Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 545 



a 



after dissolving it in aether, he evaporated the sethereal solution ; the 

 syrupy residue was redissolved in absolute alcohol, and the solution 

 was gradually poured into cold water, with continual shaking. 

 There was thus obtained a dense flocculent precipitate, which was 

 pressed between folds of paper and dried in vacuo. 



Aconitina thus prepared has the form of a powder, which is colour- 

 less and inodorous, and completely unalterable in the air. Heated on 

 a strip of platina, it readily melts, takes fire and leaves a coaly resi- 

 due, which easily incinerates. It is impossible to volatilize it par- 

 tially, like atropia ; it is heavier than water, and is very slightly soluble 

 in it. It dissolves very readily in alcohol, and less so in aether. 



It fuses at 80°, and on cooling becomes a vitreous, transparent 

 mass. At 120° it begins to become brown. 



It has a strong alkaline reaction, and saturates acids perfectly. 

 Its salts are uncrystallizable. Hydrochlorate of aconitina reacts as 

 follows : — Potash, ammonia and carbonate of potash, form a white 

 flocculent precipitate of aconitina, slightly soluble in excess of the 

 reagent. Carbonate of ammonia, bicarbonate of soda, and phosphate 

 of soda give no precipitate. Chloride of gold gives a thick precipi- 

 tate of a whitish yellow colour, slightly soluble in hydrochloric acid. 

 With the chloride of mercury and the sulphocyanide of potassium, 

 white cheesy precipitates are obtained, and with tincture of iodine a 

 kermes-coloured precipitate. Tincture of galls and gallic acid pre- 

 cipitated aconitina after the addition of a drop of hydrochloric acid. 

 Picric acid forms a dense precipitate of a sulphur-yellow colour. 



The author's analyses indicate as the formula of aconitina C 60 H 47 

 NO 14 ; the double hydrochlorate of aconitina and gold contains 

 C 60 H 47 NO 14 , HC1 + Au Cl 3 + H 2 O 2 . 



M. Planta found that 0-2970 gr. of this alkali absorbed at 100°, 

 0'0460 of hydrochloric gas, which corresponds to 31 '41 of hydro- 

 chloric acid in 100 parts of the hydrochlorate represented by the 

 formula C 60 H 47 NO 14 , 2HCL — Journ. de Chim. Med., Octobre 1850. 



MAGNETIC AND DIAMAGNETIC CONDITION OF GASES. 



Nov. 29, 1850. 



The Bakerian Lecture was delivered yesterday by Prof. Faraday 

 to a crowded audience. At this late period of the month we can 

 only glance at the highly interesting investigations laid before the 

 Royal Society, reserving a fuller notice for our next Number. 



One of the conclusions arrived at by the author was, that the 

 motions of magnetic and diamagnetic bodies in each other do 

 not appear to resemble those of attraction or repulsion of the ordi- 

 nary kind, but to be of a differential action, dependent perhaps upon 

 the manner in which the lines of magnetic force were affected in 

 passing from one to the other during their course from pole to pole, 

 the differential action being in ordinary cases between the body 

 experimented with and the medium surrounding it and the poles. 

 A method of showing this action with the gases is described, in 

 which delicate soap-bubbles are made to contain a given gas, and 

 then, when held in the magnetic field, approach, or are driven further 

 off, according as they contain gases, magnetic or diamagnetic, in 

 relation to air. Oxygen passes inwards or tends towards the mag- 

 netic axis, confirming the results formerly described by the author. 



Perceiving that if two like bubbles were set on opposite sides 

 Phil. Mag. S. 3. No. 253. Stipjrt. Vol. H7. 2 N 



