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TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 81 
gave by analysis sodium, iodine and oxygen, in proportions not corre- 
sponding to any known compound of these elements. The same salt 
was also prepared by saturating a solution of caustic soda with iodine, 
and allowing the solution to evaporate spontaneously. At first this 
salt was thought to be the same as that described by Mitscherlich in 
his Elements of Chemistry, and to which he gives the following com- 
position, NaI + NaO,10, + HO,,; but the analysis gave very dif- 
ferent results. Professor Penny gives the following characters of this 
salt. It is white and inodorous, has a sharp saline taste, crystallizes in 
short six-sided prisms, is soluble in cold and hot water, and is decom- 
posed by alcohol into iodate of soda and iodide of sodium. It efflo- 
resces by exposure to the air, and is very readily decomposed by heat ; 
water in abundance is first evolved, and then oxygen with a trace of 
iodine. Its solution is perfectly neutral to test papers, gives a pale 
lemon-yellow precipitate with acetate of lead, yellowish white with 
nitrate of silver, and a fine bright yellow with pernitrate of mercury. 
It is not affected by solution of starch, but instantly decomposed with 
the precipitation of iodine by nitric, sulphuric, acetic and hydrochloric 
acids. The latter acid in excess converts it wholly into chloride of 
potassium. He detailed a remarkable circumstance attending the for- 
mation of this salt from iodine and caustic soda. When the solution 
is evaporated spontaneously, long prismatic crystals of iodate of soda 
deposit ; but as the evaporation continues these crystals are re-dissolved, 
and are replaced by those of the new salt. In one experiment this 
change was very striking. The solution on Saturday night had de- 
posited an abundance of fine crystals of iodate of soda; but on Monday 
all these had disappeared, and a crop of the new salt had crystallized. 
The prior deposition of iodate of soda generally occurs in the prepara- 
tion of this salt; and from other experiments of the author it seems 
necessary that there should be excess of iodide of sodium present in the 
solution, and that the solution should be strong in order that the salt 
may form. When this salt is dissolved in water, and the solution eva- 
porated spontaneously, crystals of iodate of soda deposit, but very few 
of the new salt will form. The salt may also be procured by pouring 
a saturating solution of iodide of sodium on crystals of iodate of soda, 
and setting them aside for some days. The crystals will be dissolved, 
and be replaced by crystals of the new salt. Professor Penny then 
gave the details of his analysis of this salt, and the following formula 
as agreeing best with his result: Na, I, O,. + 38 H O; or regarding 
it as a compound of iodate and iodide, it may be thus represented: 
3NaIl+2Nal0,+ 38HO. According to this view it is the sesqui- 
iodide of iodate of soda. 
Additional Observations on the Voltaic Decomposition of Alcohol. 
By Artuur Connet, Esq. 
The author showed, a few years ago, that under powerful voltaic 
agency, the water entering into the constitution of absolute alcohol wasre- 
solved into its elements, hydrogen being evolved at the negative pole, and 
1540. G 
