CHEMISTRY. (NEW SUBSTANCES.) 



133 



directly proportional to the pressure exerted, un- 

 less chemical combination takes place between 

 the gas and the solvent. Inasmuch as the pivs- 

 MIIV at. any point within a fluid incapable of be- 

 ing compressed is pro|>ortional to the depth of 

 Ik-it point below the surface of the fluid, it is 

 obvious that the water deep down in the ocean 

 must, be capable of dissolving greater quantities 

 of air than water at the surface. It is mathe- 

 matically calculated by A. E. Richardson on the 

 b:isis, however, of the coefficient of absorption 

 fur pure water, which will give a result exceed- 

 , ing that of sea water that a cubic foot of water 

 at the extreme depth of the Pacific Ocean would 

 be capable of absorbing 29 cubic feet of air meas- 

 ured at normal pressure, or about one twenty- 

 seventh of its own weight. " Nor does there 

 seem any reason to suppose that this amount is 

 not absorbed, for the atmospheric gases must 

 permeate the whole of the ocean's depth, in order 

 that deep-sea fishes may obtain the oxygen neces- 

 sary for the preservation of their existence. At 

 a depth of 1,580 feet water absorbs its own vol- 

 ume of air (measured at atmospheric pressure). 

 Thus in all water below this depth more than 

 its own volume of air is dissolved. We have 

 thus a second but submerged atmosphere. 



Prof. Camelley, in 1884, using a metachromatic 

 scale, constructed by W. Ackroyd, found indica- 

 tions that the color of compounds is a periodic 

 function of the atomic weight. In 1802 Mr. 

 Ackroyd stated, as his view of the law of color 

 and constitution, that in a series of molecules 

 with a constant radical, R, and a weight-variable 

 radical, R', the color varies in a definite order, 

 increase of the weight-variable radical R' caus- 

 ing change of color toward the black end of 

 the color scale, viz., white, blue, green, yellow, 

 orange, red, brown, black. Several substances, 

 including binary compounds, crystallized salts, 

 periodic series of compounds, isomorphous com- 

 pounds, and colored nonmetallic elements, are 

 cited as conforming to this law, which the au- 

 thor phrases : increase of absorption of light in 

 the order of the metachromatic scale is accom- 

 panied by increase of molecular and atomic vol- 

 ume. At the present stage of the inquiry it is 

 difficult, on account of the uncertainty in some 

 cases as to what may be the molecular weight 

 of compounds that can not be vaporized, to say 

 what are the real exceptions to this law. 



Dr. S. Rideal described to the British Associa- 

 tion the results of his experiments to determine 

 the iodine value of sunlight in the high Alps. 

 The experiments were made at St. Moritz, in the 

 Engadinc, at a height of about 7,000 feet. From 

 comparison of the results with some obtained in 

 Manchester, England, at the same time of the 

 year (January), it appears that as much sunshine 

 falls upon St. Moritz in one day as upon Manches- 

 ter in ten days. It is this larger amount of sun- 

 shine, doubtless, that renders St. Moritz so favor- 

 able a health resort. It appears from some ex- 

 periments made in the Alps by Prof. Dixon and 

 Dr. Kohn that abdve a certain height the 

 amount of sunlight, as determined by the libera- 

 tion of iodine, does not increase. 



It was observed by A. W. Hoffmann, in 1874, 

 that charcoal especially animal charcoal can 

 exert a strong oxidizing action. Cazenouve 

 made similar observations on boiling certain 



substances with animal charcoal, when their 

 color was changed, and the charcoal retained 

 the color firmly but yielded it up again to boil- 

 ing alcohol. The idea that the oxidizing action 

 of carbon was concerned in the decolorizing ac- 

 tion was at once suggested. On experiments 

 made for this purpose it was found that char- 

 coal which had been previously ignited and 

 cooled in a current of dry nitrogen or in carbon 

 dioxide had less decolorizing power than such 

 as had been cooled in the air. Cazeneuve is of 

 opinion that the residual oxygen in the charcoal 

 burns the coloring matter. On the other hand, 

 while Birnbaum and Bomasch recognize a chem- 

 ical process in the matter, the decolorizing action 

 of animal charcoal is explained by F. Schiller on 

 purely physical principles. 



The report 01 the committee of the British 

 Association on the action of light on the hy- 

 dracids of the halogens in the presence of oxygen 

 deals with an investigation of the conditions 

 necessary to start the decomposition of hydro- 

 chloric acid in the presence of oxygen. Experi- 

 ments show that the presence of metallic salts is 

 of great influence in the matter; the action of 

 metallic chlorides is a subject of special study. 



New Substances. An important new series 

 of compounds, the thionylammes, in which two 

 new hydrogen atoms of the amido group of the 

 primary amines are replaced by the radicle 

 thioTiyl SO, are described by Prof. Michaelis. 

 The thionylamines of this series are colorless 

 fuming liq'uids that boil without decomposition 

 and emit a powerful odor. They are decomposed 

 by water into the original amines and sulphur 

 dioxide. The amines of the aromatic series like- 

 wise form thionylamines with thionyl chloride ; 

 and the hydrochlorides, unlike those of the fatty 

 series, react with equal facility. The lower mem- 

 bers of the aromatic thionylamines are yellow 

 liquids which distill without decomposition ; the 

 higher members may likewise be distilled with- 

 out loss under diminished pressure. Alkalies 

 convert them into the original amines and a sul- 

 phite. In the presence of the moisture of the 

 air, or of a small quantity of added water, the 

 thionylamines are converted into compounds of 

 the amines with sulphur dioxide. In seeking to 

 ascertain whether a similar kind of compound to 

 the thionylamines is formed when thionyl chlo- 

 ride is allowed to act upon the amines of the acid 

 radicles, Prof. Michaelis and Dr. Siebert have 

 obtained a nitrite as the main product, with sul- 

 phur dioxide and hydrochloric acid as by-prod- 

 ucts. As the two latter are gaseous substances, 

 it is evident that the reaction affords a conven- 

 ient method of preparing the nitrites in a state 

 of purity. 



A series of compounds formed by the direct 

 union of nitrogen peroxide with certain metals 

 are described by MM. Sabatier and Senderens 

 as having been recently discovered and investi- 

 gated by Mr. Mond and his coworkers. It was 

 observed that when vapor of peroxide of nitrogen 

 of tolerable purity was allowed to stream at the 

 ordinary temperature over metallic copper, co- 

 balt, nickel, or iron in the finely divided and 

 pure condition obtained by the reduction of 

 their oxides by hydrogen, rapid absorption of the 

 nitrogen peroxide occurred with the formation 

 of definite compounds. These compounds are 



