872 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[May S, U73. 
other heavenly bodies, and it is an interesting fact that 
we are able to extract the hydrogen from meteoric iron 
by heating in the vacuum of a Sprengel exhauster. 
The lecturer then referred to the enormous amount of 
hydrogen absorbed by palladium, amounting in some cases 
to 980 times its volume, and mentioned the following 
three principal methods by which that metal can be 
charged with and freed from hydrogen :—1, by being 
heated and cooled in an atmosphere of the gas; 2, by 
being placed in contact with zinc dissolving in acid, i, e. 
ivith hydrogen in the act of evolution; 3, by being made 
the negative electrode of a battery. Correlatively, the 
charged metal can be freed from its occluded hydrogen: 
1, by heating it in air or vacuo; 2, by acting on it with 
different feebly oxidizing mixtures; 3, by making it the 
positive electrode of a battery. 
A piece of palladium wire was made the negative elec¬ 
trode of a battery for a minute or two ; it was then dried 
and heated in a glass tube connected with a Sprengel 
exhauster. Gas was rapidly evolved, collected in the 
receiver, and shown to be pure hydi-ogen. 
The lecturer also showed the ingenious experiment de¬ 
vised by Mr. Chandler Roberts, in which two slips of palla¬ 
dium foil, varnished on one side, are made to curl and 
uncurl as they become alternately the negative and 
positive electrodes of a battery, or are alternately charged 
with and discharged of hydrogen on the unvarnished sur¬ 
faces. 
It was explained that the curling and uncurling were 
due to the alternate expansion and contraction of the foil 
by its occlusion and evolution of the hydrogen, produced 
by the electrolysis of the water. 
The lecturer concluded by referring to the nature of 
occluded hydrogen. That hydrogen is the vapour of 
a highly volatile metal has frequently been maintained 
on chemical grounds ; and from a consideration of 
the physical properties of hydrogenized palladium 
Graham was led to regard it as a true alloy of pal¬ 
ladium with hydrogen, or rather hydrogenium, in which 
the volatility of the latter metal was restrained by the 
fixity of the former, and of which the metallic aspect was 
equally due to both its constituents. 
Although the occlusion of upwards of 900 times its 
volume of hydrogen was found to lower appreciably the 
tenacity and elective conductivity of palladium, still the 
hydrogenized palladium remained possessed of a most 
characteristically metallic tenacity and conductivity. In 
further support of this conclusion as to the metallic con¬ 
dition of the hydrogen occluded in palladium, may be 
mentioned Graham’s singular discovery of its being pos¬ 
sessed of magnetic properties, more decided than those of 
palladium itself, a metal which Faraday proved to be 
“feebly but truly magnetic.” Operating with an electro¬ 
magnet of moderate strength, Graham found that while 
an oblong fragment of electrolytically deposited palladium 
was deflected from the equatorial by 10 degrees only, the 
same fragment of metal, charged with only 600 times its 
volume of hydrogen, was deflected through 48 degrees. 
Thus did. Graham supplement the idea of hydrogen as an 
invisible incondensable gas by the idea of hydrogen as an 
opaque, lustrous, white metal, having a specific gravity 
between 0*7 and 0 - 8, a well-marked tenacity and conduc¬ 
tivity, and a very decided magnetism. 
NORWICH CHEMISTS’ ASSISTANTS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 
A meeting of the above Association was held at the 
Society’s Rooms, on Friday, the 25th inst., Mr. Henry 
Thompson in the chair. 
In opening the meeting, the Chairman said, although it 
was with great reluctance that he had undertaken the 
office of chairman, he could not but feel great pleasure in 
being called upon to fulfil such a pleasant task as that 
which had called them together on the present occasion. 
His own experience now extended over a considerable 
period of time. He was one of the oldest members of the 
trade in Norwich, and he had seen some of the body 
rise to eminent positions. He hoped that amongst the 
students to whom he should have the pleasure of present¬ 
ing prizes, there would be some who would rise to even 
higher degrees of eminence than those he had thin in his 
mind. I he Secretary then read the report, staging that 
during the past session 53 meetings of classes aad been 
held,, namely, in Botany, 6 ; Chemistry, 33 ; Materia 
Medica, 7 ; Pharmacy, 7. Although the attendance had 
been small (only averaging eight throughout), a great deal 
of attention had been shown and considerable progress 
made. In consequence of this attention and regularity,* 
the Council had decided to purchase four prizes with the 
funds so liberally placed at their disposal for this purpose 
by J. D. Smith, Esq., instead of three, as originally 
announced, and had awarded them as follows :—To Mr. 
De Carle and Mr. Woolnough (equal), Attfield’s 
‘ Chemistry.’ Mr. Bayfield and Mr. King (equal), to the 
former, Barber’s ‘ Companion to Pharmacopoeia,’ and to 
the latter, Wanklyn’s ‘ Water Analysis.’ Taking the 
report given by Professor Attfield on the results of the 
examinations as a criterion, the members had every reason 
to be satisfied with the teaching which had been kindly 
given by Messrs. Nut hall, Caley, Corder, Butler, and 
Mason. * 
The viva voce Examination in Botany, Chemistry, 
Materia Medica, Pharmacy, and Prescriptions, under¬ 
taken respectively by Messrs. Nuthall, Mason, Corder, 
Hill, and Fox, only brought four competitors into the 
field, and the result was—First prize, Mr. King, Miller’s 
‘Chemical Physics.’ Second prize (two), Mr. Tooke, 
Hofmann s ‘ Modern Chemistry,’ . and Fergusson’s 
‘ Electricity,’ and Mr. Woolnough, Lindley’s ‘ School 
Botany.’ The examiners appeared to have been parti¬ 
cularly well satisfied with the proficiency shown in Pre¬ 
scriptions, Chemistry, and Botany. 
The prize (Valentin’s ‘Chemistry’) offered by the Vice- 
President (Mr. E. Nuthall) for competition between the 
students of his own class, was contested for by seven 
candidates, and fell to Mr. Woolnough, with a total of 86 
out of 100 marks. In deciding between the merits of the 
respective candidates, Professor Attfield took oocasion to 
speak of the work done in a way satisfactory to the 
Society, and still more so to Mr. Nuthall, who had taken 
such pains to bring about this result. Professor Attfield 
said, “ Permit me to add that these questions and answers 
give evidence of thoroughness of teaching. The progress 
that has been made is at least sound and lasting. In 
these days when mere ‘ preparation ’ for the examinations 
established by law is nowhere so unblushingly rampant as 
in British pharmacy, it is * refreshing to an educator to 
meet with such illustrations of good training as those you 
have placed before me.” 
The Secretary then said that three students had passed 
the Minor examination during the past session, one of 
whom (Mr. Tooke) took the honourable position of first 
with honours, thereby gaining the prize of books given by 
T. Hyde Hills, Esq. * * 
The Chairman then distributed the prizes to the suc¬ 
cessful. candidates, at the same time making very en¬ 
couraging and appropriate remarks. Before the meeting 
concluded, he (the chairman) wished to say a few words 
with respect to the small attendance mentioned in the 
report, which had unfortunately been the burden of their 
complaint since the starting of the Association. He had 
been at some pains to find out the cause of this inatten¬ 
tion, with a view of learning if there was any other reason 
for it than the reluctance of many of the youths to submit 
themselves to a regular course of study, and he was bound 
to say that complaints had reached him that the courses 
of the classes were not such as appeared to promise good 
results. He had thought at the time that such com¬ 
plaints had arisen from the carelessness or ignorance of 
those who made the complaint, and such opinion was now 
thoroughly confirmed by the evidences of good teaching 
