499 Dr. Kane on the Protochloride 



As to the facts observed by Mr. Noad, you will easily per- 

 ceive that some of them have been ah'eady mentioned in my 

 letter to Mr. Faraday, published in Number 5[> of your Ma- 

 gazine. The conclusion drawn by Mr. Noad from some of 

 his experiments, that iron being in its peculiar state is inca- 

 pable of conducting current electricity, is, I am afraid, not 

 admissible; for as I have shown elsewhere, an inactive iron 

 wire can perfectly well perform the function of the positive 

 electrode, even of a very small pile, without undergoing any 

 change with regard to its peculiar condition ; and besides this 

 fact, there are many others, which do not allow the adoption 

 of Mr. Noad's conclusion. It is, however, true, that iron in its 

 peculiar state obstructs very much the passage of currents of 

 low intensity, and acts in this respect very like platina. 



I am, Gentlemen, yours, &c. 

 Bale, May 8, 1837. C. F. ScHOENBElN. 



P.S. You will oblige me very much by letting Mr. Faraday 

 have a sight of the preceding letter previously to its insertion 

 in your valuable Journal. S. 



LXXXII. On the Frotochloride and Terchloride of Iodine, 

 By Robert Kane, M.Z)., M.R.I.AJ^ 



IN the Jomiial de Pharmacie for February 1837, received 

 here (at Dublin) April 4th, there is a paper by Soubeiran 

 in which he describes a chloride of iodine, consisting of three 

 atoms of chlorine and one of iodine, as new, and as having been 

 first discovered by him. In the number of the Dublin Journal 

 of Medical and Chemical Science for July 1833, I described 

 this very body, as vieW as a lower chloride which appears to 

 have escaped Soubeiran's notice; and as that memoir has evi- 

 dently not attracted the attention of chemists, I take the liberty 

 of subjoining the results contained in it in as brief a form as 

 admits of their being intelligibly described. The difference of 

 dates (four years nearly) renders it unnecessary to enter into 

 any argument about priority. 



" In order to obtain a compound containing the greatest 

 possible quantity of iodine, i passed a current of chlorine 

 through water in which iodine was diffused, leaving a consi- 

 derable excess of iodine. The liquor became of a deep 

 brownish-red colour ; gave off fumes of chloride of iodine 

 highly irritant to the eyes and nose; had a peculiar smell in- 

 termediate between those of its constituents; first reddened and 



* Communicated by the Author. 



