80 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



Since the black substance is precipitable from its combination with 

 or solution in sulphuric acid by sulphuretted hydrogen as a preci- 

 tate soluble in sulphide of ammonium, it belongs to a certain well 

 known group of elements, from all of which it is essentially dis- 

 tinguished by the above-mentioned characters. Hence I feel called 

 upon to regard it as new. It is, moreover, either not at all altered, 

 or undergoes no further resolution, by strong acids, oxygen, chlo- 

 rine, and hydrogen. Since such a substance as the one described 

 is not contained in linseed-oil, it can only be derived from the sul- 

 phur ; and the question immediately arises how it is present in the 

 latter. If sulphur is an element, our substance can only have been 

 mixed with it. But as a trifling mixture of something with an 

 element that occurs in abundance is out of the question (for 10- 

 20 grams of sulphur give an amply sufficient quantity of the above- 

 described substance for the chemical reactions and experiments), 

 one would suppose that, since it is not mixed as such with the sul- 

 phur, it occurs therein in a combination wmich could not be resolved 

 by distillation &c, goes with sulphur into its combination with 

 alkali or alkaline earth, is likewise precipitated by acid, and, finally, 

 could only be detected by the experiment with linseed- oil. Yet 

 such a supposition would not be a probable one. Sulphur sepa- 

 rated from chemically pure gases with the utmost precaution does 

 not behave otherwise to linseed-oil than milk of sulphur, and, as I 

 in March last communicated to the Physical Society of this place, 

 can by itself alone be heated so that, employed even in minute 

 quantities (such as about half a gram), it leaves a black residue in 

 which carbon as carbonic acid can be identified. Further, I have 

 observed (inter alia) that sulphur, distilled under certain conditions, 

 yields peculiar gaseous products which could not be brought into 

 accordance with any known inorganic sulphur combination. From 

 all these reasons it has become very doubtful to me that sulphur is 

 an element. This question, however, shall not be further pursued 

 here, since I hope shortly to publish further experiments for its 

 discussion, and since the purpose of this communication was chiefly 

 to make known the above-described substance, which I hold to be 

 new. 



Permit me here to mention that, besides sulphur, I am also in- 

 vestigating other bodies, and have observed with phosphorus espe- 

 cially something similar to what I have observed in the case of sul- 

 phur. — Communicated to the Berlin Academy of Sciences by Prof. 

 Helmholtz. Monatsbericht der Tc. p. AJcademie der Wissenschaften 

 zu Berlin, August 1879, pp. 788-790. 



