h the wood:

1. 2. 3.
Specific gravity of NaHO solutions 1.043 1.09 1.162
Soft wood, ordinary pressure 1.043 traces 4.8
" pressure of five atmospheres 1.043 2.0 26.8
" " ten " 1.043 1.7 --
Hard wood, ordinary pressure 11.10 27.40 30.80
" pressure of five atmospheres 1.10 25.70 15.8
" " ten " traces 5.20 15.8

The estimation of the precipitate, produced in the soda solutions
employed in the experiments cited above, gives:

Soft wood, ordinary pressure 1.31 traces 2.0
" pressure of five atmospheres 15.94 16.0 24.80
" " ten " 17.00 25.4 --
Hard wood, ordinary pressure 5.40 6 5.60
" pressure of five atmospheres 9.40 15.40 33.60
" " ten " 14.00 18.40 33.60

As a general rule manufacturers employ a greater pressure than that
which was found necessary by the author. As a result, it appears from
these experiments that the wood not only loses incrusting matter, but
that part of the cellulose enters into solution. As a matter of fact,
the yield obtained in practical working from 100 parts of wood does
not exceed 30 to 35 per cent.--_Le Bull. Fab. Pap.; Chemical Trade
Journal._

* * * * *

NEW BORON COMPOUNDS.

An important paper is contributed by M. Moissan to the current number
of the _Comptes Rendus_, describing two interesting new compounds
containing boron, phosphorus, and iodine. A few months ago M. Moissan
succeeded in preparing the iodide of boron, a beautiful substance of
the composition BI_{3}, crystallizing from solution in carbon bisulphide
in pearly tables, which melt at 43 deg. to a liquid which boils
undecomposed at 210 deg.. When this substance is brought in contact with
fused phosphorus an intense action occurs, the whole mass inflames
with evolution of violet vapor of iodine. Red phosphorus also reacts
with incandescence when heated in the vapor of boron iodide. The
reaction may, however, be moderated by employing solutions of
phosphorus and boron iodide in dry carbon bisulphide. The two
solutions are mixed in a tube closed at one end, a little phosphorus
being in excess, and the tube is then se