328 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
lution was siphoned off and its conductivity tested: 110 volts 
across one millimeter in the platinum crucible passed a current 
of 0.000066 ampere; a dry air-gap allows 0.0001 ampere to 
pass, using the same pressure and electrodes. Before this test 
it is unquestionable that a trace of moisture was taken up while 
the solution was being poured through the air into the crucible 
where the conductivity was tested. The anhydrous solution 
which acted upon the metals had in all likelihood a still lower 
conductivity. 
Ethyl Chloride as Solvent —1. Schuchardt’s c. p. ethyl chlor¬ 
ide was treated as in method 1. The bottle containing the 
metals and the ethyl chloride tube was cooled to 0° C. and the 
ethyl chloride broken from the tube. Of itself ethyl chloride 
has no action upon the metals at that temperature. When dry 
hydrogen chloride gas is passed in, the solution acts upon zinc 
at once with brisk evolution of hydrogen. Magnesium is at¬ 
tacked, but gas is not given off from it so fast as from the zinc. 
Gas comes off upon cadmium in small quantity, somewhat more 
than comes from the aluminum, which at first showed no action 
at all. A slight bubbling was observed upon the manganese. 
The following metals remained perfectly bright : iron, nickel, 
bismuth, tin, copper, silver, gold, platinum, and palladium. 
Lead was slightly tarnished. Oalcite and witherite were not 
acted upon. The flask was opened to the air so that a trace of 
moisture might get in, but no more metals were corroded, and 
no acceleration in the liberation of gas upon any metal was ob¬ 
served. The order of violence with which the gas is evolved 
upon each metal is given in table I. The conductivity of the 
ethyl chloride and of the solution of hydrogen chloride in ethyl 
chloride is less than that of a dry air-gap. 
2. Lest question be raised as to the dryness of Sohuchardt’s 
preparation of ethyl chloride, a second experiment was under¬ 
taken. The ethyl chloride was distilled and passed in gas form 
through c. p. sulphuric acid of specific gravity about 1.8, then 
through four wide-mouth eight-ounce bottles connected in series 
