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influence upon the acid. Of this hydrocarbon he next determines 

 the composition, and finds that its elements correspond in their re- 

 lative proportions with those of defiant gas. 



When oil of wine is mixed with solution of muriate of baryta, and 

 gently heated, the mixture becomes acid, reddening litmus paper, 

 but yet does not precipitate the barytic salt. Several experiments 

 are detailed illustrating the nature of this acid, from which it appears 

 that it forms very soluble compounds with baryta and potassa ; the 

 latter is a crystallizable salt, which burns with flame when heated, 

 and leaves a bisulphate of potassa. Its analysis, the details of which 

 are given at length in the paper, shows it to consist of two pro- 

 portionals of sulphuric acid, one of potassa, four of carbon, and four 

 of hydrogen ; and it is remarked that the latter elements, namely, 

 the carbon and hydrogen, appear in the present instance to be equi- 

 valent to, or to exert a saturating power over, one of the pro- 

 portionals of sulphuric acid. Some slight discrepancies between the 

 experimental and theoretical results of these analyses are adverted 

 to, which the author thinks himself justified in attributing to water 

 of crystallization in the salt, which he could not succeed in obtain- 

 ing in a perfectly anhydrous state. 



Mr. Hennell next shows that the salts, called Sulphovinates, are 

 not essentially different from those which he has just described, and 

 that they are not, as some have supposed, hyposulphates, modified 

 by the presence of essential oil. In preparing the sulphovinates he 

 was struck with the singular change effected upon sulphuric acid, 

 by mixing it with its weight of alcohol. A portion of sulphuric acid, 

 adequate to the saturation of 555 grains of carbonate of soda, re- 

 quired only 398 grains for its saturation when previously mixed with 

 alcohol ; and again a quantity of sulphuric acid, which afforded 

 1313 grains of sulphate of lead, only produced 542 grains when it 

 had been mixed with its weight of alcohol. These circumstances 

 are referred to the combination of a portion of the sulphuric acid 

 with hydrocarbon derived from the alcohol. 



Some experiments are then detailed, having for their object the 

 separation of the hydrocarbon from oil of wine. When this oil, as 

 it is called, is heated with a little potash, the salt above described is 

 formed, and the excess of hydrocarbon is liberated in the form of a 

 thick oil, which crystallizes at low temperatures : it has an aromatic 

 odour, sp. gr. 9, is insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol and ether; 

 decomposition by peroxide of copper showed it to consist of carbon 

 and hydrogen in the proportions of 6 and 1 , analogous therefore, as 

 far as its ultimate elements are concerned, to olefiant gas. 



The author examined some sulphuric acid given to him by Mr. 

 Faraday, which had been made to absorb about 80 volumes of ole- 

 fiant gas ; and this saturated with carbonate of potash, evaporated to 

 dryness, and the residue, treated by alcohol, afforded a portion of 

 the same salt as that obtained from the oil of wine. The author 

 concludes, therefore, that hydrocarbon, composed of single pro- 

 portionals of its elements, is capable of entering into a peculiar 



