Chemical Science. 395 



as to separate the alcohol from it. When decomposed in a 

 tube heated red, it gave much carburetted hydrogen ; but the 

 water through which the gas had passed, was not at all acid, 

 and did not effect either lime-water or acetate of lead. Hence 

 it appears, that the ether should be ranged with those produced 

 by sulphuric, phosphoric, and arsenic acids. 



To ascertain what the phenomena of this change were, 

 alcohol was saturated with fluoboric gas ; after some time it 

 became turbid, and a black powder like charcoal was de- 

 posited. It was distilled in an apparatus which would collect 

 the gas ; none came over during the time that ether was 

 passing, but at the end of the distillation a few bubbles were 

 liberated, which, when well washed, troubled lime-water, and 

 were inflammable, they were therefore mixtures of carburetted 

 hydrogen and carbonic acid ; and these gases from other ex- 

 periments appear to be produced by the action of the gas on 

 the alcohol, and not by free sulphuric acid. Though the 

 evaporation was carried very far, no sweet oil of wine was 

 formed. From hence it follows, says the author, that first, 

 an ether analogous to sulphuric ether, may be obtained by 

 the action of fluoboric gas on alcohol ; and, secondly, that the 

 etherificalion probably takes place in consequence of the affinity 

 of fluoboric acid for water, that it produces no sweet oil of 

 wine, and that the acid does not appear altered in its nature.— 

 Annales de Chimie, xvi. p. 72, 



17, On the Ripening of Fruits. — Inconsequence of a prize 

 question set forth by the Academy of Sciences, for the year 

 1821, three papers were received on the ripening of fruits, 

 their effect on the air, S^c. Of these, one written by M. Berard 

 of Montpellier, gained the prize, and it has since been pub- 

 lished in the French Journals, Annales de Chimie, xvi. p. 152, 

 225. The memoir is long, and cannot well be abridged, but 

 the author has himself given a summary at the end of his 

 paper of which the following is a translation : 



Fruit does not act like leaves on the air. The result of its 

 action as well in light, as in darkness, is at every instant of its 

 formation, a loss of carbon by the fruit, which combines with 

 the oxygen of the air, and forms carbonic acid. This loss of 

 carbon is essential to the ripening of the fruit, for when the 

 fruit is placed in an atmosphere deprived of oxygen, this 

 function becomes suspended, the ripening is stopped, and if 

 the fruit remains attached to the tree, it dries up and dies. 



A fruit which happens naturally to be enclosed in a shell 

 may nevertheless ripen, because the membrane which forms 

 the husk is permeable to the air. The conuuunication bctwcc n 

 the external and internal air is so free that the two portions 



