104 



CHEMISTRY. 



J. N. Buchanan has experimented upon the 

 composition of the ice produced in saline solu- 

 tions, and more particularly in sea-water. It 

 has been a question whether the salt found to 

 be retained in the ice is to be attributed 

 to the solid matter of the ice or to the liquid 

 mechanically adhering to it. The experiments 

 in freezing showed that the composition of the 

 saline contents of the ice formed was the same 

 as that of the original water, and this was of it- 

 self regarded as almost conclusive that the salt 

 is contained in adhering brine, and not as a solid 

 constituent of the ice. Assuming this to be so, 

 the amount of ice formed as deduced from the 

 composition of the mother-liquor, agreed well 

 with the amount deduced from the thermal ex- 

 change taking place during the freezing. It has 

 been proved by Guthrie, Rtidorff, and others, 

 that in solutions of the salts occurring in sea- 

 water, ice separates at first, and continues to 

 separate until the concentration has become 

 many times greater than that of sea-water. 

 Assuming that in sea-water all the chlorine is 

 united to sodium, 87 per cent, of the water 

 would have to be removed as ice ; and if it 

 contained nothing but sulphate of soda in the 

 proportion corresponding to the sulphuric acid 

 formed in it, over 90 per cent, of the water 

 would have to go as ice, before the cryohydrate 

 would be formed. In Mr. Buchanan's experi- 

 ments about 15 per cent, of the weight of the 

 water was frozen out as ice, causing a lowering 

 of the freezing-point by 0-3 C. In Nature the 

 ice forming at the actual freezing surface prob- 

 ably does so at an almost uniform temperature. 

 In the interstices of the crystals there will be 

 retained a weight of slightly concentrated sea- 

 water at least as great as that of the ice-crys- 

 tals. At the winter quarters of the Vega, 

 brine was observed oozing out of sea-water 

 ice and liquid at a temperature of 30 C. It was 

 very rich in calcium and especially magnesium 

 chlorides. In fact, it is probably quite impos- 

 sible by any cold occurring in nature to solid- 

 ify sea-water. As residual and unfreezable 

 brine remains in considerable quantity when 

 sea-water is frozen, it must also remain in 

 greater or less quantity when fresh water is 

 frozen. All natural waters, including rain- 

 water, contain some foreign and in nearly all 

 cases more or less saline ingredients. 



Victor Meyer has found that magnesium 

 melts at a temperature that can not fall far 

 short of 800 C. As it is completely volatilized 

 at a white heat the density of its vapor can not 

 be determined. "While the author was unsuc- 

 cessful in his efforts to ascertain the densities 

 of the vapors of antimony and germanium, he 

 found that antimony could be completely, 

 though slowly, volatilized at about 1,300 C. 



Experiments by George Man, on the freez- 

 ing of aerated water, gave the results that in a 

 thin ice coating the upper or surface half con- 

 tained barely a trace of eliminated air, while 

 the under or bottom half contained 0*08 cubic 

 inch of air in each pound of ice, and that a 



surface coating of ice 1 inch thick contained 

 0'15 cubic inch of air in each pound, while an 

 entirely frozen mass contained 0'59 cubic inch 

 of air in each pound weight. The freezing of 

 a limited body of water which had first been 

 frozen over and had the surface ice removed, 

 pointed still more strikingly to the concentra- 

 tion of air in solution, for this contained 0'89 

 cubic inch of air in each pound weight. 



Olzewski has continued his experiments in 

 the study of liquefied and solidified gases with 

 very interesting results. Liquid hydrofluoric 

 acid is frozen at 102-5 0. into a transparent 

 crystalline mass, which at a lower temperature 

 becomes white and opaque, and which melts 

 at 92-3 C. The glass tubes used in the ex- 

 periments were protected from the action of the 

 acid by a thin transparent coating of paraffine. 

 Gaseous phosphoretted hydrogen was easily 

 liquefied at 90 C., and frozen at 133-5 

 into a white crystalline mass, which melted 

 again at 1 32'5 0. and boiled at 85 C. Anti- 

 moniureted hydrogen was likewise liquefied 

 and condensed into a white snow, which melted 

 at 91'5 0. into a colorless liquid. Ozone has 

 been liquefied at the ordinary atmospheric 

 pressure at a temperature of 181 '4 0. The 

 liquid in very thin layers at this temperature 

 is transparent, but in layers 2mm. thick it is 

 nearly opaque. Its point of incipient boilinr- 

 was fixed at 109 0. with a thermometer con- 

 taining carbon disulphide, which corresponds 

 with 106 C. on a hydrogen thermometer. 

 Sealed in a glass tube the liquid becomes a 

 blue gas, which may be again condensed by 

 placing it in boiling ethylene. The author has 

 been able, with boiling ethylene and pressure, 

 to obtain from 13 to 15cc. of any desired gas 

 in the liquid condition. The volume, mass, and 

 density of the liquid can be very readily deter- 

 mined with his apparatus. The densities of 

 methane, oxygen, and nitrogen, thus found, are, 

 at the temperature of their boiling-points : 



Experiments by Baker to determine the na- 

 ture of the gas given up by charcoal on heating 

 when it has absorbed oxygen, indicate that car- 

 bon monoxide is the chief product, and that the 

 carbon is burned to this gas by the absorbed 

 and firmly retained oxygen. 



New Substances. The new metal, germanium, 

 is described by its discoverer, Clemens Winkler, 

 as grayish white, having a brilliant metallic lus- 

 ter, and crystallizing in well-formed, regular 

 octahedrons. It melts at a somewhat lower 

 temperature than silver, 900 C., and volatil- 

 izes at a slightly higher one than this, expands 

 on solidifying, and crystallizes. Before the 

 blowpipe it fuses to a globule, which evolves 

 white fumes and explodes, as does antimony. 

 Its atomic weight is calculated at 72-320. Le- 



