Chemical Society. 73 



The subjects of experiment were confined in an air-tight box, 

 wherein they were perfectly at their ease, being enabled to speak, 

 eat, sleep, or read without inconvenience ; a constant current of at- 

 mospheric air was admitted into the box, and the deteriorated gases 

 abstracted by means of an air-pump. The air withdrawn was con- 

 ducted into a proper arrangement of bottles, some containing sul- 

 phuric acid, others a solution of caustic potash. The quantity of 

 carbonic acid, both previous to and subsequent to each operation, was 

 carefully ascertained, by being received into three graduated tubes. 

 The results were as follows : — 



1st. The Professor himself, aged thirty-five years, exhaled 219 

 grammes* during twenty-four hours, seven of which were spent in 

 sleep. 



2nd. A soldier, twenty-eight years of age, exhaled 239*728 

 grammes = 8*45 oz. 



3rd. A lad of sixteen, 224-379 grammes = 7*9 oz. 

 4th. A young woman, aged nineteen, 165*347 grammes=5*83 oz. 

 5th. A boy nine years and a half old, 133*126 grammes = 4*69 oz. 

 6th. A girl of ten, 125*42 grammes = 4*42 oz. 

 In the two last cases the period allotted to sleep was nine hours. 

 From these experiments the Professor deduces that males exhale 

 more carbonic acid than females, and children comparatively more 

 than adults. He also finds that less of this gas is given off during 

 the night than during the day ; and that in certain cases of disease, 

 which he does not specify, less carbonic acid is formed than during 

 the healthy state. He is thence induced to hope that attention to 

 this point may ultimately throw some light on certain forms of 

 disease. 



It will be interesting to compare these results with Liebig's views, 

 as well as with the experiments which have recently emanated from 

 the French Academie des Sciences. 



March 21. — Col. Yorke exhibited a specimen of magnesium ob- 

 tained by voltaic action on the chloride of magnesium. 

 The following papers were read : — 



74. " On Theine," by John Stenhouse, Ph. D. 



75. " Observations on M. Reiset's Remarks on the New Method 

 for the Estimation of Nitrogen in Organic Compounds, and also on 

 the supposed part which the Nitrogen of the Atmosphere plays in 

 the Formation of Ammonia," by Heinrich Will, Ph.D. (See Phil. 

 Mag., S. 3. vol. xxii. p. 286. 



March 30. — Anniversary Meeting, the President, Thomas Gra- 

 ham, Esq., F.R.S., in the Chair. 



The following Report of the Council was read by the President, 

 and subsequently ordered for publication : — 



Report of the Council made to the Cliemical Society of London, 



March 30, 1843. 

 The completion of a second year of the Society's existence in cir- 

 cumstances of increasing prosperity enables the Council to congra- 



* = 7*72 oz. avoirdupois. 



