odine and phosphide of boron, BP. Nitric acid reacts
energetically with it, but without incandescence, and a certain amount
of iodine is liberated. Sulphuric acid decomposes it upon warming,
without formation of sulphurous and boric acids and free iodine. By
the continued action of dry hydrogen upon the heated compound the
iodine and a portion of the phosphorus are removed, and a new phosphide
of boron, of the composition B_{5}P_{3}, is obtained.--_Nature_.

* * * * *

BORON SALTS.

A paper upon the sulphides of boron is communicated by M. Paul
Sabatier to the September number of the _Bulletin de la Societe
Chimique. Nature_ gives the following: Hitherto only one compound of
boron with sulphur has been known to us, the trisulphide, B_{2}S_{3},
and concerning even that our information has been of the most
incomplete description. Berzelius obtained this substance in an impure
form by heating boron in sulphur vapor, but the first practical mode
of its preparation in a state of tolerable purity was that employed by
Wohler and Deville. These chemists prepared it by allowing dry
sulphureted hydrogen gas to stream over amorphous boron heated to
redness. Subsequently a method of obtaining boron sulphide was
proposed by Fremy, according to which a mixture of boron trioxide,
soot, and oil is heated in a stream of the vapor of carbon bisulphide.
M. Sabatier finds that the best results are obtained by employing the
method of Wohler and Deville. The reaction between boron and
sulphureted hydrogen only commences at red heat, near the temperature
of the softening of glass. When, however, the tube containing the
boron becomes raised to the temperature, boron sulphide condenses in
the portion of the tube adjacent to the heated portion; at first it is
deposited in a state of fusion, and the globules on cooling present an
opaline aspect. Further along the tube it is slowly deposited in a
porcelain like form, while further still the sublimate of sulphide
takes the form of brilliant acicular crystals. The crystals consist of
pure B_{2}S_{3}; the vitreous modification, however, is usually
contaminated with a little free sulphur. Very fine crystals of the
trisulphide may be obtained by heating a quantity of the
porcelain-like form to 300 deg. at the bottom of a closed tube whose upper
portion is cooled by water. The crystals are violently decomposed by
water, yielding a clear solution of boric acid, s