A FEW CHEMICAL CHANGES INFLUENCED BY RADIUM: A 

 NEW METHOD FOE THE DETECTION OF AMYGDALIN.* 

 By H. JERMAIN M. CREIGHTON, M. A., Dalhousie 

 University, Halifax, N. S. 



Read 13th April, 1908. 



Up to the present time only a comparatively small amount 

 of work has been carried out on the effect of radium on chem- 

 ical reactions. Hardy and Wilcocks 1 have investigated the 

 oxidation of iodoform, when acted on by Rontgen rays aind by 

 radium, and Hardy 2 has observed the coagulation of globulin 

 under the influence of the latter. Becquerel 3 found that white 

 phosphorus i changed into the inactive red phosphorus, and 

 that mercuric chloride in the presence of oxalic acid is reduced 

 to mercurous chloride by the radiations from radium. The 

 Curies 4 have shown that the rays from radium change oxygen 

 into ozone and discolour glass. Berthelot 5 cites the following 

 cases : iodic acid is decomposed by radium rays and by light, 

 with liberation of iodine, the change being much slower than 

 that of iodoform ; nitric acid gives off nitrous fumes when acted 

 upon by radium rays and by light. The decomposition of 

 hydriodic acid has been observed and studied by Creighton. 6 

 These,, as far as I have been able to discover, are all the 

 reactions that have been investigated up to the present time. 



Wheta it had been decided to investigate what influence 

 radium had on different chemical changes, it seemed probable 

 that the best results would be obtained if the radium were 

 allowed to act on the substances that were to be transformed, 

 under the conditions most favourable to the transformation. It 

 was mainly for these conditions that the following substances 

 were choseln. 



*Oontributions from the Science Laboratories of Dalhousie University fCheniistry.I 



1 Proc. Roy. Soc., 72, 480, 200. 



2 Proc. Phyp. Soc., 1903, May 16. 

 * C. R., 1901, 133, p. 709. 



4 C. R., 1899, 129, p. 823. 



5 C. R., 1901, 133, p. 659. 



6 Proc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Science, XII, 1, 1. 



(34) 



