IS 13.] Scientific Intelligence. 63 



VIII. Freezing of Alcohol. 



We have received a letter on this subject from a Gentleman, 

 who subscribes himself Philo-Chemicus Oxoniensis, who con- 

 ceives that the method employed by Mr. Mutton, of Edinburgh, 

 to freeze alcohol, may have been similar to that already practised 

 by Mr. Walker, of Oxford; namely, employing bodies already 

 frozen as instruments of congealing others. " This," he 

 observes, " has often been done in the congelation of mercury, 

 when ice, already reduced to a certain temperature, is mixed 

 with muriate of lime : nor do I see any limit to the intensity of 

 cold which might be produced in this manner, except the point 

 at which the attraction of aggregation equals in activity (in 

 consequence of the subtraction of so much caloric) the strength 

 of affinity which (he substance, whatever it may be, has for any 

 other body. Thus sulphate of soda and muriatic acid sink the 

 temperature of water from 50° to ; this, again, when mixed 

 with muriate of lime, would lower the temperature of any 

 surrounding body from to — 6'6° ; and ice, which had been 

 cooled down to this point, might, by the addition of sulphuric 

 acid in a certain state of dilution, depress the thermometer to 

 — 99°. All these facts are well known ; and if this should 

 happen to be Mr. Hutton's method, it deserves to be considered 

 in the light rather of a more extended application of what had 

 been before ascertained than the discovery of any new fact. The 

 plan I have mentioned, although it might not enable us to 

 congeal any fresh substances, would at least, I should conceive, 

 establish at what point the attraction of aggregation equals that 

 of affinity. The most convenient apparatus, perhaps, would be 

 a series of circular vessels, the one contained within the other, in 

 the innermost of which should be placed that which was to be 

 last operated upon." 



JX. Composition of ylzote. 

 In consequr nee of a notification in our last Number respecting 

 the composition of azote by Professor fierzelias, who, by calcu- 

 lation, has concluded it to be composed of AA -G unknown 

 inflammable ba^is and 55*4 oxygen, 1 have been informed that 

 Mr. IMiers, a young chemist of Louden, has proved, bv a 

 number of experiments, the compound nature of this gas, which 

 has hitherto resisted all attempts at decomposition. "He finds-, 

 however, that the " inflammable basis " is not " unkown," 

 but that it is hydrogen ; and the proportions in which it is com- 

 I with oxygen do not, from his experiments, greatly differ 

 irom those calculated by Professor Berzelius. The experiments 

 involving this important discovery were made about 15 months 

 lUWej and although their public annunciation has been delayed 



