72 Chemical Society. 



having been made to form melon by heating together bicyanide of 

 mercury and sulphur, it appeared that melon was formed, but was 

 with difficulty separated from the sulphuret of mercury which accom- 

 panied it ; but as the presence of the sulphuret of mercury does not 

 interfere with the formation of aethogen from a mixture of melon 

 and boracic acid, that substance may be obtained by simply heat- 

 ing together 5 parts of sulphur, 58 of bicyanide of mercury and 

 7 of anhydrous boracic acid, or by heating together sulphocyano- 

 gen and boracic acid. Having an easy process for preparing aetho- 

 gen, it was advisable in the next place to have a more ready method 

 of forming the aethonides than that of heating together aethogen and 

 the metals, which is a long and uncertain process, and an attempt 

 was made to form aethonides by heating aethogen with the sulphurets 

 of the metals. As might be expected from the stability of aethogen 

 and its strong affinity for the metals, the aethogen directly displaced 

 the sulphur and formed the aethonide. Upon further experiment it 

 was proved that the aethonides might be made by heating sulphur, 

 bicyanide of mercury and boracic acid with the metallic sulphurets. 

 The proportions should be such as would give rise to the presence 

 of 2 atoms of the metallic sulphuret, 2 atoms of boracic acid (sup- 

 posing its composition to be B0 3 ), 3 atoms of cyanogen, and 3 atoms 

 of free sulphur. 



The aethonides when thus formed are not quite pure, but may be 

 readily purified by boiling with a mixture of nitric and muriatic acids 

 and afterwards washing carefully. In this way aethonides of sodium, 

 iron, copper and lead have been formed. Common galena was used 

 for the aethonide of lead ; and for that of iron, iron filings and an ad- 

 ditional quantity of sulphur. These four aethonides are all perfectly 

 white and infusible ; before the blowpipe they yield the very beauti- 

 ful phosphorescent light alluded to in a previous communication, and 

 in all respects resemble the aethonides of potassium, zinc, lead and 

 silver which were described as being made by the other processes. 



In conclusion, I beg to draw the attention of the Society to the 

 remarkable stability of these compounds and the very strong affini- 

 ties of aethogen. 



^Ethogen attracts moisture from the air with great avidity, and 

 decomposes it so rapidly, that a portion of aethogen which I have kept 

 in a moderately well-stoppered bottle smells strongly of ammonia. 



The want of means must still be my apology for not furnishing 

 the Society with a quantitative analysis, but if any member of the 

 Society will undertake one, I shall be most happy to supply him 

 with a fair specimen of aethogen. 



73. " On the Exhalation of Carbonic Acid from the Human Body," 

 by E. A. Scharling, Professor of Chemistry in the University and 

 Polytechnic School of Copenhagen. Communicated by S. Elliott 

 Hoskins, M.D. 



With the view of ascertaining the quantity of carbonic acid ex- 

 haled during the twenty-four hours, as well from the lungs as from 

 the general surface of the body, Professor Scharling undertook the 

 following experiments on six individuals, viz. four males and two 

 females. 



