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IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
of hydrogen or any other gas. In the following the purest, 
soft iron wire such as used in standardizing permanganate 
was used. Even with two or three pieces of this large wire 
the action was so vigorous that a considerable rise in 
temperature was occasioned, when the 2N. acid was used. 
The solution took place in glass stoppered bottles standing 
in cold water. In several instances a brown coating was 
observed to form which scaled off and was soon dissolved 
in the excess of acid. The iron goes directly into the ferric 
condition, and in no instance, even while the solution was 
going on, could ferrous iron be detected by the usual tests. 
The solution has the usual brown color characteristic of 
solutions of ferric salts but remains perfectly clear so long 
as the acid is in excess. With a large excess of iron, oxides 
and probably basic salts are precipitated. In one such case 
the amount of reduction of the chloric acid was found to 
be approximately 95 per cent. The very ready reduction 
of the acid by iron suggests to the writer a method for the 
determination of chloric acid and chlorates by reduction 
with iron in the presence of sulphuric acid and the titra- 
tion of the hydrochloric acid formed. 
In the solution of iron, if anywhere, one might expect 
the oxygen of the air to exert an influence upon the rela- 
tion of the metal dissolved to the amount of acid reduced. 
In experiment (4) the solution was carried out in an 
atmosphere of carbon dioxide. A distilling flask contain- 
ing the acid was supported so that the neck in which the 
weighed iron was placed, was in a nearly horizontal posi- 
tion. When the air had been completely expelled by 
carbon dioxide the neck was raised so that the iron fell 
into the acid. The results of this experiment do not indi- 
cate that the air has any appreciable influence. In the 
following experiments the iron in column (8) is of course 
calculated on the basis that it was all oxidized to the ferric 
condition. In all cases the amounts of iron thus calculated 
and added to the residues of carbon and silica found in 
the respective experiments are somewhat smaller than the 
corresponding amounts of iron weighed. I am not at present 
able to account for this small difference, and the subject 
