TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. G13 



It is proposed to seek to ascertain the limit of the absorption of water by a 

 salt by observation of the rise of temperature upon mixing a solution of the salt 

 with more water. 



Estimations were also made of the amounts of water lost in the efflorescence of 

 certain salts upon prolonged exposure to the atmosphere. Figures are given 

 showing the losses which took place after seven weeks' exposure of sodium car- 

 bonate, sodium sulphate, sodium phosphate, borax, ferrous sulphate, zinc sulphate, 

 «,nd copper sulphate. The sodium sulphate shortly became anhydrous. 



10. Some Notes on Concentrated Solutions of Lithium and other Salts} 

 By John Waddell, B.A., D.Sc, Ph.D. 



The paper is a description of some incorporation experiments, in which lithium 

 •choride, sulphate, and nitrate are compared with other chlorides, sulphates, and 

 nitrates. 



The work was undertaken because in some experiments, already described in 

 the * Chemical News,' it was found that lithium nitrate absorbed more water than 

 the calculated amount as compared with calcium nitrate. The experiments de- 

 scribed in these notes show that the phenomenon observed before was accidental, 

 as some chlorides are more absorbent than lithium chloride, and sodium nitrate, at 

 all events, is more absorbent than lithium nitrate. 



11. On the Formation of Crystals. By W. L. T. Addison. 



1 2. Note on a Compound of Mercury and Ozone. 

 By E. C. C. Baly. 



The curious action of ozone on mercury has long been noticed. In some experi- 

 ments on ozone lately made by the author it was necessary to treat mercury with 

 large quantities of ozone, and he found that the change in the state of the mercury 

 is due to the formation of a paste. This paste consists of a mercurial solution of a 

 solid substance, which may be separated from the paste by filtration through 

 ■chamois leather. The solid is then obtained as a hard metallic substance, having 

 every appearance of an amalgam. This amalgam is a very stable compound at 

 ordinary temperatures, but, on heating, changes to the black oxide of mercury, 

 which, on further heating, gives mercury and the yellow modification of HgO. 

 The substance is not attacked to any extent by hot or cold HCl or HoSO^, but is 

 converted into HgO by HNO3. 



The author is at present engaged in investigating this substance with the view 

 of determining its composition. 



13. The Reduction of Bromic Acid and the Law of Mass Action. 

 By James Wallace Walker, Ph.D., M.A., and Winifred Judson. 



Many chemical reactions take place so rapidly that an experimental determination 

 of the rate at which change is taking place is as yet an impossibility ; others are 

 of such long duration that the difficulty of keeping the external conditions constant 

 during their whole course renders their accurate investigation also impossible ; but a 

 large number have already been examined in which the time required for a measur- 

 a,ble amount of change varies from seconds to weeks with the nature of the reaction, 

 and from a study of these the law connecting the mass of the substance with the 

 time required for its transformation has been deduced. It is called the Laiv of 

 Mass Action. 



To take the simplest case, when one molecule of one substance is being trans- 

 formed into one molecule of another substance, as expressed in the chemical equation 



' Published in the Chemical JVews, October 8, 1897. 



