SCIENTIFIC SUMMAKY. 
317 
vided with a platinum tube fused into it. A cork upon the oxygen tube 
closes the wider tube of the flask. The benzol flame is extinguished, and 
the vapour issues through the side tube, while the oxygen burns in the 
benzol vapour with a very sooty flame. 
A Manual of Organic Chemistry , by Dr. Henry E. Armstrong, F.C.S., 
Professor of Chemistry in the London Institution, is advertised by Messrs. 
Longmans & Co., as being in preparation for their series of Text-books of 
Science. 
Oil from Grape-pips. — The “ Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesell- 
schaft,” No. 8, contains a paper on this matter, by Herr S. Fitz. The pips 
contained in grapes contain from fifteen to eighteen per cent, of an oil, 
which has been the subject of a series of researches made by the author. 
The oil, having been saponified, was found to contain palmitic, stearic, and 
erucic acids, the latter fusing at 34° ; formula, C 22 H 42 0 2 . The lead-salt of 
this acid is difficultly soluble in ether in the cold, but readily so in warm 
ether ; the same obtains with alcohol. The erucic acid exceeds in quantity 
the two other acids just named, the three being, in the neutral oil, combined 
with glycerine. When fused with caustic alkali, erucic acid is converted 
into arachnic acid, C 2 H^Og^and into acetic acid. The author states that 
the oil alluded to might be used for culinary purposes ; of course it is only 
obtainable in quantity in wine-growing countries. 
The British Association's next meeting will be held at Edinburgh, and will 
commence on Wednesday, August 2, under the presidency of Sir William 
Thomson, M.A., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., &c. The facilities now afforded by 
the several railway and steam-boat companies to parties travelling from all 
parts of Great Britain and the Continent, render it probable that this meet- 
ing will be very numerously attended. The local authorities and the repre- 
sentatives of the various scientific societies, as well as all those officially 
connected with the Association, earnestly desire that the members and 
Associates should receive a cordial welcome, and that everything possible 
should be done to make the visit agreeable and instructive. 
Chloroform from Chloral and Chloroform from Alcohol and Bleaching 
Powder. — These two varieties of chloroform it is important to distinguish, 
and therefore the following tests, which are quoted in the “ Chemical 
News,” from “ Douglass Journal” for May, are of importance : — In the first 
place, the former chloroform, known now on the Continent as u English 
chloroform,” has a sp. g. of only 1*485, and contains, according to the 
author, from 0*75 to 0*8 per cent, of strong alcohol. When, to the chloro- 
form prepared from alcohol and bleaching powder, strong sulphuric acid is 
added, it always becomes more or less coloured, which does not happen to 
be the case with the chloroform prepared from chloral ; when, moreover, a 
few drops of each kind of chloroform are left to evaporate spontaneously 
upon a watch-glass, the chloroform prepared with alcohol gives off, after a 
while, a disagreeable smell, while the other kind retains until complete 
volatilisation its pleasant fruity odour. 
Excrements of the common Bat Ehinolophus Hipposiderus. — In the April 
number of the “Annalen der Chemie,” Professor Wohler, after briefly 
referring to the researches on the excrements of the Egyptian bat by 
Dr. Popp, states that Dr. Ehlers had the kindness to supply him with the 
