SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 59 



which had been in contact with the coloured fluid had under- 

 gone an action which rendered iteahly to be torn. Round the 

 edges of the veflel on the bladder there was a deep purple ring 

 and within that a circular fpace rendered colourlefs or white. 

 A drop of the fluid itfelf tinged the fkin of the hand after fome 

 hours, of a beautiful rofe colour. 



The fame liquid, pofTeffing conftantly the fam« qualities, Qualities of th« 

 was obtained in various repetitions of the experiment. It was f t u c ^ ta ined 

 fhewn to contain a volatile acid by the white vapours which rlatic acid, 

 were formed by ammonia placed near it. It threw down a 

 curdy precipitate from nitrate of filver, which the author con- 

 cludes to have been the muriate of that metal ; and from the 

 whole of the facls he deduces the refults firft enumerated at 

 the beginnig of this abftract., reflecting the competition of 

 muriatic acid from water by depriving it of part of its oxigen. 

 He promifes to treat of the other oxides of hydrogen in a me- 

 moir fhortly to appear. 



The origin and nature of the muriatic acid being thus, as Hence the origin 

 the author obferves, determined, there is no longer any myftery ° f the fa!t0 * ^ 

 in its formation, nor in that of the muriatic falls in the vaft ex^ 

 tent of the ocean. 



The editors of the refpectable Journal, from which I have Acid and alkali 



made this extract take notice of the early difcovery of Cruick- ° bfe . rv , e i! b ^ . 

 n i . i in i i i • r • r > i • Cruickihank in 



thank (publilned by him in our quarto feries tor 1801) that in- iSoitobeform* 



fufion of litmus was reddened by one end of the pile and in- ed b y galvanifm, 

 fufion of Brazil wood rendered purple by the other, which he 

 afcribed to the formation of nitrous acid and ammonia ; and 

 they a!fo quote the difcovery of muriatic acid being formed by —and common 

 the galvanic action by Mr. Peele of Cambridge, which was f a,t b y Peele m 

 announced in Mr. Til loch's Philofophical Magazine a few days 

 before Profeflbr Pacchioni's letter was publiflied at Pifa. Mr. q t mm \ zts f j 

 Peele's letter bears date April 23, 1805. He took a pint of foda. 

 diftilled water and decompofed half of it by means of galvan- 

 ifm ; the other half, being then evaporated, left a fmall quan- 

 tity of muriate of foda or common fait. Great attention had 

 been paid to the purity of the water; and upon a careful re- 

 petition the fame refult was again had. In a poftfeript he men- 

 tions that a friend of his had tried the experiment and fuc- 

 ceeded in the fame manner. 



Literary 



