CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 201 



health of a dog. 3. This non-action shows that the poisonous prop- 

 erty of the arsenic is destroyed by its combination with peroxide of 

 iron, and thus confirms what has been before asserted, that peroxide of 

 iron, by combining with arsenious and arsenic acid, destroys their poi- 

 sonous properties, and consequently becomes an antidote for them. 

 Journ. de Chim. Mtd., Sept. 



FLUORINE IN THE WATERS OF THE FRITHS OF FORTH AND 

 CLYDE, AND THE GERMAN OCEAN. 



DR. G. WILSON has communicated to the British Association an 

 article " On the Presence of Fluorine in the Waters of the Frith of 

 Forth, the Frith of Clyde, and the German Ocean." In 1846 Dr. Wil- 

 son first announced the discovery of fluorine as a new element of sea- 

 water. His mode of detecting it is to take the mother-liquor or bittern 

 from the pans of salt-works, which derive their water from the sea, 

 which he precipitates by nitrate of baryta. This precipitate, having 

 been washed and dried, is warmed with oil of vitirol in a lead basin, 

 covered with wax, having designs on it, which in two hours were etched 

 as deeply as they could have been by fluor spar treated in the same 

 way. Till the present year, however, Dr. Wilson had only examined 

 water from the Frith of Forth, but he has now pursued his experi- 

 ments, and finds that the indications of fluorine are much less distinct 

 in the Frith of Clyde than on the east coast, but he easily detected it 

 in the crust collected in the boilers of steam vessels. This crust con- 

 sists in a great measure of sulphate and carbonate of lime, and car- 

 bonate of magnesia, but there is also chloride of sodium and other 

 salts. By examining the deposit in boilers of steamers navigating the 

 German Ocean, he has also there detected fluorine, and it may there- 

 fore be inferred, that, as fluorine exists in these three localities, it ex- 

 ists in sea- water o-enerallv, which is a conclusion to which others have 



/ * 



previously been led by various circumstances. Dr. W. has also de- 

 tected fluorine in the teeth of the walrus, which indicates its existence 

 in the Arctic Ocean, and its invariable presence in the corals collected 

 by the United States Exploring Expedition points to its existence in 

 the Antarctic Ocean, while it has also been found in kelp from the 

 Shetlands. London Athenccum, Sept. 15. 



CARBONATE OF LIME AS AN INGREDIENT OF SEA-WATER. 



MR. J. DAVY read before the Royal Society of London, at its meet- 

 ing, June 14th, an interesting paper on the question, whether car- 

 bonate of lime exists in all sea-water. The author has made several 

 experiments upon the water of the ocean in crossing the Atlantic, 

 which go to show that carbonate of lime is not widely diffused through 

 the ocean, but exists as an ingredient of sea-water near the land, and 

 in other situations, where its presence is very easily accounted for, and 

 where, in the economy of nature, it may be supposed to be useful. Mr. 

 Davy has also made some trials on sea-water in relation to the sul- 

 phate of lime it contains, which is found to vary in quantity in different 



