TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 69 



accounted for on the supposition that the force which gives chemical activity to the 

 atom is identical with the force which keeps the atom asunder, and that the cohesive 

 power of the atom is represented by its weight. Thus potassium has a powerful 

 chemical force, an electro-positive force (if we are so pleased to name it), and that 

 force confers activity upon the atom, and by its self-repulsive nature keeps those atoms 

 widely asunder. Chlorine has an activity of quite an opposite character, an electro- 

 negative activity, and the self-repulsive nature of that force keeps its atoms widely 

 apart. But when the two elements are brought together, the activity of the one de- 

 stroys the activity of the other, the repulsive force of the one destroys that of the other ; 

 consequently the cohesive force (a force represented by the weight of the atom) 

 immediately comes into play, and its effects are manifested by the great condensation', 

 the permanent character of the resulting compound. The argument then is, that it 

 is chemical force or electrical attraction (for the two terms are by many considered a3 

 synonymous) which determines the combination of atoms ; but that, when combina- 

 tion actually occurs, the very force which occasions it is masked, neutralized, the 

 elements of the compound being merely held together by the cohesive force, which 

 corresponds with and depends upon the absolute weight of the atom. 



In conclusion, the author reminded the members of the Section that the hypothesis 

 advanced should be considered separate and distinct from the numerous facts which 

 it had been his object to bring before their notice. 



On a new Organic Compound containing Boron . 

 By Dr. Frankland and B. Duppa. 



The authors exhibited a new body obtained by the action of zinc-ethyl on boracic 

 ether, in which the whole of the oxygen in boracic acid is replaced by ethyl, B(CH 5 ) 3 . 

 This boric triethide is a colourless, mobile liquid, spontaneously inflammable. The 

 authors are engaged in investigating the corresponding reaction on the ethers of car- 

 bonic, oxalic, and silicic acids. 



Chemical Notes. By Dr. Gladstone, F.R.S. 

 The first of these notes referred to the gradual reduction of hydrate of cresyl into hy- 

 drate of phenyl and other compounds through the agency of chloride of calcium or zinc : 

 the second described a crystalline precipitate obtained by the addition of hydrofluoric 

 acid to molybdous chloride : the third showed by an analysis of the dift'usate, that when 

 equivalent proportions of choride of sodium and nitrate of baryta are mixed together 

 in solution and diffused, four salts exist contemporaneously in the liquid; or in other 

 words, a portion of each acid combines with a portion of each base ; thus affording an 

 additional evidence of the generality of the law of reciprocal decomposition. 



On the Transmission of Electrolysis across Glass. 

 By W. R. Grove, Q.C, F.tt.S. $c. 



If glass, or an equally non-conducting substance, be interposed between electrodes 

 in an electrolyte, so that there be no liquid communication around the edges, it is 

 hardly necessary to say that, according to received opinions and experiments, no 

 current passes, and no electrolysis takes place. Mr. Grove was led by some theoretic 

 considerations to think that this rule might not be without an exception, and the follow- 

 ing experiment realized his view :— A Florence flask, well cleaned and dried, was 

 filled two-thirds full of distilled water, with a few drops of sulphuric acid added to it, 

 and placed in an outer vessel, containing similar acidulated water, and which reached 

 to the same height as the liquid in the interior. A platinum wire was passed through 

 a glass tube, one end of which was hermetically sealed to the platinum, so that a small 

 part of the wire projected beyond the tube. This tube passed through a cork fitted to 

 the flask, and the platinum point was dipped into the liquid within the flask, and a simi- 

 lar coated wire was dipped into the outer liquid, and the two wires connected with the 

 extremi*' 

 excit 

 provii 

 portions of the flask above the liquid, both outside and inside, were perfectly dry, so 



