1869.] Chemistry. 281 



pale yellow or greenish body, somewhat harder and less resinous 

 than the wax yielded by the noble palm of the Cordilleras. Its 

 specific gravity is 0' 99907, and its melting-point 84° C. The 

 author found that the was contained no less than one-third of its 

 mass of free wax alcohol — a fact of no little interest in vegetable 

 physiology. 



A paper then followed on a subject of great importance to 

 metallurgists, namely, " The Connection between the Mechanical 

 Qualities of Malleable Iron and Steel, and the Amount of Phos- 

 phorus they Contain," by Dr. B. H. Paul. It is generally con- 

 sidered that very small quantities of phosphorus in malleable iron 

 and steel are most prejudicial to the quality of the metal. Quite 

 recently an eminent metallurgist had stated as a fact that much 

 less than * 3 per cent, of phosphorus produces a decided and injurious 

 effect on steel. The author had, however, been unable to discover 

 any evidence sufficient to justify such a conclusion, and still less 

 any reasonable explanation of it. He had recently had an opj)or- 

 tunity of testing the truth of this conclusion, by determining the 

 phos2)horus in some samples of the iron and steel made by the new 

 nitrate of soda process, from British pig-iron known to contain 

 phospliQrus. Seven bars of iron and two of steel, made by the 

 Heaton process were examined; their tensile strength and exten- 

 sion had been determined by Mr. Kirkaldy. The iron bars had a 

 tensile strength of from 46,547 to 52,842 lbs. per square inch of 

 area, and an extension, when subjected to this strain, of from 21 

 to 28 '6 per cent, of their length. The two cast-steel bars had 

 tensile strengths of 80,916 and 106,602 lbs., and extended to 3 '3 

 13 • 7 per cent, of their lengths. In the iron bars the author found 

 * 144 to • 38 per cent of phosphorus (average " 237 per cent.), and 

 in the two steel bars "24 and '241 per cent. The author therefore 

 thinks himself justified in asserting that the commonly received 

 opinion on this subject does not always represent the truth. An 

 animated discussion followed the reading of this paper. 



On February 4th the members assembled to hear a lecture by 

 Dr. Wallace, on the " Chemistry of Sugar Ke fining." This was 

 too long to allow of our condensing it mto an intelligible abstract. 

 The author commenced by drawing attention to the statistics of 

 the sugar trade in this country, from which it appears that the 

 total value of the imports of sugar during 1868 amounted to 

 21,000,000/. The various stages of selection of the raw sugar, 

 solution, decolourizing the syrup, filtration through charcoal, re- 

 vivifying the charcoal, and evaporation of the liquor were then 

 fully described. The lecture, which was fully illustrated with 

 tables and diagrams, was followed by an interesting discussion. 



