This gas, which is now considered as an elementary body, has received from _Sir Humphry Davy_ the name of _chlorine_, from the green colour which characterises it. Its odour is so penetrating and insupportable that it is impossible to respire it, even when considerably diluted with atmospheric air, and yet it will support combustion. It discharges vegetable colours, whence it forms the basis of various bleaching preparations. According to the experiments[506] of _M. Nysten_, this gas is not absorbed when respired pure, but appears to act only by irritating the bronchiæ locally; and so energetic is its action, that the animal dies before there is sufficient time for asphyxia to take place from the circulation of black blood. When it is respired in a dilute form, it produces a severe cough, and, according to _Fourcroy_, it occasions a phlegmonic inflammation of the bronchial membranes. The death of the ingenious and indefatigable _Pelletier_ was occasioned by his accidentally inhaling a proportion of this gas; a consumption was the consequence, which in a short time proved fatal. In the _London Medical and Physical Journal for November, 1821_, a case of a person is recorded who was poisoned by bleaching liquor. SULPHUROUS ACID GAS. The gas is generated by the combustion of sulphur. It is colourless; has a pungent smell, resembling that of burning sulphur, and is very soluble in water. It would appear to destroy life by a peculiar action on the blood. OF HOMICIDE BY MISADVENTURE OR ACCIDENT.