148 Intelligence and Miscellaneoics Articles, 



dual we must ever esteem, love, and venerate, and whose name the 

 annals of Philosophy will never cease to record among the first 

 founders and benefactors of Natural Science." 



On giving " The University of Cambridge," the Chairman took 

 notice of the expulsion of Ray from that University, which harsh act 

 he was disposed to attribute to the persecuting spirit which raged 

 without the walls of that learned seminary. He could say of many 

 of the present members of Trinity College, that they regret that the 

 violence of the times had compelled their predecessors to acquiesce 

 in the retirement of Mr. Ray from his Fellowship, for refusing to 

 subscribe a declaration altogether unwarrantable. Oxford had as 

 much to answer for in regard to her treatment of Mr. Locke. 



The Rev. Professor Henslow returned thanks. He remarked that 

 the University of Cambridge had, so far as the marble or the canvass 

 could make amends, endeavoured to atone for the little, or, he should 

 rather say, the great, injustice which Mr. Ray had sustained. The 

 bust of that great man was ranged by the side of those of Newton, 

 Boyle, Barrow, Dryden, and Willughby ; and his portrait was con- 

 sidered to confer honour on the place in which it was. But Cambridge 

 might with justice boast of possessing a far more powerful proof than 

 those, of the estimation in which it held the genius and conduct of 

 Ray. His spirit still lived there. And although the study of Natural 

 History had not yet been brought to that degree of perfection there 

 which it might be, he hoped the day was not far off when it would 

 command general attention : such pursuits he considered the best 

 correctives of fanaticism and bigotry. 



" The Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London," and the 

 healths of Baron Humboldt and Dr. Wollaston, having been severally 

 drunk, the Chairman retired, amidst the applauses of the company. 



The health of Mr. Children, who suggested the commemoration, 

 was then given with hearty approbation, and the company sepa- 

 rated, after having spent a day which they will long remember with 

 delight *. 



RED FERROCYANATE OF POTASH. 



M. Girardin obtains this compound by passing chlorine gas into 

 a moderately strong solution of the common ferrocyanate of potash j 

 and this is to be continued until the solution ceases to produce any 

 effect when added to a solution of peroxide of iron. The liquor is 

 then to be concentrated to two thirds of its volume, and set aside in 

 a moderately warm stove to crystallize : after some time yellow, bril- 

 liant, and slender crystals are obtained in the form of roses j by a 

 second crystallization very long needleform crystals are procured 

 in tufts. These crystals are ruby-coloured, transparent, and very bril- 

 liant; their form appears to be an elongated octahedron. 



The principal character of this salt is that of indicating the proto- 

 salts of iron, precipitating them blue or green, according to the 

 proportion in solution, and on the contrary not precipitating the per- 

 salts of iron. This reagent, according to M. Girardin, is much more 

 sensible than the common ferrocyanate of potash; for it is capable of 



* Might not our chemists and natural philosophers with great propriety 

 follov*' this example, by celebrating the centenary of Priestley in 1833 ? 



detecting 



