Miscellanies. 193 
It is remarkable that oxygen deprives fixed oils of their eles and 
colors volatile oils. 
__ Experiments of this nature will give rise to the discovery of other 
products. The oxygenation of the essence of lavender, for exam- 
ple, affords a compound which, treated with potash, yields an abund- 
ant salt, unchangeable in the air, and remarkable for its beautiful and 
easy crystallization. 
- 4. Naphtha.—The naphtha of Amiano, when rectified, has a much 
weaker action on the air than any of the preceding oils. 2.145 c. c. 
of this naphtha, kept over mercury in a-cubic decimetre of air, for one 
year, did not change its volume. In six years, it had absorbed 9.4 
centim. cub. of oxygen, and formed 1.3 c. c. of carbonic acid. The 
naphtha preserved all its transparency and whiteness ; but it had de- 
posited on the sides of the receiver, a thin coating of a yellow color, 
and the mercury was covered with a small quantity of black powder, 
which had all the character of a sulphuret of mercury. 
The author found that a kilogramme of natural and impure naph- 
tha, furnished by careful rectification, about 20 grammes of white 
naphtha, density .755. It has then an elastic force equal to 2,8 inch- 
es of mercury at 68° F.. It begins to boil at 158° F. in a platina 
crucible, but it acquires by ebullition a constant temperature of 192° 
. It dissolves in the cold, in all proportions, in absolute alcohol. 
One hundred parts of spirit of wine, (density .835,) dissolve: only 
14. Its analysis, by distilling it slowly through incandescent iron 
ene: in a porcelain tube show it to Consist of 
-. Carbon, - - sie - 84.65 
si: (Hydrogen, - . - - - “ 13.31 
Oxygen, - - - - - 1.04 
Sulphur, . - - - - a trace. 
Bib. Univ. Fév. 1832. . 
the ‘On the injurious action of gases on Vegetation ; by M. Ma- 
carre.—At the suggestion of M. De Candolle, the author performed 
several experiments to ascertain whether certain gases were equally 
injurious to plants by day as by night. Agriculturists have sometimes 
complained that certain manufactures injured the vegetation around 
them, whereas chemists who have been appealed to, have found from 
their experiments that the plants were not seamed by the action of 
those gases. From the suspicion that their experiments were alwayt 
Vor. XXUI.—No. 1. 25 
