186 



Scientijic Intelligence — Chemistry. 



periments of Masson and Courtepee, the substances, pulverized with 

 some water, holding a Httle glue in solution, were applied in coats to 

 the faces of a small cube of copper. This cube filled with boiling 

 water was placed before a thermo-electric pile, with the radiating 

 surfaces perpendicular to its axis. They concluded that, 



(1.) The metals have a much greater radiating power when in 

 grains than when melted, or in mass. 



(2.) That the radiating power of a substance depends on the cohe- 

 sion of its parts, and not upon their nature. 



(3.) That, if all bodies were reduced to the same degree of chemi- 

 cal subdivision, they would have at 100° C. the same radiating 

 power. 



11. Analysis of the Ashes of Turnip Leaves, — M. Namur states 

 that, deducting accidental admixtures, the leaves of the turnip 

 (Brassica rufa, L.) yielded 0"39 per cent, of ashes, consisting of 



Silica, 



Sulphuric Acid, 

 Phosphate of Iron, 

 Magnesia, 

 Potash, 

 Soda, . 



Phosphoric Acid, 

 Chloride of Sodium, 

 Lime, 

 Carbonic Acid, 



6-144 



4-003 



1-332 



7-447 



29-529 



2-107 



1-176 



3-251 



25-510 



19-501 



100-000 



^our7i. de Pharm. et de Ch.^ Janvier 1848. — (The London, 

 Edinburgh^ and Dublin Philosophical Magazine^ Third Series, 

 vol. xxxiii., No. 219, July 1848, p. 78.) 



12. On the Inorganic Substances in the different Parts of Plants. 

 By D. C. Rammelsberg {Poggendorff^ s Annalen). — The examina- 

 tion of pease and rape shewed a remarkable difference between the 

 arrangement of the inorganic constituents of the seeds and the straw. 

 In these plants, the seeds contained potash, without a trace of soda ; 

 the straw contained both alkahes, but most of the soda. Lime and 

 magnesia are present in all parts of both plants, — the former pre- 

 dominates in the straw, the latter in the seed. Phosphoric acid, 

 which forms nearly half of the ash of the seed, is found only in small 

 quantity in the seeds ; the carbonic acid of the ash, derived from or- 

 ganic acids, &c., varies in a similar manner. 



The analyses of several other seeds, &c., quoted by Rammelsberg, 

 seem to agree tolerably well with the supposition that potash predo- 

 minates in the seed — soda in the straw or wood ; this is certainly 

 not a universal rule. The large quantity of phosphoric acid in seeds 

 has been noticed by other authors. 



i 



