CHEMISTRY. 



109 



bean found, however, to possess some valuable 

 properties. It is perfectly neutral, and not sa- 

 ponifiable with alkaline hydrates, while it is 

 capable of taking up an equal weight of water, 

 and forming an extremely pliant soft mass ab- 

 sorbable by the skin, which can be incorporated 

 with various medicaments. Liebrich has closely 

 studied this substance, which he calls " Lano- 

 lin," and having been manufactured commer- 

 cially and introduced to the trade, it has in a 

 short time come into quite general demand as 

 a basis for salves and cosmetics. 



Mr. C. O'Neill, in a British Association pa- 

 per on "the extent to which calico-printing 

 and the tinctorial arts have been affected by 

 the introduction of modern colors," after re- 

 marking upon the continuing multiplication of 

 the modern colors, said that none of them, ex- 

 cept alizarene and its allied blue and orange 

 derivatives, could be said to be fast colors upon 

 cotton in the sense that madder and indigo 

 are fast. At the same time many of them 

 were fast enough for the purposes to which 

 they were applied, and had contributed in cali- 

 co-printing to give a variety of coloring which 

 had no doubt extended the demand for printed 

 goods. The idea that all new dyes were bad 

 dyes wf^?ot warrantable. Whatever might 

 be the ;>, c'.i state of the case with regard to cot- 

 eries, the axithor considered that the in- 

 troduction of modern colors in the dyeing of 

 fancy silk and woolen styles had proved of very 

 great advantage. 



The search for means for improving artificial 

 lights of all kinds has led to the utilization of 

 rare earths which, like lime and magnesia, 

 have great light-emitting properties combined 

 with permanent powers of resistance. Zirconia 

 thus figures as the wick in Linneman's oxygen- 

 ated gas-lamp, and in Auer's new incandescent 

 gas-light, a combination of similar rare earths 

 is said to be employed. 



Dr. 0. Fahlberg, of Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity, read a paper in the British Association on 

 "Saccharine, the New Sweet Product from 

 Coal-tar." The new extract, which was two 

 hundred and fifty times sweeter than sugar, had 

 become an article of commerce, and was manu- 

 factured in Germany. Experiments upon ani- 

 mals and men, and nine years' use by the au- 

 thor, had proved it to be entirely harmless. 



Charles L. Bloxam describes the following 

 as a characteristic and delicate test for indenti- 

 fying strychnine: the alkaloid, on a glass slide 

 or a porcelain crucible lid, is dissolved in a 

 drop of dilute nitric acid, and gently heated ; 

 to the warm solution a very minute quantity 

 of powdered potassium chlorate is added, which 

 will produce an intense scarlet color; one or 

 two drops of ammonia will change this to a 

 brownish color, giving a brownish precipitate. 

 The mixture is then evaporated to dryness, 

 when it leaves a dark-green residue, dissolved 

 by a drop of water into a green solution, 

 changed to orange brown by potash, and be- 

 comes green again with nitric acid. These last 



changes of color may be repeated any number 

 of times. None other of the commonly-colored 

 alkaloids which were tried could be mistaken 

 for strychnine by this test, but each of them 

 exhibits some peculiarity when treated in the 

 same way, which would give a clew to its iden- 

 tity. A convenient reagent for the detection 

 of alkaloids can be made by mixing a weak so- 

 lution of potassium chlorate with enough strong 

 hydrochloric acid to turn it bright yellow, and 

 enough water to make it very pale yellow. 

 This euchlorine solution is added by degrees to 

 the solution of the alkaloid in HC1, which is 

 boiled after each addition. Strychnine gives a 

 fine red color, bleached by excess and return- 

 ing when boiled. Brncine gives a violet color 

 in the cold, which is bleached by excess and 

 restored by boiling. Narcotine gives a bright- 

 yellow color in the cold, which becomes pink 

 on boiling and adding more of the euchlorine 

 solution. Quinine gives a faint yellowish pink 

 on boiling. After cooling the solution weak 

 ammonia is gradually added, when : Strychnine 

 gives a yellow color unchanged by boiling. 

 Brucine gives the same. Narcotine gives a 

 dingy green, becoming brown on boiling. Qui- 

 nine gives a bright green, becoming yellow on 

 boiling. Morphine gives no reaction, but if, 

 after boiling with the euchlorine solution, the 

 liquid be cooled and allowed to remain in con- 

 tact with zinc for a minute or two, it will give 

 the characteristic pink reaction with ammonia. 



"William Crookes, observing the phosphores- 

 cence of alumina and its various forms under 

 the influence of the electrical discharge in 

 vacuo, has remarked the full red color which it 

 presents. The spectrum of the glowing earth 

 is marked by an intensely brilliant and sharp 

 line, to which the color is due. Observations 

 by M. de Boisbaudran led him to suppose that 

 the presence of chromium is indispensable to 

 the production of this color. Mr. Crookes 

 having, in experiments directed expressly to 

 this point, produced the red color with alumina 

 freed from chromium, suggests four other pos- 

 sible explanations of the phenomenon : 1. The 

 crimson line is due to alumina, but is capable 

 of being suppressed by an accompanying earth 

 which concentrates toward one end of the 

 fractionations. 2. It is not due to alumina, but 

 is due to an accompanying earth concentrating 

 toward the other end of the fractionations. 3. 

 It belongs to alumina, but its full development 

 demands certain precautions to be observed in 

 the time and intensity of ignition, degree of 

 exhaustion, or its absolute freedom from alka- 

 line and other bodies carried down by precipi- 

 tated alumina; or, 4. The earth alumina is a 

 compound molecule, one of the constituent 

 molecules of which gives the crimson line. 

 According to this hypothesis, alumina would be 

 analogous to yttria. 



Among the questions to which the Commit- 

 tee on Electrolysis of the British Association 

 gave attention during the year, was whether 

 the well-marked metallic alloy or yuost-com- 



