SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
133 
vacuum, and consequently under tlie full pressure of the atmosphere. 
The following results are most interesting : — 
Oxygen 
Atmospheric air 
Carbonic acid 
Hydrogen 
Times of penetration 
of equal volumes. 
... 1 
... 0*9501 
... 1*1860 
... 0*2505 
Square root of 
the density. 
1 
0*9507 
1*1760 
0*2502 
This discovered property has led Professor Graham to the adoption of a 
new method of gaseous analysis, to which he has applied the special term 
of Atmolysis. By means of this process, gases intermingled may be easily 
separated, owing to the difference between their times of penetration. His 
apparatus, which he styles an atmolysing tube , is thus described : — “ It 
consists of a very narrow tube of porcelain or unglazed earthenware, 
fixed by means of corks in a glass tube which is shorter and wider, some- 
what like a ‘ Liebig’s condenser.’ The glass tube is connected with a 
pneumatic machine, so as to produce as perfect a vacuum as possible in 
the space between the two.” When a detonating mixture of two volumes 
of hydrogen and one of oxygen was made to traverse this apparatus, it was 
found on emerging from the tube to contain only 9*3 per cent, of hydrogen, 
and did not explode on having a lighted match plunged into it. If a 
mixture consisting of equal volumes of oxygen and hydrogen be employed, 
the proportion of the latter may be easily reduced from 50 to 5 per cent. 
The benefits which these grand discoveries of Graham are likely to confer 
on the analyses of gases will be readily conceived by those who have given 
attention to the subject. 
Liquids Adhesive to Mercury. — Mr. Gore has been making a series of 
experiments on this subject. He finds that if a drop of Nordhausen 
sulphuric acid be placed by means of a clean glass rod on a globule of 
mercury which weighs about eighty grains, the acid spreads itself evenly 
over the surface of the metal, and that the latter becomes flattened and 
exhibits vortical movements on its surface. A strong aqueous solution of 
ammonia did not produce these effects : the ammonial drop retained its 
spherical form and remained attached to the globule, especially when the 
latter was about sixty grains in weight. Mr. Gore has given a list, showing 
the relative conduct of various substances in regard to globules of mercury, 
by which we observe that acids and alkalis hold opposite places, and that 
water and neutral solutions are intermediate ( Philosophical Magazine , 
August). 
Patent Microscopic Camera. — In the Chemical News for August 
8th, a compact instrument of the above kind is described. It has been 
patented by Mr. Eden, and is intended to be employed for taking photo- 
micrographs (magnified representations of microscopic objects), and micro- 
photographs (diminished representations of objects). We do not find any- 
thing, however, which we have not seen before, and are disposed to regard 
it in some measure as the result of that “ patent mania ” which has of late 
laid hold of our population. 
Solar Rays Electric Agents. — M. Musset has communicated to the 
“Academie des Sciences” an additional set of investigations into the 
