15G Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



crystallize together in all proportions, without changing form. A 

 few hundredths of permanganesiate of potash, mixed with a hot solu- 

 tion of heptachlorate of potash, give crystals of a fine ruby colour. — 

 Journal de C/iimie Medicate, July 1833. 



SPARK DURING THE FREEZING OF WATER BY .ETHER. 

 M. Julia Fontenelle states that M. Pontus, Professor at the Royal 

 College of Cahors, has communicated to him the following obser- 

 vation. It is well known to chemists that if a phial, terminated by a 

 small tube one to two centimetres long, be filled with water as well as 

 the tube, and surrounded with cotton moistened with aether, the water 

 freezes during the evaporation of the aether under the receiver of the 

 air-pump. On repeating this experiment, M. Pontus remarked, that 

 some moments before the congelation occurs, a spark, visible in day- 

 light, escapes from the small tube which terminates the phial. This phae- 

 nomenon is so generally true, that every time that he perceived the 

 spark, he concluded the congelation was about to take place ; and, on 

 the contrary, when he did not see it, he presumed that the congela- 

 tion was not near. M. Pontus was never disappointed in his conclu- 

 sions. M. Fontenelle states that he also has seen the spark, and that 

 M. Beccpierel had remarked to him a similar effect at the moment 

 of the formation of crystals in solutions — Ibid. 



SEPARATION OF BARYTES AND STRONT1A. 



M. Liebig states that iodate of soda is an excellent reagent for se- 

 parating barytes from strontia: the latter is not at all precipitated 

 by it, while the former is completely thrown down by it from neutral 

 solutions, so that no remaining trace of it can be detected. The pre- 

 cipitate is flaky. — Annates de Mines, April 1833. 



COMPOSITION OF SERUM— SEROLIN. 



M. Boudet remarks, that except the saline constituents of the 

 serum of human blood, and the extractive matters, imperfectly 

 known by the names of ozmazome, impure lactate of soda, muco- 

 extractive matter, &c, the only well defined substances shown by 

 analysis to exist in the serum are albumen, the fatty matter of the 

 brain, urea, and an oily matter. 



M. Boudet did not examine the extractive matters dissolved by 

 water from dried serum, but only those products which were ob- 

 tained from dried serum by boiling alcohol, after the water had dis- 

 solved such as were soluble in it. 



Having obtained a considerable quantity of serum, dried it, and 

 dissolved all that was soluble in boiling water, it was again dried, 

 and treated with boiling alcohol : the mixed alcoholic solutions 

 were colourless. The mixture became turbid by cooling, and de- 

 posited, though very slowly, white flocks, which were separated by 

 the filter; these had a fatly pearly lustre: they were not crystal- 

 line, but small and slightly translucid plates. In M. Boudct's opi- 

 nion these plates constitute one of the principles of serum, and 



