1826.] contained in Sea Waten 423 



bromic acid, and the essential oil is changed into a resinous 

 substance of a yellow colour resembling turpentine. Resin acts 

 in the same way with brome; camphor dissolves perfectly well 

 in this fluid, losing almost entirely its smell and volatility by 

 the combination. The compound of brome and camphor soli- 

 difies and crystallizes by exposure to cold. 



The most permanent colouring substances are entirely 

 changed by the action of brome, which takes away their tint, 

 and, like chlorine, converts into a peculiar yellow substance. 



I did not perceive any remarkable action between brome and 

 sugar, starch, morphia, margaric acid, &c. 



The small quantity of brome which I could spare prevented 

 me from examining how it would act with other organic bodies. 



Natural History of Brome, ' 



Brome occurs in very small quantity in sea water ; even the 

 mother-water of the salt works contains but very little, although 

 it is much diminished in volume by the evaporation which occa- 

 sions the separation of common salt, and which does not contain 

 a sensible quantity of it. The nature of the methods by which 

 brome is separated seems to indicate that it exists in the state 

 of hydrobromic acid, and some circumstances induce me to 

 suppose that this acid is combined with magnesia ; for if the 

 residuum obtained by evaporating the water of salt works be 

 strongly calcined, it loses the property of disengaging brome by 

 mixture with chlorine ; recollecting that the hydrobromates 

 which 1 have examined are not decomposable by heat except- 

 ing that of magnesia ; it leads to the supposition that the water 

 of the salt springs contains this compound. 



Marine plants and animals also contain brome. The ashes of 

 the plants which grow in the Mediterranean all give a yellow 

 tint when the soluble part is treated with chlorine. I have also 

 seen the same colour produced by causing chlorine to act upon 

 the solution of the ashes of the laiithina violacea, a testaceous 

 moUusca, for which 1 am indebted to M. Auguste Berard, and 

 which this distinguished officer brought from St. Helena in his 

 second voyage round the world. I have obtained a considerable 

 quantity of brome from the mother-water of barilla employed for 

 the preparation of iodine. 



To conclude, it appeared that the residuum obtained by evapo- 

 rating a mineral water from the eastern Pyrenees, which was 

 strongly saline, became yellow by mixture with chlorine. If 

 brome really exists in a water of this kind, we may expect to 

 meet with it in salt springs, properly so called, and especially in 

 the mother-water of rock salt ; I had not the means requisite 

 for ascertaining this point. What has been stated renders it 

 extremely probable that brome will be found in a, great number 

 of marine productions, or of submarine origin. 



