Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 69 



than ordinarily powerful, and rendered an insect insensible much 

 more quickly than before ; they also burnt with a blue flame, and 

 possessed all the well-known characters of the oxide of carbon. The 

 correctness of this conclusion was, moreover, confirmed by experi- 

 menting with carbonic oxide prepared by acting on oxalic acid with 

 oil of vitriol, and passing the gas evolved through caustic soda-ley. 

 Even when largely diluted with air, it still continued to produce 

 insensibihty in insects, and acted in every way like the purified fumes 

 of the Ly coper don*. 



It is not difficult to understand how carbonic oxide is formed by 

 the ignition of the fungus, as this gas is invariably produced in larger 

 or smaller quantity when certain organic substances are decomposed 

 by heat, though some yield it in greater proportion than others ; and 

 consequently, as might have been anticipated, I find that the fumes 

 of several other fungi act in the same manner towards animals as 

 those of the Lycoperdon protens. The principal of those to which I 

 allude are the common Lycoperdon of the druggist, L. giganteum, 

 and the mushroom, Agaricus campestris. 



Old Park, Bristol, 

 May 25, 1855. 



ON A STRONGLY FLUOEESCENT FLUID. BY RUDOLPH BOTTGER. 



Dr. Bottger has informed Prof. PoggendorflT, that a solution of 

 platino-cyanide of potassium possesses the property of fluorescence 

 in a still higher degree than sulphate of quinine. The solution of 

 the metallic salt fluoresces with a yellowish light, resembling one 

 of the colours exhibited by its dichroitic crystals. — PoggendorfF's 

 Annalen, vol. xcv. p. 176. 



ON THE QUANTITATIVE DETERMINATION OF WATER. 

 BY DR. H. VOHL. 



Water is almost always determined by the loss which a body 

 undergoes when exposed to a high temperature. In those cases, 

 however, in which the constituents of the body under investigation 

 are liable to change when heated by taking up oxygen, the deter- 

 mination of water is attended with many difficulties, and unsa- 

 tisfactory results are in consequence often obtained. The method 

 usually employed consists in heating the body in an atmosphere 

 free of oxygen, and passing the gas charged with watery vapour 

 through a carefully weighed chloride of calcium tube. The loss of 

 the substance should then be exactly equal to the increase in the 

 weight of the chloride of calcium tube. 



Another method which I have frequently employed with very 

 satisfactory results, consists in mixing the readily oxidizable sub- 



♦ See also 'A Treatise on Poisons,' by Professor Christison, 4th edition, 

 p. 827, iij.a.n account of the peculiar effects produced by the inhalation of 

 the oxide of carbon. 



