236 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



"6 



is of a bright red colour, and its specific gravity is 1*1611. When 

 inclosed in a tube hermetically sealed, it is not decolorized by long- 

 continued exposure to the solar rays, and it possesses all the other 

 known properties of aqua-regia. 



Chlorazotic acid gas attacks several metals, such as gold and pla 

 tina ; arsenic and antimony, reduced to powder, when thrown into 

 it, burn with the extrication of light ; but it is a singular circumstance, 

 that it has scarcely any action on phosphorus, even when melted 

 by heat ; the active product of aqua-regia does combine directly with 

 metallic oxides ; it gives a chloride and a nitrate by a reaction which 

 is readily explained. When chlorazotic acid gas is exposed in small 

 tubes to the cold of a mixture of common salt and ice, it liquefies, 

 and the fluid yielded has the following properties : it is of a deep red 

 colour, but much less so than hypochlorous acid ; it boils at about 

 20° F.*; its specific gravity at 46° F. is T3677 ; the specific gravity of 

 the gas is about 2'49. This liquefied gas attacks all metals which are 

 brought into contact with it ; with pulverulent silver, derived from 

 the reduction of the chloride, it explodes, and disappears immediately ; 

 it evaporates without acting upon phosphorus. 



By analysis chlorazotic acid gas appears to be formed of 



Equivs. 



Chlorine 65-0 2 = 72 



Oxygen 22'4 3 = 24 



Azote 12-6 1 = 14 



100-0 Equivalent 110 



The composition of this product may, according to M. Baudrimont, 

 be represented by a formula resembling that of anhydrous nitric acid, 

 for Az0 3 Oo resembles Az0 3 Cl„ ; this being the case, and consider- 

 ing the previous discovery of chloro- sulphuric acid, M. Baudrimont 

 proposes to call the gas of aqua-regia chlorazotic acid, although in 

 reality it is not an acid, since it does not saturate bases : 1 equiva- 

 lent of chlorazotic acid corresponds to 6 volumes of vapour. 



The liquefaction of chlorazotic acid, the boiling point of the lique- 

 fied gas, its direct solubility in water, its action on metallic oxides, 

 evidently indicate that it is a substance of a peculiar and well-de- 

 fined nature, and that its composition corresponds to that of anhy- 

 drous nitric acid. — Journ. de Pharm. et de Chim., Janvier 1844. 



ANALYSIS OF BEAUMONTITE. BY MONS. A. DELESSE. 



M. Levy has given, in honour of M. Elie de Beaumont, the name 

 of beaumontite to a very rare mineral found in the United States ; 

 it crystallizes in the form of a right jmsm with a square base ; the 

 prism is terminated by a four-sided pyramid, forming with the lateral 

 faces an angle of 130° 20'. 



Two varieties of beaumontite are usually met with in mineralo- 

 gical collections ; one of these is of a fine honey-yellow colour, the 

 other of a pale yellow ; both of them are found in a quartzose rock 



* There must be some error in the statement made as to its boiling 

 point, or as to that at which its density is taken. — Edit. 



