A Few Chemical Changes Ineiatenced by Radium: A 

 Xew Method for the Detection of Amygdalin.^ — 

 By H. Jermain M. Creighton, M, A., Dalhousie 

 University, Halifax, N. S. 



Read 13th April, 1908. 



Up to the i)resent time only a comparatively small amount 

 of work has l>eeii carried out on the etfeet of radium on chem- 

 ical reactions. Hardy and Wilcocks^ have investi«2,-ated the 

 oxidation of iodoform, when acted on hy Kont^en rays and by 

 radium, and Hardy^. has observed the coagulation of globulin 

 under the intiuence of the latter. Be<?quereP found that white 

 ]jhosphorus is changed into the inactive red phosphorus, and 

 that mercuric cliloride in the presence of oxalic acid is reduced 

 to mercurous chloride by the radiations from radium. The 

 Curies^ have shown that the rays from radium change oxygen 

 into ozone and discolour glass. Berthelot*' cites the following 

 cases: iodic acid is decomposed by radium rays and by ligJit, 

 with liberation of iodine, the change l)erng- much slower than 

 that of iodoform; nitric acid gives off nitrous fumes when acted 

 upon by radium rays and by light. The decomposition of 

 hydriodic acid has been observed and studied by Creighton.* 

 These,, as far as 1 have been able to discover, are all the 

 reactions that have been investigated up to the ])resent time. 



W1hiii it had l)een decided to investigate what influence 

 radium had on different chemical changes, it seemed probable 

 that the best results would be obtained if the radiimi were 

 allowed to act on the substances that W(n-e to be transformed, 

 under the conditions most favourable to the transformation. It 

 was mainlv for these conditions that the tollowing substances 

 were chosCn. 



♦Contributions from the Science Laboratorien of Dalhousie University IChemistrv.l 



1 Proc. Roy. Soc, 72, 480, 200. 



^ Proc. Phyn. Soc, 1903, May 10. 



•i C. R., 1901, 133, p. 709. 



4 C. R., 1899, 129, p. 823. 



a C. R., 1901, 133, p. (»9. 



6 Proc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Science, XII, 1, 1. 



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