428 
DR. E, FRANKLAND ON A NEW SERIES OF 
zinc. In order to obtain this liquid in a state of purity, another tube was charged 
with iodide of methyl and excess of zinc, and subjected to a heat of 150° or 160° C. 
until every trace of iodide of methyl was decomposed. The drawn out extremity of 
the tube being broken off, the included gas was allowed to escape, and the liquid 
contents were then separated from the solid ones by distillation at a gentle heat, in 
an atmosphere of dry hydrogen. This was accomplished as shown in the following 
figure. 
A is the decomposition tube bent at an obtuse angle at a, and connected with the 
receiver B by the doubly perforated cork c, which also contains the small tube 
open at both ends. The receiver B is drawn out at f until its internal diameter is 
diminished to about ^^jth of an inch, and this drawn out extremity is connected, by 
means of a caoutchouc joint, with the chloride of calcium tube C, which at its oppo- 
site extremity is in connection with a hydrogen gas apparatus D. d, e are two 
small glass bulbs for preserving the condensed liquid. The apparatus being thus 
arranged, hydrogen is evolved in D, and becoming perfectly desiccated in passing 
through the chloride of calcium tube C, enters the receiver B at f, expelling the 
atmospheric air through the tube b. When the gas has thus streamed through the 
apparatus for at least a quarter of an hour, and every trace of air has been expelled 
from B and from the bulbs d, e by diffusion, the extremity of the tube b is hermeti- 
cally sealed, at the same moment that the evolution of gas from D is interrupted. 
The drawn out extremity of the receiver B being then quickly sealed at B, and 
e remain filled with pure dry hydrogen, and A with a mixture of gases free from 
oxygen, as any trace of this element, which might have penetrated there, would be 
instantaneously absorbed by its contents. B is then immersed to its neck in cold water, 
and a gentle heat cautiously applied to the whole length of A by means of a spirit 
lamp. The mobile fluid in A soon enters into ebullition, and distils over into the 
receiver B ; as soon as the distillation is finished and A become cold, its capillary 
e xtremity is fused off at a by means of a blowpipe, a remaining hermetically sealed. 
