Ste ele 
Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 75 
ACTION OF SOLUTIONS OF CHLORIDES AND AIR ON MERCURY. 
We have given in previous Numbers the results of M. Mialhe’s 
experiments on the action of chlorides on some mercurial compounds, 
and he states that he had nearly concluded his experiments when it 
occurred to him to try whether mercury itself would not be acted 
upon by this class of substances. 
Experiment, he states, confirmed his suspicions, for he found that 
the solutions of the alkaline chlorides put into contact with mercury 
and atmospheric air always produced bichloride of mercury, the 
quantity of which was greater in proportion to the concentration of 
the solution of the chloride, and the more perfect state of division of 
the metal, but no effect is produced unless oxygen, that of the air 
being sufficient, is present. 
lst Experiment._-Mercury treated with the solution of alkaline 
chlorides (described in our last Number as the assay liquor), gave by 
stove heat 0-4 part of sublimate. 
2nd Experiment.—The above repeated with the mercury finely 
divided by mucilage, yielded 0°7 part of sublimate. 
The researches already detailed sufficiently prove, in the opinion 
of M. Mialhe, that the decomposing power of the alkaline chlorides 
is great, but they do not teach us anything as to their relative energy. 
The following experiments will supply this deficiency. 
Hydrochlorate of Ammonia.—One hundred and twenty parts of 
hydrochlorate of ammonia and 30 parts of calomel were placed in an 
open bottle containing 1000 parts of distilled water, the temperature 
of which was gradually raised to 122° Fahr., and kept at this heat 
for half an hour; the sublimate produced amounted to 0-9 of a part. 
The experiment repeated with the following salts gave the an- 
nexed quantities of sublimate :—- 
Chloride of Sodium .. 0°4 of a part. 
Chloride of Barium.. O74... 
Chloride of Potassium 0°3.. 
It results from these experiments that the hydrochlorate of ammonia 
is the most powerful of these four salts. 
In concluding his experiments, M. Mialhe remarks that the reac- 
tions which he has pointed out take place at common temperatures, 
but better at the temperature of the human body. All of them are 
produced in a short time, and some occur instantaneously, the greater 
part requiring only a few hours’ contact for action. As then the 
different fluids contained in the human body contain oxygen, chlo- 
ride of sodium, and hydrochlorate of ammonia, accompanied or not 
with hydrochloric and other acids which may facilitate their action, 
it follows that all the chemical phenomena produced under the cir- 
cumstances described, occur in the human body when any mercurial 
preparation whatever is introduced into it; these always produce a 
certain quantity of corrosive sublimate in which their medicinal pro- 
perties reside; and this fact explains, in the opinion of M. Mialhe, 
the hitherto unexplained physiological action and therapeutic proper- 
ties of metallic mercury when introduced into the animal ceconomy. 
—Ann. de Chim. et de Phys., Juin 1842. 
