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Helvetic Society. 371 
the annual labours of these societies, which will be laid sae 
fere you in the course of the present session, that | mu 
refer for all the particulars. I shall only at this time, a 
your attention to a few of the aati objects. I rank in 
this number the applications which have been made of the 
brilliant discovery of Dobereiner of the singular property 
possessed by the spongy oxide of platina, of becoming sud- 
denly incandescent in contact with hydrogen gas, at the com- 
_mon atmospheric temperature ; and of producing acetic acid, 
by the combustion without flame, of alcoholic vapour. 
_ will perceive that our learned colleague, Professor Bronner, 
of Berne, has succeeded in rendering more and more easy 
the production of the metalloides. of potash and soda, by the 
dry method; and that the experiments of M. de Serullaz 
upon the. alloys of “ kalium’’ with various metals have been 
successfully repeated in our laboratories ; and that explo- 
sive combinations have also been obtained, by means of 
which gunpowder may be easily fired under water. The 
experiments of Mr. Irminger, of Zurich, upon strontian will 
be admitted to possess interest, as well as the property of 
the salts which have this earth for their bases to give to 
flame a beautiful purple tint, an effect which has been al- 
ready applied to pyrotechnics, with brilliant success. 
Passing from the metalloids to the metals, you will have 
occasion to appreciate the discovery of the British Chemist 
,acas, viz. that the contact of powdered charcoal with sil- 
ver and copper in a deprives them 
e a : 
sible. ‘We are faducod to Lalieve hal the tne De ee 
blades are not, as has been long supposed, a medley of iron 
and steel, but much rather of various alloys of steel with 
other metals. To conclude, metallurgic chemistry has been 
recently enriched by the discovery, due to Professor Zain, 
of Copenhagen, of Xanthogene, a compound belonging to the 
