foreign Countries and rarity in the annals of photography. These remarks in the United Kingdom. apply with still greater force to the amateur, who, as a rule, is too much given to run after worthless novelties in the way of sensitising baths and developing solutions. Mr. Heighman's remarks on precision and cleanliness will be found most valuable to all classes of photographers. The author himself is apparently excessively precise and cleanly in manipulation, and we question whether some of his methods would succeed with the hurried professional or careless amateur. His recommendation to coat the cases. CORRESPONDENCE. THE SOCIETY OF PUBLIC ANALYSTS. To the Editor of the Chemical News. SIR,-The time has arrived when those members who, like myself, consider that the present editorship is compromising the Society of Public Analysts have to choose from the Society. The irregularities in the Society, and between making a change in the editorship and retiring the want of vitality shown by the scantiness of the attendance at the ordinary meetings, and by other unmistakable signs, discourage the effort to attempt a reformation, and, following the example of our Treasurer, I am adopting the easier course of retiring from the Society. I have laid down my office of Vice-President, and ceased to be a member of the Society of Public Analysts.-I am, &c., J. ALFRED WANKLYN. glass plate with ammoniated albumen before coating it with collodion would, we fear, prove a failure in most With great perfection of manipulation, no doubt, the albumen and ammonia will not injure the silver-bath, but perfection is not attained by everybody. The arrangement of the dark room is more fully dwelt upon than in most manuals of the kind, but the directions for doctoring spoilt and worn-out baths are too complicated for general practice. An odd omission, too, occurs in the remedy for a too acid bath. Liquor ammonia is to be dropped in until a black precipitate is formed, but nothing is said about subsequent filtration and acidification, without which the bath would be distinctly alkaline. In the directions for making a negative bath the learner is told to dissolve silver nitrate in water, to iodise it in the usual manner, after which it is to be filtered and made alkaline with liquor ammoniæ; it is then exposed to the sunlight, when THE D-LINES SPECTRA FLAME EXAMINED it deposits "organic matter as thick mud at the bottom of the bottle!" May we ask Mr. Heighman whence this organic matter comes? At page 22 the author states that "the effect of acid in the bath is to decompose any organic matter present in the solution," whereas at page 28 he says that "acid holds the organic matter in solution." Surely Mr. Heighman's ink must have been strongly alkaline when he wrote this portion of his manual. The style of the book is, to say the least of it, eccentric. "Graduate" for graduated measure, "flow" for pour or coat, and "skylight" for glass room, are certainly not Queen's English. We hope to see another edition of this really useful work, but divested of all such defects as we have pointed out. There are also several misprints that ought to be corrected, such as " hyposulphate" for "hyposulphite," "liquor ammonia" for "ammonia." 46 117, Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, London, W. BY THE BLOWPIPE. To the Editor of the Chemical News. SIR,-The communications of your contributor, Major Ross, are-so often as they are confined to the subject of Pyrology"-sometimes interesting, and always amusing. But it does not seem to occur to Major Ross that when they treat of subjects "external to the pyrocone," they are not brilliantly candescent, and that they may, besides, do positive harm. For it is not impossible to suppose that among the readers of the CHEMICAL NEWS there may be numbered some who may think that, notwithstanding the accumulated evidence to the contrary, Major Ross has raised a reasonable doubt that the D-lines in the spectrum are produced, not by sodium, but by water, and that the series of experiments which he adduces in proof are a fair specimen of the experimental method as followed by che The Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1876. Lon- mists; and if this be so, it may be desirable to point out don: E. and F. N. Spon. THIS issue contains the respective discussions on Mr. Sandberg's paper on "The Strength of Rail Joints," and on Mr. Snelus's paper on “ Fire-Clays and other Refractory Materials." In this latter much weight was laid on the importance of an accurate determination of potash and soda, the constituents which mainly imparted a fusible character to clays. There is also a discussion on the "Use of Molten Iron Direct from the Blast-Furnace for Bessemer Purposes;" and papers on the "Uses of Ferro-Manganese," by M. F. Gautier, of Paris; on the "Ferroux Rock Drill and Air Company," by Mr. H. W. Pendred; and on "Carbon and other Deposits from the Gases of Blast-Furnaces in Cleveland," by Mr. J. Pattinson. It appears that the fire-brick lining of certain (1) That at a "white heat "the sodium salt adherent to platinum wire or foil is readily volatilised, and soon fails to afford the spectrum characteristic of sodium, while at a lower temperature-the salt being less volatile-the spectrum is more permanent. (2) That the absorption of an orange flame (sic) by fused boracic acid, and the consequent opacity of the latter, is not positive evidence of the absence of sodium in that flame. But Major Ross, who writes as if he really believed in his own theory, will hardly, I think, gain many co-believers among scientific men unless he can demonstrate that(a) A vacuum tube containing sodium on platinum points will not, on the passage of an electric spark, give the Dlines unless it also contains water; and (b) that water which he can prove to be free from sodium will give them |