210 
Scientific Intelligence. 
a vacuum as possible has been formed. The effect of this k 
to produce a brilliant light in a dark apartment. 
29 . Dul&tig and Petifs new Eocperimenfs mi Heat. — -At the 
sitting t)f the Academy of Sciences, of the 12th of April last, 
these eminent chemists presented the continuation of their able re- 
searches on heat By means of a very simple instrument of their 
own invention, they have made numerous experiments, and ob- 
tained several very important results respecting the capacity of 
bodies for caloric. One of the most important of these is, that from 
the proportion of the atoms of which a body is composed, its ca- 
pacity for heat may be deduced,- and vice versa. It appears also 
from their experiments, that the quantity of heat disengaged in 
chemical combinations, does not depend on the capacity of the 
body for heat ; and, tlierefore, that the ordinary theory must be 
rejected, 
SO. New. vegetable Alkali called Stryclmine.—-T\{\^ new alkali 
was discovered by MM. Pelletier and Caventou in the Strych> 
nos ignatia, and the Stryclinos nuof vomica. It may be obtain- 
ed in very minute quadrangular prisms, terminated by pyramids. 
It has an intolerable bitterness. It is decomposed and car- 
bonised at a temperature inferior to that which destroys the 
greater part of vegetable substances. It is composed of oxygen, 
hydrogen and carbon. It is almost insoluble in water, 100 
grammes of water, of the temperature of 10°, dissolving only 
0.015 g. of it ; and 100 grammes of boiling-water dissolving 0.04. 
It is a very singular fact, that a solution of strychnine in cold 
water,' though it contains only in weight of the alkali, 
may be diluted with 100 times its volume of water, and yet pre- 
serve a marked degree of bitterness. The principal character of 
this new alkali is, that it unites with acids in forming neutral salts. 
M. Magendie found that it exerts a special stimulating action 
on the spinal marrow, and brings on a true tetanus. A quarter of 
a grain produced very decided effects upon a large dog. See 
the Ann. de Chim. et de Pliys. Feb, 1819. 
* An abstract of their published experiments, the most accurate and valuable 
that have yet been made on the subject of Heat, will he given in a subsequent . 
dumber of this dournah 
