1822.] Scientific Intelligence. 469 
ArTICLE XI. 
SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE, AND NOTICES OF SUBJECTS 
CONNECTED WITH SCIENCE. 
I. Death of Count Berthollet. 
The decease of this distinguished member of the French school of 
chemistry has recently been announced; it took place on the 6th of 
November, in the 74th year of his age. He was born at Talloine, in 
Savoy, and was originally of the medical profession: with the results 
of his labours in chemical science, our readers must be well acquainted ; 
they are numerous, and of the highest importance. 
II. Green Ore of Uranium from Cornwall. 
In preparing some oxide of uranium from this substance, I have 
found that it contains phosphoric acid, and not merely the oxides of 
uranium and copper combined with water, as has been stated. Jn the 
next number of the Annals, I purpose to give an analysis of this ore, 
accompanied by an account of some experiments on the oxide of 
uranium.—Edit, 
Ill. Prof. Berzelius on the Sulphurets. 
I had intended to have given in the present number of the Annals an 
abstract of the remaining portion of Berzelius’s memoir on the sulphur- 
ets; but having concluded that part of it which includes the alkaline 
sulphurets, I beg to refer the reader to the Annales de Chimie et de 
Physique, tome xx. p. 128, for the remainder, beginning “* Des Com- 
binaisons Sulfures Metalliques avec les Alcalis.” This paper is replete 
with the symbols peculiar to Berzelius, and they are so generally unac- 
companied by any explanation, that it is extremely diflicult to reduce 
them to an intelligible form ; for example, in about ZO lines there occur 
eight symbols of the following kind: As S3 + 6 dg S*.—Edit. 
IV. Action of Magnesia on Salep. 
M. Brandes, of Hoxter, has made some experiments on a compound 
which is formed when calcined magnesia is put into a solution of salep. 
When 20 grains of salep were dissolved in four ounces of distilled 
water, and 30 grains of pure magnesia were added, the whole became, 
after some hours solid, and jelly-like ; and even after a month, it had not 
assumed the least putrid smell. Carbonate of magnesia had the same 
effect, but in asmaller degree. Neither the white of eggs, nor traga- 
canth gum, a weak solution of isinglass, nor of starch, assumed on 
addition of magnesia a similar jelly-like appearance. The mucilage of 
quince seeds deposited the magnesia with a granular appearance,’ 
and the solution seemed to have become more fluid. Neither lime nor 
white bole produced a similar effect upon the solution of salep. The 
jelly is insoluble in water, fat oils, oil of turpentine, alcohol, or a solu- 
tion of caustic potash.. Acids, principally sulphuric acid, dissolve it 
partly ; the remainder is more bulky and is opalescent. . 
