SULPHUR AND ITS COMBINATIONS. Sulphur is met with in nature in many forms. Uncombined, it is found crystallized in oblique octahedrons, remarkably beautiful in form, in their clear yellow colour and lustre, around the edges of volcanic apertures, as at Quito, at Volcano, and Teneriffe. But in this state its quantity is too small to form an object of practical importance It is found disseminated in the earth in masses, particularly in those strata termed by geologists secondary, in most countries that are the seat of volcanic power. Of this Sicily affords the most remarkable example, for around the flanks of Mount Etna the ground in a great number of localities is mined forthe sulphur it contains, associated with calcareous marls and with gypsum, and interspersed with nodules of sulphate of strontian, and with layers of clay and of alumstone. Although Sicily is to us the most important depository of sulphur in this shape, yet it occurs every where that volcanic fire is in operation. Iceland, Java, Guadaloupe, may be mentioned as similarly circumstanced. In many places the soil is so impregnated with sulphur to the depth of twenty or thirty feet, that the locality is termed Solfa-terra. Such is the district about Puozzoli, near Naples.

In union with hydrogen gas sulphur is also dissolved in many mineral springs, which are recog. nised by their peculiar odour, highly disagreeable, analogous to that of rotten eggs, and by their property of blackening a silver spoon immersed in a glass of the water. Such springs are of great medicinal activity, especially in diseases of the skin. Sulphur occurs very extensively distributed in nature in combination with a great number of metals, forming native sulphurets. Such is sulphuret of silver, sulphuret of antimony, sulphuret of lead, sulphuret of iron, and many others. In the form of sulphuric acid it is found also native, combined with barytes, with lime, with oxide of lead, and many other metallic oxides.

rature at which water boils, that is to 226 deg. on Fahrenheit's thermometric scale, it melts, and forms a liquid of a clear yellow colour, limpid and thin as water. But when it is further heated, it undergoes a very curious change, becoming thick and opaque, so that at the temperature of 400 deg. it is dark brown, quite opaque, and so thick that the vessel containing it may be turned upside down without its spilling. On heating it still further, however, it again loses this condition, so that when it has risen to 600 deg. it is as thin and limpid as it had been at 226 deg. If, however, the thick sulphur at 400 deg. be suddenly cooled by immersion in a large quantity of water, in place of assuming its natural appearance, it forms a soft transparent brown mass of remarkable elasticity, and may be drawn out into threads of considerable length. After some time however, it changes into the hard brittle yellow mass it usually presents. At the temperature of 601 deg. the sulphur boils, forming a rich yellow vapour, and by this property its purification is carried on.

Sulphur is obtained for the arts from the native bi-sulphuret of iron, or iron pyrites. This mineral, known by its hardness, so that it strikes fire with steel and has been frequently employed in fire-arms in place of flint, by its density and its deep yellow colour, is very extensively diffused. It occurs abundantly in Wales and in many parts of Ireland.

When sulphur is heated to a temperature about 360 deg. it takes fire, and burns with the pale blue flame which is popularly associated with so many dismal ideas. It then unites with the oxygen gas contained in the air, and produces a gas which, when dry, is perfectly colourless and invisible, but which generally forms a whiteish smoke, from uniting with and condensing the moisture of the air. This compound of sulphur with oxygen is called sulphurous acid. It is known by its peculiarly penetrating odour of burning Sulphur exists even in the animal and vegetable sulphur, and by its remarkable power of bleachkingdoms. There are, in fact, few animal sub-ing, in consequence of which it is applied to stances destitute of it; and hence, when such bodies putrify, the sulphur they contain is exhaled in combination with hydrogen, and gives origin to the peculiarly bad smell which accompanies the decomposition of animal substances. Its presence in vegetables is not by any means so constant; but it is found especially in those of the cabbage tribe (natural order Cruciferæ.) Of these the seeds of mustard may be instanced as containing more sulphur than any other vegetable substance known, and, in fact, putrefying in a manner nearly similar to that of animal bodies when in contact with water. For the purposes of commerce the sources of sulphur may be reduced to two:-1st. That of those volcanic (Solfaterra) solfataras in which it is merely mixed with the soft roeky material. 2nd. The decomposition of the bi-sulphuret of iron, from which a portion of the sulphur may be expelled by heat. To prepare the volcanic sulphur for exportation, a very simple process suffices. The mixture of sulphur with marl and clay is heated in large iron pots. The sulphur melts, and the earthy impurities fall to the bottom: the clear, melted sulphur is then ladled off and run into large moulds, where it solidifies, and constitutes the rough brimtone of commerce.

If sulphur be heated a little beyond the tempe

many useful purposes. Thus corn, which has become dark from exposure to damp, or from heating, has the healthy colour of grain of the first quality given to it by being, as it is termed, sulphured. Straw bonnets have their yellow colour removed by being stoned; and silk and sponges are whitened in the same way. The process is, to burn sulphur in a room where the articles are spread out, or hung up, and the apertures being closed, to leave them so for some hours to absorb the gas. This, then, combines with the colouring matter and whitens it. The beautifully white gelatine which is now so much used for food, is prepared with the same materials as common glue, but more carefully, and the dark colour removed by bleaching with the fumes of sulphurous acid.

It is a remarkable peculiarity in the bleaching effected by sulphurous acid that the colouring matters on which it acts are not destroyed or decomposed, but that they merely enter into union with the gas, and forming compounds of a more or less pure white colour, become invisible.

The most important compound of sulphur, with oxygen is, however, sulphuric acid, the mannfacture of which constitutes one of the most

extensive branches of chemical industry. Its name of oil of vitriol is derived from rather a collateral source.

An atom of sulphurous acid, acting on an atom of nitric acid, takes an atom of oxygen, and forms sulphuric acid, whilst the nitric acid, by the loss of the atom of oxygen, is reduced to the condition of nitrous acid. This nitrous acid is an orange red coloured gas, but it unites sulphurous acid and a little water to form a white solid body which crystallizes very easily. If there be no air present, and no large body of water, the action stops here, and there would be from one atom of nitre (ten parts,) and two atoms of sulphur burned (thirtytwo parts,) produced an atom of sulphuric acid and an atom of the crystalline substance just noticed. The manufacturer knows, however, that he must keep abundance of fresh air in the apparatus, and also that he must present an extensive surface of water. Such being the case, the white crystalline body, according as it is formed, falls like a shower of snow down on the water, by which it is decomposed, in such a manner that the nitrous acid loses an atom of oxygen, which passing to the sulphurous acid, forms sulphuric acid, and the substance (hyponitrous acid) which remains is resolved also by the water into nitric acid, which remains dissolved along with the sulphuric acid, and into a gas, nitric oxide, which escapes from the liquor with effervescence. Now, this gas has the property of taking oxygen from the air, and forming nitrous acid, which instantly seizes on another quantity of sulphurous gas and forms another shower of crystalline acid snow. The decomposition of this by the large body of water gives a new supply of nitric oxide gas which, with the fresh supply of air in the vessel, continues passing through the same series of metamorphoses until it is quite exhausted. It is thus seen that the supply of oxygen to the sulphur is derived from the air, the nitrous acid acting as a carrier of that element to the sulphurous acid, and thus serving to perfect the acidification of very many times its own proportion.

Such is the complex reaction that is constantly going on in those gloomy leaden chambers which, constructed of such vast size, constitute so prominent a part of the generality of chemical factories. Into them constantly enter sulphurous acids and nitrous fumes, with a current of pure atmospheric air. There passes out, where the process is accurately carried on, only the useless residue of the air, the oxygen, the sulphur, and the nitrous fume being retained as sulphuric acid, and a quantity of nitric acid proportionally small.-Professor Kane, in Polytechnic Review.

MONUMENT TO NAPOLEON IN THE INVALIDES.— The chapel containing the remains of Napoleon was closed to the public on the 25th January, 1843. The construction of the monument, on Visconti's plan, has commenced. The King of the French laid the first stone of the tomb on the 27th. The execution of a statue of the Emperor, which forms one of the most prominent features in the plan, has been entrusted to the great sculptor, Marochetti. A wall of masonry already transects the church, hides the statues of Vauban and others of the heroes of France, and completely hides from view the chapel of St. Jerome. The number of persons who visited the remains of the Emperor, during the few days when they were exposed to view, was very great.

The

WARLIKE IMPLEMENTS. Many weapons both offensive and defensive have obtained their appellations either from the places at which they were originally invented, or at which they were fabricated with superior excellence. The carronade was first made at Carron, near Falkirk, in Scotland; hence its name. pistol is said to have taken its name from Pistoria, a city of Tuscany, Italy: where, as Fauchet tells us, it was first made. The bayonet was invented at Bayonne, in the department of the Lower Pyrenees, France. The first use of them in battle, according to Dufresnoy, was in 1693. The term Chevaux de Frise (sometimes, though rarely, Cheval de Frise, a Friesland horse,) is derived from Friesland, one of the seven united provinces, where it was invented. A sword is sometimes called a Toledo, because that city, which is situated in New Bastile, Spain, has been long famous for sword-blades. Bilbo, or Bilboa, also implies a rapier or sword, because at Bilbo, a town in Biscay, Spain, instruments of steel were made in the utmost perfection. A broad-sword acquired the title of a Ferrara, from a city in the north-east part of Italy, of that name, formerly in great estimation for its manufacture of this article. The Scotch Highlanders, who had a great demand for these swords, were accustomed to procure them from a celebrated artificer of that place, of the name of Andrea di Ferrara; and the best kind of broad-swords are still called by the Highlanders "True Andrew Ferraras."

THE ADIEU.

A pearly tear bedewed her eye,
When Henry came the news to tell,
That he to join the fight must fly,
And bid in sorrow his farewell.
A transient glow o'erspread her face,
As round her passive form he threw
His arms, and pressed in fond embrace
The lips, that could not bid adieu;
And as he kissed each tear that fell,
And breath'd each sigh that heaved her breast;
What felt he then. they best can tell
Who thus the loving maid have pressed.
But soon, the distant trumpet's sound
Aroused him from his reverie,
Who e'er at honour's post was found,
The favoured child of Victory!

COMMUNICATION WITH THE WEST INDIES.— A tabular statement has been printed of the voyages performed by the West India mail steamship in 1842, which affords a striking proof of the regularity with which transatlantic communication is effected by means of steam navigation. The average length of the West India voyage appears by this table to have been 183 days. The longest outward voyage was made in 20 days 17 hours, and the quickest in 16 days 19 hours the distance being little short of 4,000 miles.

A STRAY LEAF FROM THE CHRONICLES fluence of insignificancy, his subtle mind soon asserted

OF SIENNA.

(Continued from No. 16.)

CHAPTER III.

"And thus they plod in sluggish misery,
Rotting from sire to son, and age to age,
Proud of their trampled nature and, so die,
Bequeathing their hereditary rage

To the new race of inborn slaves, who wage
War for their chains, and, rather than be free,
Bleed gladiator like, and still engage

In the same arena, where they see

Their fellows fall before, like leaves of the same tree."

Childe Harold.

"The murky cavern's clammy air
Shall breathe of balm, if thou hast smiled:
Then, maiden! hear a maiden's prayer,
Mother! list to a suppliant child."

Scott.

The oligarchy-whether of the nobles, the middling class, or the great mass of the people-which for more than a century held the reins of government in Sienna, kept that unfortunate country in a continual state of ferment. The few and short periods of repose which it enjoyed at distant intervals, were nothing better than suspensions of hostilities, during which each party recovered and prepared itself, by the renovation of its strength, exhausted by endless contests, to renew the combat with more fury

than ever.

For several years past, the result of every fresh out-break was, to advance the popular influence; and, no matter who began the struggle for political superiority, the multitude were sure not only to be victorious, but to gain an accession of power on every occasion. At first they took up arms in order to get some share of patronage, and of the general administration of affairs; and having succeeded in this, their next step was to eject their present co-sharers in power from their posts, supplying their places with those of their own party-to the utter exclusion of the wealthy and the nobles. With the assistance of Charles IV. they succeeded in obliging the last mentioned class, together with many of their leading merchants, to quit the field of politics altogether, and to seek the shelter of retirement, under their jealous espionage, or to revel in the freedom of the cosmopholite. When they had thus cleared the ground whereon to build a constitution, they set to work, and produced as the fruit of their labours, that darling of a dominant party-it would be an inverted pyramid in architecture-the oligarchy substituting one oligarchy for another. Now-a-days power springs from the broad base of the people: with them it originated in the pinnacle-themselves. The new government was named in sober seriousness with all the gravity of drawn poinards, and without the slightest intention of a pun, "the Mont des Dowse;" or "the inverted pyramid on twelve legs, as it could not stand on one," we trust we will be allowed to give as our free translation.

Castruccio had, like many other worthless fellows of his class he was merely the son of an artisan-who were just possessed of sufficient courage to commit crime, contrived, in the excitement of the popular mind, to gain considerable influence: and by his ready flattery of the popular leaders, and the proper application of the powers of a supple and intriguing disposition, he succeeded in gaining, at that time the highest ambition of his heart, and he became a member of the Mont des Dowse, also called Mont des Reformateurs, Thus freed from the depressing in

its superiority; and, without appearing to controul, he found means to have his colleagues of one mind with himself. He never allowed blood that might injure his cause to be shed; but when a pretence was but given, he seized on it with avidity, and that dark water flowed in torrents at his beck. Then his natural taste for blood seemed to find a stimulus in the very shedding of it; and while under this horrible excitement, he often went beyond the point where prudence would have thought him to stop short. But he had such controul over the masses, his manners were so simple, and the motives he assigned for what he did were so plausibly pure, that those fugitive murmurs soon died away, and still other triumphs were added to those that he had already gained over those around him.

The patience of the nobles, weary with looking in vain for better prospects, was exhausted: their strength and animosity increased every day; and Castruccio knew too well the merits of his own party, to imagine for one instant, that the union of the triumphant masses could be depended on against the discomfited and therefore concentrated party of the nobles. He knew that a party like his, in its best days ill-fitted to govern-whose utmost wish was to gratify their brute passions, and therefore never looking beyond the present a party, which was stand but a short time would in fact split into a weakened by the very possession of power, would thousand fragments, before the concentrated shocks of the enraged nobles.

Though he had never learned Latin, he had learned the meaning of the words "divide et impera." The popular mind was drunk with excitement and victory, and yet, still stronger excitement was absolutely necessary for its continuance as the ruling party in the state.

The antagonistic party, or that of the nobles, must be divided; such an overwhelming power of popular hatred must be brought to bear upon it as utterly to annihilate its existence as a distinct party, or at least to destroy every trace of its existence as Castruccio had objects to attain; he had little such. private pillage to carry on; he had enemies to destroy, many ends to gain, and all the varied occupa tion of the leader of an unsettled and tyrannical government. To destroy every obstacle in his way, was to his mind the easiest method of effecting his purposes. But then, the people, like individuals, will not tolerate the character of blood-thirstiness in any but themselves; so if he intended to keep to his original line of policy, and wished at the same time to retain possession of power, some other shoulders than hi must wear the bloody robe. He thought that if hs could bring over some of the young nobility to his sidee this object might be attained; also he would weaker, the party of his opponents considerably: and thereby advance nearer to the two ends, to arrive at which seemed the magnetic point of his life. Looking round him carefully for such as he might find ductile to his management, he singled out for an experiment to begin with, Paul Salembeni, a haughty, bold young man, ardent in all his undertakings, and whose unhacknied and generous mind, sympathising with the popular resistance to oppression, was easily taken with the current slang of the day concerning liberty. His motives, doubtless, were not unalloyed with vanity and ambition-passions Castruccio was careful to gratify, by having him elected in spite of all opposition to the presidenship of the Mont des Dowse. But, for this indulgence of selfishness, it will be admitted he was fully punished, by the contempt and hatred of his own long headed party, and in the mortification of finding, that the only utility expected from him by Castruccio was the protection of his name, in order, that, while

"What, signor! would you trust yourself among shut her mental eye, and strove to hide it from her these outlaws?"