On the Oxidation of Gaseous Hydrocarbon-compounds. 541 



surrounded by melting ice ; and, working exactly in the manner 

 described above, a determination was made of the weight P' 

 of water furnished by the hydrogen which filled the apparatus at 

 0°, and under the pressure H'. There was obtained thus : 



IT' 19*^0 



V. 8. 0-0012932 JL =P' 



760 112-50 

 Dividing the first of these equations by the second, we get 

 \+kx _P H' 



H' . 



p7 * s gi ven by experiment with melting ice ; it remains the same 



for all determinations of high temperatures ; I represent it by M ; 

 I have then 



l±kx_ H' 



l+*x~ P" 



whence 1 M H' 



1 M p 



x = 





The determination of a temperature by this method requires 

 very little time, and the apparatus is ready for the next experi- 

 ment. There is therefore every facility for studying the ascend- 

 ing or descending course of the temperature of furnaces. 



LXXIV. On the Oxidation of Gaseous Hydrocarbon-compounds 

 contained in the Atmosphere. By H. Karsten*. 



MY experiments on the oxidation of organic substances con- 

 taining carbon, published in PoggendorfFs Annalen, 

 vol. cix. p. 346, proved that these bodies combine, at the ordi- 

 nary temperature, with the oxygen of the air to form carbonic 

 acid and water, and that the presence of nitrogenous substances, 

 which chemists have been hitherto accustomed to think requisite 

 in order to set up the process of decay, is of no consequence, 

 since even pure carbon is oxidized to carbonic acid by exposure 

 to the air at the common temperature, just as it is at higher 

 temperatures, only more slowly. 



These experiments further showed that organic hydrocarbon- 

 compounds are also oxidized under water, with formation of 

 carbonic acid, if air has sufficient access to them, more rapidly 

 than in the dry state. When under these circumstances the 

 access of air is insufficient, they rot, that is, they yield, besides 



* Translated bv G. C. Foster, B.A., from Poggendorff's Annalen, 

 for 1862. 



