238 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



Air passed slowly through a saturated solution of caustic potash, 

 was then made to traverse a solution of the chloride of lime : no 

 chlorine was liberated ; no effect of any kind produced. 



The carbonate of lime resulting^ from the decomposition of the 

 chloride of lime by carbonic acid, retains no chlorine in combi- 

 nation. 



The chloride of soda is equally decomposed by carbonic acid, only 

 more slowly, in consequence of the solubility of the salt produced. 

 A specimen of chloride of lime, being- examined as to the quantity of 

 muriate that it might contain, was found to have exactly the same 

 quantity before and after decomposition by carbonic acid gas. 



A filtered solution of the chloride of lime was exposed to air on 

 the 13th of August ; on the 10th of October it no longer contained 

 chlorine, did not affect litmus, and the precipitate from it proved to be 

 carbonate of lime, A stronger solution of the same chloride, exposed 

 to air, on the 16th of August, was found in the same state as the 

 last on the 10th of October. 



Notwithstanding that these experiments sufficiently indicated the 

 manner in which these compounds acted on the putrid miasmata 

 floating in foul air, some further experiments were made in 

 the following manner : — Air was passed through blood, which had 

 been left to putrefy for eight days ; being then passed through a 

 solution of the chloride of lime, carbonate of lime was deposited, 

 and the air was rendered inodorous and completely purified. In a 

 second similar experiment, the fetid air was passed through a satu- 

 rated solution of caustic potash, before it arrived at the solution of 

 chloride ; the latter then had no effect upon it, and the air retained 

 its insupportable odour. Another experiment was made with air 

 left for twenty hours over putrescent blood ; the portion of it, which 

 was passed directly through the chloride, was perfectly purified, but 

 when previously freed from carbonic acid, the chloride had no effect 

 upon it. 



It is easy to explain the preference given in many cases to the 

 application of chlorides, as disinfecting agents, above fumigation by 

 chlorine. The carbonic acid in the air, arising from the decomposition 

 of animal matter, liberates the chlorine from its combination ; and 

 as this action is slow, the chlorine is less susceptible of affecting the 

 animal economy, but readily decomposes putrid miasmata. It is, 

 therefore, a true fumigation by chlorine, only less violent than those 

 made directly by the gas, and continuing for a longer time. — Annates 

 de Chimiey xxxiii. 171. 



21. Deleteriom Effects of Carbonic Acid Gas. — The conclusions 

 to a memoir, by M. Collard, on this subject, are as follows : — 

 i. Animals plunged into carbonic acid gas do not die, as in hydrogen 

 or nitrogen, from the want of air only. ii. That the experiments 

 by which Bichat,Nysten, and other modern authors, have endeavoured 

 to establish a contrary statement, are inexact in numerous points. 

 iii. That carbonic acid gas exerts a special deleterious action. 



