184 Messrs. Thorpe and Young on the Combined Action 



Transactions {continued). 



Vienna: — Anthropologische G-esellschaft. Mittheilungen. Band II. 

 nr. 3-5, 7, 8. 8vo. Wien 1872. The Society. 



Adams (John E.) Dulwich College and the Endowed Schools Com- 

 missioners. A Tract for the Times. 8vo. London 1873. The Author. 



Dumas (J. B.), For. Mem. E. S. Eloge Historique de Isidore Greoffroy 

 Saint-Hilaire. 4to. Paris 1872. The Author. 



Eogers (H. D.) The Geology of Pennsylvania, a G-overnment Survey, 

 with a General View of the Geology of the United States. 2 vols, in 

 3, and volume of Maps. 4to. Edinburgh 1858. 



Professor Huxley, Sec. E. S. 



Topsoe (H.) og C. Christiansen. Krystallografisk-optiske Undersogelser, 

 med saerligt Hensyn til isomorfe Stoffer. 4to. Kjdbenhavn 1873. 



The Authors. 



" On the Combined Action of Heat and Pressure upon the Pa- 

 raffins." By T. E. Thorpe and John Young, of the Ander- 

 sonian University, Glasgow. Communicated by Prof. H. E. 

 Eoscoe, F.E.S. Eeceived June 5, 1872*. 



1. In a preliminary communication read before the Eoyal Society on 

 March 9th, 1871f , we described the combined effect of heat and pressure 

 upon the solid paraffins. We showed that when these substances are 

 exposed to a high temperature in a closed vessel they are almost com- 

 pletely resolved, with the evolution of but little gas, into hydrocarbons, 

 which remain hguid at the ordinary temperature. This transformation 

 may be easily effected on the small scale. A few grms. of ordinary 

 paraffin are sealed up in a piece of strong combustion-tubing bent in the 

 form of the letter \f : the tube is securely surrounded by stout wire 

 gauze, and the limb containing the paraffin is gently heated along its 

 entire length in a gas combustion-furnace. If the heat is properly re- 

 gulated, the paraffin rapidly distils over and solidifies in the cold portion 

 of the tube. The gas-flames are then turned down, the tube reversed, 

 and the paraffin again distilled. After a very few repetitions of this 

 process the paraffin acquires the consistency of butter, and the warmth 



* Eead June 20, 1872. See abstract, vol. xx. p. 488. 

 t Proc. Eoy. Soc. vol. xix. p. 370. 



