18 64. | Chemistry. 117 
use seems to be confined to the manufacture of green fire. M. Kuhl- 
mann has lately entered very largely into the manufacture of different 
compounds of barium, with a view to their commercial introduction, 
The absorption of oxygen from the air by red-hot baryta, and its sub- 
sequent release at a higher temperature, in the form of pure gas, could 
be made of the greatest importance to metallurgical and furnace 
chemistry. A cheap method of making peroxide of barium would 
place us in possession of the valuable peroxide of hydrogen, which 
would be of incalculable use as a disinfectant, and also in many manu- 
facturing processes. To the industrial chemist cheap caustic baryta 
would entirely revolutionize the alkali manufacture, whilst for many 
purposes it would supersede the ordinary alkalies. In the manufac- 
ture of crystal-glass, lead, the most costly ingredient, could be even 
now economically replaced by a barium compound, provided a few 
preliminary difficulties were overcome. Nitrate of baryta can also be 
economically employed in the preparation of blasting powder; the 
chromates of baryta can in many cases replace the more costly chro- 
mates of potash, and the same may be said of the ferrocyanides, all of 
which are largely used in dyeing. These are some of the more important 
applications of this earth, but an immense number of minor uses has 
also been proposed, and there is little doubt that it will shortly become 
as valuable in industrial as it already is in analytical chemistry. 
The extraordinary prolificness of some organic chemists in the 
discovery of new bases, will cease to be surprising after the perusal of 
a paper by Mr. Broughton,* in which it is shown that the known 
general processes for their formation are competent to produce several 
sextillions of new ammonias. As most, if not all, of these compounds 
only require for their production certain known agents to be placed in 
contact, it is evident that chemists need not debar themselves from the 
title of original discoverers for lack of virgin soil on which to work. 
The value of the element bromine in the arts and manufactures is 
daily increasing, and were its price reduced, its importance in many 
industrial operations can scarcely be over-estimated. Hitherto the 
only source has been sea-water, where it exists in the form of bromide 
of magnesium, one part of this salt being dissolved in 100,000 parts 
of water. Recent experiments, by M. Roux,t show that the water of 
the Dead Sea is more than 100 times richer in bromine than ordinary 
sea-water. Already we hear of proposals for the establishment of a 
factory near the Dead Sea, for the separation of this element. It is 
much to be desired that this inexhaustible store of so valuable an agent 
should be utilized. 
Perhaps the most important point to determine in the analysis of a 
drinking water is the presence of nitric acid, as this body is so closely 
connected with putrescent organic matter. Hitherto, however, few 
chemists take note of it, owing, doubtless, to the difficulties which 
beset its detection when very dilute. Mr. R. Kestingst has now 
* «Chemical News,’ vol. viii. p. 245. 
+ ‘ Comptes Rendus,’ vol. lvii. No. 14. 
t ‘Annalen der Chem. und Pharm.’ 
