70 



Proceedings of the Royal Society. No. 15. 



Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1834. Part 1. — From 

 the Society. 



Elements of Chemistry, including the recent Discoveries and Doc- 

 trines of the Science. By Edward Turner, M.D., F.Pt.S.L. 

 and E. Fifth edition. — From the Author. 



Astronomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory at Green- 

 wich, under die direction of John Pond, Esfj., Astronomer 

 Royal, for the years 1831 and 1832 ; January to September. — 

 From the Royal Astronomical Society. 



Observations Sommaires, sur les Canaux Navigables, et les Cheniius 

 de Fer, et sur les avantages que la France pent obtenir de sa 

 Canalisation, notamment pour la prosperice de son Agriculture. 

 Par M. Huerne de Pommeuse. — From the Author. 



A Cauieleon, a Fly Fish, and a Lantern Fly, preserved in spirits. — 

 From John Gordon, Esq. 



The following Communications were read: — 



1. On Phosphuretted Hydrogen Gas. By Thomas Graham, 



Esq., Glasgow. 



It is well known that chemists have usually admitted the existence 

 of two gaseous compounds of phosphorus and hydrogen, — one spon- 

 taneously inflammable, the other not so. Of late. Rose of Berlin has 

 ascertained that both gases are identical in composition, and has con- 

 sequently been led to infer that the existence of two phosphuretted 

 hydrogens, differing so much in properties, and yet similarly composed, 

 constitutes an example of isomerism among gaseous bodies. 



Mr Graham, however, shows in his paper that this inference is 

 not borne out by the facts of the case, — that there are not two phos- 

 phuretted hydrogens, — and that the spontaneous inflammability of 

 the gas obtained by heating together phosphorus, lime, and water, is 

 an accidental property, which may be removed by a variety of agents, 

 without altering the constitution of the gas, and which may also be 

 re.^tored to such S2is. as well as communicated to that which is not 

 in the first instance spontaneously inflammable. 



The agents which exercise the most remarkable power in destroy- 

 ing the property of spontaneous inflamniabiHty are, in the first in- 

 stance, various other gases, such as hydrogen, sulphuretted hydrogen, 



