Mi:. King on the Preparation of Chloroform. 219 



of Geography, p. 1 165, the measures may have been obtained somewhat 

 in this way, as the base is said to be 093 feet (the above average of the 

 modern observations), but the height is stated to be 599 feet, greater 

 than the average of the observations, both ancient and modern, and is so 

 exaggerated that it seems to be copied from Diodorus ; and that corre- 

 sponds to the slanting height. 



Although the writer in the Encyclopaedia Britannica deduces the 

 side of the baso and height by taking the mean of all observations, 

 he does not appear to place much confidence in that method, for he 

 himself adopts, as a nearer " approximation," (whence obtained is not 

 clearly indicated,) 750 feet for the base, and 480 for the height ; while 

 Capt. Head makes the base about 780, and the height 503. Now, as 

 already supposed, each of these heights mean the height of the platform ; 

 so, before getting the proportions of the complete pyramid, we must add 

 21 feet, making the height, in the one case, 501, and in the other, 526 ; 

 and even in Capt. Head's estimate, the proportion is nearly the same for 

 780 : 826, or 750 : 501 nearly, or 3 to 2. On the whole, 750 and 500 

 English feet, will probably represent these with tolerable accuracy, 

 agreeing with Trench's estimate, on the supposition that the 704 feet 

 given by him, are French feet, and that the height was the height of the 

 supposed pinnacles ; and if the ancient Egyptian Schoenus, consisting of 

 19,800 (or nearly 20,000) English feet, were divided into 160 equal 

 parts or units, the length of the base would be 6, or half base 3 of these, 

 and the height 4. It may also be noticed, that this base is almost 

 exactly the one-seventh of an English mile, or nearly seven and a half 

 seconds of a degree of an arch of the meridian, in the latitude of the 

 pyramid ; and that the sloping height, (625,) obtained from this base, 

 and these proportions, accords well with the proportional height given by 

 Prosper Alpinus ; while, as already said, the perpendicular height coin- 

 cides with that assigned by Trench, when converted from French into 

 English feet. 



XXXTV. — On the Preparation of Chloroform. By James King, Esq. 



Chloroform was discovered about the same time by Soubeiran (1831) 

 and Liebig (1832.) Soubeiran, in its preparation, made use of 5 parts 

 of hypochlorite of lime, or bleaching powder, 30 parts of water, and 1 of 

 alcohol of spec. grav. *852. He states that no carbonic acid was given 

 off during the distillation, and the residue in the retort he found to bo 

 water with a little alcohol, carbonate of lime, and a little caustic lime. 

 Leibig prepared it from 1 lb. of hypochlorite of lime, 3 lbs. of water, and 

 from 2 to 3 ounces of alcohol. 



It was analyzed by Dumas in 1835, and found to be composed of 2 

 atoms of carbon, 1 of hydrogen, and 3 of chlorine. Its symbol is C 2 H 

 Cl 3 , or Fo Cl 3 . In its preparation he recommends the proportions of 

 4 lbs. of hypochlorite of lime, 12 ounces of alchohol, and 12 lbs. of water. 



