87 
SClEiNTii'iC EUjj'^iALY. 
Eor this reason, therefore, it would he unsafe to draw any conclusion from 
this comparison respecting the nature of this disease, and also because the 
analyses were made by different operators at a long interval of time, during 
which analytical processes have been modified, and improved ones intro- 
duced. However, the differences pointed out by Mr. Thorpe are certainly 
very marked, viz., an undue proportion of lime, and a comparative lack of 
phosphoric acid in all parts of the unhealthy tree, with the exception of the 
fruit ; and the concentration of potash in the fruit of the diseased tree. — 
Journal of the Chemicxil Society for December. 
Diniethyl.—'M.T. Darling has prepared this h}^drocarbon, CgHg, in dif- 
ferent ways, and transformed it into etliyl chloride, etl]}d acetate, alcohol, 
aldehyde, acetic acid, &c . ; confirming, by these results, Schorlemmer’s 
conclusion, that the hydrocarbons of the above formula, from whatever 
source prepared, are always identical in nature. — Journal of the Chemical 
Society for November. 
Products of the Oxidation of Parafdn. — By boiling paraffin for three or 
four days with potassic dichromate and sulphuric acid, Messrs. Gill and 
Mensel have obtained cerotic acid, acetic acid, and the intermediate mem- 
bers of the series. Somewhat similar results were obtained by boiling 
paraffin with dilute nitric acid; but, in addition to the acetic series of acids, 
succinic (already obtained by Hofstaedter) and anchoic acids were also 
produced. — Journal of the Chemical Society for November. 
Compounds isomeric with the Sulphocyanic Ethers. — In a second commu- 
nication to the Royal Society on this interesting class of bodies. Dr. A. W. 
Hofmann gives a further account of several of them, which, from their being 
■either homologues or analogues of oil of mustard, he calls mustard oils. To 
this account he appends a theory of their constitution, and that of the 
isomeric sulphocyanic ethers. Selecting for illustration methylic mustard 
oil and its isomer methyl sulphocyanide, he shows that if in the latter body 
we interpret its reactions as signifying that the sulphur-atom is the link of 
connection between the two carbon-atoms of the compound, we must con- 
sider that it is by the nitrogen that the carbon-atoms of methylic mustard 
■oil are chained together. The subjoined formulse illustrate this view : — 
Methylic mustard oil 
Sulphocyanide of methyl 
H3C 
SC 
H3C 
NO 
On a Neio Series of Chemical Reactions produced hy Light. — Under the 
above heading. Professor Tyndall has presented to the Royal Society an 
account of some experiments attended with very remarkable and beautiful 
phenomena. By passing beams of concentrated electric light and of sun- 
light through tubes containing air and other gases charged with vapours of 
volatile liquids, chemical decompositions of undetermined nature were caused, 
their occurrence being manifested by the production of clouds. As the 
nature of the gas employ^ed did not affect the phenomena of the production 
of clouds from the vapour with which it was charged, it is to be inferred that 
the chemical action must be in the vapour itself. The portion of the beam 
of white light which effects the decomposition is inferred, from the experi- 
