LIVERPOOL CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
465 
alkali, keeping the latter always in excess, and then, for the magnetic oxide, 
boiling the mixture. By this means the oxide was quickly obtained in a defi¬ 
nite and satisfactory condition. The salt of iron was directed to be added to 
the alkali, and not the alkali to the salt of iron, not for the reason assigned by 
Dr. Attfield, but for an entirely different reason, namely, that if they added 
the alkali to the salt of iron, the precipitation would be commenced in the pre¬ 
sence of a large excess of iron salt, the result of which would be the formation 
of an insoluble basic salt, which would retain a portion of the acid originally 
present in the soluble salt, and this basic salt, or at least some of it, might escape 
final decomposition. There was always a greater certainty of getting a satis¬ 
factory result by the method indicated in the Pharmacopoeia, which consisted in 
adding the salt of iron to the alkali, for in this case the precipitation from be¬ 
ginning to end was effected in the presence of an excess of the alkali, which pre¬ 
vented the formation of a basic salt, and afforded the best security for the pro¬ 
duction of an oxide free from any of the acid originally present in the iron salt. 
In making peroxide of iron for use in preparing the scaling salts of iron, it 
■was very important to adopt this method of effecting the precipitation. 
PROVINCIAL TRANSACTIONS. 
LIVERPOOL CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
Tenth General Meeting, held at the Royal Institution on February 27th, 1868 ; the 
President, Mr. R. Summer, in the chair. 
The following donations to the Library were announced :—The Proceedings of the 
Liverpool Architectural Society. The Chemist and Druggist for February. Report @f 
the Liverpool Institute. New York Druggists’ Circular. 
A vote of thanks was passed to the donors. 
The Secretary exhibited some experiments illustrating the laws of chemical combi¬ 
nation by volume. 
Mr. Symes then gave some “Notes on Modern Science.” 
He first described Bessemer’s process for making steel, and alluded to its defects, 
especially its requiring a particular kind of iron very free from impurities. Hargreave’s 
process, which consists of the use of nitrates, generally nitrate of soda, whereby the car¬ 
bon, sulphur, and phosphorus are oxidized and removed, he considered superior, as it can 
be applied to any kind of iron, and does not necessarily require alteration of existing 
works, but can be performed in the ordinary puddling furnace. 
A process for improving iron, in which a powerful electro-magnet is placed opposite 
to an opening in the blast-furnace near the melted iron, which is said to give a much 
tougher product than would otherwise be obtained, was then reviewed, and in expla¬ 
nation of the ebullition of the melted iron from escape of gas, Mr. Symes offered a theory 
on the assumption that the liberated gas was hydrogen. 
Some recent experiments on the influence of green light on vegetation were described. 
Under this light carbonic acid is given off, and plants languish. The feeble growth of 
plants under trees is probably the result of this, at least in part. Mr. Symes gave some 
views of his own in opposition to the opinion that chemical action was solely con¬ 
fined to the blue rays of the spectrum. Certain chemical effects, such as decomposition 
of silver salts, are most energetically excited under the blue rays, but as the red rays 
contain the heat rays which excite many chemical actions, and as vegetation, which in¬ 
volves chemical action, is most vigorous in yellow light, he thought that chemical in¬ 
fluence was present in all the rays of the spectrum, differing in kind rather than in 
degree. 
A specimen of glucose had fallen under Mr. Symes’s notice almost colourless, 
and of the consistence of treacle. He had ascertained that it was used in brewing. The 
advantages resulting from its use, owing to its easy fermentation into alcohol, and the 
VOL. IX. 2 H 
