CHEMISTRY. 385 



dust, hay, or shavings has 25 to 100 c. c. of nitric acid of 1.5 specific 

 gravity phiced in the center. Vapors become visible in a minute or 

 two, a thick white smoke appears, and then the odor of burning mate* 

 rial is i)erceptible. In five or six minutes the box is opened and is ibuud 

 filled with a burning mass which bursts into tlame on access of air. [Ber. 

 Berl. Cliem. Ges., February, 1881, xiv, 301.) 



Berthelot has observed that when the silent discharge acts on a mix- 

 ture of oxygen and nitrogen tetroxide, the gas becomes decolorized ; but 

 that on ceasing the discharge, slow decomposition took place, reproduc- 

 ing the orange vapor. Since exposure to a freezing mixture produced 

 no crystals, it was not nitric oxide N2O5. Moreover, the spectroscope gave 

 characteristic absorption bands. Hence the author supposes it to be 

 pernitric oxide. {Ann. Chwi. Phys., March, 1881, V, xxii, 431.) 



Jones and Taylor have described a colorless gas with a characteristic 

 and extremely disagreeable odor, producing nausea and headache, which 

 they have obtained by the action of hydrogen-chloride upon magnesium- 

 boride. The gas is slightly soluble iu water, burns with a splendid 

 green flame, producing boric oxide, deposits boron in a heated tube 

 through which it is passed, or on a porcelain plate held in its flame, 

 gives a black precipitate in a solution of silver nitrate, and gives on 

 analysis numbers contirm,ing the formula BH3. It is therefore boron 

 hydride. {J. Chem. Soc, May, 1881, xxxix, 213.) 



Chappuis has confirmed earlier suggestions that the luminosity of 

 phosphorus is due to ozone. In pure oxygen at 15°, under atmospheric 

 pressure, phosphorus is not luminous in the dark, but a bubble of ozone 

 admitted produces the luminosity at once, though only momentarily. 

 Two cylinders, one containing air the other pure oxygen, were inserted 

 over potassium iodide and starch solution. A fragment of phosphorus 

 was i^laced in each jar. The luminosity appeared in the first and the 

 hquid became blue, but neither jihenomenon appeared in the second. 

 Whenever the phosphorescence appeared »zone was present; when 

 ozone was absent there was no luminosity. Again, those bodies which 

 prevent the luminosity of phosphorus, such as turpentine, for example, 

 are precisely those which destroy ozone or are destroyed by it. The 

 author regards the ijroduction of the luminosity of phosphorus in oxygen 

 as one of the most delicate of the reactions of ozone. {Bull. Soc. Chim., 

 April, 1881, II, xxxv, 419.) 



A new variety of coal, said to be the richest in carbon of any mem- 

 ber of the coal series yet discovered, has been found near Scheunga, on 

 the westetn shores of Lake Onega. It contains 91 per cent, of carbon, 

 7 to 8 per cent, of water, and 1 per cent, of ash. It is extremely hard 

 and dense, has an adamantine luster, is a good conductor of electricity, 

 and has a high specific heat, 0.1922. Though the carbon is as high as in 

 the Ceylon graphite, it is not a graphite, since its behavior with potas- 

 sium chlorate and nitric acid is that of an amorphous coal. {Nature, 

 June, 1881, xxiv, 204.) 

 S. Mis. 109 25 



