398 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



M. Vogel finds the strongest analogy to exist. They both 

 form very acid colourless solutions, which cannot be concen- 

 trated by heat, without being converted into sulphurous and 

 sulphuric acids ; are both concentrated in the air-pump to the 

 same extent ; both form soluble salts having the greatest re- 

 semblance; are both with their salts decomposed by nitric acid 

 yielding sulphuric acid and sulphates. The difference between 

 them consists in the sulphovinous acid containing volatile oil 

 which partly escapes at a high temperature, and is partly 

 decomposed, whilst the hyposulphuric acid is converted by heat 

 into sulphurous and sulphuric acid, without the liberation of any 

 oil, and its salts do not char at a red heat. 



From these facts it is deduced that, when sulphuric acid is 

 mixed with alcohol, it loses oxygen, and a new acid is formed. 

 During the formation of ether, therefore, the action of the sul- 

 phuric acid is not confined to determining the production of 

 water. The new acid only differs from the hyposulphuric acid 

 in the volatile oil which it contains. 



M. Gay Lussac, whilst engaged in examining the above re- 

 sults, prepared the sulphovinate of barytes, and obtained it in 

 rhomboidal prisms, terminated by a rhomboidal pyramid. The 

 crystals were transparent, and did not alter in the air. This salt, 

 when heated, decomposed very readily. It gave a gas, burning 

 like olefiant gas, sulphurous acid, a very little carbonic acid, 

 water, and an ethereal oil, the smell of which, when mixed with 

 the sulphuric acid , resembled acetic ether; sulphate of barytes, 

 and a small quantity of charcoal remained in the retort. 



100 Parts, dried in the air, lost by heat 45.07, and gave 54.93 

 of pure sulphate of barytes ; another 100 parts heated, with a 

 mixture of chlorate and carbonate of potash, and then precipi- 

 tated by the muriate of barytes, gave 1 11 .47 sulphate of barytes, 

 a number nearly double that of the first. So that, with the ex- 

 ception of the vegetable matter, the sulphovinous acid appears to 

 be composed in the same manner as the hyposulphuric, and its 

 capacity for saturation is not changed by the vegetable sub- 

 stance. The vegetable matter appears to act the same part as 

 water of crystallization. It, however, impresses particular cha- 



