Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 75 



crystals of oxalic acid : this acid was afterwards also obtained by 

 slight boiling. ., 



One part of the acid, one of water, two of peroxide of manganese, 

 and two and a half of concentrated sulphuric acid and two of water, 

 when mixed and heated in a retort, yielded formic acid. 



The oxalhydric acid forms with : 



1st. Ammonia, a neutral uncrystallizable salt, and a bisalt, con- 

 sisting of 2 atoms acid, 1 atom base, and 1 atom water, and crystal- 

 lizing in quadrangular prisms with dihedral summits. 



2nd. Potash, two salts, one neutral, the other acid, both crystal- 

 lizable. 



3rd. Soda, uncrystallizable salts. 



4th. Barytes, ditto. . 



5th. Strontia, a neutral uncrystallizable salt, and a bisalt, which 

 crystallizes in transparent prisms grouped in crosses. 



6th. Lime, a neutral uncrystallizable salt, a bisalt, which crystal- 

 lizes in quadrangular transparent prisms. 



7th. Oxide of zinc, a sesquisalt, containing two atoms of water. 



8th. Oxide of lead, a neutral anhydrous salt.— Journal de Cfumie 

 Medicale, July 1833. 



TELLURIUM, ITS PREPARATION, ATOMIC WEIGHT, &C. 

 Berzelius extracts tellurium from the bismuthic tellurium of 

 Schemnitz by the following process: Reduce the ore to powder and 

 wash it to separate the foreign oxides and earthy substances, which, as 

 they contain tellurium, are not however to be rejected I hen mix 

 the powder with twice its weight of carbonate of potash, and make 

 the mixture into a paste with olive oil, and put the whole into a well- 

 covered crucible. Heat, at first cautiously, and then to full redness ; 

 and when flame ceases to appear between the crucible and its cover, 

 allow it to cool. The cooled mass is not fused, but is porous and 

 of a dark brown colour : powder it, and wash it on a filter with water 

 which has been well boiled and suffered to cool. The powder remain- 

 ing on the filter consists principally of charcoal and bismuth, with 

 some tellurium. The filtered liquor is a solution of an alloy of tel- 

 lurium and potassium in water: it is at first opake and purplish red. 

 When air is blown into it by the bellows, the potassium is oxidized 

 and the tellurium precipitated. There remains in the alkaline liquor 

 a small quantity of sulphuret of tellurium and selemuret of tellu- 

 rium, which may be precipitated by muriatic acid. The deposited 

 tellurium is then washed with boiling water, dried and fused : it is 

 then to be put into an oval porcelain vessel, placed in a tube ot 

 the same material: it is to be heated to redness and a current of hy- 

 drogen gas directed upon it : it is afterwards to be distilled. 



M. Berzelius found the specific gravity of tellurium greater than 

 hitherto observed. The reason he states to be, that the metal con- 

 tracts much on cooling, when it is rapidly effected, and the surface 

 will then support the pressure of the air: there are thus tornied ca- 

 vities containing no air, which are seen when the metal is broken. 



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