Chemistry. 447 
35. Onthe Alloys ^Potassium andSodkm^ with other metals.--^ 
The following are the results deduced by M. Serullas from the ela- 
borate memoir which we have already had occasion to quote, (see 
page 389.) 
1 . That very fusible metals, treated in a high temperature 
with tartrate of potash or soda, are susceptible of producing al- 
loys more or less rich in potassium or sodium, and which may, 
without being decomposed, resist a very strong fire. 
% That the existence of potassium and sodium in these alloys 
manifests itself, 1. By the more or less vigorous action which 
they exert qpon water ; % By the rotation of their fragments 
in a bath of dry or wet mercury ; 3. By the solidification of 
the mercury which is agitated with them ; 4. By the consider^ 
able quantity of caloric which they emit, when they are pul- 
verized or exposed to air ; 3. That the pyrophorus owes its 
property of burning in contact with the air to the presence of a 
certain quantity of potassium. 
4. That not only the tartrates, but also the salts whose base 
is potash or soda, decomposable by heat, are brought to the 
state of potassium and sodium by means of the charcoal, 
which is either added or naturally contained in the vegetable 
acids which form a part of the salts ; and that this reduction is 
singularly favoured, as M. Vauquelin first remarked, by the pre- 
sence of metals, of which several then join themselves to the 
potassium or sodium. 
5. That the antimony of commerce proceeding from arsenical 
mines of this metal contains often arsenic, in consequence of the 
resistance which this last appears to bring to its solidification 
when it makes part of an alloy. — See Journal de Pharma, cie^ 
Dec. 1820, tom. vi. p. 589. 
36. Dohereiner on the chemical action of' Capillary Tubes .- — * 
M. Dohereiner is of opinion, that chemical combinations and de- 
combinations may be effected by simple capillarity, and he has 
succeeded in producing sugar, by uniting the carbonic acid 
and carbonated hydrogen, by the aid of charcoal and compres- 
sion. Experiments of this kind are very dangerous. A strong 
tube of copper, filled with charcoal, and in which M. Dohereiner 
had introduced two gases by compression, burst with a tremen« 
dous explosion, — Annul Generates des Sciences Physiques, 
tom. vi. ch. xi. 
