Miscellaneous Intelligence. 387 



acid obtained is not pure, but contains sulphuric acid. The liquid 

 containing the two acids, when successively evaporated, entirely 

 crystallizes in small quadrangular prisms of a deep red colour. 

 If the heat and concentration be carried too far, oxygen is dis- 

 engaged, and sulphate of green oxide of chromium found. 

 These crystals are deliquescent, and contain one atom of each of 

 the acids. To analyze them, they were boiled with a mixture 

 of muriatic acid and alcohol, so as to convert the chromic acid 

 into green oxide ; then dividing the liquid into two parts, one 

 was precipitated by muriate of baryta, to give the sulphuric 

 acid ; and the other by ammonia, for the oxide of chrome, and 

 consequently the chromic acid. 



Alcohol easily dissolves this substance, and, if strong, so 

 rapid a decomposition is produced, as to resemble an explosion. 

 The chromic acid becomes oxide of chromium, and a particular 

 ethereal odour is produced. Having ascertained that the same 

 odour was produced by treating peroxide of manganese with 

 alcohol and sulphuric acid, I collected some of this ethereal 

 fluid by distillation, and rectified it on lime to separate water, 

 and on chloride of calcium to separate alcohol. It was then of 

 an acrid burning taste, and very penetrating odour, resembling 

 sulphuric ether. When mixed with water, it separated into a 

 stratum of sulphuric ether, and a white transparent light oil, 

 identical with the sweet oil of wine. The mixture of alcohol, 

 sulphuric acid, and black oxide of manganese, that had been 

 used, contained much sulphate of manganese, but no hyposul- 

 phuric acid. 



Hence, in treating alcohol by chromic and sulphuric acid, 

 or by the latter and peroxide of manganese, it appears to 

 undergo the same alteration, as by sulphuric acid alone. Sul- 

 phuric ether and sweet oil of wine are formed by means of the 

 oxygen of the chromic acid, or of the peroxide of manganese. 

 The sulphuric acid suffers no alteration, but its presence is 

 necessary to determine the decomposition of the alcohol and 

 the partial deoxidation of the chromic acid, or peroxide, in 

 consequence of its affinity for the oxides of chromium and 

 manganese. I do not doubt but that it might be replaced by 

 many other acids. 



M. Gay Lussac, to whom these experiments are due, then 

 notices, that Scheele and Dobereiner had noticed effects relative 

 to this subject: Scheele remarked the ethereal smell, ^c, pro- 

 duced by the action of peroxide of manganese, sulphuric acid 

 and alcohol, and distilling slowly ; and Dobereiner had ob- 

 served a similar odour in a mixture of chromatc of potassa, 

 sulphuric acid, and alcohol. — Annates de Chimie, vol. xvi. 

 p. 103. 



5. Native Carbonate of Magnesia.— \iv. Henry has published an 

 account of a native carbonate of magnesia, brought from the 



