180 Miscellaneous Intelligence, 



Similar effects take place in ammonia. The chloride appears 

 analogous to the oxide, and should be composed of 



Chlorine 2 atoms 26.79 



Tungsten 1 „ 73.21 







100.00 



The third compound, on the composition of which no experiment 

 has been made, is generally formed at the same time with the 

 maximum chloride, though in small quantity. It was once pro- 

 duced in larger quantity, by heating the sulphuret of tungsten in 

 chlorine. This is the most beautiful compound of all, existing in 

 long transparent crystals, of a fine red colour ; it readily fuses, 

 and on cooling crystallizes in long needles on the glass. It is 

 more volatile than the others ; it instantly changes in contact 

 with the air into tungstic acid. Thrown into water it swells like 

 caustic lime, disengages heat, a slight noise is heard, and it is 

 instantly changed into tungstic acid. — Ann. de Chim. xxix. 43. 



11. Composition of Ancient Glass. — A fragment of ancient Ro- 

 man glass found near Brool, has been analyzed by Dr. Rudolph 

 Brandes, and found to contain silica, soda, oxide of lead, oxide of 

 manganese, oxide of iron, lime, and alumina. The silica formed 

 about two-thirds of the mass. The glass had been so far affected 

 by water and other agents acting upon it for a great length of 

 time, as to have lost its transparency, except towards the centre. 

 It had a milky white colour, with a bluish cast, and in some parts 

 a lustre very similar to that of gold. This resulted from the thin 

 plates into which the glass had disintegrated, and which caused it 

 when broken, pressed, or scraped, to fall into small leaves like 

 mica. 



12. Action of Lime upon Alcohol. — The following experiment is 

 one made by Dr. Menici, and described in the Giornale di Fisica, 

 viii. 50. Two portions of alcohol, of three ounces each, the one 

 being at 35° B. (s. g. 842,) and the other at 28° B. (s. g. 880,) 

 were put into separate bottles, and to each was added three denari 

 (about 3.5 dwts.) of caustic lime. The bottles were closed up and 

 left for four months. At the end of that time the liquor in the 

 second bottle had assumed a yellow colour, which, in two months 

 more, deepened to a red. Being then opened, it was found to 

 have a peculiar aromatic odour ; by distillation unchanged al- 

 cohol came over from the clear solution, and a residue was left, 

 which, when dry, weighed about a denaro, and resembled a red 

 resin ; it softened by heat, and burnt with a bright flame and 

 much smoke. The stronger alcohol, on the contrary, had ac- 

 quired no tint like that of the portion just described, but slowly 

 took a light bluish tint. Hence it appears that, in contradiction 



