Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 4>65 



and, as they wandered through the fields, they saw many drops upon 

 stones and rocks, but only in hollows or upon sloping surfaces, and 

 not upon those which were presented to the sky." The butterfly 

 observed by Peiresc was probably the Papilio C. album, or common 

 butterfly. It has been observed to deposit the same red fluid in En- 

 gland. 



WEATHER IN PARIS. 



The following was the state of the weather during the last year in 



Paris. Rain 146 days. 



Snow 21 



Hail or hoar frost. ... 6 



Frost 59 



Thunder ' 21 



Very cloudy 178 



Ann. de Chimie et de Phys. Dec. 1827. 



ANALYSIS OF ALCOHOL, iETHER, &C. BY MM. DUMAS AND 

 BOULLAY. 



In the Philosophical Magazine and Journal for April, I gave some ac- 

 count of the paper by the above-named chemists, and proposed to offer 

 some remarks upon it in the present Number : the Royal Institution 

 Journal for April contains some observations so much to the point 

 which I had intended to notice, that I shall content myself with copying 

 them.— R. P. 



*' MM. Dumas and Boullay then consider the formation and nature 

 of the sulphuric acid, stating the opinions of MM. Vogel and Gay 

 Lussac, that it is a compound of hyposulphuric acid with a vegetable 

 matter ; and also that of Mr. Hennel, that it is an acid in which half 

 the saturating power of the sulphuric acid present is neutralized by 

 the hydrocarbon in combination. With the latter opinion they also 

 class that entertained by Mr. Faraday relative to the nature of sul- 

 phonaphthalic acid. MM. Dumas and Boullay consider the question, 

 and decide in favour of the former opinion ; after which they say they 

 have observed facts which are better explained by the latter. We 

 think it a pity that these philosophers did not refer to Mr. Hennel's 

 paper in the Philosophical Transactions for 1826, p. 240, where they 

 would have gained the knowledge of a compound produced by the 

 action of sulphuric acid and alcohol, of which they seem at present al- 

 together ignorant, and which would have probably caused serious 

 alterations in their views, at least with regard to the sulphovinic acid. 

 We refer to what is known in London, and sold at Apothecaries' Hall, 

 by the name of oil of wine; not the hydrocarbon referred to by MM. 

 Dumas and Boullay, but a neutral compound of sulphuric acid with 

 hydrocarbon, containing, with the same proportion, of sulphuric acid, 

 twice as much hydrocarbon as the sulphovinic acid. It is of this com- 

 pound that Mr. Hennel speaks in the following passage, which we 

 cannot refrain from quoting : • Mr. Vogel, who has particularly de- 

 scribed some of these salts (sulphovinates), and I believe also M. Gay 

 Lussac, have supposed that this loss of saturating power arises from 

 the formation of hyposulphuric acid, and that the hyposulphates and 



NewSeiies. Vol. 3. No. 18. June 1828. 3 O sul- 



