42 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION.— 1835 . 
Phosphate of lime. 
Carbonate of lime.. 
Siliceous matter. 
Potash and soda... 
Alumina...© s .. 
Burdie-house. 
Craighall 
Coal. 
Tilgate. 
50*94 
11*91 
36*58 
*47 
55*75 
15*86 
16*17 
1*06 
2*82 
6*46 
60*13 
27*94 
3*42 
1*43 
•82 
6*71 
Bituminous matter and water *.... 
Phosphate of magnesia .. 
Animal matter . 
T2 
Trace. 
Trace. 
100*12 
98*12 
100*45 
In the first of these the animal matter appears to have been re¬ 
placed by siliceous matter ; in the two others, partly by siliceous 
matter, and partly by carbonate of lime. 
The author has had no opportunity of examining an undoubted 
saurian fossil scale. 
On the Composition and Properties of the Salts of Sulp ho-Met hylic 
Acid. By Robert J. Kane, M.D., M.R.I.A. 
Professor Kane had been occupied with experiments on pyroxylic 
spirit, in order to test the truth of Liebig's idea of its nature, and 
had announced to the Royal Irish Academy the fact of the formation 
of a peculiar acid, analogous to the sulphovinic, by the action of 
sulphuric acid, before he received an account of Dumas and Peligot’s 
researches on that substance. The question of its nature having 
been decided by their analysis, he restricted himself subsequently 
to the development of the history of the sulpho-methyiates, a de¬ 
partment of the subject on which the French chemists had but 
slightly touched. 
The sulpho-methyiates are easily prepared, A salt of lead may 
be procured by mixing pyroxylic spirit with an equal weight of oil 
of vitriol, and neutralizing by carbonate of lead. It crystallizes in 
fine long rectangular prisms. A salt of baryta can be obtained in a 
similar manner w T ith carbonate of baryta. From either of these 
salts the other sulpho-methyiates can be obtained, by double decom¬ 
position, by means of a soluble sulphate. 
The sulpho-methylate of potash crystallizes in pearly rhom- 
boidal plates ; it deliquesces. Heated it gives water, neutral sul¬ 
phate of methylene, and sulphurous acid, leaving a carbonaceous 
residue of sulphate of potash. The mean of three analyses gave 
for its composition, 
* The Tilgate scales contained carbon and sulphur instead of bituminous 
matter. 
