232 Tcsl for Olive Oil. 



hour an abundaut rain of a deep red, wiiicli, insensibly resuming 

 its ordinary colour, continued during the rest of the day. 



This extraordinary phasnomenon, announced at Bruges by per- 

 sons deserving of every credit, fixed our attention; we procured 

 a quantity of the water, which we submitted to analysis on the 

 5th And 6th, four days after it fell, and the following were the 

 results : 



One hundred and forty-four ounces of this water, perfectly 

 transparent, of a rose colour slightly approaching to violet, sub- 

 jected to the action of heat and evaporated to four ounces, be- 

 came of a brick-red colour, and did not yield on cooling any pre- 

 cipitate. 



Experiments in the usual way have shown that before and after 

 evaporation this water was neither acid uor alkaline. 



By the addition of sulphuric acid a very sensible disengagement 

 of chloric acid was manifested. 



A solution of nitrate of silver produced a white precipitate in- 

 soluble in boiling water, which was recognised after being de- 

 composed to be a clilorurct of silver. 



Mixed with deuto-nitrate of liquid mercury an insoluble white 

 precipitate was obtained, which, by decomposition, we found tp 

 be proto-chloruret of mercury. 



Mixed with hydro-sulphuret of, potash we obtained a black 

 precipitate, which, submitted to the action of heat, became re- 

 duced to a metallic state. 



The liquor which by the addition of nitrate of silver had pre- 

 cipitated the chloruret of silver, mixed with the hydrate of deut- 

 oxide of potash, gave a precipitate of a purple colour, which re- 

 duced in the ordinary way furnished three grains of a hard brittle 

 metal pf a grayish white, attractible by the loadstone, and which 

 mixed with suhborate of soda gave us glass of a beautiful blue. 



From the above experiments it is established — 1st. That the 

 acid obtained is chloric acid. 2d. That the metal is cobalt. 



We were not able to obtain more than about two ounces of 

 pure water, collected from the first shower : it differed from the 

 water on which we experimented in this — that it was much deeper 

 in colour ; and that with the help of a microscope living animal- 

 cules were discovered in it, which altered nothing of its transpa- 

 rency, and which p-occeded doubtless from the vessels in which it 

 had been collected. ■ Some characters which we traced with this 

 water, after ascertaining that it contained muriate of cobalt, and 

 formed thus a sort of sympathetic ink, were faintly visil)le. 



Bruges, Nov. 25, IBli). ' 



TKST Fon oijVK on.. 

 The new process for detecting adulteration o olive oil is 

 founded on the property which the solution of acid pci-nitrato of 



mcrcurv 



i 



