.1826.] contained in Sea Water. 383' 



chemical properties which furnished the strongest reasons for 

 distinguishing it from them. 



M. Anglada advised me to call this substance Brome,^ deriving 

 this name from the Greek ^pM[x,og {factor.) 



Two processes may be adopted for the extraction of brome : 

 the first has already been mentioned ; it consists in distilling 

 the mother water after the action of chlorine, and condensing 

 the orange vapours which come over at the moment of ebuUi^ 

 tion. 



By this process, which is a slow one, only a small quantity 

 of impure brome is obtained. I satisfied myself that it occurs 

 always mixed with a ternary combination of hydrogen, carbon, 

 and brome, analogous in the nature of its properties to hydro- 

 carburet of chlorine. On these accounts I abandoned this pro- 

 cess when I had discovered another, more easy of execution, 

 and giving purer brome and in larger proportion. This process 

 consists in treating the mother water with chlorine, and I then 

 pour some ether upon the surface of the liquid, and I fill the 

 vessel entirely ; by strongly agitating these two liquids after* 

 wards so as to mix them, and then leaving them some moments 

 to allow of their separation, the ether floats, having assumed a 

 fine hyacinthine red colour, whilst the mother water becomes 

 colourless, and instead of the penetrating and irritating smell 

 of brome, it has merely that of the ether which it holds in 

 solution. 



The coloured ether, which is a true ethereal solution of brome, 

 when agitated with an alkaline substance, and especially with 

 caustic potash, loses its colour and disagreeable smell. The 

 potash absorbs the brome, and by successively agitating the 

 yellow mother water with ether, and the coloured ether with 

 potash, I succeed in combining all the brome of a great quantity 

 of the mother water with a small proportion of alkali. The potash 

 gradually loses all its alkaline properties, and is converted into 

 a saline matter which is soluble in water, and crystallizes in 

 cubes by the evaporation of the liquid : it is these cubic crystals 

 that I successfully employ for the preparation of brome ; I mix 

 these crystals, after pulverizing them, with purified peroxide of 

 manganese, and upon this mixture, put into a small distilling 

 apparatus, I pour sulphuric acid diluted with half its weight of 

 water. This acid, if it were mixed with the crystals alone, 

 would extricate white vapours and very little brome, and the 

 same effect is produced if it be used with the mixture of salt 

 and manganese, in a more concentrated state, but employed as 

 directed it produces orange vapours that condense into small 

 drops of brome, and which may be collected by immersing the end 

 of the retort into the bottom of a small receiver filled with cold 

 water ; the vapours of brome dissolve in the water ; that which 



* A notice of the discovery of this substance, under the ma\Q oi Muride, was given 

 in last month*s Jnmls,^EdiU 



