122 Correspondence of J. Nickles. 
which Dumas has had so large a share, it has had an important sci- 
entific bearing, since it has contributed to the establishment of these very 
ideas, and has compelled Dumas to put ina precise form his scientific 
ity of matter and the intimate —— of simple bodies. 
e give a brief notice of the virion as __ is one which will with- 
out doubt leave its trace on the records of s 
umas having declared that the be penstentt rvhisle Despretz had Just 
the unity of matter. According to him there is not a sufficient analogy 
between the radicals of organic chemistry and the simple bodies of mine- 
vo chemistry. The ao are decomposed by heat, and converted by oxygen 
¢ acid. i 
. white heat, but no chemist to our knowledge has ignited these meta 
a barometric vacuum for the purpose of ascertaining whether any ga 
was seeneaged 5 and this is my ex eriment.” 
volumes of hydrogen gas ‘condensed into only one volume. 
we suppose that a condensed gas could resist the test to which iron aol 
platinum are subject my experiment? Is there a single in 
the disengagement of Ayth of a cubic centimetre of gas would 
The reply of Dumas is briefly as follows : “I demand of Mr. Despretz 
why he expects the metals to resolve themselves into gas? why is it nec 
hou 
as 
ile the others have restated eR hak = is 
iiiahaket este believes that the discovery of cyanogen not 
himself, 00 
suggest doubt to the minds of chemists, and to Gay Lussac 
of chlorine.” 
wee Sa et ia a 
