U86 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



" Mr Johnston has formed the various salts resulting from the 

 union of this acid with the base ; and he gives the following account 

 of their general properties : 



" 1. They are all of a deep red colour, crystallizing in four-sided 

 pyramids and rhomboidal prisms. In minute needles their colour 

 is golden-yellow. 



M 2. In the moist state the crystals are liable to decompose by 

 light and heat, becoming externally of a greenish colour, and in 

 solutions depositing a green sediment. 



" 3. They are very soluble in water, but insoluble in alcohol, un- 

 less considerably diluted. 



" 4. Their solutions, when hot and concentrated, have a peculiar 

 smell, approaching to that of weak chlorine; and, with the excep- 

 tion of the salt of lead, they have all a bitterish taste ; that of lead 

 having the sweet taste of its other salts. 



* " 5. These solutions are decomposed by sulphuretted hydrogen, 

 becoming green and depositing sulphur. Some of the hydro-sul- 

 phurets have a similar effect, but they are not changed by hydrogen 

 gas. 



" 6. Treated in powder with sulphuric acid, they give off chlorine 

 gas. From the salts of bary tes, strontian, and lead, it is also partially 

 driven off by a gentle heat. 



" 7. Their solutions are also decomposed by metallic mercury, 

 being changed into green, becoming greenish-yellow, and letting 

 fall a blue precipitate; the solutions no longer giving a red, but a 

 xvhite, with nitrate of silver. They have likewise a strong action 

 upon metallic iron, coating it immediately with Prussian blue. 

 " 8. They all give similar precipitates with the metallic oxides. 

 " 9. When dry they undergo no change by exposure to the air, 

 the salt of cadmium excepted, which deliquesces. 



" 10. Most of them decrepitate when heated, and in the flame 

 of a candle are combustible, throwing out bright white sparks, and 

 leaving a dark brown residue. The salt of bary tes melts without 

 sensibly burning; and that of lead burns silently like tinder, giving 

 minute globules of metallic lead." — BrevoUers Journal. 



PREPARATION OF PURE MALATE OF LEAD. 



Dr. Wohler states that a perfectly pure malate of lead is readily 

 obtained by the following process : The juice of the berries of the 

 service-tree, before they are quite ripe, is diluted with three or four 

 parts of water, filtered, and heated ; and while boiling a solution of 

 acetate of lead is added as long as any turbidity appears. The so- 

 lution is then quickly filtered. At first a small quantity of dark- 

 coloured salt subsides; but on decanting the hot liquid, the malate 

 of lead is deposited on cooling in groups of brilliant white crystals. 



'—Ibid, - 



DESCRIPTION OF THE WINCH BRIDGE, THE OLDEST SUSPENSION 

 BRIDGE IN ENGLAND. BY W. C. TREVELYAN, ESQ. 



Having, along with my brother, lately made a short excursion in 

 the upper part of Teesdale, where there is some very beautiful scenery, 



I took 



