284 



Prof. T. Carnelley. On the 



[Jan. G y 



estimated the "body to contain. And lest the language now used by 

 him should lead to any misapprehension with regard to the essential 

 issue which has been raised before the Society, I would ask leave to 

 point out that, inasmuch as the specimen of " protagon " which Professor 

 Roscoe analysed yielded him a ponderable quantity of potassium, this 

 result, so far as it goes, thoroughly confirms what I have stated on the 

 subject. In the face of it, none can maintain that " protagon " is the 

 pure chemical body which it claimed to be. Also, adverting to the 

 fact that Professor Roscoe's communication refers to but one analysis, 

 I may perhaps be permitted to express my conviction that, if Professor 

 Roscoe were led to extend his examinations over an area commensurate 

 with mine, I should be indebted to him for further and more decided 

 confirmation of my statements. 



Finally, too, I would wish to insist on this contrast : that 

 while " protagon," as I have shown, always on analysis betrays the 

 presence of matters which are foreign to its alleged chemical formula, 

 no such conflict between fact and formula, no so-called " unavoidable 

 impurity," is to be found attaching to those bodies — the kephalines, 

 myelins, lecithins, phrenosins, kerasins, and cerebrinic acid, which I 

 claim as true immediate principles of the brain. 



IV. " Preliminary Note on the Existence of Ice and other Bodies 

 in the Solid State at Temperatures far above their ordinary 

 Melting Points." By Thomas Carnelley, D.Sc, Professor 

 of Chemistry in Firth College, Sheffield. Communicated 

 by Professor ROSCOE, F.R.S. Received November 11, 1880. 



In the present communication I have the honour to lay before the 

 Royal Society a detailed description of experiments, proving that 

 under certain conditions it is possible for ice and other bodies to exist 

 in the solid state at temperatures far above their ordinary melting 

 points. On a future occasion I hope to submit to the Society a full 

 account of the investigation of which these experiments form a part, 

 together with the conclusions to be drawn therefrom. The bodies 

 whose behaviour I propose to discuss at present are ice and mercuric 

 chloride. 



Ice. 



In the case of ice the great difliculty to be overcome is to maintain 

 the pressure in the containing vessel below 4 , 6millims., i.e., the tension 

 of aqueous vapour at the freezing point, for it will be easily understood 

 that if the ice be but slightly heated the quantity of vapour given off 

 would soon be sufficient to raise the pressure above that point. After 



