308 Scientific Intelligence. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 

 I. Chemistry. 



1. On the Volatility of Sidphur and Mercury. — It is well- 

 known that in the drying rooms of powder works where gun- 

 powder is dried at a carefully regulated temperature which never 

 surpasses 60° to 65°, there is always a peculiar odor somewhat 

 recalling that of sulphur dioxide. By placing plates of glass in 

 such a room at some distance from the mass of powder, Berthe- 

 lot has succeeded in obtaining a distinct sublimate deposited on 

 the glass, which gave, on analysis, sulphur 97'84, potassium nitrate 

 - 90, carbon and undetermined matters 1*26. Hence it is not 

 an oxide but pure sulphur which has thus been sublimed at 60°, 

 mixed, mechanically no doubt, with a minute quantity of the 

 other constituents of the gunpowder. The vapor tension cor- 

 responding to this slow sublimation, effected 380° below the 

 boiling point under normal pressure, is not appreciable by mano- 

 metric measurements. It should be zero or sensibly so at the 

 ordinary temperature, since no deposition of sublimed sulphur is 

 observed in glass cases or tubes in which sulphur has been kept 

 for many years. The permanent sharpness of the edges of sulphur- 

 crystals in collections, also confirms its feeble volatility. The 

 volatility of mercury, whose tension at 20° is only - 0268 mm , the 

 author illustrates by the fact that in his laboratory there is a 

 mercurial trough and at a distance of 2*5 meters from it a glass 

 case containing a bottle of iodine. After some years, Berthelot 

 noticed that the neck of this bottle above its junction with the 

 stopper was covered with red mercuric iodide. No ammonia nor 

 volatile acid were kept in the case. — Bxdl. Soc. Oh., II, xlv, 114, 

 February, 188(5. G. f. b. 



2. On Germanium, a new non-metallic Element. — In the sum- 

 mer of 1885, Weisbach gave the name argyrodite to a new min- 

 eral existing in a rich silver ore from the Freiberg mines. On 

 undertaking its analysis, Winkler found it to consist of 73 to 75- 

 per cent of silver, 17 to 18 per cent of sulphur, 0*21 per cent of 

 mercury and traces of iron and arsenic. But in spite of all pos- 

 sible care, the loss in the analysis amounted to 6 or 7 per cent ; 

 and this without the detection by qualitative analysis of any 

 other substance. Finally, the discrepancy was traced to the 

 existence of a new element in the argyrodite, analogous to anti- 

 mony, for which the author proposes the name Germanium. 

 When the mineral is heated in a current of hydrogen, a black 

 crystalline pretty easily volatile sublimate is obtained, which 

 readilv fuses into brownish-red drops, and which, besides a little 

 mercuric sulphide, is essentially germanium sulphide. It dissolves 

 readily in ammonium sulphide, and is precipitated by hydrogen 

 chloride as a snow-white precipitate, readily soluble in ammonia. 

 Heated in a current of air or treated with nitric acid, it gives a 



