552 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



The maxima of emission of flames are to be regarded as due to 

 pure radiation of temperature for which the chemical process is 

 non-essential. — Wiedemann's Annalen, No. 11, 1893. 



ON THE CONDITION OF MATTER NEAR THE CRITICAL POINT. 

 BY B. GALITZINE. 



The following is a summary of the results obtained by the 

 author : — 



1. The temperature t c of the actual appearance of the meniscus 

 on cooling must be lower, and even considerably so than the true 

 critical temperature T c of the substance. Accordingly the optical 

 method, at any rate in its ordinary form — observation of the for- 

 mation of mist — must lead to incorrect results for the critical 

 temperature. 



2. Wii;h very slow and regular cooling the frequently discussed 

 peculiar formation of mist is no necessary condition of the phe- 

 nomenon. 



3. The temperature at which the meniscus actually appears, and 

 the temperature t c ' at which the last traces of want of homogeneity 

 disappear, must be assumed to be independent of the quantity of 

 substance in the tube. 



4. The density p of a liquid (in contact with its vapour) and 

 the density 2 of its saturated vapour change at exactly the same 

 temperature with the time, and with frequent heating beyond the 

 critical temperature, in which p decreases ana ^increases. 



5. Both magnitudes are therefore not completely and unequivo- 

 cally defined by the temperature alone. 



6. At temperatures which lie considerably higher than the 

 critical temperature, a body at almost exactly the same tempera- 

 ture may have two (or perhaps more) different densities. The 

 differences of density may amount to 21-25 per cent. 



7. The remarkable anomalies observed by various experimenters, 

 which are with difficulty brought into harmony, may be very well 

 recognized and justified on the basis of the modern views as to 

 molecular processes in liquid and vapour. — Wiedemann's Annalen, 

 No. 11, 1893. 



NOTE ON THE ATOMIC WEIGHT OF CARBON. 

 BY J. ALFRED WANKLYN. 



An investigation which has occupied me for the greater part of 

 the year has yielded the following remarkable result. There is a 

 series of hydrocarbons the successive members of which rise in 

 molecular weight — not by CH 2 ==14 — but by ^(CH 2 )=7. If this 

 result cannot be overturned, the consequence follows that the 

 atomic weight of carbon is 6. 



