Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 397 



into a moderate sized glass vessel, and cover it to the depth of a few 

 lines with water. Into this mixture chlorine gas is to be slow pass- 

 ed, through a pierced cork in the bottle ; the gas tube is to be di- 

 rected upon the selenium through the stratum of water. The sele- 

 nium is at first converted into brown liquid chloride of selenium, and 

 then into white solid chloride, before it dissolves in the water. 



When the liquid chloride of selenium has been formed, it may re- 

 main for a considerable time under the water, if that be suiFered to 

 remain undisturbed ; but when by agitation they are mixed, the water 

 becomes red, on account of the finely divided selenium ; for as is well 

 known, the chloride on mixing with water deposits a portion of its 

 selenium ; but the chloride is readily soluble in water by means of 

 chlorine gas. 



When the selenium is perfectly dissolved in the small quantity of 

 water, the solution is largely diluted with water, and chlorine gas is 

 again passed into it until it is in excess. The excess of chlorine is 

 afterwards allowed to evaporate in a capsule exposed to the air, or 

 by the application of a very gentle heat ; by this there is obtained a 

 solution of selenic acid, which contains hydrochloric acid, but no se- 

 lenious acid. 



1"643 gram of selenium converted by this process into selenic 

 acid, yielded by the addition of a solution of chloride of barium 5*787 

 gram of seleniate of barytes. By calculation, this quantity ought to 

 yield 5*819 of the barytic salt. The small diiference of 0"03"2 gram, 

 is partly owing to the vaporization of a small portion of the chloride 

 of selenium by the excess of clilorine, and also partly because the 

 seleniate of barytes is not as completely insoluble in an acid solution 

 as the sulphate of barytes. — Ibid. 



ANALYSIS OF CRYSTALLIZED PERIKLINK. BY M. C. T. THAULON 

 IN H. rose's LABORATORY. 



Silica 69,00 



Alumina 19,43 



Soda 11,47 



Lime 0,20. 



G. Rose found the specific gravity of crystals of perikline from the 

 Tyrol, reduced to a coarse powder, to be from 2,637 to 2,645, and 

 he concludes from the analysis and specific gravity that perikline and 

 albite, or cleavelandite are one and the same mineral*. 



Poggendorff's Annalen, vol. 42. y>- 571. 



CISSAMPELIN, A NEW VEGETABLE COMPOUND. 



M. Wiggers states that he has discovered a new vegetable base 



in the root of the Cissampelos Pareira ; it is obtained by repeated 



boiling the root in water containing sulphuric acid, and mixing the 



decoctions with carbonate of soda ; a brownish grey precipitate is 



* The forms and measurements are also similar, excej)! that the crystals 

 of eleavulaiidite are usually twins and those of perikline single ones. — 



