436 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



of the mass. On evaporating the solution, it left a residue consisting 

 of numerous octahedra of sulphur, coated with a small quantity of 

 the ordinary sulphuret of nitrogen, and in some cases with traces of 

 a golden yellow substance, sparingly soluble in sulphuret of carbon, 

 and which proved to be a compound of chloride of sulphur with 

 sulphuret of nitrogen. Whenever this happened, the residue re- 

 quired to be frequently treated with sulphuret of carbon in order to 

 exhaust it ; and the property of being coloured amethyst-red by an 

 alcoholic solution of potash persisted for a long time ; for the com- 

 bination in question possesses this property, as well as the mixture 

 of sulphur and sulphuret of nitrogen. 



The residue insoluble in the sulphuret of carbon was dried, then 

 reduced to powder and washed with hot distilled water, in order to 

 remove a small quantity of muriate of ammonia which it still con- 

 tained. We then found by analysis that it contained no nitrogen, 

 water, hydrogen or chlorine ; it then occurred to us that it might 

 be an oxide of sulphur. To test the accuracy of this hypothesis, 

 we treated a certain quantity of the substance with fuming nitric 

 acid, in order to estimate the sulphur; the weight of the sulphate of 

 baryta obtained showed that it consisted entirely of sulphur. But 

 ■we have stated above that it was insoluble in sulphuret of carbon ; 

 it was therefore not ordinary, but a modified sulphur, analogous to 

 the amorphous modification of phosphorus examined by M. Schroetter. 



M. Deville published in 184-8, in connexion with several important 

 observations on sulphur, the remarkable fact, that sulphur which 

 has experienced sudden cooling leaves, when treated with sulphuret 

 of carbon, an appreciable residue, varying from 0*11 to 0*35 of the 

 original weight. It was evident that the insoluble sulphur which we 

 had found in trying to prepare Dr. Gregory's sulphuret of nitrogen, 

 was the sulphur discovered by M. Deville in the flowers of sulphur 

 and the soft sulphur. M. Deville however attributes this modifica- 

 tion of the sulphur to sudden cooling ; but this explanation, which 

 applied to the peculiar circumstances under which he observed it, 

 cannot be admitted in the case we have described, as no heat was 

 employed. 



This production by the humid way of modified sulphur inso- 

 luble in sulphuret of carbon, led us to think it might be obtained 

 under other circumstances ; and we soon found that it occurs in 

 very large quantity in the deposit produced by treating the chlo- 

 rides of sul])hur with water. Tiiis result clearly proves that in Dr. 

 Gregory's experiment the ammonia merely gives rise to various 

 compounds, which mix with the sulphur and alter its properties. 



We have also met with this modification of sulphur in the deposit 

 resulting from the action of hydrochloric acid upon solutions of the 

 hyposulphates, and likewise in considerable quantity in the precipi- 

 tate produced by the action of sulphurous upon hydrosulphuric acid 

 in the presence of water. The sulphur obtained by treating the 

 polysulphurets with acids contains but a trace. The crystallized 

 native sulphur, that which is deposited by sulphureous springs, &c., 

 and that arising from the slow oxidation of a solution of sulphuretted 



