Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. J 51 



Arseniuret of Aluminum. — Arsenic reduced to powder and heated 

 to redness with aluminum, combines with it ; the inflammation is less 

 vivid than with the preceding combustibles. The compound is a 

 powder of a deep gray colour, which by rubbing acquires a dull 

 metallic appearance, and when exposed to the air it exhales a faint 

 smell of arseniuretted hydrogen ; when cold, the disengagement is 

 slow, b.ut it is much accelerated by heat. 



Telluret of Aluminum. — When the powder of tellurium was put 

 into a tube with aluminum, much heat was excited, and the mixture 

 was thrown with explosion out of the tube ; this inconvenience is 

 avoided by not powdering the tellurium. The product is a metal- 

 line, brittle, black frit, which when exposed to the air emits an in- 

 tolerable odour of telluretted hydrogen ; and when thrown into wa- 

 ter it evolves the same gas with rapidity : the water at first be- 

 comes of a red colour, afterwards brown, and eventually opake, on 

 account of the interposed reduced tellurium: the telluret of alu- 

 minum appears to decompose in water with much greater facility 

 than the sulphuret of the same metal. — Ibid. 



NATIVE IODIDE OF MERCURY. 



M. Del Rio has already mentioned that he has discovered iodide 

 of silver in America, and he has mentioned its locality. He has 

 since discovered another iodide ; and he is of opinion that the metal 

 in combination with it is mercury. It perfectly resembles dark- 

 coloured cinnabar, except that its colour is deeper and its streak 

 paler ; it is however certain, that it accompanies an earthy iodide, 

 which M. Del Rio believes to be the metal of magnesia mineralized 

 by iodine. — Ibid. 



CORYDALIN, A NEW VEGETABLE ALKALI. 



According to M.Wackenroder, this alkali is contained in the root 

 of the fumitory (not the common fumitory, fumaria officinalis, but 

 the fumaria cava, and corydalis tuberosa of Decandolle). The dry 

 root is to be coarsely powdered and digested for some days in wa- 

 ter ; filter the infusion, and precipitate with excess of potash ; dry 

 the precipitate and treat it with boiling alcohol, until it ceases to 

 dissolve anything. It sometimes happens that during the cooling 

 of the alcohol, crystals of corydalin are deposited. The solution is 

 to be evaporated to dryness, and the residuum is to be dissolved in 

 weak sulphuric acid; this solution is then to be decomposed by an 

 alkali either caustic or carbonated. A white deposit is formed, 

 which by drying becomes of a light gray colour. 



Dry corydalin soils the fingers very much ; it is insipid and inodo- 

 rous. It is soluble in alcohol ; and this solution when hot and saturated 

 deposits colourless prismatic crystals of a line in length. By slow 

 Spontaneous evaporation, fine laminae are formed. The solution 

 acts as an alkali upon vegetable blue colours. At a temperature 

 below that of boiling water, it melts into a deep green-coloured 

 fluid, which, when solidified, has a crystalline texture, and is trans- 

 parent in thin laminae. At a higher temperature it yields water and 



ammonia, 



