274 REPORT — 1891. 



defined in accordance with the discussion which took place at Bath and 

 with subsequent correspondence with Professor Langley. 



The British Association Committee have during the past year care- 

 fully considered the course of action taken by the American Committee 

 and the position of British analysts now that the scope of the inquiry 

 entered into by the former has been thus enlarged, and it has been 

 considered advisable to publish the results of the determinations of the 

 British analysts as soon as their work is completed. This view was 

 communicated to Professor Langley, who in a letter received on August 7, 

 1891, endorses the proposed publication of the results hitherto obtained 

 by the British Association Committee. 



Owing to the very short time which has elapsed since the receipt of 

 Professor Langley's letter and the fact that two of the British analysts 

 have not yet forwarded their reports to the Committee, it has not yet 

 been possible to institute a comparison of results obtained, but no time 

 will be lost in completing the examination of the four standards at present 

 in hand and in then prejjaring a report on the English results. Dr. 

 Wedding has informed Professor Langley that the work of the German 

 Committee is now nearly completed. 



The fifth standard has not yet been prepared, some difficulty having 

 been met with in obtaining so large a quantity of mild steel of perfectly 

 uniform composition. It was originally proposed to make the standard 

 of basic steel, but it was urged that greater uniformity could be obtained 

 with crucible metal. Professor Langley states that he has made several 

 attempts to make crucible steel sufficiently low in carbon, but finds it 

 impossible to do so in the plumbago crucibles used in the United States. 

 This matter is now under consideration, and it is hoped the fifth standard 

 will be prepared shortly. 



Report (jprovisional) of a Committee, consisting of Professors H. E. 

 Armstrong and W. E. Dunstan and Messrs. C. H. Bothamley 

 and W. A. Shenstone (Secretary), appointed to investigate the 

 direct formation of Haloid Compounds from pure materials. 



Having confirmed "VYanklyn's early observation that carefully dried 

 chlorine was practically without action on sodium, R. Cowper in 1883 

 (' Chem. Soc. Journ.' 1883, pp. 153-155) made a number of experiments 

 on the behaviour of dried chlorine towards other metals, and in several 

 cases found that if dried by contact with freshly-fused calcium chloride 

 it was without action. Thus Dutch metal was apparently still unacted 

 on after three months' exposure in the dried gas ; and zinc, in the form of 

 foil, and magnesium wire were also unattacked. Silver and bismuth, 

 however, were slightly acted on, and tin, antimony, and arsenic were 

 rapidly attacked ; mercury appeared to be acted on as rapidly by dried 

 chlorine as by the moist gas. 



Pringsheim has since shown that, even in tlie case of hydrogen and 

 chlorine, the interaction is affected by the presence of moisture. 



These, and similar observations by H. B. Dixon and others with 

 reference to the formation of oxides from dry materials, render it desirable 

 to more fully elucidate the conditions which determine the formation of 



