Helvetic Society. 371 



the annual labours of these societies, which will be laid be- 

 fore you in the course of the present session, that I must 

 refer for all the particulars. 1 shall only at this time, turn 

 your attention to a few of the principal objects. I rank in 

 this number the applications which have been made of the 

 brilliant discovery of Dobereiner of the singular property 

 possessed by the spongy oxide of platina, of becoming sud- 

 denly incandescent in contact with hydrogen gas, at the com- 

 mon atmospheric temperature ; and of producing acetic acid, 

 by the combustion without flame, of alcoholic vapour. Y017 

 will perceive that our learned colleague, Professor Bronner, 

 of Berne, has succeeded in rendering more and more easy 

 the production of the metalioides of potash and soda, by the 

 dry method ; and that the experiments of IVJ. de Serullaz 

 upon the alloys of " kalium" with various metals have been 

 successfully repeated in our laboratories ; and that explo- 

 sive combinations have also been obtained, by means of 

 which gunpowder may^ be easily fired under water. The 

 experiments of Mr. Irminger, of Zurich, upon strontian will 

 be admitted to possess interest, as well as the property of 

 the salts which have this earth for their bases to give to 

 flame a beautiful purple tint, an eSect which has been al- 

 ready applied to pyrotechnics, with brilliant success. 



Passing from the metalloids to the metals, you will have 

 occasion to appreciate the discovery of the British Chemist 

 Lucas, viz. that the contact of powdered charcoal with sil- 

 ver and copper in fusion deprives them of the small portion 

 of oxygen which adheres to them in that condition. But we 

 have establjshed by our experiments, that this effect holds 

 good, not only with respect to the metals above named, but 

 under similar circumstances, it forms with melted steel, 

 vegetations and crystallizations quite as remarkable. Messrs. 

 Faraday, in England, and Berthier, in France, have examin- 

 ed the alloys of steel with chromate of iron ; we shall place 

 before you essays of this kind, obtained in our own shops, 

 and you will then witness chromated steel, perfectly ductile, 

 the fracture of which shows the most beautiful moire pos- 

 sible. We are induced to believe that the true Damascus 

 blades are not, as has been long supposed, a medley of iron 

 and steel, but much rather of various alloys of steel with 

 other metals. To conclude, metallurgic chemistry has been 

 recently enriched by the discovery, due to Professor Zain, 

 of Copenhagen, of Xanthogene, a compound belonging to tb« 



