Capaciti) for Caloric. — Effects of the Voltaic Pile on Alcohol. 155 



birchwood. Soon after a manufacturer of sugar of lead in 

 Moscow, wrote to inform him, that in rectifying pyroUgneous 

 acid he had obtained one-third of alcohol. 



CAPACITY FOR CALORIC. 



In the Annals of Philosophy, xiii. 463, the disco\nery of the 

 simple gases having an equal specific caloric (under equal bulks), 

 and of their capacity for caloric being proportional to their ca- 

 pacity for oxygen, is considered as most imporianf, and attri- 

 buted to M. Dulong. This is inaccnrate, at least in a con- 

 siderable degree ; for in Meinecke's Explanations of Stochio- 

 metry 1817, 8vo. 192 to 201, those laws are precisely esta- 

 blished, with several other determinations, and in their con- 

 nexion with other stochiometric laws. But Messrs. Dulong 

 and Petit have contributed much to the confirmation of those 

 laws by a dissertation read on the 12th of April 1819. As to 

 their importance, further inquiries will decide upon it. 



EFFECT OF THE VOLTAIC PILE UPON ALCOHOL. 



M. Liidersdorff, architect at Weissensee, in Prussia, states 

 (in an inquiry communicated by M. Hermbstadt) that he 

 produced an ethereal fluid by the action of the Voltaic pile upon 

 mere diluted alcohol. 



The same person has changed a mixture of equal parts of al- 

 cohol and solution of ammonia by continued galvanizing into a 

 fluid no longer inflammable, of a wine yellow colour, of a bit- 

 terish flavour, and a nauseous smell like cantharides, which 

 having been slowly evaporated, gave a greasy residuum. 



SUPPOSED CONDUCTING POWER OF STRAW. 



In making experiments in order to ascertain the practicabi- 

 lity of straw conductors proposed by Lapostolle, Dr. R. Brandes 

 and Lieut. Holzermann found that a stalk of straw could only 

 discharge a Leyden phial when the straw was moist, and even 

 then only slowly and imperfectly ; but by no means when per- 

 fectly dry. They therefore conclude that Lapostolle's pro- 

 posal was to be rejected. This agrees with M. Tromms- 

 dorft''s very accurate experiments. 



OBSERVATORY AT MADRAS. 



It is now some years since an observatory was built at Ma- 

 dras; but hitherto, tlunigh an astronomer (Mr. Goldingham) 

 every way (jualified for the situation has been attached to the 

 establislunent, there has been a deficiency of instruments ne- 

 cessary for the making of any observations that could be ap- 

 plied to thr ptui)()ses of science. This deficiency having been 



U 2 |)r(H)crly 



