112 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



which binds the parts of the molecule together is snapped 

 asunder. 



I anticipate wide, if not entire, generality for the fact 

 that a liquid and its vapor absorb the same rays. A cell 

 of liquid chlorine would, I imagine, deprive light more 

 effectually of its power of causing chlorine and hydrogen 

 to combine than any other filter of the luminous rays. 

 The rays which give chlorine its color have nothing to do 

 with this combination, those that are absorbed by the 

 chlorine being the really effective rays. A highly sensi- 

 tive bulb, containing chlorine and hydrogen, in the exact 

 proportions necessary for the formation of hydrochloric 

 acid, was placed at one end of an experimental tube, the 

 beam of the electric lamp being sent through it from the 

 other. The bulb did not explode when the tube was 

 filled with chlorine, while the explosion was violent and 

 immediate when the tube was filled with air. I anticipate 

 for the liquid chlorine an action similar to, but still more 

 energetic than, that exhibited by the gas. If this should 

 prove to be the case, it will favor the view that chlorine 

 itself is molecular and not monatomic. 



Production of Sky-blue "by the Decomposition of Nitrite 



of Amyl 



When the quantity of nitrite vapor is considerable, and 

 the light intense, the chemical action is exceedingly rapid, 

 the particles precipitated being so large as to whiten the 

 luminous beam. Not so, however, when a well-mixed and 

 highly attenuated vapor fills the experimental tube. The 

 effect now to be described was first obtained when the 

 vapor of the nitrite was derived from a portion of its 

 liquid which had been accidentally introduced into the 



