CHEMISTRY. 



99 



ascertain the nature of the action exerted by 

 various gases on the life and increase of bacte- 

 ria, and what influence the bacteria have on the 

 percentage composition of the gases. The or- 

 ganisms, obtained from a meat-extract, flour- 

 ished well in atmospheric air, pure hydrogen, 

 pure oxygn, and a mixture of carbonic oxide, 

 carbonic anhydride, oxygen, and nitrogen, ab- 

 sorbing oxygen and developing more or less of 

 carbonic anhydride, with an apparent evolution 

 of hydrogen and nitrogen in the latter experi- 

 ment. Cyanogen seemed to be fatal as such 

 to the organisms, but they appeared to revive, 

 especially in the sunlight, after it underwent 

 decomposition into ammonic oxalate. The 

 bacteria lived well in sulphurous anhydride, 

 nitrogen, nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, carbonic 

 anhydride, a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen 

 obtained by the electrolysis of water, coal-gas, 

 and a solution of urea and phosphate of potash. 

 "With spongy iron and air, the bacteria vanished, 

 and the air when analyzed consisted of N 99-74 

 per cent, CO 3 0'26, and no oxygen. Acety- 

 len, salicylic acid, strychnine, morphine, nar- 

 cotine, and brucine, had no effect on the bac- 

 teria. Phenol, spongy iron, alcohol, and po- 

 tassium permanganate, were very destructive 

 to them. Mr. W. M. Hamlet has found that 

 bacteria can exist in carbonic oxide, hydrogen, 

 one-per-cent creosote, phenol, methylamin, me- 

 thylic alcohol, and chloroform, and Mr. Grace- 

 Calvert has found that they can live in strong 

 carbolic acid. The evidence of other observers 

 is to the effect that the virulence of fever-pro- 

 ducing liquids is destroyed by chlorine and 

 sulphurous acid ; and this suggests the query 

 whether the organic matter to which they owo 

 their power may not be essentially different 

 from the bacteria described by Mr. Hatton. 



ACTION OF INORGANIC SUBSTANCES ON THE 

 CIRCULATION OF LIVING ANIMALS. Dr. James 

 Blake has been led, by the results of a long series 

 of researches on the phenomena elicited by the 

 direct introduction of inorganic matter into the 

 circulation of living animals, to the conclusion 

 that the intensity of the physiological action of 

 such matter increases in direct ratio with the 

 atomic weight. The action of salts of forty- 

 one elements was tested upon horses, dogs, 

 cats, rabbits, geese, and hens, with identical 

 results. The different groups of metallic ele- 

 ments monads, dyads, triads, and the rest 

 formed series in each of which the increase 

 of activity corresponding with the rise of the 

 atomic weight was manifested with striking 

 regularity. Among some peculiar features of 

 the experiments were that chlorine, bromine, 

 and iodine agree closely in their physiological 

 action showing, however, a decrease instead 

 of an increase in intensity ; that phosphorus, 

 arsenic, and antimony do not induce any im- 

 mediately perceptible physiological reaction ; 

 and that the salts of potassium and ammonium, 

 the latter of which produce results resembling 

 those of certain nitrogenous alkaloids, exhibit 

 the only exceptions to the rule that isomor- 



phons substances act in an analogous man- 

 ner. 



FREE FLUORINE. Fluorine occupies a pecu- 

 liar position among the elements the existence 

 of which is satisfactorily established, in that it 

 has never been isolated. This arises from the 

 fact that its chemical affinities are so powerful 

 that when it is released from any of its corn- 

 pounds it instantly attacks and combines with 

 any material out of which it is practicable to 

 make a vessel for the experiment. Loew has 

 very recently announced that he has discov- 

 ered what he supposes to be free fluorine in a 

 variety of fluor-spar found at Wolsendorf in Ba- 

 varia, which is of a dark- violet color, and emits 

 a peculiar odor. The origin of the odor has not 

 hitherto been satisfactorily explained. Loew 

 believes it to be due to fluorine existing free 

 within the mineral, and has made some experi- 

 ments which appear to bear out his conclusion. 



ABSORPTION OF NITROGEN BY IRON. Profes- 

 sor Ira Remsen has had his attention called to a 

 power manifested by iron, under certain condi- 

 tions, of exhibiting the reactions of nitrogen. 

 He was making experiments to verify the appli- 

 cability of the method of Lassaignac for the de- 

 tection of nitrogen in bodies containing carbon 

 to compounds in which sulphur is present, when, 

 working with a fusion of a compound which 

 had been proved to contain no nitrogen with 

 sodium and iron by hydrogen, he perceived the 

 blue precipitate revealing the presence of nitro- 

 gen to be distinctly formed. The experiment 

 was repeated several times, with the same 

 results, while the tests which were applied 

 showed that all the substances operated with 

 were free from nitrogen. Another specimen 

 of iron by hydrogen, which had been kept for 

 several years, and which did not take fire by 

 contact with the air, failed to give the nitro- 

 gen-test. This led Mr. Remsen to believe that 

 nitrogen was absorbed from the air by iron, 

 under some power connected with its active 

 condition. Further experiments gave results, 

 both of a positive and negative character, 

 agreeable to this view, so as to induce a confi- 

 dent statement of the conclusion that when iron 

 by hydrogen and certain non-nitrogenous or- 

 ganic substances are heated together with me- 

 tallic sodium in an atmosphere of nitrogen, a 

 cyanide is readily formed. The action is simi- 

 lar to that which takes place in blast-furnaces 

 when formation of cyanide of potassium takes 

 place. Experiments made with Bessemer steel 

 and other forms yielded results corresponding 

 with those referred to above. 



ARSENIC IN WALL-PAPERS.- -Mr. Harry Grim- 

 shaw, F. C. S., of Manchester, England, has 

 called attention to the presence of arsenic in 

 paper-hangings of other colors than green, 

 which were obtained from the recent stock 

 of a manufacturer in Lancashire, with the as- 

 surance that they contained no arsenic. Six 

 specimens of as many different colors, includ- 

 ing three greens of different shades, light 

 brown, dark brown, and pink, all contained 



