WRITINGS OF JAMES SMITHSON. 7 



tratecl, during the boiling, by the evaporation of much of 

 the water. 



(B) This solution had an alkaline taste, but seemingly 

 with little, if any, causticity. 



(C) A drop of it changed to green a watery tincture of 

 dried red cabbage. 



(D) Some of this solution was exposed in a shallow glass 

 to spontaneous evaporation in a warm room. At the end 

 of a day or two it was converted into a firm, milky jelly. 

 After a few days more, this jelly was become whiter, more 

 opaque, and had dried and cracked into several pieces, and 

 finally it became quite dry, and curled up and separated 

 from the glass. 



The same change took place when the solution had been 

 diluted with several times its bulk of distilled water, only 

 the jelly was much thinner, and dried into a white powder. 



Some of this solution, kept for many weeks in a bottle 

 closely stopped, did not become a jelly, or undergo any 

 change. 



(E) A small quantity of this solution was let fall into a 

 proportionably large quantity of spirit of wine, whose spe- 

 cific gravity was .838. The mixture immediately became 

 turbid, and, on standing, a dense fluid settled to the bottom, 

 and which, when the bottle was hastily inverted, fell through 

 the spirit of wine in round drops, like a ponderous oil. 



The supernatant spirit of wine being carefully decanted 

 off, some distilled water was added to this thick fluid, by 

 which it was wholly dissolved. This solution, exposed to 

 the air, shewed phenomena exactly similar to those of the 

 undiluted solution (D). 



The decanted spirit being also left exposed to the air in a 

 shallow glass vessel, did not, after many days, either deposit 

 a sensible quantity of precipitate, or become gelatinous; 

 but having evaporated nearly away, left a few drops of a 

 liquor which made infusion of red cabbage green ; and, on 

 the addition of some pure marine acid, effervesced violently. 

 No precipitate fell during this saturation with the acid ; nor 



