42 REPORT—1868. 
The action of iodine, bromine, and chlorine upon sulphocyanide of ammonium is 
very remarkable. These bodies are absorbed in large quantities by the concen- 
trated aqueous soltition of the salt, and when it is heated the compound called 
sulphocyanogen is precipitated. This was submitted to analysis, with the fol- 
lowing results :— 
Phipson. Calculated. 
Car boneteaene s.tye att dices: 2,2 20:00 19°83 
PAV OTROS BM a desc waite Fass 0-78 0:82 
INTROS ED Aare duerel open ears 23°20 23°14 
‘SOU 6) CUED te Oe eee 53°00 52°48 
ROSH OM Jobre soak MAM a oc gies 3°02 375 
100-00 
which agrees with the formula C* H? N*+8* O, formerly admitted by Herr Voelkel, 
and not with that of Laurent and Gerhardt, which demands 24 of N, and nearly 
55 of S (C° N° HS°); these authors, however, estimated only the CH and §; their 
nitrogen was obtained by difference. 
In dilute solutions the action of chlorine oxidizes the sulphur of the sulphocya- 
nide, and no precipitate is formed. 
The crystals of sulphocyanide of ammonium appear to be derived from the 
right rectangular prism; they are often very fine, and sometimes grouped to- 
gether in wide crystalline plates several inches broad. 
General Outline of an original System of Chemical Philosophy, comprising 
the Determination of the Volume-equivalents, as also a new Theory of the 
Specific Volumes of Liquid and solid Substances. By Orro Ricwrer, 
Ph.D. 
In this paper the author proceeds upon the hypothesis that the chemical 
elements consist not of individual atoms, but of entire groups of such atoms, in 
other words, of molecules. The various kinds of elementary molecules agree in 
being, each and all; built up of precisely the same number of atoms, which are 
symmetrically disposed with reference to the three axes of space, according to the 
same fundamental plan of arrangement. The constituent atoms of these elementary 
molecules are each and all endowed with the same three fundamental properties of 
eravity, original elasticity, and electrical energy, and these properties vary in range 
and intensity with each species. In harmony with the common practice, the 
chemical elements are divided into the two principal classes of the metals and the 
non-metals, represented respectively by the general formulze Mt, and Nt,. The con- 
stituent atoms of the molecules, from the simplest to the most complex, are fur- 
ther supposed to be in a perpetual state of vibration, in which they perform a 
series of periodical contractions and expansions, and thus, in their final effect, 
establish between contiguous molecules a permanent tendency to repulsion, the 
result of which is the formation of a certain space round the centre of each mole- 
cule, which constitutes its specific volume, and is always dixectly proportional to 
the number of atoms set in motion. The volume-equivalents represent the maxi- 
mum specific volumes which the elementary molecules are capable of realizing ; 
and the peculiar force, under the influence of which the vibratory movements of 
the atoms may ad libitum be arrested or restored, is called ‘the paralytic force.” 
The order in which this force performs its operations in the complex molecules 
materially depends upon the particular position which the various constituents 
occupy in the system relatively to each other. This law of Rankorder is indicated 
in the table of chemical equivalents, in so far as any chemical element which 
stands to the left or, to the right of any other is supposed to occupy in a certain 
sense a similar position in comparison with any other with which it happens to 
be associated a3 a constituent member of the same type. The science of chemistry 
is divided into two parts, ‘“‘Pondo-chemistry and Impondo-chemistry.” The former 
treats exclusively of the molecular arrangement of the constituents, the latter exclu- 
sively of their specificvolumes, Pondo-chemistryis divided into the two principalsec- 
