414 Foreign and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



and water, liquid sulphur contracts on becoming solid. He thought 

 it, however, worth while to submit sulphur to another kind of ex- 

 amination, viz., by observing the different lengths of time which it 

 requires to cool within certain limits, as he anticipated that in case 

 the density varied according to the different degrees of liquidity, this 

 would appear from the falling or rising of the thermometer. The 

 sulphur was left to cool in the open air, the temperature of which was 

 about 7J R., and fell during the experiment 1J. The time was 

 observed during every five degrees by a very accurate watch, the 

 minute of which was divided into 75 seconds. The following table 

 gives the result of five series of experiments : 



150 R. I. II. III. IV. V. 



between! 83 P J \82iT 1 \ j \80 C 



The observations of I. and II. relate to sulphur which had not 

 been melted before ; those of III. were made on the sulphur of I., 

 as were also the observations of V. ; the sulphur of IV. was the 

 same which had been used in II. From these experiments it would 

 result 



1. That sulphur, after having been heated to 150 R,, slowly 

 expands, whilst cooling, to about 125 ; the gradual decrease of the 

 lengths of time appear, at least, to show that latent heat becomes 

 free. 



2. That from 125 downwards, there is a gradual contraction 

 corresponding to the increase of the lengths of time. 



3. That the degree at which sulphur becomes solid falls between 79 

 and 89. 



4. That during the congelation of sulphur, a greater quantity of 

 heat becomes free than at the solidification of, perhaps, any other 

 body*. 



* Schweigger Seidcl's Jahrbuch der Chemie und Physik. 



