590 Hoyal Society : — Dr. Robert Lee on the 
appeared of the peculiar metallic lustre of coke. Even the 
smallest pieces being placed on a platinum foil resisted for a 
long time all the effects of the flame, but at length began to 
ignite and to be consumed quickly, always leaving a grayish 
or brownish residuum, which consisted of silica with a little 
iron. 
As I treated those spongy ignited masses again with sul- 
phuric and nitric acid, in the manner above mentioned, I 
found their bulk considerably diminished ; and after a repe- 
tition of the same operation for the fourth time, the last trace 
of graphite had disappeared, and the acid remained perfectly 
clear. Diluted and saturated with caustic ammonia, a white, 
light flocculent precipitate fell, and the whole liquid, evaporated 
to dryness, and ignited, left a brownish residuum consisting of 
silica with a little alumina and iron. 
The graphite obviously had here been converted into car- 
bonic acid by means of nitric acid ; but it is a very curious 
fact, that this conversion takes place only under the above- 
mentioned circumstances. 
Concentrated nitric acid, dropped on the red-hot graphite, 
has not the slightest action on it ; neither has sulphuric acid 
dropped into boiling nitric acid. To obtain the expected 
results, the above precept must be followed strictly, and the 
crucible must be spacious, as with every drop of nitric acid 
falling into the sulphuric acid a slight explosion takes place, 
which might occasion the loss of some of the liquid. 
A somewhat probable explanation of the singular action of 
both acids combined in this manner, seems to be, that the 
boiling sulphuric acid absorbs the water from the nitric acid, 
the oxygen of which is only able to combine with the carbon 
of the supercarburet of silicon at the moment when the sul- 
phuric acid combines with the water of the nitric acid. If 
the residuum of gray cast iron dissolved in hydrochloric acid 
be treated in the same way, all graphite scales disappear, and 
only white silica remains. 
LXXXVIL Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
ROYAL SOCIETY. 
Dec. 5, O paper read. 
1839. Dec. 12. — “ On the Nerves of the Gravid Uterus.” 
By Robert Lee, M.D., F.R.S. 
The author, while dissecting a gravid uterus of seven months, on 
the 8th of April, 1838, observed the trunk of a large nerve proceed- 
ing upwards from the cervix to the body of that organ along with 
