226 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 



water ; a drop, weighing 0*0455 gramme, was put into fourteen 

 litres of water, to which were added two grammes of starch, a little 

 sulphuric acid, and eight drops of a solution of chlorine : in fourteen 

 hours the starch became slightly coloured, in twenty-four hours 

 strongly tinted of an amethystine or violet hue. Hence it appears 

 the test thus applied is able to detect 0-0000008 of a part of iodine in 

 solution. — Journal de Pharmacie. 



ACTION OF ALKALIES ON ORGANIC BODIES, 



Since the appearance of M. Gay-Lussac's curious paper on the 

 above subject (see Phil. Mag. and Annals, vol. vi.p.367), he has found 

 that acetic acid and water were very generally produced when the 

 caustic alkali was made to act either upon animal or vegetable sub- 

 stances in the manner before described. — Roy. Inst. Journal. 



FRESH DISCOVERY OF THE CHROMATE OF IRON IN SHETLAND. 



The abundance in which this ore is found as a constituent of the 

 serpentine rock, is now adding considerably to the wealth of this re- 

 mote province of Scotland. The landed proprietors continue in an 

 active search after it, as the following extract of a letter, dated the 

 27th of January 1830, sufficiently shows. It is addressed to Dr. Hib 

 bert from Thomas Gifford, Esq. of Busta, a principal landed pro- 

 prietor in these islands : " I take the liberty," he writes, " of address- 

 ing a few lines to you on the subject of the chromate of iron. As 

 you predicted, it has been found in quantity on the Ness of Hills- 

 wick and elsewhere in Northmavine." — Brewster's Journal, April 

 1830. ' 



ON ULMIN (ULMIC ACID) AND AZULMIC ACID. 



M. Polydore Boullay has published a memoir, in the Journal de 

 Pharmacie for April last, on the above subject, the results contained 

 in which have led to the following conclusions : 



1 . Ulmin, discovered in the products of the exudation from the elm, 

 and since met with in turf and various other bodies, and artificially 

 produced by M. Bracconot, also from the colouring matter of un- 

 bleached flax, occurs also in soot and vegetable matters incompletely 

 distilled. It is also one of the usual products of the action of sul- 

 phuric and muriatic acids upon vegetable matters such as wood, starch, 

 sugar, and alcohol. 



2. Ulmin, when all its properties are considered, and especially its 

 power of saturating bases, ought to be called ulmic acid. It appears to 

 differ from the product which results from the action of air or oxy- 

 genated bodies upon extracts, tannin, gallic acid, and the gallates, on 

 account of its colour and solubility in alcohol. 



3. The composition of ulmic acid, which is equivalent to 



Carbon 567 



Water 433 



100-0, 



