Proceedings of the stated monthly meeting, January 15th, 1857

Proceedings of the Franklin Institute. 141 mother-liquor employed without further preparation for the same purpose. Thus we get rid at once of the contamination with silica, &c., and of the .necessityof bringing the dissolved potashes again into a solid form, which is of itself a cause of loss. 2. It becomespossible to replace the potashes by soda, which is much cheaper.nBy the old processes this was often tried in vain, because from the difficult reduction of sodium, the l~ormation of cyanide of sodium in the dry way does not take place so easily, and moreover ferrocyanide of sodium cannot easily be crystallized from such impure solutions as the mother-liquors. The first difficulty is entirely got rid of in its formatiou in the humid way, and the second may also be overcome, as the solutions are much purer. Ferrocyanide of sodium certainly does not form such beautiful crystals as ferroeyanide of potassium ; but if it can be prepared more cheaply, it will certainly make its way into use, especially as 6 parts of it go as far as 7 of ferroeyanide of potassium, the equivalent of sodium being lower. 3. Bones may be employed in this process, their subsidiary product, bone charcoal, covering the cost of the bones and their carbonization, and they would, therefore, furnish the nitrogenous gases for nothing. The gases from the carbonization of bones, are just as rich in ammonia in proportion as those of most other raw materials ; in proportion to their weight, however, bones furnish less ammonia and much less gas. 4. It is possible to bring back into the manufacture that portion of the ammonia which escapes conversion into cyanogen, and thus convert it also into cyanogen; the ammoniacal salts obtained as subsidiary product.s, may be converted into ferrocyanide of potassium, by mixing them with lime, and adding them to the raw material. FRANKLIN

INSTITUTE.

P~oceedings of the Stated .Monthly .Meeting, January 15th, 1857. John C. Cresson, President, in the chair. John F. Frazer, Treasurer. Isaac B. Garrigues, Recording Secretary. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. Letters were read from the Regents of the University of the State of New York, and the Metropolitan Mechanic's Institute, Washington City, D.C. Donations to the Library were presented from the Geological Society, the Statistical Society, and the Commissibt~ers of Patents, London; The Eeole Imperiale des Mines, Paris; M. L. A. H. Latour, N. P., Montreal, C. E.; John W. Harris, Esq., Rocheport, Missouri; Hon. Job R. Tyson, United States Congress; The Kentucky Mechanic's Institute, Louisville, Ky.; The Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic's Institute, Boston, Mass.; Charles B. Penrose, Esq., Pennsylvania Legislature. The Periodicals received in exchange for the Journal of the Institute, were laid on the table.

14"2

Bibliographical .Notices.

The Treasurer read his statement of receipts and payments for the month of December, also his annual statement for 1856. The Board of Managers and Standing Committees reported their minutes. The Annual Report of the Committee on Publications was read. Candidates. for membership~in the Institute, (8,) were proposed, and the candidates proposed at the last meeting, (142,) were duly elected. The ']'e]lers of the Annual Election for Officers, Managers, and Auditors, for the ensuing year, reported the result, when the President declared the following gentlemen duly elected : John C. Cresson, President.

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John Agnew, Vice Presidents, Matthiaa W. Baldwin, Isaac B. Garrigues, Recording Secretary. Frederick Fraley, Corresponding Secretary. John F. Frazer, Treasurer. MANAGERS. Owen Evans, George Erety, Samuel V. Merrick, Evans Rogers, Alan Wood, Thomas Fletcher, John E. Addicka, Robert Cornelius, Abraham Miller, Lawrence Johnson, lsaac S. Williams, John C. Trautwine, George C. Howard, George W. Conarroe John H. Towne, Jacob Weaver, Thos, J. Weygandt, Edwin Greble, Joseph J. Barras, William Sellers, David S. Brown, James H. Bryson. Joseph Harrison, Jr., Thomas S. Stewart, AUDITORS. Samuel Mason, James H. Cresson, • Samuel B. Finch.

At a meeting of the Board of Managers, held January 21St, 1857, the following officers were elected for the ensuing year: Thomas J. Weygandt, Chairman. Isaac S. Williams, } Owen Evans, ~ Curators.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL

NOTICES.

ttand Book of Inorganic Chemistry. By W m GREGORY; Fourth American f, om the third English edition ; to which is added the Physics of Chemistry. By J. MmTon SAdDEnS, M. D., New York : A. S. Barnes & Co. 1857. 8vo. pp. 421.

Hand Book of Organic Chemistry. By WM. GREGORY,M. D. ; Fourth American from the tburth London edition. Edited by J. MILTONSA~CYEAS, M. D., New York: Barnes, 1857. 8vo. pp. 481. There is probably no branch of Physical Science upon ~vhich it is at the present time more difficult to write a satisfactory treatise, than chemistry. The beautiful simplicity of the theories established by Lavoisier