Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 149 



passes suddenly into another state of equilibrium, in which, however, 

 the bodies always remain in a simple proportion expressible in whole 

 numbers. — Comptes Rendus, No. 25, December 1852. 



RESEARCHES ON THE DENSITY OF SULPHUR. 

 BY CHARLES BRAME. 



The author gives the final results of his recent labours in the 

 following terms : — 



1 . The specific gravities of the diiFerent varieties of sulphur, or of 

 its different molecular conditions hitherto adopted, do not agree 

 together, not merely for the different forms, but likewise for each 

 one in particular, and the limits of these discrepancies extend beyond 

 those of any possible errors of observation. The differences are 

 caused as much by foreign bodies present in the sulphur employed, 

 as by the various circumstances under which any particular mole- 

 cular form of sulphur had been obtained, or by the influence of phy- 

 sical agents upon it. The limits of variation appear to be com- 

 prised between r87 or 1"9319, the lowest density of the viscous 

 sulphur, and 2"0757, the highest density which has been observed in 

 native crystallized sulphur. However, it appears that the maximum 

 density of sulphur may rise as high as 2*08 or 2*09, and perhaps 

 even to 2*1. 



2. The increase in the density of sulphur furnishes evidence of a 

 persistent molecular motion in a body apparently solid. This mo- 

 tion is more or less slow or rapid, and proves that frequently the 

 molecules of a body are only in a state of apparent rest. 



3. The slight increase in the specific gravity does not always de- 

 termine the perfect condensation of the material substance, if, as is 

 perhaps the case, we do not know in which kind of sulphur the 

 molecules are in a state of static equilibrium. It is however pro- 

 bable that the native crystallized sulphur and the old hard sulphur 

 approximate most closely to this condition ; the crystals formed by 

 fusion come equally near, although they maintain a density a little 

 lower than that of the preceding kinds. 



4. The octohedral crystalline state does not appear to be the 

 one towards which all the forms of sulphur always and necessarily 

 tend. All artificially prepared sulphur consists of a mixture of cry- 

 stalline sulphur and membranous sulphur, as has been detected by 

 M. Ch. Deville and by myself*. 



5. Every kind of sulphur in' different molecular conditions really 

 tends towards that form which is compact, amorphous or crystalline, 

 transparent or opake. The utricular form and state of sulphur are 

 the necessary consequence of the facts stated in this memoir and 

 the conclusions of Scheerer, Marchand, Ch. Deville and myself, 

 which refer to a correlation of the passage from one molecular con- 

 dition to another, with an alteration in the specific heat, the cry- 

 stalline form and the specific gravity. There is at the same time a 



• In accordance with this fact, I believe that I shall be able to trace an 

 analogy between several molecular forms of sulphur and those of glass, &c. 



