1S13.] Tloyal Society. 473 



some remarks upon Sir H. Davy's number?, which be has 

 adopted in his Elements of Chemistry, and sliows that ihey do 

 not answer for the metallic sulphurets with t]ie requisite simpli- 

 city. Yet if any sulphuret be treated witb an acid so as to 

 convert the metal into an oxide, the quantity of hydrogen dis- 

 engaged will always indicate exactly the quantity of oxygen in 

 the water decomposed^ which would he sufficient exactly to 

 acidify the sulphur. Berzelius thinks that unit ought to be em- 

 ployed to indicate an atom of oxygen, and that the weight of the 

 other atoms should be determined by the proportion in v.'hich 

 they combine with oxygen. 



' 3. On the combination of sulphuret of carbon with bases. 

 Berzelius found that sulphuret of carbon combines vvith am- 

 monia and with lime, the only bases tried. These combiLations 

 he calls carl'G-sulphurets. Carbo-sulphuret of ammonia is formed 

 by putting sulphuret of carbon into a tube, and letting up 

 into it ammoniacal gas as long as it will absorb it. A yellow 

 pulverulent substance is formed^ which sublimes unaltered in 

 close vessels, but so deliquescent that it cannot be passed from 

 one vessel to another without absorbing moisture. If it be 

 heated in that state crystals of hydrosulphurei of ammonia 

 rnake their appearance. Carbosulphuret of lime is formed by 

 heating some quicklime in a tube, and causing sulphureted 

 carbon to pass through it. The lime becomes incandescent at 

 the time of the combination. On the outside there is formed 

 some sulphuret of hme, which gives it a yellow colour. This 

 formation is owing to the action of the air, and is merely super- 

 ficial. 



4. When sulphuret of carbon is left for some weeks in contact 

 with nitromuriatic acid, it is converted into a substance having^ 

 very much the appearance and physical properties of camphor ; 

 being soluble in alcohol and oils, and insoluble in water. This 

 substance Berzelius found to be a triple acid, composed of two 

 atoms of muriatic acid, one atom of sulphurous acid, and one 

 atom of carbonic acid. He proposes to call it ac'iduin 'muriatico^ 

 sulphur oso-carhonicum . 



On Thursday the 20th of May a paper by Dr. Reid Clanney, 

 of Sunderland, was read, on a lamp for preventing explosions in 

 coal-mines by the combustion of carbureted hydrogen gas. Dr. 

 Clanney began by giving an historical account of the accidents 

 of this nature which have taken place in tlie neighbourhood of 

 Sunderland within the last seven years; from which it ai-pears 

 that above 200 workmen have been suddenly killed, and more 

 than 300 women and children left in destitute circumstances by 

 these dreadful explosions. His lamp is extremely simple. It 

 consists of a kind of lantern made air tight ; in v/hich a candk 



