on the Alcohol of Sulphur ^ or Sulphuret of Carbon, 175 



The alcohol of sulphur thus prepared has the following 

 properties : it is eminently transparent, and perfectly colour- 

 less. Sometimes, immediately after distillation, the oily liquid 

 appears somewhat opaque and milky ; but the next day the 

 liquor is found perfectly clear, the mill^y appearance having 

 spontaneously disappeared. It has an acrid, pungent, and some- 

 what aromatic taste ; its smell is nauseous and fetid, though 

 distinctly differing from that of sulphuretted hydrogen. Its 

 specific weight is 1,272 ; its refractive power, as ascertained by 

 Dr. WoLLASTON, is 1,645. Its expansive force (the height of 

 the barometer being thirty inches, and the temperature 53,5' 

 Fahrenheit) is equal to the pressure of 7,36 inches of mer- 

 cury ; so that air, to which it is admitted, wall dilate about one- 

 fourth of its volume. It boils briskly under the common at- 

 mospheric pressure at a temperature between 105° and 110°.* 

 It does not congeal at a temperature as low as 60° below zero 

 of Fahrenheit's scale. It is highly inflammable, and takes 

 fire at a temperature scarcely exceeding that at which mer- 

 cury boils ; it burns with a bluish flame, emitting copious fumes 

 of sulphureous acid. If a long glass tube, open at both ends, 

 be held over the flame, care being taken to keep the tube quite 

 cold, no moisture whatever is deposited on its internal surface. 



This oily liquid readily dissolves in alcohol and ether,-f though 

 not in all proportions ; and if it contain sulphur in solution, the 



• The volatility of this liquid is very remarkable ; it exceeds considerably that of 

 ether ; and in some experiments, tried since this paper was presented to the Society, 

 on its power of producing cold by evaporation, some unexpected results have been 

 obtained, which may, perhaps, become the subject of some future communication. 



f Ether can dissolve about three times its own bulk of the oily liquor before any 

 separation or turbidness takes place. 



