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MR. WARREN DE LA RUE, President of the London Chemical Society, speaks of recent chemical progress as follows: ” The elements once looked upon as most stable are now considered to be at any moment liable to be dissociated. Some onths back spectroscopic evidence was brought forward which tended to show that the so-called ele ents were in reality compound bodies; and now V. Meyer has succeeded in dissociating chlorine, bromine, and As regards the spectrum itself, specific functions and properties can no longer be attributed to various parts of it; for Captain Ab- ney has shown that every part acts actinically, and holds out a prospect of producing permanent photographs of the spectram in its natural colors. The artificial production of the diamond is also said to have been effected, but Mr. Hannay's communication on this subject is so vague that it. is impossible to pronounce any opinion upon it. The joint observations of Hannay and Hogarth on the solubility of solids in gases promise results of great interest. Remarkable observations have been made by Cailletet, Ansdell. etc., on the behavior of various substances, mixtures, etc., under great pressure. The researches of Gladstone, Laudolt, and others, on the refractive indices of carbon compounds, bave been greatly extended by Bruhl." The President then alluded briefly to the great diligence . of organic chemists in the investigation of carbon com, pounds, and especially to the elucidation of the constitution ! of alkaloids aud the carbohydrates. The synthesis of, isatin I and Baeyer's researches in the indigo group must, it would sera, result ere long in the discovery of a metbod for the artificial manufacture of indigo. Ladenburg has prepared atropine fro tropine and tropic acid, and thus probably the first steps have been taken toward the synthesis of an alkaloid. Much light has been thrown ou the constitution of the bases of the pyridin and picolin series, of the nicotin and, cincbona alkaloids. and of starch. Recent facts seem to show that our present symbolic syste is inadequate to re; present the constitution of carbon compounds. A new ele- ' ment, scandium, has been separated, corresponding to Men' delejeff's ekaboron, thus verifying histhe importance of the “ Periodic Law."
