500 Intelligence afid Miscellaneous Articles, 



passing a current of oxygen gas on phosphorus melted under hot 

 water, in which operation the phosphorus combines with this gas, 

 giving out light and heat. It is therefore proved that the red powder 

 is an oxide. 



Some time since I received some sticks of phosphorus which had 

 been kept for thirty years in the same bottle and exposed to 

 the light. Their surface was perfectly white, and covered with 

 a crust of this white matter to the thickness of about yj^ of an inch. 

 1 removed these cylinders into another bottle filled with pure di- 

 stilled water, and was surprised on finding the day after that they 

 had become entirely red : although they have been four years in 

 contact with light, they retain the same fine red colour. 



This observation is adverse to the opinions of Pelouze and Rose. 

 The only idea which I can form as to this sudden change of the 

 white crust into red oxide by distilled water is, that the minute 

 quantity of oxygen in the distilled water had converted the white 

 crust into oxide, and since this quantity of oxygen is very small, 

 the white matter could not be an oxide. I imagined that the phos- 

 phuretted hydrogen, which is always formed by phosphorus in wa- 

 ter, might be the cause of it. 



To satisfy myself respecting it, I passed a current of phosphu- 

 retted hydrogen gas into water containing red oxide of phosphorus 

 in a state of minute division. By this operation the red oxide was 

 gradually reduced to the white matter; which in its turn was in some 

 days after changed into red oxide, on removing it, without the con- 

 tact of light, into fresh water, in which oxygen was dissolved. 



It is evident from this that the white crust of phosphorus is a 

 combination of phosphuretted hydrogen and red oxide of phosphorus, 

 and that there is therefore only one oxide of phosphorus, and which 

 is of a red colour. 



On keeping phosphorus in water the latter is decomposed; oxide 

 of phosphorus and phosphuretted hydrogen are formed, a part of 

 which combines with the oxide of phosphorus, and gives rise to the 

 .white matter described. Journal de Pharmacie, Jan. 1837. 



ACTION OF IODINE ON THE VEGETABLE ALKALIS. 

 M. Pelletier remarks that it has not been determined whether the 

 bodies which are termed halogen combine with the vegetable alkalis, 

 or exert an elementary action upon them which alters their compo- 

 sition. Are iodine, bromine, and chlorine converted into iodides 

 and iodates, bromides and bromates, chlorides and chlorates by 

 the influence of the salifiable bases ? Do iodites, bromites, and 

 chlorites exist, or is the organic base decomposed ; and if so, is 

 chlorine, bromine, or iodine substituted for hydrogen ? These are 

 the principal points which attracted M. Pelletier's attention, and 

 he arrived at the conclusion that iodine is capable of combining 

 immediately witli the greater number of organic salifiable bases ; 

 and that from its union with these substances there result definite 

 combinations of this elementary body and the vegetable alkalis. 



