234? Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



I have since made a collation ; and I think it probable that the fol- 

 lowing list contains the whole of these errors. 



Groombridge, No. 462 and 463 constitute 59 Andromedae. 



ON THE CHEMICAL REACTIONS OF WATER. BY M. KUHLMAN. 



The influence exerted by the action of water in some chemical re- 

 actions, has already been the subject of several important observa- 

 tions. Proust has shown that nitric acid of sp. gr. 1*48 does not 

 attack tin, and that by the addition of a little water its action is ex- 

 tremely energetic. M. Pelouze has more recently stated some other 

 facts: 1st. That acetic acid, of sp. gr. r063, does not decompose 

 carbonate of barytes ; 2ndly. That the carbonates of potash, soda, 

 lead, zinc, strontia, and magnesia, are decomposed by crystalli- 

 zable acetic acid ; but that the energy of the action is greater when 

 water is added, and that there is no action upon these carbonates 

 when the acetic acid is mixed with absolute alcohol ; lastly. That 

 anhydrous alcohol, sulphuric aether, and acetic aether, completely 

 mask the properties of the most powerful acids ; their solutions 

 do not redden litmus, and do not attack a great number of car- 

 bonates. 



The rational explanation of so strange a fact (the non-action of 

 acetic acid mixed with alcohol upon carbonate of potash) is not 

 readily found. The intervention of insolubility, as likely to oppose 

 the formation of acetate of potash, cannot be alleged; for this salt is 

 not only soluble in alcohol, but is a mixture of alcohol and acetic acid. 



M. Braconnot has added other observations to these, especially 

 with respect to nitric acid. This acid, concentrated and boiling, 

 does not at all act upon fragments of marble, or carbonate of bary- 

 tes in powder ; this non-action is attributed by him to the insolu- 

 bility of the nitrates of lime and barytes in concentrated nitric acid, 

 and to the affinity which retains the carbonic acid in its com- 

 pounds. 



M. Braconnot has also determined, in a manner which is appa- 

 rently satisfactory, that if neither tin, iron, lead, nor silver, are at- 

 tacked by concentrated nitric acid, it is because the nitrates of these 

 metals are insoluble in this acid. It is to the same cause that he 

 attributes all the results obtained by M. Pelouze. 



