Chemistry and Physics. 153 



hydrogen sulphide, and finally a crystalline salt of the formula 

 Ce Q (SOJ 3 (H 2 0) 8 was thrown down by adding three times the 

 volume of alcohol. A second precipitation gave perfectly neu- 

 tral cerous sulphate. For final purification, the salt was dis- 

 solved in cold water, and the beaker containing it was plunged 

 into boiling water. On stirring it a fine crystalline powder 

 Ce 2 (S0 4 ) 3 (H 2 0) 6 was thrown down which was collected for use. 

 To dehydrate it, it was heated in the vapor of boiling sulphur; 

 since at this temperature it loses its water entirely, but is not 

 otherwise altered. For the analysis a weighed portion of the 

 anhydrous cerous sulphate was placed in a double crucible and 

 exposed for ten or fifteen minutes to the flame of gas fed with air 

 by a Fletcher's injector. It was then cooled and weighed. The 

 greatest care was taken in all the experimental work, of prepara- 

 tion as well as analysis ; and is detailed in the memoir. The 

 result of twenty-three determinations is given, the maximum 

 atomic weight being 140*433 and the minimum 140*033, the mean 

 value being 140-2210; thus harmonizing the periodic values of 

 the group. — J. Ghem. Soc, xlvii, 879, Nov. 1885. g. f. b. 



7. On the Synthesis of Cocaine and its Homologues. — By 

 treating anhydrous ecgonin with benzoic oxide and methyl iodide 

 for ten hours to 100° in a sealed tube, Merck has produced 

 cocaine. Substituting ethyl iodide, the same reaction gave him 

 its ethyl-homologue, which crystallizes from alcohol in brilliant 

 prisms fusing at 108°-109°. Platinum chloride produces even in 

 very dilute solutions of its salts a yellow precipitate soluble in 

 hot water and crystallizing on cooling in brilliant yellow rhom- 

 bic plates. Ladenburg proposes for it the name cocethyline. — 

 Ber. Berl. Chem. Ges., xviii, 2952, Nov. 1885. g. f. b. 



8. Electrostatic Battery. — Mr. Damien having conducted inves- 

 tigations during a period of ten months upon single liquid batteries 

 of various kinds, concludes that a cell formed of zinc and copper 

 with the sulphate of magnesia is the best for electrostatic meas- 

 urements. Instead of increasing the resistance of the cell by 

 mixing the sulphate with plaster of Paris as in the Beetz cell, he 

 puts in an outside resistance. With a resistance of 20,000 ohms 

 in the circuit the cell remained constant even when short circuited. 

 He finds that the electromotive force of this cell is very nearly 

 constant, and is not sensibly affected by slight changes of tempera- 

 ture or by the concentration of the solution. — Ann. de Chim. et 

 de Phys., 16 e serie, t. vi, Nov. 1885. a. l. mcr. 



9. Handbook of technical Gas- Analysis; by Clemens Wink- 

 lee; translated with a few additions, by George Lunze. 125 pp. 

 Svo. London, 1885, (John Van Voorst). — The contributions of 

 Dr. Winkler to technical gas-analysis have given him a foremost 

 position among the writers upon this subject. This volume, 

 though small in extent contains the practical instructions needed 

 as well by teachers as by technical workers, and ought to be in 

 the hands of all interested in the subject of which it treats. The 

 name of the translator is a sufficient guarantee of the character of 

 his part of the work. 



