128 



SCIENCE. 



FACT 4. — The calcium borate ball (2 ) is now held as 

 a bead per se on platinum wire, and 2.5mgrs. of pure 

 silica, or of rock crystal, dried at red heat, dissolved in it 

 BB : after which the silicious ball is weighed, and added 

 B B to a boric acid bead, which it NOW re?iders opaque 

 with opalescent matter; finally, the extracted ball, wnen 

 weighed, showed, in an average of three assays, an in- 

 crease in weight of 42 percent. 



Fact 5. — 5mgrs. ot pure " anhydrous " silica (SiOa) 

 are carefully taken up on a bead of pure boric acid, and 

 observed to be absolutely unalterable there, B B. A 

 weighed ball of anhydrous calcium-borate is now added 

 B B to this bead, when the silica is gradually decomposed 

 — the weight of the ball being unaltered — not into silicon 

 and oxygen, but into really anhydrous silica (w hie h pos- 

 sesses extraordinary electrical properties), and some 

 compound of hydrogen, which makes the bead opales- 

 cent. After boiling, only 2mgrs. of residue are obtained. 



Now these five facts, and more especially the immense 

 increase in weight of the silicious calcium-borate ball (4), 

 notwithstanding the great loss of matter causing opales- 

 cence, show that there is an enormous percentage, nearly 

 half.of SOME COMPOUND OF hydrogen, not enminable as 

 gas, existing in what has been hitherto supposed to be an 

 anhydrous substance, which has escaped even the close- 

 ness of modern chemical analysis, for the simple reason 

 that the water solutions of acids and alkalies used to 

 analyse, themselves contain this very compound of 

 hydrogen. 



Many confirmatory proofs of this startling truth have 

 been afforded, but cannot be detailed here, because the 

 details form part of the subject of a competitory essay, 

 and cannot yet be published. 



Hydrogen, however, in this solid form, can now be 

 proved to be an almost omnipresent component — of all 

 so-called " anhydrous " minerals, of most artificial as well 

 as natural inorganic productions,, of many so-called 

 " elements," and, to my mind, of the galvanic " currents " 

 themselves. 



Thus it is seen that the beautiful and immaculate the- 

 ory of combining proportions, first enunciated in 1777 by 

 the illustrious Wenzel in his " Lehre Von der Verwand- 

 schattder Korper," relates entirely to hydrates, and that 

 a new chemistry, the chemistry of anhydrates, now re- 

 quires to be studied. 



Let us hope that some future Wenzel and Dalton will 

 apply proportional and atomic theories to this anhydrate 

 chemistry, and now that the first dawning of the truth 

 has at last been published in Germany and America as 

 well as here, we cannot doubt that this will soon be done. 



It remains, now, an unpleasant part of my duty to 

 point out that, although I supposed, by the discovery of 

 the above mentioned facts, I had laid the first foundation 

 of what must, sooner or later, be adopted as a new and 

 essential study by everyone who aspires to the title of a 

 philosophical chemist, I found I had been anticipated in 

 my most important deductions by no less a man than 

 Joseph Priestlj. 



That unfortunate genius — in repeating one of whose 

 experiments with a more powerful electric battery, Sir 

 Humphry Davy discovered potassium— has been so ut- 

 terly misrepresented by the modern school of chemists, 

 which has elevated Lavoisier in his place as the founder 

 of the chemistry of hydrates, that it would take more 

 time than you and I can afford, to adduce in proof, a 

 quarter of their misrepresentations. 



I will give just one instance. Prof, Cooke, in the book 

 called " The New Chemistry," says (p. 98): " Iron, in 

 rusting, gains in weight, ' Hence,' said Lavoisier, ' it has 

 combined with some material.' ' No,' said such men as 

 Cavendish, Priestley, and Scheele, 'it has only lost phlo- 

 giston, which differs from your gross forms of matter in 

 that it is specifically light, and, when taken from a body, 

 increases its weight.' We smile at this idea," etc. 



Now what does Priestley himself say ? — See p. 249, 



Vol. I., " Experiments and Observations," sect. IV., "In 

 J flammable Air." — " It was even asserted by some that 

 I phlogiston was so far from adding to the weight of bodies, 

 I that the addition of it made them really lighter than they 

 were before, on which account they chose to call it the 

 principle of levity !" Priestley says here, that he "dis- 

 covered phlogiston to be hydrogen by direct experi- 

 ments." 



Then follow those celebrated experiments — so much 

 neglected and concealed by modern chemists — in which 

 Priestley converted a certain quantity of lead oxide into a 

 certain quantity of lead " by throwing the focus of a 

 burning-lens upon it through a glass receiver filled with 

 a certain quantity of " inflammable air " — or hydrogen. 



It may be fashionable now to " smile at the ideas of 

 such men as Cavendish, Priestley and Scheele "; but it 

 seems to me much more reasonable to smile at the ideas 

 of Lavoisier and his disciples, who did not seem able to 

 understand the possibility of a compound losing (by 

 means of heat or other factor in the operation) an 

 extremely light constituent, and taking up, instead of it, 

 another surrounding constituent sixteen times as heavy, 

 whereby the aggregate weight of the compound would, 

 of course, be increased by the coefficient fifteen. 



In precisely the same way I have proved, by my hum- 

 ble experiments, that a ball of calcium-borate, having 

 silica (for instance) dissolved in it, increases enormously 

 in weight by treatment in boric acid B B, although it ob- 

 viously loses a large quantity of hydrogenous matter, 

 which renders the whole bead opaque white ; simply be- 

 cause the compound acquires, instead, a much heavier 

 constituent — viz., boric acid. 



We invite those who are interested in the blow-pipe 

 analysis who desire any information on the subject to 

 address a letter to " Science," as Col. Ross is one of our 

 subscribers, and appears always ready to aid those who 

 require instruction. A letter to "Science" will doubt- 

 less ieceive prompt attention. 



THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 



The March meeting of the American Chemical 

 Society was held on Monday evening, the 7th inst., Vice- 

 president Squibb in the chair. The resignations of the 

 following gentlemen were read and accepted. Messrs. 

 Elihu Root, H. G. Smith, F. Alexander, J. T. O'Connor, 

 and also, in consequence ot its interference with his busi- 

 ness, the Recording Secretary Dr. A. H. Gallatin, ten- 

 dered his resignation from office. Mr. Theodore Tonnele 

 and Mr. J. G. Mattison were nominated for membership. 

 The reading of papers followed, the first of which " A 

 New Specific Gravity Bottle " by William H. Gregg, 

 was read by Dr. A. Behr. The essential difference be- 

 tween the ordinary bottle and the one devised by Mr. 

 Gregg consists in that the latter has an expansion or bulb 

 just above where the stopper is, in the regular form. A 

 thermometer serves as a stopper passing through the 

 bulb sealing it at both extremities. The advantage ot 

 this improvement is that the liquid cannot run over or 

 volatilize (in the case of essential oils, etc.,) for it will be 

 retained in the bulb which is stoppered at each end by 

 the thermometer. 



The second paper was by Dr. J. H. Tucker, " On the 

 solvent action of carbonic anhydride in solution upon 

 various bodies under different conditions as to tempera- 

 ture and pressure." The methods of manipulation were 

 first detailed, after which the effect upon the " various 

 bodies," these being chiefly mineral, was described. Mr. 

 Casamajor tollowed with some observations upon the 

 difficulty that he had experienced in obtaining hydrogen 

 sulphide from impure iron sulphide. After some experi- 

 menting he found that upon adding a little zinc amalgan, 

 alopians evolution of the gas ensued. By this method he 

 was successful in obtaining excellent results with galena, 

 orilcopyrite and pyrite. 



