324 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



alcoholic solution readily crystallizes in irregular prisms ; it is soluble 

 in the mineral and in organic acids, even diluted ; it is insoluble in 

 sether. 



Ammonia, potash, and soda precipitate it from its saline solutions ; 

 water precipitates it from solution in alcohol. Lastly, if it be dis- 

 solved in aqueous solution of chlorine, and ammonia be added, the 

 liquor assumes a reddish-yellow colour. It is well known that quina 

 similarly treated yields a green solution. 



Its solution in sulphuric acid may be rendered neutral to litmus 

 paper ; it is but slightly bitter. By evaporation it yields fine cry- 

 stals, which are flattened prisms beveled at the summits. 



The solution in hydrochloric acid had all the properties of an hy- 

 drochlorate, but it could not be made to crystallize. 



By analysis it yielded — 



I. II. 



Carbon 76'5 7G-7 



Hydrogen 8*1 8*2 



Nitrogen 102 10-4 



Oxygen 5*2 47 



100-0 100*0 



The author concludes from the chemical and physical properties 

 of this substance, and especially from its composition, that it is a new 

 alkaloid. — Comptea Rcndus, Aout 1848. 



PREPARATION OF META-ANTIMONIATE OF POTASH AS A TEST 

 FOR SODA. 



M. Fremy observes, that since the publication of his first memoir 

 on the antimoniates, the meta-antimoniate of potash has been ge- 

 nerally employed in laboratories as a test of the salts of soda ; and 

 as the preparation of this salt has been found difficult by several 

 chemists, the author states the following to be the process which he 

 now employs, and by which he obtains in a few hours nearly two 

 pounds of meta-antimoniate of potash. 



He begins by acting upon one part of antimony with four parts of 

 nitre in a red-hot earthen crucible ; insoluble anhydrous antimoniate 

 of potash is formed, which is washed with cold water to remove the 

 nitrite and nitrate of potash, an excess of which it usually retains. 



The antimoniate of potash is then boiled for tw r o or three hours in 

 water, in order to convert it into the gummy soluble antimoniate ; 

 water is to be added to supply the loss by evaporation. During 

 ebullition the greater part of the antimoniate dissolves, there remain- 

 ing but a small quantity of bi-antimoniate of potash, which is sepa- 

 rated by the filter. 



The solution of the gummy antimoniate of potash is then evapo- 



