368  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy.  {^z^wh*™' 
while  gas  no  longer  escapes  from  the  apparatus.  At  this  moment 
we  stop  with  the  finger  the  tube  by  which  the  gas  had  been  escap- 
ing, so  as  to  prevent  air  from  entering,  and  the  glass  bulb  soon 
becomes  full  of  a  clear  yellow  liquid,  possessed  of  great  mobility ; 
the  color  of  this  liquid  is  the  same  as  that  of  fluorine  gas  when 
examined  in  a  stratum  one  metre  thick.  According  to  this  experi- 
ment, fluorine  becomes  liquid  at — 1 8 5  °. 
As  soon  as  this  little  apparatus  is  removed  from  the  liquid  oxy- 
gen the  temperature  rises,  and  the  yellow  liquid  begins  to  boil  with 
an  abundant  disengagement  of  gas,  having  all  the  energetic  reac- 
tions of  fluorine. 
We  took  advantage  of  these  experiments  to  study  some  of  the 
reactions  of  fluorine  on  bodies  kept  at  extremely  low  temperatures. 
Silicon,  boron,  carbon,  sulphur,  phosphorus,  and  reduced  iron 
cooled  in  liquid  oxygen  and  then  placed  in  an  atmosphere  of  fluor- 
ine, did  not  become  incandescent.  At  this  low  temperature  fluorine 
did  not  displace  iodine  from  iodides.  However,  its  chemical  energy 
is  still  sufficiently  great  to  decompose  benzine  and  essence  of  tur- 
pentine with  incandescence  as  soon  as  their  temperatures  rose  to 
— 1800.  It  would  thus  seem  that  the  powerful  affinity  of  fluorine  for 
hydrogen  is  the  last  to  disappear. 
There  is  still  another  experiment  we  ought  to  mention.  When 
we  pass  a  current  of  fluorine  gas  through  liquid  oxygen,  a  flocculent 
precipitate  of  a  white  color,  which  quickly  settles  to  the  bottom,  is 
rapidly  formed.  If  we  shake  up  this  mixture  and  throw  it  on  a  fil- 
ter, we  separate  the  precipitate,  which  possesses  the  curious  prop- 
erty of  deflagrating  with  violence  as  soon  as  the  temperature  rises. 
We  intend  to  follow  up  the  study  of  this  body,  as  well  as  that  of 
the  liquefaction  and  solidification  of  fluorine,  which  demand  further 
experiments. —  Comptes  Rendus,  Vol.  CXXIV,  No.  22,  p  1202, 
through  Chemical  News,  June  11,  1897. 
RECENT  LITERATURE  RELATING  TO  PHARMACY. 
A  REACTION  FOR  DISTINGUISHING  tt-NAPHTOL  FROM  /3-NAPHTOL. 
E.  Leger  (Jour,  de  Pharm.  et  de  Chirn.,  [6],  5,  527),  distinguishes 
a-naphtol  and  /3-naphtol  by  adding  to  saturated  aqueous  solutions  of 
each  a  solution  of  sodium  hypobromite.  The  solutions  of  naphtol 
are  prepared  by  rubbing  the  respective  compounds  in  a  mortar  w/th 
