_Chloroform._--When chloroform is saturated with fluorine, and
subsequently boiled, carbon tetrafluoride, hydrofluoric acid and
chlorine are evolved. If a drop of chloroform is agitated in a glass
tube with excess of fluorine, a violent explosion suddenly occurs,
accompanied by a flash of flame, and the tube is shattered to pieces.
The reaction is very lively when fluorine is evolved in the midst of a
quantity of chloroform, a persistent flame burns beneath the surface
of the liquid, carbon is deposited, and fluorides of hydrogen and
carbon are evolved together with chlorine.
_Methyl chloride_ is decomposed by fluorine, even at -23°, with
production of a yellow flame, deposition of carbon, and liberation of
fluorides of hydrogen and carbon and free chlorine. With the vapor of
methyl chloride, as pointed out in the description of the
electrolysis, violent explosions occur.
_Ethyl alcohol_ vapor at once takes fire in fluorine gas, and the
liquid is decomposed with explosive violence without deposition of
carbon. Aldehyde is formed to a considerable extent during the
reaction.
_Acetic acid_ and _benzene_ are both decomposed with violence, their
cold vapors burn in fluorine, and when the latter is bubbled through
the liquids themselves, flashes of flame, and often most dangerous
explosions, occur. In the case of benzene, carbon is deposited, and
with both liquids fluorides of hydrogen and carbon are evolved.
_Aniline_ likewise takes fire in fluorine, and deposits a large
quantity of carbon, which, however, if the fluorine is in excess,
burns away completely to carbon tetrafluoride.
Such are the main outlines of these later researches of M. Moissan,
and they cannot fail to impress those who read them with the
prodigious nature of the forces associated with those minutest of
entities, the chemical atoms, as exhibited at their maximum, in so far
as our knowledge at present goes, in the case of the element
fluorine.--_Nature._
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