NOTES AND ABSTRACTS IN CHEMISTRY AND FHARMACY. 
551 
Heated in a tube, the dry substance yields a little water, some sulphur, sul¬ 
phurous acid, and a residue formed of sulphate and sulphide of sodium. This 
disengagement of water during the calcination of the dry salt indicates the pre¬ 
sence of hydrogen in this compound ; and it is this hydrogen, feebly combined 
which gives to the body all the properties of nascent hydrogen. 
The formula of this substance is j O, being that of the sodium salt of an 
O A TTN 
acid J 0. This may be obtained by adding sulphuric or oxalic acid to 
the crystals of sodium salt; it gives an orange solution which is very little 
stable, and possesses the same decolorizing power. 
In consideration of its properties and composition, the discoverer proposes to 
call it hydrosulphurous acid. 
Bromide of Potassium. 
The ‘ Journal de Pharmacie ’ contains a table, by M. Adrian, exhibiting the 
results of the examination of ten samples of bromide of potassium. From this 
we find that the most important impurity as regards quantity is the chloride of 
potassium, which is represented as appearing in proportions varying from 3| to 
15, and even in one instance to 30 per cent, of the salt. Iodide of potassium is, 
as might be anticipated, generally absent. Small quantities of carbonate and 
sulphate are constantly discoverable, and, what is more important, in some in¬ 
stances also bromate. This last salt it is especially important to avoid, since, 
in the presence of bromide, it is capable of giving free bromine by the action of 
the acids of the stomach. 
The Volatile Portion of Balsam of Peru. 
When the essential oil of balsam of Peru is submitted to fractional distillation 
in an atmosphere of carbonic acid, and under diminished pressure, it is sepa¬ 
rated into three distinct portions. 
The first, occurring in small quantity, and boiling at about 200° C., is ben- 
zylic alcohol, C 7 H 8 0. 
The second constitutes the greater part of the essence ; it boils at above 
300° C., and is composed of the benzoic ether of benzylic alcohol, benzoate 
of benzyl = C 7 H 7 C 7 H 5 0 2 . Decomposed by alcoholic potash, it yields a ben¬ 
zoate and benzylic alcohol. 
The third compound boils at nearly the same temperature as mercury. It 
appears to be another ether, the cinnamate of benzyl, 
c 7 h 7 c 9 h 7 o 2 , 
since it yields by treatment with potash a cinnamate and the benzylic alcohol. 
—Kraut, '‘Deutsche Cliemische Gesellschaft.’ 1 
Simultaneous Determination of the Carbon, Hydrogen, and Xtfitrogen, 
in the Analysis of 3>Iitro ge nousBodies. 
M. Schloesing contributes two papers to the ‘ Annales de Chimie et de Phy¬ 
sique ’ for February, the above being the title of the first. In order to effect the 
proposed object, the author conducts the combustion in oxygen gas very much in 
the usual way, but behind the boat containing the substance to be analysed he 
inserts another containing a weighed quantity of pure carbonate of lead. To 
the combustion-tube he adapts tubes containing sulphuric acid and solution of 
potash, for the purpose of absorbing, according to the usual practice, the water 
and carbonic acid resulting from the combustion. In addition to these, at the 
extremity of the apparatus, are two absorption bottles, communicating with 
each other by an india-rubber tube, connecting the tubulures with which they 
are furnished at the bottom. The reagent they contain consists of copper in 
