536 
THE NEW LIGHT. 
and filtered. About fluid drachms of the filtrate, mixed with the sulphuric 
acid, are then added to the bichromate of potash, and the process completed as 
before. 
“ Few articles of the Pharmacopoeia are more extensively adulterated than 
spirit of nitric ether,” says Pereira ; and certainly matters have not improved 
since the introduction of methylated spirit. 
Shake the sample to be tested with ignited carbonate of potash, let it stand 
an hour, distil the small quantity required, and proceed as before. When the 
preparation is pure the results are similar to those given by rectified spirit; the 
darkening of the solution goes rather further however, but stops far short of 
opacity, and the tube is not perceptibly stained. The difference of the results 
in the case of the methylated article is strongly marked; the liquor quickly 
blackens on heating, and the browning of the tube is very distinct. 
Of twenty-three samples of spirit of nitrous ether procured from various 
sources and examined by this method, thirteen gave satisfactory indications of 
the presence of methylic alcohol. A careful examination of the odour and 
flavour of each sample preceded the chemical one, and it was found on compar¬ 
ing the two sets of results that the accordance, though not complete, was re¬ 
markably close. 
Sheffield\ March, 1865. 
THE NEW LIGHT. 
BY MR. W. WILL MOTT. 
Great things are in progress. Not the least among the many new phenomena 
now attracting the attention of the scientific world, is the magnesium light; and 
it is encouraging to note that this discovery, for such it must be called, is sur¬ 
rounded by conditions of so promising a character, that very sanguine expecta¬ 
tions are formed respecting the extent to which it may be made available for 
purposes of general adoption. Already has the magnesium light found its way 
into the drawing-room, dazzling the eyes of all beholders, and competing with 
the “ odorator ” as a pretty, though scientific amusement, for the largest share 
of public favour. The “wire” has an extensive sale, and is familiar to most 
youths who delight in astonishing their friends with the effects they can produce 
by the aid of a well-filled chemical chest and a little handbook of experiments 
for a guide. But during this while, earnest and thoughtful men are zealously 
applying themselves to the task of discovering the whole truth in connection 
with this new illuminating material. Following up the researches and dis¬ 
coveries of Sir Id. Bavy, they are developing the peculiar character of the metal 
to its fullest extent. What may be the result as science progresses, we are not 
at present in a position to decide. With the experience of oxycalcium ignition 
before us, it seems easy to predict for any light produced under somewhat similar 
conditions, a like undignified fate. Most of us have heard of the Lime Light 
Company, and many of us have seen its brilliant rays and dark shadows thrown 
across the old bridge at Westminster. Where is this company now ? and what 
progress has it made towards the accomplishment of those grand schemes origi¬ 
nally propounded by its too sanguine promoters ? But in truth the lime and 
magnesium lights though in some respects the same, are yet widely different. 
A stream of mixed gases (oxygen and hydrogen) is ignited and thrown upon a 
piece of lime ; so intense is the heat, that the particles of lime become incandes¬ 
cent, and by a correlation of the physical forces, produce the phenomenon that 
is then witnessed. Not exactly so in the other case. Here is a piece of pure, 
or nearly pure metal, rapidly oxidized (burned) in the air, the combustion sup- 
