Abstracts from Foreign Journals. 299 



for if alcohol be passed through heated porcelain tubes, the 

 products ai'e water, aldehyd and carburetted hydrogen*. 



r2 eqs.aldehyd... Cg Hg O4 



A TUT n X3 rk J4-eqs. water H4 O4 



4 eqs. alcohol = C.^ U^, O^ =< j ^^ olefiantgas C, W, 



t 2 eqs. marsh gas C4 Hg 



^16 ^^24.^8 



The hydrogen set free from 2 eqs. of alcohol decomposing 

 the other two, as here represented. These are but a few of 

 the numerous views that might be taken of the constitution of 

 alcohol. Can we then wonder if considerable deliberation 

 should be exercised before closing with any particular theory ? 

 I do not pretend that some of these views are not more 

 strongly supported by analogies than others ; but into these 

 details it would be out of place for me on the present occa- 

 sion to enter. 



A new acid, the Ethalic, is described in this paper, the 

 formula of its hydrate is C32 Hg2 O4; this, it will be remarked, 

 is identical with the formula given by Fremy and Stenhouse 

 for hydrated palmitic acid. 



Since MM. Francis and Croft have undertaken these abs- 

 tracts for the benefit of British chemists, I would beg to 

 suggest rather more attention to the terminology and ortho- 

 graphy of new compounds, a point by no means unimportant, 

 especially when, as so very frequently happens in the present 

 day, fanciful and arbitrary names, some nearly identical with 

 those applied to totally distinct substances f, are imposed. It 

 is desirable that in the same paper at least the same things 

 should possess the same names; that, for example, a body 

 should not sometimes be called valeric, sometimes valerianic 

 acid ; nor methyl, maethyl ; ethyl, aethyl, or the like. 



It would certainly, moreover, be a convenience, if in these 

 abstracts, which we sincerely hope may be continued, the 

 temperature, instead of being given on the centigrade scale 

 only, were expressed likewise in corresponding degrees of 

 Fahrenheit, as being the scale generally used here. 



With regard to the symbols mentioned in the foot note at 

 p. 200, in which it is queried whether the plan of representing 

 the constitution of organic bodies merely by the position of 

 the figures, as proposed by Berzelius, be known in England, 

 surely on the present occasion we may rejoice in our igno- 

 rance. Our symbols are already sufficiently abridged to di- 



• Tunier's Elements of Chemistry, Gregory's edition, p. 859. 



\ For example, ammelin, aninielid ; plilorizine, phlorizeinc ; benzile, 

 benzole, benzule ; and the clilorovalcrisic and chlorovalcrosic acids of the 

 author*. 



