EFFECT  OF  BISULPHIDE  OF  CARBON  ON  WOOD. 
461 
accumulates  at  the  bottom  of  tlie  vessel  of  water,  and  should  be 
dissolved  in  a  mixture  of  etlier,  alcohol,  and  water,  acidified 
with  a  drop  of  acetic  acid.  By  two'  or  three  re-crystallizations 
rom  weak  alcohol,  the  cjclopic  acid  is  obtained  pure.  It  con- 
tains only  carbon,  hydrogen,  and  oxygen  ;  different  samples 
gave  closely  accordant  results  on  analysis  : 
Percentages  of  Carbon.       Percentages  of  Hydrogen. 
1.  63-43       •       .       .       .  5-78 
2.  53-58       ....  5-92 
3.  53-40       ....  5-13 
4.  53-36       .       .       .       .  5-62 
These  numbers  correspond  pretty  fairly  with  the  formula 
CyHgO^,  which  demands  the  following  percentages  : 
Carbon,  ....  53-84 
Hydrogen,       .  .  .      *     .  5-13 
Oxygen,  ....  41-03 
100-00 
The  formula,  C^HgO^,  is  rendered  more  probable  by  the  result 
of  neutralizing  cyclopic  acid  with  a  standard  solution  of  ammo- 
nia. The  formula  indicated  for  the  ammonium  cyclopate  thus 
produced  was  C7Hg[NHj204. 
It  is  possible,  however,  that  cyclopic  acid  contains  more  hy- 
drogen than  assumed  above,  in  which  case  it  would  have  the  for- 
mula Ci4Hjg08,  and  its  ammonium  salt  be  Ci4Hj4[NHj408. — 
Ohem.  JVews,  Lond.,  July  1,  1870. 
EFFECT  OF  BISULPHIDE  OF  CARBON  ON  WOOD. 
Bisulphide  of  carbon,  according  to  Sidot,  renders  wood  very 
sonorous,  and  makes  it  an  excellent  conductor  of  heat  and  elec- 
tricity. Sidot  passed  vapors  of  bisulphide  of  carbon  over  pieces 
of  wood  in  a  porcelain  tube,  first  in  the  cold,  in  order  to  expel 
the  air,  and  then  at  high  temperature,  the  tube  being  slowly  and 
gradually  heated  for  an  hour  until  it  was  red-hot.  The  various 
kinds  of  wood  yield,  by  this  treatment,  a  coal  which  is  not  sur- 
passed by  the  most  sonorous  substances  known.  Sidot  made  a 
bell  of  oak  wood,  and  subjected  it  to  this  treatment  with  bisul- 
phide of  carbon.    The  sound  it  gave  after  the  process  compared 
