74 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



If, during any part of the time the deposit is progressing, the 

 deposited antimony be taken out and struck gently, or rubbed, with 

 any hard substance, such as metal or glass, an explosion occurs, with 

 a small cloud of white vapour, sometimes with a flash of light, and 

 nearly always with considerable heat, sufficient to burn one's fingers, 

 melt gutta percha, burn paper, and even scorch deal wood quite 

 brown, and invariably accompanied by fracture of the deposited 

 metal ; sometimes, if the process of deposition has been interrupted, 

 and the deposited metal is not homogeneous, only a thin scale falls 

 off", in such case the explosion and heat are less ; in other instances, 

 where the process was regular and the metal homogeneous, the 

 fracture extended quite through the metal to upwards of one-eighth 

 of an inch in depth. 



I have observed this phenomenon in about nine instances, in 

 several of which the explosion took place even in the liquid, by 

 striking the deposit against the glass containing vessel ; and in one 

 instance it occurred after the metal had been well washed with dilute 

 hydrochloric acid, dried, and had remained out of the liquid several 

 hours. 



The same phaenomenon occurred with deposits obtained in a solu- 

 tion composed of one fluid ounce of the antimony liquid, and half 

 a fluid ounce of a saturated aqueous solution of hydrochlorate of 

 ammonia. 



Birmingham. 



ON THE COMPOSITION AND PROPERTIES OF PATS. BY D. HEIXTZ. 



According to the investigations of Heintz upon fals, these bodies 

 always furnish, on saponification with potash, fatty acids and glyce- 

 rine, as indeed has been, known ever since Chevreul's experiments. 

 According to the author's experiments, the acids of the acetic acid 

 series, expressible by the formula C" H n H , occur together with 

 oleic acid in fats; but those acids of this series in which n is a 

 number not divisible by 4, are absent from the products of the 

 saponification of fats. Thus the non-existence of margaric acid 

 (C 34 H i4 0*) as a chemically pure substance is particularly proved. 



In his most recent investigation, Heintz shows that even the saponi- 

 fication of spermaceti furnishes no other fatty acids than those which 

 can be expressed by the general formula C 4U H in 4 (w = a whole 

 number). The cetic acid (C 30 H s ° O*) and cocic acid (C-« H*" O'), 

 formerly supposed by him to exist in that substance, are mixtures 

 of at least two of the fatty acids of spermaceti. Besides stearic 

 acid (O H 3 " O 4 ) and palmitic acid (C 3 - H 3 ' 2 O 4 ), the occurrence of 

 which in spermaceti has already been proved by the author, two 

 other acids have also been obtained in a chemically pure state from 

 that substance. These are myristic acid (C* a H- s O 4 ) and lauro- 

 stearic acid (C J1 H' 21 O 4 ). Their separation was effected by the 

 method of partial precipitation combined with that of recrystalliza- 

 tion. 



Myristic acid in the pure state has hitherto been unknown, for 



