: Royal Sociely. 69 
Consequently the temperature of the calorimeter must have 
been elevated to 144 degrees of Fahrenheit, with the heat which 
must have been developed in the con densation of 33-695 
grammes of steam from pure water. 
Now as the hydrogen and the oxygen forming the elements of 
41-727 grammes of water, which are found to ‘form constituent 
parts of the 71-51 grammes of vapour of alcohol condensed in 
the experiment in question, only per in their condensation 
the same Goats) y of heat as 33-695 grammes of steam of pure 
water should have furnished, it is clear rly proved, in my opinion, 
that these elements are not so united as to form water, so long 
as they concur in the formatien of alcohol. 
I have discovered that the vapour of sulphuric ether furnishes 
about one half less of heat in its condensation than that of 
alcohol, and consequently one fourth only of what is furnished 
by the steam of water of equal weight; but having been inter- 
rupted by ai accident in the course of my experiments with ether, 
I am desirous of finishing them before I publish the results.* 
— 
XVII. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
ROYAL SOCIETY. 
Jan. 20. Te President in the Chair. Sir H, Davy com- 
miunicated, in a letter to the President, a long paper from 
Paris, on a new gas discovered in that city by M. Courtois, a 
manufacturer of saltpetre. It appears that this gas was dis~ 
covered above two years ago; but such is the weed el state 
of scientific men i France, that no account of it_ was pub- 
lished till the arrival of our English philosopher there. M. 
Courtois communicated his discovery to Clement and Desormes, 
who made some experiments with the gas, and latterly M. 
‘Gay Lusac has devoted his attention to an examination of its 
history_and properties. -Mean time Sir Humphry has made a 
great number of experiments on it, and would have made _ seve- 
ral more had he not wanted the necessary,apparatus in Paris. 
M. Courtois was led to the discovery by observing how rapidly 
his metal pots were corroded in preparing the different kinds of 
sea-weed, which he used for making carbonate of soda. When 
the soda is extracted from the sea-weed, the new gas is easily 
disengaged ; by pouring strong sulphuric acid on the residuum, at 
* In a subsequent number we shall give the learned author's “ Inquiries 
into the Capacity for Heat, or the calorific Power of various Liquids,” as 
heing connected with the foregoing memolr.— EDITORS. 
the 
