48 Notices of the Labours of Continental Chemists. 



than in hot water, C ° H 36 O, Ca O, or C-° H u O 3 , Ca + 

 H-O. The specific gravity of the vapour of campholic acid 

 is 6*058, according to experiment ; calculated, it is 5'938. 

 Campholic acid is, camphor + 2 Aq. 



Ifcampholicacid be distilled with anhydrous phosphoric acid, 

 and the product rectified, a colourless oil is obtained, which 

 boils at 135°. Its formula is C' 8 H 32 . It is named Campholen. 

 The specific gravity of the vapour is 4*353,calculated 4*344'. 



By the distillation of a mixture of campholic acid with caustic 

 lime, an oil is obtained, whose formula is C 1 'H ,4 0, i. e. anhy- 

 drous campholic acid, minus carbonic acid, C 20 H H O 3 — C O 2 . 

 (A/males de Chimie ct de Phys. trois. ser. i. p. 120 — 127.) 



On Bromic Acid, and its Salts. 



Notwithstanding the various researches which have been 

 made on bromine since its discovery by Balard in 1826, seve- 

 ral points in the history of this interesting body have hitherto 

 been but imperfectly investigated, and among others, more 

 especially its combinations with oxygen. To fill up some of 

 these voids has been the object of Dr. Rammelsberg, who, in 

 a paper recently laid before the Academy of Berlin, has de- 

 scribed a number of the bromates, and several experiments to 

 obtain hyperbromic acid, in which, however, he has not proved 

 successful. Balard's experiments to obtain hypobromous acid 

 showed that the tendency of bromine to combine with oxygen 

 was exceedingly weak ; bromic acid decomposes, under all cir- 

 cumstances, more easily almost than chloric acid, and in this 

 respect cannot at all be compared with iodic acid. Bromate 

 of potash is converted, on heating below strong redness, im- 

 mediately into bromide of potassium; gaseous chlorine does 

 not produce at any temperature, even with an excess of 

 base, any decomposition. Bromic acid itself decomposes at a 

 temperature of 120° into bromine and oxygen. The iodates 

 of barytes, strontian and lime are converted on heating into 

 basic hyperiodates ; such is not the case with the correspond- 

 ing bromates, which are immediately reduced to the state of 

 bromides. Among the salts examined, the bromate of am- 

 monia is remarkable from the property, not only on heating, 

 but even after a short time, without any external cause, of 

 decomposing with violent detonation into bromine, nitrogen 

 and water; while probably at the same time oxygen is set 

 free, or forms an oxide of nitrogen. The bromate of potash, 

 of soda, and of the oxide of silver, are anhydrous; the two 

 first crystallize in forms of the regular system, the latter is a 

 pulverulent body of difficult solution. The salts of barytes, 

 strontian lime, and lead, contain one atom of water ; the ba- 



