326 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
are very slightly corroded. Antimony turns black. See 
Table I. 
Experiment 4. This sample of chloroform was prepared in¬ 
dependently of the other three samples just described. It was 
dried, two weeks over a large surface of fused calcium chloride, 
the edges of which remained perfectly sharp, and then distilled 
from fresh fused calcium chloride out of contact with air in 
an apparatus which had been dried in a current of clean air and 
then allowed to stand twenty-four hours in contact with the 
phosphorous pentoxide drying train. The metals, magnesium, 
aluminum, zinc and cadmium used were polished by scraping, 
and left in the receiver (into which the chloroform distilled) 
during the process of drying. Ho tarnish was observed on any 
one of them. The chloroform distilled at 59°.9 c. under 
746 mm. 
Thus the solvent was prepared dry and by means of tubes 
fitted with glass stopcocks attached to the receiver dry hydros 
chloric acid gas was run in and its action upon the metals ob¬ 
served. Magnesium and aluminum show no evolution of gas; 
a very minute quantity of gas comes off upon cadmium; zinc is 
vigorously attacked, rather more hydrogen being evolved than 
in a normal HC1 solution in water. The conductivity of this 
solution is very much less than that of a dry air-gap. Using 
the platinum crucible before described, 110 volts sent 0.00003 
ampere through it. On standing twenty-four hours both mag¬ 
nesium and aluminum were considerably corroded, though I saw 
no evidence of evolution of gas upon them at any time. A quali¬ 
tative analysis of the cholorform solution—which was siphoned 
off by pressure of dry air—showed zinc and aluminum in quan¬ 
tity, a fair amount of magnesium, and a slight trace of cad¬ 
mium. This indicates that the corrosion of magnesium and 
aluminum is facilitated by the solution of zinc chloride in the 
chloroform. 1 Probably the hydrogen is united with the carbon 
of the chloroform to give hydrocarbons. See Table I. 
1 Compare this with the action of aqueous solutions upon magnesium, 
aluminum, sodium, and sodium and potassium amalgams as treated by 
L. Kahlenberg in the Jour. Am. Chem. Soc. 1903, and an unpublished 
paper by G. Ferneckes. 
