X Proceedings. \ January 22nd, igor. 



Ordinary Meeting, January 22nd, 1901. 



Horace Lamb, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



The thanks of the members were voted to the donors of the 

 books upon the table. 



The President referred to the loss sustained by the Society 

 through the death of Professor Ch. Hermite, one of its honorary 

 members since 1892. 



There being no paper before the Society, Mr. Fhancis Jones 

 showed the mode of delecting small quantities of arsenic by 

 Marsh's, Reinsch's, and Gutzeit's methods. He also showed 

 the results obtained by the action of light on the hydrides of 

 arsenic and antimony in contact with sulphur, constituting a 

 further test of the presence of these metals. The mirror of 

 arsenic obtained recently from a glass of beer by Marsh's test 

 was also exhibited, together with a sample of invert sugar 

 containing arsenic. 



Mr. R. L. Taylor referred to a subject to which, about the 

 year 1882, he called attention by letters to the Manchester 

 newspapers, namely, the occurrence of arsenic in large quantities 

 in green tapers. The garlic-like odour of the tapers when 

 burning or smouldering attracted his notice. Out of seven 

 samples obtained from different shops, four contained arsenic. 

 The amount in one taper he had found to be two-thirds of a 

 grain of white arsenic, equal to 9 grains in one ounce of tapers. 



Mr. Taylor further said that in the course of the last week he 

 obtained six samples of green tapers from Manchester and the 

 immediate neighbourhood, and two of these were found to 

 contain arsenic. The green tapers which are free from arsenic 

 are bluish-green in colour and semi-transparent, while those 

 containing arsenic are bright green and quite opaque. The 

 amount of arsenic is quite as great as in those examined 

 previously, and is probably present in the form of Scheele's 

 green. When the tapers are burned the arsenic passes into the 

 air in the form of the white oxide and would be inhaled by persons 



