230 Scientific Intelligence. 
atmospheric oxidation in a manner hardly to have been expected. 
To one part of coal in very fine powder take three or four parts 
of the mixed alkali-carbonates. Mix intimately in a platinum 
dish and heat at first gently, using alcohol in place of gas to avoid 
the sulphur of the latt Raise the heat very slowly, not reach- 
ing a visible red nil: the surface of the mass becomes faintly 
combustion proc edn t om the bottom toward the top. Direct 
experiment shows no loss of sulphur; and comparative tests prove 
the enlee to be accurate. The complete roasting process pa 
pies about an hour and a half.—/. Chem. Soc., xxxv, ge: 
— 
. A Theoretical and Practical Treatise on the Mae 
of Sulphuric Acidand eens with the Collateral Branches ; 
orGE LuNGE, hae S., Professor of Technieal Chemis- 
oe at the Federal Polytechnic School, Zurich soba renee 
of the Tyne Alkali Works, South Shields), London, 1879. Vol. 
I, pp. 658, 8vo. (John Van Voorst).—Dr. Lunge, in his volume 
on Sulphuric Acid, — in full detail, not Sig the ee 
steps of the man ufacttu e, but discusses, as onl ood chem 
can, the theoretical questions involved in the ae oan 
The work is illustrated with plans arin to scale, of every part 
of all the apparatus required, and such clear directions as to cor- 
struction, and such minute instructions as to operating are given 
that the Sick § is a nautptcts guide to the manufacturer. 
Since the first decade of this century, when sulphurous acid 
ingenuity of man setioverees has found am a scope In “iseover g 
other sources of sulphur than crude brimst end and devising suit- 
able furnaces for burning them in, and in merivicig means for 
reducing to the utmost the loss of sulpher and nitrogen. Iron 
yrites, and, to a Henited extent, other sulphuretted minerals and 
Siber dsitaturgicat products, have displaced brimstone in most 
European works. This change was begun in 1838, when the Si- 
cilian Government, by unwisely raising the price of brimstone, 
drove acid makers to seek a substitute ; and it has Sie? pron 
n mat- 
athe contents. Of this important mineral not hi than 600, 
000 tons are imported annually into Great Britain alone, prima- 
