206 Prof. L. Gordon on ati Experiment on Stockholm Pitch, 



I obtained, by the direct action of the oxidizing mixture 

 on indigo, only traces of chloranil. 



In concluding, I wish to call the attention of chemists to the 

 application of chlorate of potash as an oxidizing agent, for up 

 to the present time it has been but seldom employed in organic 

 chemistry, and yet the study of its action might in many cases 

 lead to very remarkable results. I have treated kinone, which 

 has lately become so interesting, in a similar manner to what 

 has been stated, and found that it was transformed with the 

 greatest facility into chloranil. In a future paper this subject 

 will be examined more closely, and at the same time I shall 

 throw out some hints concerning the relations of kinone to 

 aniline, a base from which it can likewise be produced. 



XXVII. Account of an Experiment on Stockholm Pitch, conjirm- 

 ing the Viscous Theory of Glaciers. In a Letter from Prof. 

 Gordon of Glasgow, to Prijf. J. D. Forbes of Edinburgh. 

 Communicated by Prof. J. D. Forbes in a Letter to Richard 

 Taylor, Esq. 



To Richard Taylor, Esq. 

 My dear Sir, 



THE inclosed communication from Mr. Gordon, Professor 

 of Civil Engineering in the University of Glasgow, which 

 he has allowed me to transmit to you for publication, will, I 

 believe, be found interesting to your readers. The fact that 

 pitch is susceptible of s\ow fuid motion, whilst it retains the 

 character (in hand specimens) of a brittle solid, with a con- 

 choidal fracture and glassy lustre, may assist in resolving the 

 doubts of some impartial persons who have thought these cha- 

 racters in ice to be incompatible with such a motion as my 

 theory of glaciers requires, whilst the structural bands having 

 the frontal dip complete the analogy. 



I remain, yours, very truly, 

 Edinburgh, February 6, 1845. JamES D. FoRBES. 



To Professor Forbes. 



" When you requested me to give you a memorandum of 

 what appeared to me to be the very glacier-like motioji and ap- 

 pearance of Stockholm pitch flowing from a barrel, I consi- 

 dered my observation to have been too casual to be worth 

 writing, and having foreseen that I could arrange an experi- 

 ment at Gateshead in the beginning of the year, I delayed 

 giving you the memorandum you wished. 1 had hoped to 

 have been able to inspect and report on my experiment about 

 this time, but I cannot go to Gateshead for some time to come, 



