TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 608' 



investigation on whic)- lie was engaged with his assistants, Dr. Carl Langer and 

 Dr. Frfedrich Quincke, into the remarkable property of metallic nickel to induce, 

 at the comparatively low temperature of 350° C, the complete dissociation of car- 

 bonic oxide into carbon and carbonic acid, which, according to Victor Meyer and 

 Carl Langer, by the application of heat alone remains incomplete at a temperature 



of 1,690° C. . ^ , . , 



A very small quantity of nickel can effect the dissociation of a large quantitv of 

 carbonic oxide, and becomes converted into a very voluminous black mass contain- 

 inw varying quantities of carbon up to 85 per cent. This mass takes fire on expo- 

 sure to airj^so that it had to be cooled with exclusion of air for the purpose of 

 analysis, which was done in a slow current of carbonic oxide gas. This gas was 

 subsequently led into a Bunsen burner, so as to keep it out of the atmosphere of 

 the room, 'in this wav it was observed that when the cooling had proceeded to a 

 certain point (about 150° C.) the Bunsen flame became luminous and remained so, 

 and even became intenser, down to ordinary atmospheric temperature. When the 

 ■ gas before entering the burner was heated in a glass tube, a metallic mirror was 

 obtained, while the luminosity of the flame disappeared. 



At first this phenomenon was referred to the presence in the nickel of an 

 unknown element, perhaps to Kriiss and Schmidt's Gnomium, which at this time 

 still haunted chemical literature. The metal of the mirror, however, gave all and 

 every one of the reactions of nickel with remarkable brilliancy, and an approximate 

 determination of the atomic weight came out so nearly to the very carefully 

 determined figure of Russel for-nickel (58-58 as compared with _58-74) that there 

 could be no doubt about its identity with our well-known old friend, whose cha- 

 racter as a simple body, called in question by Kriiss and Schmidt, was thus 

 rehabilitated. 



In repeating the experiment with carbonic oxide, quite free from hydrogen and 

 moisture, and only contaminated with nitrogen, the same result was obtained. 

 After removing the carbonic oxide by cuprous chloride and heating the residual 

 gas to 180° in aniline vapour, at which temperature nickel, quite free from carbon, 

 is separated, the volume of the gas expanded considerably, and the gas contained 

 only nitrogen and carbonic oxide. It was thus evident that a volatile compound 

 of nickel and carbonic oxide had been obtained, which, on heating, dissociated into 

 its constituents. The increase of volume proved that one volume of gas yielded 

 four volumes of carbonic oxide, and the determination of the amount of nickel 

 deposited and the carbonic oxide formed led to a proportion of four equivalents of 

 carbonic oxide to one of nickel. To further study the properties of this compound 

 it was necessary to produce larger quantities, which took a long time to accom- 

 plish. By preparing the nickel in a very fine state of division, at the lowest possi- 

 ble temperature, by "reducing the oxide, or, better still, the oxalate, in a current of 

 hydrogen at about 400° C, and by carefully purifying and regulating the current 

 of carbonic oxide, the compound was formed quite readily, and the gas passed 

 through a refrigerator, cooled by ice and salt, was condensed to a liquid. 



This liquid is colourless, mobile, highly refracting, possesses a characteristic 

 odour, and is very volatile. It is soluble in a large number of organic liquids, 

 such as alcohol, ether, chloroform, benzole, petroleum, tar oils, &c. It boils at 

 43° C. and 751 mm. pressure without decomposition, and evaporates rapidly at 

 ordinary temperatures in a current of other gases. The specific gravity is 1-3185 

 atl7°C.; at -25° it solidifies, forming needle-shaped crystals ; the pure vapoiir 

 explodes when suddenly heated to above '60°, and even when the tube containing it is 

 scratched roughly with a file. A mixture of the vapour with air explodes violently 

 on the application of a flame. Both the liquid and the vapour are poisonous, the lat- 

 ter approximating carbonic oxide in this respect. According to an investigation 

 kindly undertaken by Professor McKendrick, the liquid dissolved in chloroform 

 produces, when injected subcutaneously in extremely small doses in rabbits, an 

 extraordinary reduction of temperature, amounting in some cases to 12° C. 



Careful determinations of the quantity of nickel contained in the liquid, made 

 by introducing a weighed quantity into chlorine water and precipitation of the 

 nickel from the resulting solution, led to figures agreeing very closely with the 



