Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 395 



MM. Thenard and Chevreul reported on a Memoir of M. S^rullas 

 on the constituents of bromine. "Bromine, with which M.Balard has 

 lately enriched chemical science, has so great analogy with chlorine 

 and iodine, that it forms similar combinations with other bodies : 

 this results from the experiments of M. Balard, and it is confirmed 

 by the new results of M. SeruUas. These results are the production 

 of hydrobromic aether and a cyanuret of bromine, which are ob- 

 tained like hydriodic aether and cyanuret of iodine, and which they 

 resemble very much in their appearance and properties. Hydro- 

 bromic aether is a colourless liquid, heavier than water, very vola- 

 tile, of a strong aethereal odour, a sharp taste, very soluble in alco- 

 hol, from which it is precipitated by water.— As to the cyanuret of 

 bromine, it crystallizes in long fine needles, it is colourless, very 

 solid, a very pungent smell, and acts so strongly upon the animal 

 ceconomy, that a grain of the cyanuret dissolved in water is suffi- 

 cient to kill a rabbit. Added to this, in all the experiments to which 

 the cyanuret of bromine has been subjected, M. Serullas did not 

 observe any circumstance which induced him to think that bromine 

 is a compound body. M. Serullas not only repeated before us the 

 principal experiments which relate to the hydrobromic aether and 

 the cyanuret of bromine, but he made others which he had tried 

 since he sent his memoir to the Academy, which show that bromine 

 solidifies at 20^ below (Centigrade), that it acts strongly upon 

 hydriodide of carbon, and that the result, attended with great heat, 

 is a bromide of iodine soluble in water, and a hydrocarburet of 

 bromine almost insoluble in it, which has an ethereal smell and a 

 sweet taste." M. SeruUas's memoir is recommended to be printed 

 in the Recueil des Savans Strangers. 



LXXVII. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



ON BnojVIINE : BY M. sfeRULLAS. 



M BALARD having stated that bromine does not become solid 

 • at 0" of Fahr., M. Serullas intended to employ liquid sul- 

 phurous acid as a cooling medium for its solidification. Having how- 

 ever, as a preparatory step, subjected some bromine to a cooling 

 mixture of about 1° below zero, it became solid and very hard m 

 an instant, and was broken by a blow : the experiment succeeds 

 very well by putting the bromine in a watch-glass. 



When one part of hydriodide of carbon is added to two parts of 

 bromine in a glass tube, the former is immediately decomposed with 

 the extrication of much heat, accompanied with a hissing noise: 

 there are formed bromide of iodine, and liquid hydrocarburet of 

 bromine; a portion of bromine is therefore substituted for iodine; 

 water dissolves the bromide of iodine and the hydrocarburet of 

 bromine coloured l)y bromine, separates at the bottom of the li- 

 quor ; the colour is removed by the necessary quantity of potash. 



If the hydriodide of carbon is in excess, but little hydrocarburet 

 of bromine is formed ; but u subbrumide of iodine is obtained, from 

 which iodine is precipitated by the careful addition of solution of 

 potash. 3 \L 2 Hydro- 



