TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 669 



Thomas, Gilchrist, and Snelus in steel, of Elkington and Matthey in the noble 

 metals, show that in these branches the discoveries which have revolutionised 

 processes have been made by Englishmen ; whilst Young, the father of paraffin, 

 Spence the alum maker, and Abel of gun-cotton fame are some amongst many of 

 our countrymen whose names may be honourably mentioned as having founded 

 new chemical industries. 



Hence, whilst there is much to stimulate us to action in the energy and zeal 

 shown by our continental brethren in the pursuit both of pure and applied chemistry, 

 there is nothing to lead us to think that the chemistry of the English-speaking 

 nations in the nest fifty years will be less worthy than that of the past half-cen- 

 tury of standing side by side with that of her friendly rivals elsewhere. 



The following Papers were read :— 



1. On Complex Inorganic Acids. By Professor Wolcott Gibbs. 



The author gave a resume of his work on Complex Inorganic Acids, including 

 many details not hitherto published. The work may be regarded as a series of 

 generalisations of the class of silico-tungstates, discovered by Marignac in 1861, 

 and of the analogous class of phospho-molybdates, the first systematic study of 

 which is due to Deville. To form a proper basis for the investigation it was 

 necessary to make a preliminary thorough study of the tungstates and molybdates. 

 The author's results taken in connection with the prior work of Marignac, Scheibler 

 and Ullik, established the fact that there are two series only of tungstates and 

 molybdates — the normal and the meta-series, the latter being best represented by 

 the compounds of tungsten; the former of those by molybdenum. Thus the 

 lowest meta-tungstate lias the formula -4W0 3 . II.,0 considered as an acid, while 

 the highest is represented by 16W0 3 . 7H,0. The lowest normal molybdic acid 

 has the formula Mo0 3 . H„0 ; the highest the formula 0MoO 3 . H 2 0, as shown by 

 Ullik. Scheibler discovered two distinct series of phospho-tungstates. The author 

 finds that there are at least ten, the highest compound having the formula, as an 

 acid, 24W0 3 . P 2 O s . eH 2 0, the lowest the formula GW0 3 . P 2 5 . 6H 2 0, and that 

 the phospho-molybdates are at least equally numerous, and have a similar range. 

 Odd numbers of molecules of tungstic and molybdic oxides also occur, and there 

 are reasons for doubtiug all the formulas of this class of compounds. Correspond- 

 ing compounds containing arsenic pentoxide also exist, and a few of them had 

 already been observed. To generalise these results still further, the author replaced 

 phosphoric oxide by vanadic pentoxide and antimonic pentoxide, so as to form 

 vanadio-tungstates and antimonio-tungstates and corresponding compounds of 

 molybdenum. Many of these salts are very beautiful. He has also rendered it 

 probable that the greater number of oxides of the type R 2 5 form similar com- 

 pounds, the general formula for the group being : 



m R Ti 3 . n R*,0 5 . p R' 2 0. 



A second series of complex acids contains two oxides of the type R' 2 5 , so> 

 that we have various phospho-vanadio-tungstates, and phospho-vanadio-molyb- 

 dates, and it is at least probable that any two oxides of the type R T 2 O s may enter 

 into similar combinations, the general formula being : 



m R Ti 3 . n R T 2 5 . p R T 2 5 . q R^O. 



The generalisation of the first term, W0 3 or Mo0 3 , in these series is also 

 possible to a certain extent at least. Thus it appears that compounds exist in 

 which fluorine and sulphur partially replace oxygen in \V0 3 or Mo0 3 . 



The author found that hypophosphorous and phosphorous acids unite in a similar 

 manner with tungstic and molybdic oxides. The relations of these two to the 

 others will perhaps appear from the formulas : 



6W0 3 . 2[H, . PO . OH}2H 2 Oaud 8Mo0 3 . 2[H 2 . PO . OH}2(NH. 1 )P + 2 aq., 

 and, in the case of the salts containing phosphorous acid, from the formulae : 



