line impression in the mouth. It is soluble in about 50 times its weight of boiling alcohol. It is insoluble in water.* 74. Bimargarate of soda. Obtained by digesting margarate of soda in a great quantity of water. It is white, insipid, destitute of smell,, more fusible than margarate, insoluble in water, but very soluble in alcohol.t 75. Ricinate of soda. of potash. Similar in its properties to ricinate 76. Oleate of soda. Put into a flask 1 part of oleic acid; 0-66 of hydrate of soda, dissolved in 5 parts of water, digest for some time, and then allow the whole to cool. The oleate separates in a mass much harder and firmer than oleate of potash. Reduce it to powder, press it between the folds of blotting paper, and, finally, dissolve it in 10 times its weight of boiling alcohol, of the specific gravity 0.821. It separates in a solid mass, when the solution cools, or is properly concentrated. It is semitransparent, without smell, and has a bitter and alkaline taste. It absorbs moisture from the atmo sphere, but does not deliquesce. It dissolves at 50° in ten times its weight of water. It dissolves also in 10 times its weight of boiling alcohol of 0.821. Ether has very little action on it.‡ 77. Binoleate of soda exists; but has not been examined. 78. Phocenate of soda. Obtained by neutralizing carbonate of soda, dissolved in water with an excess of phocenic acid, and evaporating to dryness. When dissolved in water, and concentrated and exposed in a very dry atmosphere, it crystallizes. The crystals resemble cauliflower, and deliquesce in a moist atmosphere.§ 79. Butyrate of soda. Prepared in the same way as butyrate of potash. It resembles that salt, but is less deliquescent.|| 80. Caproate of soda. Prepared in the same way as caproate of potash, which it resembles. A concentrated solution of it, when exposed to the air, is converted into a white mass.¶ 81. Cholesterate of soda. Brownish yellow, not crystallizable, deliquescent. Insoluble in alcohol and ether. 82. Pinate of soda. 83. Silvate of soda. :} Similar to the same salts of potash. 84. Carbazotate of soda. Crystallizes in fine silky needles of a light yellow colour. It dissolves in about 20 times its * Chevreul, sur les corps gras, p. 65. # Ibid. p. 88. + Ibid. p. 66. Ibid. p. 111. | Ibid. p. 127. ¶ Ibid. p. 141. 'Sect. III. Class I. Characters. weight of water at 60°. In other respects it agrees with carbazotate of potash.* 85. Urate of soda. A white powder having the same appearance as pure uric acid. Soluble in soda ley. 86. Pyrurate of soda. A salt soluble in water; but seemingly not crystallizable.† 87. Aspartate of soda. Crystallizes easily, and is characterized by an odour of beef tea, agreeably saline.‡ 88. Hydrocarbosulphate of soda. This salt crystallizes with more difficulty, and in quite a different form from that of hydrocarbosulphate of potash. It deliquesces in moist air, and is not separated from its solution in alcohol by sulphuric ether.§ 89. Sulphorinate of soda. It forms brilliant crystals, whose form is irregular, and effloresces in the atmosphere. They consist of transparent six-sided tables. The taste is sweet. When thrown into a red hot platinum crucible they burn with flame. 90. Sulphonaphthalate of soda. It resembles sulphonaphthalate of potash. The crystals are white, pearly, and unaltered in the air. They have a decided metallic taste.** 91. Sinapate of soda. When the solution of this salt is left to spontaneous evaporation, it shoots into small crystalline grains. SECTION IV.-SALTS OF LITHIA. The salts of lithia have been hitherto but superficially examined, owing to the difficulty of procuring their base in sufficient quantity. 1. They are all soluble in water (as far as is known), and in this respect resemble the salts of potash and soda. But the carbonate of lithia is much less soluble than the carbonates of potash or soda. 2. When carbonate of potash is dropped into a concentrated solution of a salt of lithia, a white precipitate falls. This precipitate may be redissolved again by diluting the liquid with a * Liebig, Ann. de Chim, et de Phys. xxxv. 83. + Chevallier and Lassaigne, Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. xiii. 160. § Zeise, Annals of Philosophy (2d series), iv. 244. Vogel, Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. xiii. 73. 1 Vogel, Gilbert's Annalen, Ixiii. 94. Faraday, Annals of Philosophy (2d series), xii. 207. sufficient quantity of water, or by raising it to the boiling Sect. IV. point. 3. Muriate of platinum occasions no precipitate when dropped into a salt of lithia. 4. Several of the salts of lithia melt at a very low temperature. 5. When the salts of lithia are heated to redness in a platinum vessel, they act with considerable energy upon that metal. 6. Neither prussiate of potash, nor infusion of nut-galls, occasions any precipitate in the salts of lithia. 7. Salts of lithia are not precipitated by caustic potash. 8. If to a salt of lithia we add a quantity of phosphate of soda, and evaporate, the solution becomes muddy. If we evaporate to dryness, and pour water on the residue, a white powder remains undissolved, which falls slowly to the bottom of the vessel. 9. When an alcoholic solution of a lithia salt is kindled, it. burns with a purple red colour. 10. If we mix together 1 part of fluor spar, and 1 part of sulphate of ammonia, and add to the mixture a little of a lithia salt, and heat before the blowpipe, the flame has at first a green colour; but when the mixture fuses, the colour of the flame becomes purple red.* 1. Sulphate of lithia. This salt crystallizes in small foursided crystals, whose bases, according to Vauquelin, are squares. Its taste is saline, without any of the bitterness which distinguishes the sulphates of potash and soda. It requires a strong red heat to fuse it, but the presence of a little gypsum makes it fusible below a red heat. It is scarcely altered by exposure to the air. Its constituents are 2. Bisulphate of lithia dissolves in water more readily than the sulphate. It crystallizes in six-sided tables. When exposed to a very high temperature, sulphurous acid and oxygen gas are driven off, and sulphate of lithia remains behind.+ 3. Nitrate of lithia. This salt is colourless, very soluble in * Turner. + Gmelin, Gilbert's Annalen, Ixii. 409. Class I. water, and crystallizes in four-sided prisms, with rhomboidal bases. Its taste is very sharp. It very speedily deliquesces when exposed to the air. It melts when exposed to a very moderate degree of heat, and runs into a liquid. It dissolves readily in alcohol.* 4. Carbonate of lithia. When this salt is obtained by precipitating a concentrated salt of lithia by means of carbonate of potash, it is a white powder, having a strong alkaline taste, and soluble in about 100 times its weight of cold water; but more soluble in hot water. It melts when heated to redness, and assumes on cooling the appearance of enamel. When heated in a platinum crucible, the metal is always strongly attacked. The carbonates of the other alkalies, on the other hand, restore the metallic lustre to this metal when tarnished. It is insoluble in alcohol. Its constituents are 5. Bicarbonate of lithia. When a current of carbonic acid gas is passed through water in which carbonate of lithia is suspended, a portion is dissolved doubtless in the state of bicarbonate. By spontaneous evaporation a crystalline crust is obtained, which decrepitates strongly when heated. This salt is said to occur in some mineral waters in Bohemia. 6. Phosphate of lithia. This salt falls in the state of a white insoluble powder, when phosphate of ammonia is dropt into a solution of sulphate of lithia. But phosphoric acid does not occasion a precipitate when dropt into that salt, nor when dropt into carbonate of lithia. But if heat be applied to the carbonate after the addition of phosphoric acid, carbonic acid is disengaged, and phosphate of lithia falls down. 7. Biphosphate of lithia. When we dissolve the preceding salt in phosphoric acid, we obtain a biphosphate, which crystallizes when left to spontaneous evaporation. It is very soluble in water.+ 8. Borate of lithia. This acid combines in two proportions with lithia. The neutral borate may be made by boiling together the aqueous solutions of boracic acid, and carbonate of lithia. The combination takes place very slowly. The * Arfvedson, Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. x. Gmelin, Gilbert's Annalen, ixii. 410. + Gmelin, Gilbert's Annalen, lxii. 400. borate of lithia is very soluble in water, and when the solution is evaporated sufficiently, a gummy transparent matter remains, which deliquesces when left exposed to the air. Biborate of lithia is capable of crystallizing, and is much less soluble than the borate of lithia, though more so than boracic acid.* 9. Selenite of lithia. Deliquesces in the air, fuses below a red heat into a yellow liquid, which on cooling concretes into a crystalline mass, which is translucent, has a pearly lustre, and is composed of large plates. 10. Chromate of lithia. This salt has a yellow colour, and crystallizes in parallelopipeds with rhomboidal bases. It is readily soluble in water.† 11. Oxalate of lithia. This salt may be obtained by saturating oxalic acid with carbonate of lithia. It crystallizes with difficulty, and dissolves readily in water.‡ Binoxalate of lithia crystallizes and dissolves readily in water. 12. Acetate of lithia. This salt may be obtained by dissolving carbonate of lithia in acetic acid, with the assistance of heat. When evaporated, it leaves a gummy matter which speedily deliquesces, and in the deliquesced mass, crystalliné plates gradually make their appearance.§ 13. Tartrate of lithia. This salt dissolves readily in water, and does not crystallize, but forms a white opaque matter which does not deliquesce when exposed to the air. The bitartrate, on the contrary, crystallizes readily, and is not so soluble as the tartrate. 14. Mucate of lithia. Mucic acid readily dissolves carbonate of lithia, and yields when slowly evaporated small crystals of mucate of lithia, which effloresce when exposed to the air, and dissolve with facility in water.¶ 15. Malate of lithia. Malic acid extracted from the berries of the mountain ash dissolves carbonate of lithia with facility; but the solution scarcely yields crystals. When evaporated, a syrupy mass remains which cannot be easily dried.** 16. Benzoate of lithia. Benzoic acid readily decomposes carbonate of lithia, and forms a salt which dissolves easily in water, and does not crystallize, but leaves a white opaque matter which deliquesces in the air. When heated to redness, it is converted into carbonate of lithia, which leaves when dissolved in water, a very bulky coal.++ • Gmelin, Gilbert's Annalen, lxii, 412. Ibid. § Ibid. 415. ¶ Ibid. 416. + Ibid. 413. Ibid. 414. Sect. IV. |