Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 317 



The zinc has then been replaced by copper. If this ammoniacal 

 solution of copper be agitated with zinc, this metal, conformably to 

 its greater affinity for oxygen, will in its turn displace the copper, 

 and it is precipitated upon the zinc in a very fine powder, and in a 

 short time the liquor ceases to be blackened by sulphuretted hydrogen. 



This, then, furnishes an example of reciprocal affinity which is 

 worthy of attention, and from which chemical analysis may derive 

 utility. — Ann. de Ch. et de Phys., Janvier 1848. 



ON THE HYDRATE OF CADMIUM, BY M. J. NICKLES. 



This hydrate may be obtained, like that of zinc, by means of am- 

 monia, iron and cadmium, or by causing copper to act upon an am- 

 moniacal solution of oxide of cadmium. 



It is but slightly permanent, and is partially decomjiosed in the 

 liquid in which it is formed. It would seem that this ready decom- 

 ]iosition is owing to the energy of the reaction ; at any rate the 

 author has obtained it perfectly homogeneous, operating slowly by 

 putting a strip of cadmium in communication with a bar of hardened 

 iron, and immersing the whole in a U-shaped tube full of ammonia. 



By allowing the ammoniacal mother-waters to stand, a fresh quan- 

 tity of hydrate is deposited. If the surface of evaporation is great, 

 it is deposited in flocculi ; if, on the contrary, the evaporation takes 

 place in an imperfectly corked bottle, it is formed in mammillated 

 masses, with traces of crystallization ; and this is the form in which 

 the author has usually obtained it. 



M. Nickles had only a small portion of this substance for analysis. 

 It yielded — 



Oxide of cadmium. . . . 89*74 

 Water 10-26 



10000 



Calculation requires S7'G3 of oxide and 12"37 of water; the 

 substance had therefore evidently undergone some change previous 

 to analysis. — Ibid. 



ACTION OF ACIDS AND ALKALIES ON ASPAUAGIN AND ASPAUTIC 

 ACID. BY M. PIIIIA. 



The author obicrves, that .ill chemists who have examined aspa- 

 ragin h.ave observed the great tendency which it possesses to be de- 

 composed by acids and alkalies, yielding ammonia and aspartic acid. 

 M. Liebig states, even aspartic acid, when boiled in strong hydro- 

 chloric acid or fused with jiotash, is converted into ammonia and a 

 new acid. M. Piria has arrived at a very different conclusion; he 

 finding that neither hydrochloric nor sulphuric acid sensibly acts on 

 a.spartic acid, nor is any effect produced by nitric acid when free 

 from nitrous vapour. Asj)aragin, on the otlier hand, is decomj)oscd 

 by various acids at a boiling heat, yielding ammonia, which combines 

 with the acid employed, and free aspartic acid. 



M. Piria found that crystallized asparagin, boiled for about an 



