324 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
Method 2 was used for solvents which dissolve water with¬ 
out undergoing decomposition. It was found that method 1 
was not satisfactory for these liquids. The first, second and 
third experiments with chloroform were carried out according 
to method 1; also the first experiment with carbon tetrachloride. 
The action of the hydrogen chloride solutions upon magnesium 
and aluminum indicates that all moisture had not been elimin¬ 
ated, especially as the last experiments with carbon tetrachloride 
and chloroform as solvents gave evolution of gas upon zinc 
alone; and the electrical conductivity of the last solutions was 
much less than that of the solutions prepared by method 1. 
RESULTS. 
Chloroform as Solvent .—Chloroform from Kahlbaum was 
dried for seme weeks over a large surface of fused calcium 
chloride and distilled from a dry flask and condenser into a re¬ 
ceiver protected by a calcium chloride tube. The first runnings 
of the chloroform were rejected and the final portion which 
boiled at 60° C. under 741.7 mm. was quickly sealed up in dry 
glass tubes. The moisture taken up during the necessary trans¬ 
fer through the air is extremely slight. The metals used were 
carefully cleaned by scraping with a sharp knife, heated, and 
placed in the bottle along with a tube of the sealed up chloro¬ 
form and treated as described in full under method 1. 
The chloroform had no action upon the metals. When hydro¬ 
chloric acid gas was run in, gas was evolved upon zinc, cad¬ 
mium, and magnesium. The approximate degree of violence of 
this action as estimated by my eye is given in table I Hy the 
subscripts to the TPs used to denote evolution of gas. As this 
action progressed a black deposit, fine and sooty, appeared on 
magnesium, aluminum, chromium, manganese, lead, tin, bis¬ 
muth, and antimony, and small aggregations of this black de¬ 
posit floated about in the solution. Doubtless it was carbon. 
This black deposit did not appear in either of the other three 
chloroform experiments. An accident happened in carrying 
out this experiment: The hydrochloric acid gas was admitted 
under slightly reduced pressure so that the solvent was drawn 
