Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 143 



PHOSPHORUS IN KELP. 



Repeated trials, we are told by Van Mons, have proved, that the 

 roundish and longish veins found in the varec-soda or kelp, after 

 the matter soluble in water has been removed, are principally com- 

 posed of phosphorus. — Jamesoyis Edin. Journal, Jan. 1827. 



How did the phosphorus escape combustion ? 



DECOMPOSITION OF OXALIC ACID BY SULPHURIC ACID. 

 In our last number we noticed M. Dumas's experiment of the de- 

 composition of oxalic acid into carbonic acid and oxide by means 

 of sulphuric acid and binoxalate of potash. I have repeated the ex- 

 periment successfully, and the same decomposition is effected when 

 oxalic acid is substituted for the binoxalate of potash. — R. P. 



PHOSPHORESCENT FLUOR SPAR. 



At a recent meeting of the Philomathic Society of Paris, a spe- 

 cimen of fluor spar was exhibited by M. Becquerel, which had been 

 found in granite, in Siberia, and sent by M. Leman : it shines in 

 the dark when warmed, with a remarkably strong phosphorescent 

 light, increasing as the temperature is raised. The light augments 

 when it is plunged in water ; and in boiling water the spar becomes 

 so luminous that the letters of a printed book could be seen near 

 the glass vessel containing it. On boiling mercury it emitted such 

 a light as to enable a person to read printing at a distance of hve 

 inches. M. Eyries mentioned at the same meeting, the statement 

 of Sir John Mandeville, that at the entrance of a town in Great 

 Tartary were two columns surmounted by stones which shone 

 brightly in the dark. — Royal Institution Journal, Jan. 1827. 



in Phillips's Mineralogy, p. 172, a fluorspar is mentioned as oc- 

 curring in Siberia which is of a pale violet colour, and gives out, 

 according to Pallas, white light by the heat of the hand merely ; 

 when subjected to the temperature of boiling water, it gave a green 

 light. It would seem that this variety phosphoresces even at a 

 lower temperature than that exhibited by M. Becquerel — Compact 

 phosphorescent fluor has been found also in Cornwall. 



Perkins's high-pressure engines. 

 A Report has been made by M. Girard, on a memoir by Sir 

 William Rawson, on Perkins's High Pressure Engines, read to the 

 Academy of Sciences at Paris. The report, after enumerating the 

 advantages stated in the memoir to be possessed by the apparatus, 

 observes, how desirable it would be that these assertions should be 

 supported by authentic experiments, which it would appear to them 

 they want at present, unless it be in the propulsion of balls, which 

 comprises the whole of the official proofs. — Bull. Univ. — Royal In- 

 stitution Journal, Jan. 1827. 



FORMATION OF OLEIC AND MARGARIC ACIDS FROM FAT. 



MM. IJussy and Lecanu treated soft fat with four times its weight 

 of concentrated and boiling nitric acid : after an hour's action, the 



mixture 



