D. CHEMISTRY AND METALLURGY. 189 



that the green of feathers generally may be due to some 

 similar coloring matter. 1 A, October 24, 212. 



MANUFACTURE OF IROX IX INDIA. 



The researches of Mr. Vincent Day show that as early as 

 the third or fourth century, and down to the fourteenth, 

 malleable iron was j^roduced in immense quantities in India, 

 and at so cheap a rate as to be used as building material for 

 public monuments and sacred edifices, and that its manufact- 

 ure became extinct and the art lost long before European 

 occupation of India. 1 A^ October 24, 212. 



ACTION OF THE PHOSPHORUS IN COAL. 



Analyses of different coals invariably show the presence 

 of phosphorus in such quantities as may not be disregarded 

 in the production of iron to be used in manufacturing steel, 

 since it is known that all the phosphorus in the charge of a 

 blast-furnace passes into the iron. It is suggested that the 

 well-known efficacy of coal ashes with certain soils may not 

 simply be due to mechanical action, but in part also to the 

 presence of phosphates and other constituents. 



SOLVENT POAVER OF LIQUID CARBOX DIOXIDE. 



The remarkable solvent power of the sulphide of carbon 

 suggests that the liquefied oxide may be equally active, and 

 experiments upon this question have been made by Cailletet 

 in a special apparatus designed for the purpose. It consists 

 of a steel tube containing mercury, connected by means of a 

 copper tube with a steel cylinder containing water. By a 

 powerful screw acting on the surface of the water a pressure 

 of 900 atmospheres can be obtained in the steel tube of mer- 

 cury. In this mercury is plunged a sort of enlarged ther- 

 mometer tube of glass, the bulb of which is open below, and 

 the tube of which, made very thick, serves to hold the sub- 

 stances to be acted upon. The dry gas is placed in the glass 

 vessel, and on applying pressure it condenses to a liquid, and 

 collects in the stem. It is a colorless, mobile liquid, and is 

 a non-conductor of electricity. An induction spark in it 

 gives a brilliant white light, but causes no decomposition. 

 It does not dissolve sodium chloride, sodium sulphate, calci- 

 um chloride, calcium carbonate, sulphur, phosphorus, stearine, 



