( 178 ) 

 SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



METEOROLOGY. 



1 . On the Odour of the Electric Fluid, By M . Schoenbein. M. 

 Sclioenbein, at the beginning of May last, presented to the Royal 

 Academy of Paris, a communication concerning the odour connect- 

 ed with the electric fluid, of which we shall now present a short 

 account. 



Being struck with the resemblance which exists between the 

 odour which is developed when common electricity issues from the 

 point of a conductor to the surrounding air, and that which is dis- 

 engaged when water is decomposed by the galvanic current, M. 

 Schoenbein instituted a series of experiments, on the results alone 

 of which we shall now dwell. The following are the facts, and, 

 according to the author, they afford a complete explanation of the 

 phenomenon. 



1^^. The phosphoric odour which is developed during the elec- 

 trolyzation of water, is disengaged only at the positive wire. 



2d. The disengagement of the odoriferous principle, depends, 

 1*^, upon the chemical nature of the substance which affords the 

 positive electricity ; 2c?, Upon the chemical constitution of the fluid 

 employed in the trough ; and M, Upon the temperature of this 

 same fluid. Regarding the first condition, the author has found 

 that, of all the metals he has examined, gold and platinum alone 

 produce the disengagement of the peculiar odour. Those metallic 

 substances which are very readily oxydized, do not furnish the 

 slightest trace of it, and charcoal, which is an excellent conductor, 

 also belongs to this category. Respecting the connection which 

 exists between the fluids employed, and their power of disengag- 

 ing the odorous principle, the experiment of M. Schoenbein has 

 demonstrated that the electric odour is developed at the positive 

 wire, when the fluid consists of distilled water mixed with sul- 

 phuric, phosphoric, or nitric acids, or with potash, and a variety of 

 oxydized salts. The odour, on the other hand, is not observable 

 when the water contains chlorides, bromides, iodides, fluorides, 

 the protosulphate of iron, or any substance whatever which has a 

 strong affinity for oxygen. No more does it occur, if the fluids 

 which have just been enumerated in the former of these lists are 

 mixed even with small quantities of the protosulphate of iron, or 

 with nitrous acid, or with any other substance whose affinity for 

 oxygen is equally great. Lastlyy Those fluids which abundantly 



