On the connexion of chemical forces with the polarization of light / Nevil Story Maskelyne.
- Nevil Story Maskelyne
- Date:
- 1851
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the connexion of chemical forces with the polarization of light / Nevil Story Maskelyne. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![common to all these and perhaps to tartaric acid, and only modified a little by the super-position as it were of other substances, in combina- tion with it, upon the extremities of its molecule. He also dwelt on the possibility of the Paratartaric acid being a quadribasic as the tartaric acid is a bibasic acid; it being on this view a conjugate acid consisting of the two united tartaric acids. He then invited attention to the interesting nature of M. Biot’s inves- tigation of the action of tartaric acid in solution in water, and he showed that here the acid must be supposed capable of combining with an indefinite or indeed an infinite amount of water, while in other cases again, bodies (such as sugar for instance) exercise no efFect upon the water and do not seem to combine with, hut only to be dissolved in it. The former is an instance of a continuous and not intermittent sort of combination ; and though we need not anticipate a recurrence of the controversy of Berthollet and Proust, yet this shows us that the actions of quantity or mass so dwelt on by the former are not without a great significance ; and that the power that can thus enable us to determine such important points in chemical statics, is well worthy of the attention of the philosophic mind. Dr. Bence Jones permitted a Saccharimeter apparatus of Soleil’s, on the double-quartz-plate principle, to be exhibited, and explained its use. Mr. Tennant also exhibited a mass of quite transparent Iceland spar, and a beautiful crystal of plagiedral quartz. Since the delivery of the lecture, a letter has been received from M. Pasteur stating thdt he had forwarded for exhibition at and illustration of this lecture, all the finest specimens of the crystals which he has produced, which are further illustrated by models and diagrams. They are the same as those which were exhibited at the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and the liberality of M. Pasteur’s act Iwill be appreciated by Members of the Royal Institution, when they [are reminded that the Paratartaric acid of which they are the products is impossible to be obtained, from its having only once been ccidentally formed, and that these specimens therefore consist pro- ably of the only large accumulation of this body in existence. As soon as they arrive they will he exhibited to the Members. Nevil Story Maskelyne. In the Library were exhibited : — n Apparatus exhibiting the colours produced by Polarized Light, [by Mr. Newman]. Specimens of Pyramidal Alum Crystals, Metallic Arsenic from Cali- fornia, Chrome alum crystals—Nitrate of Potash—Tincal or Native Borax, and Metallic Antimony [by the Pharmaceutical Society]. Sanskrit MSS. — Ancient Pictures of Akbar and his Court, and Je- hangir and his Court [by the Royal Asiatic Society]. Models and Diagrams to illustrate a New Theory of Naval Architec- ture [byMr. W. E. Hall].](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2237694x_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
