568 Note on the Brown Liquid contained [Nov. 



The liquor of the inner, or brass cylinder, having the consistence of 

 wet mud, was bottled oft' separately. 



1. In the innermost or gold cylinder, which rested in an oblique posi- 

 tion in the brass case, a deposit of the brown matter had in the course of 

 ages consolidated in the lowermost corner, differing from that formed by 

 the rapid drying, in being very hard and of a shining vitreous or resinous 

 lustre on fracture. It enclosed fragments of the glass (or ambre brise', of 

 M. Ventura) (fig 22, a, b, c, d,) and when detached from the larger 

 pieces of them, possessed the following properties : 



Specific gravity, 1.92. 



100 parts heated iu a test tube gave off moisture, and a minute portion of 

 empyreumatic oil, 20.0 



The residue, heated red, lost of carbonaceous matter, 4.0 



It then fused under the blow- pipe into a parti-colored slag, which pounded 

 and divested in nitric acid, yielded of phosphate of lime (?) tainted slight- 

 ly by oxide of copper, , 12.0 



The silicious or glassy residue, unexamined, weighed, (i4.6 



100.0 



2. The brown paste itself was next submitted to examination. 



It was not soluble either in alcohol or ether ; and after once being precipitated 

 by acids, evaporation to dryness, &c. it was no longer soluble in water. 



Nitric acid boiled upon it took a light-yellow colour, causing a slight efferves- 

 cence and a brown scum to rise to the surface of the liquid ; the greater part re- 

 mained untouched and unchanged in colour. Sulphuric acid had no greater 

 effect. The acid solution shewed the presence of copper in abundance. 



When the brown liquid was gradually heated in a tube, to drive off its water, a 

 slip of litmus and one of turmeric paper beiug introduced into the neck of the 

 tube, there was not the slightest indication either of free acid or of alkali. 



Acetite of lead threw down a heavy precipitate of a brownish-white colour, 

 leaving the liquid clear. 



The brown precipitate obtained by evaporation, when heated on platina foil, 

 took fire for a moment, and then burnt like a coal, leaving an earthy residue, co- 

 loured by oxide of copper. When the decomposition was conducted in a test 

 tube, reddened litmus paper being introduced, empyreumatic oil was given off with 

 strong fumes of ammonia. 



It being evident that the brown substance was chiefly composed of 

 vegetable, with perhaps a little animal matter, carbonized and blackened 

 by age, and mixed with earths and metallic oxides, a hasty approximate 

 analysis was attempted in the following manner, to ascertain whether 

 any trace of animal matter or bone was discoverable. 



10 grains of the dried substance were introduced into a glass tube, to which a 

 shape was then given by the blow-pipe, like the letter N ; nitric acid was introduced 

 in the second bend, to arrest the ammonia, which might be driven over on the 

 destructive distillation of the substance operated on. After gradually heat- 

 ing the closed end of the tube red hot, that portion was broken off, the charcoal 

 weighed, incinerated, and the ash digested in nitric acid. From the resulting 

 solution, ammonia threw down a copious white precipitate, redissolving the oxide 

 of copper, which was thus carried through the filter. The precipitate heated, and 

 weighed, was redissolved, and reproduced by ammonia; while sulphuric acid 



