7C SIXTH REPORT — 1836. 



posing from its slightly reddening litmus, and the colour which origi- 

 nated from its combination with lime, that the fluid might contain a 

 peculiar acid, the author precipitated the lime with oxalate of ammonia, 

 thinking if the supposition was correct a coloured volatile salt of am- 

 monia might be obtained. But on evaporating the supernatant liquid 

 to dryness and heating to 300°, the colour still remained in a soluble 

 state. Professor Hare, in a pamphlet he presented to the members of 

 the Association, observed the tendency of sulphurous acid to change 

 many volatile oils yellow, and it is not improbable that a portion was 

 generated in this case as carbon always is produced in distilling the 

 mixture. The author, strongly suspecting the liquid to contain nitro- 

 gen, though he could not see from what source it was derived, as the 

 husk of wheat is mere lignin, and chemists assert that lignin does not 

 contain nitrogen, adduces the following experiment to prove that the 

 lignin of wheat does contain nitrogen : a portion was successively 

 boiled in alcohol, water, and muriatic acid, washed and dried ; from 

 112 lbs. he obtained on destructive distillation 1^ lb. of sesquicarbonate 

 of ammonia. Chemists have observed that the seeds of the cerealia 

 contain nitrogen, but Mr. Jones was not previously aware that tlie 

 lignin of the wheat contains the same principle. He lias not analysed 

 the volatile liquid quantitatively, but it contains carbon, hydrogen, 

 oxygen, and nitrogen. 



Notice of Experiments respecting the effects which Arsenic produces on 

 Vegetation. By Dr. Daubeny, Professor of Chemistry, Oxford. 



Dr. Daubeny was led to undertake these experiments from having 

 received a communication from Mr. Davies Gilbert, in which he stated 

 that there was a district in Cornwall where the soil contained a large 

 proportion of arsenic, and that no plants could grow in it except some 

 of the Leguminosse. By analysis, this soil yielded him about 50 per cent. 

 of arsenic, in the form of a sulphuret, the rest being composed princi- 

 pally of sulphuret of iron and a little silica. He had already ascer- 

 tained that a little of the sulphuret mixed in soils produced no inju- 

 rious effect on Sinapis alba, barley, or beans, and that they flowered 

 and seeded freely when grown in it. Although the want of solubility 

 in the sulphuret might be assigned as a reason for its inactivity, yet it 

 was certainly taken up by water in small quantities, and imbibed by 

 the roots of plants. Upon watering them with a solution of arsenious 

 acid, he had found that they would bear it in larger proportions than 

 was presupposed. The experiments were made and are continued at 

 Oxford. 



On a new substance {Eblanine) obtained from the Distillation of Wood. 



By R. SCANLAN. 



On a former occasion Mr. Scanlan described a new fluid obtained 

 from pyroligneous acid, and he now detailed the properties of a new 



