30 Mr. Kemp on the Effects ofEUctricity on the Liquified Gases. 



was condensed, it can hardly be supposed to have carried along 

 with it a quantity of water sufficient to produce this eiFect. Chlo- 

 rine I would therefore be inclined to consider the bleaching agent 

 when it is liquified, whether, as in the present instance, by pressure, 

 or by the solvent power of water, and that the decomposition of water 

 which accompanies this process, is merely an accidental circumstance. 



The tube was afterwards broken under mercury, and a portion 

 of the chlorine collected in a jar of fluo-boracic acid. No indication 

 of moisture was perceived, which proved at all events that no free 

 water existed in the remaining portion of the gas. The litmus 

 paper remained permanently bleached, and quite dry on the disen- 

 gagement of the gas. 



Another experiment which tends to prove that chlorine is the 

 bleaching agent, is, that when a stream of it is transmitted through' 

 a vegetable infusion, and the experiment conducted in the dark, 

 the colour is destroyed ; and as chlorine has not the power of de- 

 composing water in the dark, the bleaching power cannot be sup- 

 posed to depend on the decomposition of water. 



Ammoniacal Gas. — Ammoniacal gas was condensed in the same 

 manner as the preceding gases ; and when it was made to form part 

 of the galvanic circle, water brought into the circuit suffered no 

 decomposition. The shock was distinctly perceived, and a con- 

 siderable degree of ebullition, or probably decomposition, ensued 

 within the tube as the electricity passed through the ammonia, 

 but whether any new compound of hydrogen and nitrogen was 

 formed by this action, was not ascertained. Whether or not 

 liquified ammoniacal gas be a conductor or non-conductor of elec- 

 tricity, could not in this instance be very well determined ; for at 

 one time the shock was distinctly perceived, and a considerable 

 ebullition took place within the tube, when again, in a few minutes 

 after, no shock was perceived, and the ebullition ceased. This 

 change I attributed to the gas not being perfectly free from water, 

 or perhaps to the eflTects of the variation of pressure, by the mate- 

 rials having a tendency to absorb the gas. 

 {To be continued.) 



ART. VI. Notice of some Bones which appear to have belonged 

 to the Dodo, a species of Bird extinct within the last Two Cen-n 

 turies. Read at the Academy of Sciences, 12th July 1830, by 

 Baron Cuvier. 



The Dutch navigators who, in 1598, discovered the Mauritius^ 

 saw there a bird of great size and remarkable form ; the body was 

 gross and unwieldy, and covered with soft grayish feathers; the 

 wings were small, and provided with feathers resembling those of 

 the ostrich, instead of quills ; the rump was also furnished with 



