Miscellanies. 209 



read by Dr. Christison before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, May 3, 

 1841. In this paper the author claims to have decomposed paracyanogen 

 by heat in a ghiss tube away from contact with atmospheric air, and to have 

 obtained as a resuh nitrogen, and a body possessing all the known proper- 

 ties of silicic acid, (silex.) He attempts to prove that the silex could not 

 be derived from the tube or crucible in which the experiments were per- 

 formed, both on account of the quantity produced, the difficulty of con- 

 ceiving of any act of substitution by which the silicon could be brought 

 out of the glass or porcelain, and the fact that as nearly as could be as- 

 certained no loss of weight was suffered by the containing vessel. 



Dr. Brown's paper is in great detail, occupying about twenty pages of 

 the Transactions of the Royal Society. " Dr. Christison," says our cor- 

 respondent, " who read the paper, (the author not being a member of the 

 Society,) added that he had seen the experiments performed, had studied 

 every objection, and had exhausted his ingenuity in endeavoring to detect 

 sources of fallacy, but without success ; if there is error, it is unknown 

 to him. The processes, he said, are delicate and difficult, and he will 

 not renounce his faith in Dr. Brown until opposite results are obtained by 

 more than one chemist equally skillful in manipulation, and equally pa- 

 tient and truth-loving in spirit. The Society unanimously thanked the 

 author, and admitted his paper into their Transactions." 



The present communication consists of five parts. The first treats of 

 the production of silicon from paracyanogen ; the second of the forma- 

 tion of amorphous mi.\ed compounds of silicon with copper, iron, and 

 platinum, by the reaction of paracyanogen on these metals; the third of 

 the quantity of nitrogen separated from paracyanogen when it is changed 

 into nitrogen and silicon ; the fourth contains processes for the prepara- 

 tion of amorphous, semi-cr3'^stalline, and crystalline disiliciurets of iron 

 from the paracyanide of iron and the ferrocyanide of potassium ; and 

 the fifth gives an easy process for the preparation of silicic acid on any 

 scale of operation, by the reaction of the ferrocyanide of potassium on 

 the carbonate of potassa. 



We hope in our next to find space to publish this extraordinary com- 

 munication entire, and it will then be in the power of all interested to 

 verify or annul the author's results. — B. S. Jr. 



19. Artesian Boring at Paris. — Many years ago, near the Barriere de 

 Crenelle, one of the highest points in Paris, a boring was begun to obtain wa- 

 ter. It was discontinued after some years, and again resumed about seven 

 years ago. The result has been successful. We have room only for the 

 following facts, recently communicated by a friend in Paris. The water 

 was at last obtained below the chalk, at the depth of nearly eighteen hun- 

 dred feet. The torrent of water, about three cubic yards per minute, 

 rises in a copious fountain in the grounds of an abattoir, (slaughter-house,) 

 Vol. xi,i, No. 1.— April-June, 1841, 27 



