258 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 
The specific gravity of the vapour is about 4:4, 
1 volume of nitro-benzide is composed of 
3 volumes carbon, 
23 hydrogen, 
4 azote, 
1 oxygen. 
The formation of nitro-benzide may be explained by supposing that 
a volume of nitric acid gas combines with a volume of benzine, 
whilst there separates } vol. of hydrogen and 4 vol. of oxygen. 
Sulpho-benzide.—if benzine is mixed with anhydrous sulphuric 
acid it is not decomposed, nor is any sulphurous acid gas liberated; 
but a thick liquid, very soluble in water, is obtained, which, when 
diluted with water, affords a crystalline substance equal to about 
five or six parts for every 100 of benzine employed. This substance 
is very slightly soluble in water, and may be purified by washing 
with water. To completely purify it, it may be dissolved in 
zther, filtered, the solution crystallized, and the crystals distilled. 
At 212° Fahr. this substance melts, forming a transparent and colour- 
less liquid, and boils at a temperature between the boiling-points of 
sulphur and mercury. It is inodorous, insoluble in the alkalies ; but 
soluble in the acids, where it separates the water. Heated with 
sulphuric acid, it forms a particular acid, which forms a soluble com- 
bination with barytes. The other acids do not alter it. 
It is composed of 12 carbon, 
10 hydrogen, 
1 sulphur, 
2 oxygen. 
It thus appears that nitro- and sulpho-benzide are formed by the 
union of nitric acid and sulphuric acid with benzine, and that during 
this combination water is separated. It is owing to this circumstance 
that the union of these substances is so stable as to resist the ordi- 
nary methods of separating the acids. M. Mitscherlich, from the 
analogy of these bodies with the amides, has proposed to call them 
nitro- and sulpho-benzide.— Journal de Pharmacie, Juin 1835. 
FORMATION OF ZTHER. BY M. MITSCHERLICH. 
The decomposition of alcohol into ether and water is not inter- 
esting merely by, the production of ether, but is especially so as an 
example of a particular kind of decomposition, which cannot be so 
well followed with any other substance, and which is manifested in the 
formation of some important products, for example, in that of al- 
cohol itself. M. Mitscherlich has endeavoured to elucidate the 
phenomena of this decomposition by the following experiments : 
Take a mixture of 100 parts of sulphuric acid, 20 of water, and 50 
of anhydrous alcohol, and heat it gradually until its boiling-point 
becomes 284° Fahrenheit. Alcohol is then allowed to fall gradually 
into the vessel which contains the mixture, and the current is to be 
so regulated that the heat of the mixture remains constantly at 284°. 
If, for example, the operation be conducted with a mixture of six 
ounces of sulphuric acid, one ounce and one fifth of water, and three 
