Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 541 



"b 



Royal Decree granting free Carriage to the Correspondence of the 

 Academy. 



Leopold, King of the Belgians. 



To all present and to come, greeting. 



Whereas by our Decree of the 8th of November, 1841, which 

 grants freedom of carriage to the official correspondence of the Royal 

 Academy of Medicine. Considering that, from simdar motives, 

 there is reason to grant the same privilege to the Royal Academy 

 of .Sciences and Belles-lettres of Brussels ; 



Upon the proposition of our Minister of Public "Works ; We have 

 decreed and do decree : — 



Art. 1. Our Minister of the Interior is authorized to correspond 

 free of carriage, under seal, with the office of the Academy of Sciences 

 and Belles-lettres of Brussels and the members of this body indi- 

 vidually. 



Art. 2. The frank is likewise granted to the correspondence under 

 slip-covers and the counter-sign which the Academy and its Secre- 

 tary must exchange with each of its Members. 



Art. 3. The counter-sign of the Academy shall be used in the 

 name of the body, either by the President or by the regular Secre- 

 tary, for this purpose. 



Our Minister of Public Works is charged with the execution of 

 the present Decree. Given at Brussels the 22nd of December, 1841. 



ON OPIAMMON. 



M. Wohler gives this name to a substance which is produced by 

 the changes which opianate of ammonia undergoes ; once he ob- 

 tained this salt in large tables, by the spontaneous evaporation of a 

 solution of opianic acid in ammonia, mixed with alcohol. Opianic 

 acid disappears instantaneously in caustic ammonia, and it absorbs 

 ammoniacal gas with the disengagement of heat. Even though the 

 solution should be evaporated by a very gentle heat, no crystals are 

 formed, but merely a transparent amorphous mass, which becomes 

 milk-white when treated with water, dissolving only partially in it, 

 and leaving a white substance, to which M. Wohler gives the name 

 of opiammon ; the ammoniacal salt is completely changed into this 

 compound by heating the dried mass to a little above 212°, as long 

 as ammonia is evolved. It eventually acquires a lemon-yellow colour 

 and becomes insoluble in water ; in order to separate the last traces 

 of undecomposed salt, it is sufficient to boil it in water and to filter. 



Opiammon is a powder of a pale yellow colour : it would pro- 

 bably be colourless if perfectly pure ; it is evidently composed of 

 transparent, crystalline, grumous particles, when examined micro- 

 scopically. It is insoluble in cold water, but soluble in small pro- 

 portion in boiling water ; this effect is certainly produced as the 

 result of decomposition, for the water acquires a slight acid reaction ; 

 when heated under water to 302° F. in sealed tubes, it dissolves 

 completely. The limpid solution is of a yellow colour ; on cooling, 

 it deposits crystals of opianic acid, and retains opianate of ammonia 



