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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
trary to the received opinion, that soda is present in the ash of plants to a 
far slighter extent than is generally believed. Most cultivated plants have 
no soda in their ash even when grown upon a soil rich in this salt. M. Peli- 
got is opposed to the notion that chloride of sodium undergoes a change in 
the soil by which it first becomes carbonate and then nitrate. In fact, the 
only use of salt which he recognises is that due to its antiseptic action, by 
which it retards the decomposition of ordinary manures. This he thinks is 
why English farmers add it to guano. 
Phenijlrbichlorncetic Acid. — The last Bulletin of the Royal Academy of 
Belgium contains a paper on the relations of atoms in chemical molecules, in 
which the author gives the following mode of preparing the above sub- 
stance : “In a flask of three litres capacity I place 24 grammes of phenyl- 
monochloracetic acid. I fill the flask with dry chlorine, and, having sealed 
the mouth hermetically, I expose it to the heat of the sun. After five or six 
hours the colour of the chlorine disappears, and I then open the flask and 
allow the dry chlorhydric acid to escape. The new body, washed with cold 
water on a filter, is then transformed into a soda salt, and the solution of this 
salt is decomposed by pure chlorhydric acid. It precipitates an oily liquid 
which partly solidifies, while the supernatant liquid becomes filled with 
quadrangular plate-like crystals. These crystals are carefully removed, 
dried with bibulous paper, and recrystallised from ether.” 
M. Dumas' Lecture in London. — The Chemical Society has invited M. 
Dumas to lecture to us in his own language. The lecture will probably take 
place in May, and at the Royal Institution. The subject is not yet an- 
nounced. 
The Hydrogen Flame Colour on Porcelain. — The blue colour produced when 
a jet of hydrogen is allowed to play against a piece of porcelain has been ex- 
plained in a note recently published by M. Sallet. He says it is due to the 
presence of sulphur in the form of sulphate of soda in the atmosphere. If 
we mistake not, Mr. W. F. Barrett suggested this explanation two years 
ago. — Vide L' Lnstituty February 15. 
Estivating Sulphur. — A note has been published by M. Lefort, who states 
that he uses aqua regia in the solution and determination of sulphur. He 
describes the action of aqua regia on sulphur to be, firstly, the formation of 
chloride of sulphur; secondly, the destruction of this compound by nitric 
acid or its derivatives; and consequently the regeneration of the chlorine, the 
evolution of nitrous vapours, and the formation of sulphuric acid. In pro- 
portion to the amount of nitric acid present, is the solution of the sulphur 
quickly arrived at. The most convenient mixture of hydrochloric and nitric 
acids for dissolving sulphur is made with one volume of the former and three 
of the latter. — Vide Chemical Neivs, February 12. 
GEOLOGY AND PALAEONTOLOGY. 
The Dinomis in Xciv Zealand. — Dr. .Tillius Haast lately sent a paper on 
the remains of the Dinornithic birds in New Zealand to the Academy of 
Sciences of Berlin. Dr. Haast stated that the deposit in which most of the 
