566 Proceedings of the British Association. 



could actually convey twice as much carbonic acid as is expelled 

 daily from the system. 



Mr. Solly read a paper by Prof. Schonbein, 1 On the Electrolyzing 

 Power of a Simple Voltaic Circle.' The effect of various experiments 

 made by the learned author went to establish the fact, that voltaic 

 effects may be produced without the solution of a metal, the usual 

 source of voltaic actions, but by nitric and various other acids. 



Mr. William Blyth read a paper ' On the Manufacture of Sulphuric 

 Acid.' — The ordinary process of manufacturing sulphuric acid, by in- 

 troducing into a leaden chamber a mixture of sulphurous acid, red 

 nitrous fumes, and common air, has been long practised. Like many 

 other improvements in the arts, it seems to have been more the result 

 of chance than the application of scientific skill ; and chemists remain- 

 ed long in the dark as to the true nature of the changes which took 

 place in the vitriol chamber. The first satisfactory explanation was 

 given to the world by Clement and Desormes, in 1806. These chemists 

 discovered the white crystalline compound which is now known to 

 be formed when sulphurous acid, red nitrous fumes, common air, and 

 the vapour of water, are mixed together, and exposed to a sufficiently 

 low temperature. They also observed the remarkable property which 

 it possesses of being decomposed when put into water, and of being 

 resolved into nitric oxide and sulphuric acid. This fact they applied to 

 explain the important part performed by the nitric oxide, in enabling 

 the sulphurous acid to be still farther oxydized at the expense of the 

 oxygen in the common air. The formation of the crystalline com- 

 pound in the leaden chamber, its decomposition by the weak acid at 

 the bottom of the chamber, and the evolution of nitric oxide to be 

 again changed into red nitrous fumes by the oxygen of the common 

 air, — is the favourite theory of chemists at the present time, and seems 

 to be now generally admitted. M. Adolph Rose, of Berlin, has re- 

 cently published a paper on the ' Combination of Hydrated Sulphuric 

 Acid with Nitric Oxide.' The object of the paper is to shew that the 

 impurity in the sulphuric acid of this country, which has hitherto been 

 considered to be nitric acid, is not nitric acid, but a combination of 

 sulphuric acid and nitric oxide. He also shews, that this compound of 

 sulphuric acid and nitric oxide is identical with the white crystalline 

 formed in the vitriol chamber. There are some facts mentioned in this 

 important paper which deserve attention; and it is more particularly 

 the object of these remarks to bring them under the notice of those 

 members of the Association who may be interested in the manufacture 



