Mr. H. Sloggett on the Constitution of Matter. 443 



CI Ag= 31*22 Ag, or 33*53 per cent, oxide. The calculated 

 numbers are 31*27 per cent, of silver = 33*59 oxide. 



The quantity of carbazotic acid which Botany Bay resin 

 yields when treated with nitric acid is so great, and it is so 

 easily purified, that this resin seems likely to prove the best 

 source of that substance. When the resin is subjected to 

 destructive distillation in an iron or copper retort, it yields a 

 very large quantity of a heavy acid oil mixed with a very 

 small quantity of a neutral oil, which is lighter than water. 

 If however the resin has been previously digested with alka- 

 line lyes, so as to remove all the cinnamic and benzoic acids it 

 contains, the heavy oil is obtained as before, but none of the 

 light essential oil. The acid oil is readily soluble in potash 

 and soda lyes ; in its smell and properties it resembles creos- 

 ote; when it is digested with nitric acid, it is wholly converted 

 into carbazotic acid, and when a slip of fir-wood is dipt in it, 

 and then moistened with either muriatic or nitric acid, the 

 deep blue colour passing quickly into brown, so characteristic 

 of hydrate of phenyle, is immediately produced, with which 

 substance the oil appears completely identical. The light oil 

 above mentioned, the quantity of which is extremely small, is 

 separated from the hydrate of phenyle by saturating it with 

 an alkali and distilling the mixture in a glass retort with a 

 gentle heat. In smell and properties it resembles benzine, and 

 is most probably a mixture of benzine and cinnamene; unfor- 

 tunately the quantity obtained was so small, that I was unable 

 to subject it to more particular examination. 



LXXIV. On the Constitution of Matter. 

 By H. Sloggett, Esq. 



To Richard Taylor, Esq. 

 Sir, 

 pjAVING observed in your Journal for December 1845 some 

 *7 * remarks on Prof. Faraday's speculation on the constitu- 

 tion of matter by Mr. Laming, wherein he attempts to show, 

 that by a peculiar way of considering the theory of atoms the 

 conducting and insulating powers of bodies appear more in- 

 telligible than on any other doctrine, I have been induced to 

 send you a few ideas of mine on the subject, with a hope that 

 you may not consider them unworthy of insertion. 



The test of the truth of any hypothesis, is its accordance 

 with all known facts ; and any discrepancy, even a single one, 

 between a theory and experiment, is, if not cleared up, fatal to 

 its validity. The one-fluid theory, in electricity though pre- 



2 H2 



