Litelligence and Miscellajicoiis Articles. 34-1 



stated to exist between the final product of the action of chlorine on 

 protocarburetted hydrogen, and the final product of the action of 

 chlorine on chloroform : a final product which is represented by C'^ 

 CI-'', and obtained in the first case by the loss of eight volumes of 

 hydrogen, replaced by eight volumes of chlorine, and in the second 

 case by the loss of two volumes of hydrogen, replaced by C1-. 



It appears to M. Persoz that in this case M. Dumas has con- 

 founded a phsenomenon of alteration with a phaenomenon of dis- 

 placement. Will it be said, that because on burning four volumes 

 of protocarburetted hydrogen with an excess of oxygen, there are 

 obtained four volumes of carbonic acid containing four volumes of 

 oxygen equivalent to eight volumes of hydrogen, there occurs in 

 this fact an additional proof in favour of the theory of substitutions, 

 and that eight volumes of hydrogen being taken from C^ H^ they 

 ought to be replaced by four volumes of oxygen ? Will carbonic 

 acid be ever confounded with protocarburetted hj'drogen in the same 

 chemical type ? certainly not ; for all chemists agree, and M. Dumas 

 especially, in admitting that in such a combustion the quantity of 

 oxygen fixed with the carbon depends on the number of the atoms of 

 the latter body ; so that, in an organic compound, two atoms of 

 carbon being combined with eight to twenty or any number of 

 atoms of hydrogen, this compound being decomposed by excess of 

 oxygen, there will be only four volumes of oxygen combined with 

 the carbon. Will not M. Dumas admit, that in destroying, as he 

 has done, with excess of chlorine, chloroform &n.di protocarburetted 

 hydrogen, compounds which both contain two atoms of carbon, he 

 could in fact obtain only chloride of carbon, corresponding to car- 

 bonic acid, that is to say 2 C Cl^ = C- Cl^, in the same way as by de- 

 stroying protocarburetted hydrogen by excess of oxygen, there are ob- 

 tained 2C 0-= C'^ O"*, without resorting to his theory of substitutions ? 



M. Persoz adds, that it appears to him important to refer to the 

 fact that the formation of pond gas served him as a means of disco- 

 vering the mysterious agency of water in the reactions of organic 

 bodies. By this decomposition of water, he explains the conversion 

 of starch into sugar, that of sugar into alcohol, and that of certain 

 immediate principles into essential oils ; and he also conceives that 

 he can reduce to the same order of phsenomena (that of oxidize- 

 ment) the action of nitric acid and hydrate of potash on sugar, 

 which, as it is well known, is converted by both of these agents into 

 cxalic acid. — L'Institut, No. 323. 



ON ARSENIC CONTAINED N.^TURALLY IN THE HUMAN BODY. 



M. Orfila has read a memoir on the above subject before the Royal 

 Academy of Medicine ; the experiments detailed were made with M. 

 Couerbe, and their object was to solve the following questions : 



1st, Does arsenic exist originally in the human body? 2ndly, Do 

 the viscera contain any ? 3rdly, Can its existence in the muscles be 

 proved ? 4thly, Is it possible to determine that the arsenic obtained 

 from a corpse is not that which originally existed among the ele- 

 ments composing the tissues, but was introduced into the digestive 

 organs, applied to the exterior, &c. ? 



