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Experiments on the Alcohol of Sulphur, or Sulphuret of Carbon. By 

 J. Berzelius, M.D. F.R.S. Professor of Chemistry at Stockholm; 

 and Alexander Marcet, M.D. F.R.S. one of the Physicians to 

 Guy's Hospital. Read May 13, 1813. [Phil. Trans. 1813, p. 171.] 



The great diversity of opinions entertained by several of the most 

 celebrated of the French chemists regarding the nature of this com- 

 pound, which was originally noticed by Lampadius in the distillation 

 of a mixture of pyrites and charcoal, induced the authors to under- 

 take the present analysis, without any knowledge that it was again 

 nearly at the same period under examination in France. The original 

 opinion of Lampadius was, that it consisted of sulphur and hydrogen, 

 and his opinion was also supported by Vauquelin, Robiquet, and the 

 younger Berthollet. The elder Berthollet had supposed it to be a 

 compound of sulphur, hydrogen, and carbon ; but, according to 

 Messrs. Clement and Desormes, hydrogen had appeared not to be 

 one of its constituents, a result which is now adopted in a late re- 

 port of Messrs. Berthollet, Thenard, and Vauquelin, and is here 

 further confirmed by the inquiries of Professor Berzelius and Dr. 

 Marcet. 



Their joint paper is divided into four parts, the first of which de- 

 scribes the preparation and general properties of the compound ; in 

 the second, the authors examine whether hydrogen be present in it; 

 in the third, the presence of carbon is ascertained ; and in the 

 fourth, the proportion of its constituents is determined. 



The preparation consists in distilling sulphur through a red-hot 

 tube of porcelain containing well burned charcoal, condensing the 

 oily product in water, and subsequently rectifying it by very slow 

 distillation at a heat between 100 and 110, by which it is freed 

 from a redundant quantity of sulphur which it always contains when 

 first procured. The fluid is then perfectly transparent and colour- 

 less. It has an acrid, pungent, somewhat aromatic taste, with a 

 smell that is nauseous and fetid. Its specific gravity is 1*272. It 

 boils between 105 and 110, and does not congeal at 50 below 

 zero. It is soluble in alcohol, in ether, and in all oils whether fixed 

 or volatile, and in alkalies ; but it does not unite with water, with 

 acids, or with any metallic substances, and even suffers no change 

 when heated in contact with potassium. 



For the purpose of determining whether hydrogen was present, 

 the vapour of it was exploded with oxygen in the first instance. In 

 the next, a current of oxymuriatic gas was passed through the oily 

 liquid. Thirdly, attempts were made to burn it in oxymuriatic gas. 

 Fourthly, the vapour of it was passed through liquefied muriate of 

 silver; and Lastly, through various metallic oxides ; but in no instance 

 was there any appearance of water being produced, or any other 

 evidence of the presence of hydrogen in the compound. 



The presence of carbon was ascertained by the formation of car- 

 bonic acid in the combustion of the vapour with oxygen. When 

 the oil itself was set on fire in oxygen gas, the heat was sufficiently 

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