It sublimes in small rhombic tables or needles, and is slightly soluble in cold water, the solution possessing an acid reaction.
Elie de Beaumont, in his speculations on the relation between the direction of mountain ranges and their geological age and character, was feeling towards a comprehensive theory of the forms of crustal relief; but his ideas were too geometrical, and his theory that the earth is a spheroid built up on a rhombic dodecahedron, the pentagonal faces of which determined the direction of mountain ranges, could not be proved.'
Properties.-Sulphur exists in several allotropic modifications, but before considering these systematically we will deal with the properties of ordinary (or rhombic) sulphur.
Rhombic sulphur may be obtained artificially by slowly crystallizing a solution of sulphur in carbon bisulphide, or, better, by exposing pyridine saturated with sulphuretted hydrogen to atmospheric oxidation (Ahrens, Ber., 1890, 23, p. 2708).
It is readily transformed into rhombic sulphur.