482 Miscellaneous Intelligence, 



open end of this tube had a small cock, and at the other end of 

 the generating tube was fixed a safety-valve with a pressure of 50 

 atmospheres on each square inch ; to the same end was also fixed 

 the pipe by which the forcing pump threw in water. After having 

 made the pierced extremity of the generating tube red hot, 

 water was introduced ; the vapour formed escaped by the safety- 

 valve, although charged to the extent above-mentioned, and yet, 

 upon opening the stop-cock of the iron tube, nothing came out. 

 The fire was then diminished, and when the temperature had 

 sunk sufficiently, the escape of vapour was so great as to produce 

 a terrible noise. 



The repulsive power of the heated metal was sufficient, says 

 Mr. Perkins in reasoning upon the effect, to retain the vapour and 

 the water equally distant ; for what else is vapour than water in 

 a state of expansion ? The repulsive force in this account is said 

 to be exerted to the distance of the sixteenth of an inch, for the 

 hole was the eighth of an inch in diameter. — Annates de Chimie, 

 xxxvi. 437. 



13. Iodides of Carhon, hy M. Mitscherlich. — Whilst experimenting 

 for a peculiar purpose, M. Mitscherlich mingled the alcoholic solu- 

 tions of iodine and soda. " There was formed immediately the 

 compound obtained by SeruUas. But SeruUas, to whom we are 

 indebted for a great many interesting experiments on this com- 

 pound, says, that there is formed simultaneously iodate of soda, 

 iodide of sodium, and hydriodide of carbon ; but I have not found 

 the slightest trace of iodate of soda. On decomposing the sub- 

 stance discovered by SeruUas by means of copper, iron, and mer- 

 cury, I obtained no hydrogen, nor any other kind of gas, but only 

 a combination of iodine and carbon. We should, therefore, con- 

 sider this substance as a compound of carbon and iodine formed in 

 the following manner : — when the two alcoholic solutions are 

 mixed, the iodine combines with the sodium, and the oxygen, set 

 free, unites to the hydrogen of the alcohol to form water 3 whilst 

 the carbon of the alcohol (the latter being considered as a com- 

 pound of water and olefiant gas) combines with another portion 

 of the iodine, to produce the iodide of carbon.'' 



" This iodide of carbon, distilled with corrosive sublimate, yields 

 a liquid analogous to that which SeruUas obtained by employing 

 dry chloride of phosphorus. It is also a compound of carbon and 

 iodine j so that we now know two combinations of iodine and 

 carbon, and one of iodine with carburetted hydrogen, discovered 

 by Faraday, which is distinguished from the two other by its che- 

 mical properties and crystalline form. — Annates de Chimie^ xxxvii. 

 p. 85. 



The experiments of M. Mitscherlich, by showing the true na- 

 ture of M. SeruUas' compound, remove the difficulty of supposing 

 that two hydriodides of carbon could exist of exactly the same! 

 composition, but different in properties." — Ed. 



