Ammonia and the fixed alkalis dissolve suberic acid very Action of well. These combinations, when concentrated, let fall their acid on the addition of sulphuric acid, muriatic, &c. The suberate of ammonia precipitates the solution of alum, Suberate of and the nitrate and muriate of lime. But to obtain preci- ammonia. pitates with the latter concentrated solutions must be em ployed, for the suberate of lime is pretty soluble.. Suberic acid throws down a white precipitate from a per- Action of the fectly neutral solution of silver, from muriate of tin at a acid on the metals. minimum, from sulphate of iron at a minimum, from nitrate and acetate of lead, and from nitrate of mercury. It does not precipitate sulphate of copper or of zinc. Suberate of ammonia decomposes almost all the metallic Action of the solutions. The cupreous salts are precipitated by it of a suberate of pale blue; the cobaltic, rose-coloured; those of zinc, white; &c. ammonia. it. Nitric acid has no action on the suberic. I boiled twelve Nitric acid parts of the former at 32° on one of the latter, without does not act on having any sensible decomposition. The suberic acid was dissolved, and this solution, being boiled down, deposited suberic acid some hours after cooling. I observed, that the addition of water promoted this separation. I thought at first, that I might obtain crystals from this acid solution, but I could not succeed. Alcohol dissolves the suberic acid very well. When sa- Soluble in turated with it, water precipitates a portion. alcohol. grange. The suberic acid does not turn green the solution of in- Mistake of digo in sulphuric acid. Mr. Bouillon-Lagrange however Bouillon Lolays much stress on this property, which he considers as a characteristic of the acid; and in fact if this change of colour were owing to a chemical action, it would be very surprising, that a substance formed amidst nitric acid should not have attained its complete oxidation, but remain capa Bouillon Lagrange says, Ann. de Chimie, vol. XXIII, p. 48, that Mistake of the suberic acid decomposes nitrate of mercury, and the sulphates of Bouillon Le copper, iron, and zine; and p. 56, that the suberic acid yields mercury grange, and zinc to the three mineral acids, and iron and copper to sulphuric acid; which appears to me contradictory. ble Analogous to acid. ble of deoxiding indigo. Mr. Bouillon-Lagrange has ascribed to the suberic acid a property, that belongs to the bitter yellow matter, which forms a green by mixture with the blue of the indigo. It is this too, that turns a solution of copper green; for I have satisfied myself, that the white acid merely dilutes the blue colour, just as an equal quan tity of water would have done, From what has been said I conclude, that the suberic the sebacic acid has great analogy with the sebacic, with which Mr, Thenard has made us acquainted *; and that the only striking difference between them is the crystalline form, which the suberie acid assumes when diffolved in water or in alcohol. Method of making artifi cial stone in France. XVI. Method of Fabricating artificial Stone employed in the Vicinity of Dunkirk. By Mr. BERTRAND, Apothecary to the Army of the Coastt. THE materials employed for this purpose are the ruins of the citadel, consisting of bricks, lime,jand sand. These are broken to pieces by means of a mill, formed of two stone wheels, following each other, and drawn by a horse. Water is added; and the matter, when well ground, is reddish. This is put into a trough, and kept soft by means of water. When the trough is full, some lime is burned, and slacked by leaving it exposed to the air, and this is mixed in the proportion of one eighth with the cement above. A wooden mould is laid on the stone, and after a thin layer of sand is thrown on the stone, to prevent the cement's adhering to it, a layer of cement is poured in, and on this a See Journal, vol. I, p. 34. layer layer of bricks broken into acute-angled fragments. Thus Method of two other strata are put in, before the last, which is of pure cial stone in making artificement. The mould being removed, the stones thus form- France. ed are laid in heaps to dry, The lime being very greedy of water, and quickly becoming solid, these stones are not long in forming a hard body fit for building. The lime is not very dear, being burned with pitcoal. The labour is not dear, requiring only one strong man as sisted by two or three boys of twelve years old. The materials, being from old ruins, are cheap and only one horse is employed in this manufactory, which is not the only one in the country. I believe others exist in Prussian Poland where these stones are made with much more success, because fragments of basaltes, which are better adapted to form a solid body with lime and alumine, are there used. The pebbles of Boulogne would be still preferable, and I doubt not with these artificial stone might be made equal to natural stone in goodness. XVII. Letter from Mr. LINK, Professor of Chemistry at Rostock, to Mr. VOGEL, I HAVE just examined the pollen of the hazel nut. It Pollen of the differs greatly from that of the date tree, which Messrs. bagel nut. Fourcroy and Vauquelin have analysed. It contains a large quantity of tannin, a resin, a great deal of gluten, and a little fibrin. There is animal matter therefore in this pollen. To learn the properties of the membranous part of Pith of elder. plants, I subjected to research the pith of elder, and procured from it by nitric acid every thing, that Bouillon-La Annales de Chimie, vol. LXII, p. 292. grange Suberic acid characteristic of vegetable membrane. Crystals in the root of treeprimrose. Muriate of sil ver not black ened without light. Berthollet's hypothesis. grange obtained from cork, but without this substance leaving any residuum. As Mr. Brugnatelli obtained suberic acid from paper, I believe it is a peculiar characteristic of vegetable membrane, to furnish this acid. In the roots of the anothera biennis, broadleaved treeprimrose, I have seen by the help of a good microscope extremely small crystals, regularly formed, accumulated in the cellular texture. It was difficult to obtain a sufficient quantity for a chemical analysis. They appeared to me somewhat analogous to the crystals obtained from indigo by Nicholson they are very little, if at all, soluble in water, alcohol, or many of the acids: sulphuric acid itself acts but very feebly on them; the nitric acid alone is their true solvent: I have endeavoured to blacken the muriate of silver by a current of air employed in the dark, but found it impossible to succeed. Mr. Berthollet, as I see in his work, was able to blacken it by a simple current of air. He says, that light acts upon this salt by taking from it a portion of muriatic acid. But how will this celebrated chemist account for the black colour, that muriate of silver assumes when covered with muriatic acid? SCIENTIFIC NEWS. Mineral strata of Clackman nanshire. Wernerian Natural History Society. AT the meeting of this Society on the 8th of April, was read the first part of a Description of the Mineral Strata of Clackmananshire, from the bed of the river Forth, to the base of the Ochils, illustrated by a large and very accurate plan and section of those strata, done from actual sur vey, Mr. Charles Stewart laid before the Society a list of the Insects near Edinburg. Insects found by him in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, with introductory remarks on the study of entomology. It would appear, that the neighbourhood of Edinburgh pos sesses no very peculiar insects, and but few rare ones. The list contained about four hundred species; which, Mr. Stew art stated, must be considered as the most common, as they were collected in the course of two seasons only, and without very favourable opportunities. It was produced (he added) merely as an incitement to younger and more zealous entomologists. At this meeting there were laid on the Society's table the first two volumes, 4to. of Count de Bournon's System of Mineralogy, with a volumin of Outlines; a present from the author, Clackmanan AT a meeting of this Society on the 13th of May, the Mineralogy of second part of Mr. Bald's interesting Mineralogical De- shire. scription of Clackmananshire was read; giving a particular account of two very remarkable slips or shifts in the strata, near one hundred feet in depth, by reason of which the main coal field of the country is divided into three fields, on. all of which extensive collieries have been erected. The Rev. Mr. Fleming of Bressay laid before the So- Flora of Linlithgow. ciety an outline of the Flora of Linlithgowshire, including only such plants as are omitted by Mr. Lightfoot, or marked as uncommon by Dr. Smith. This, he stated, was to be considered as the first of a series of communications illustrative of the natural history of his native country, a subterranean Mr. P. Walker stated a curious fact in the history of the Eels found in common eel. A number of eels, old and young, were pool. found |