$2$ ANALYTICAL EXPERIMENTS ON SULPIlLMt* 



over a spirit lamp ; and a proper connection being made 

 with the voltaic apparatus of one hundred plates of six 

 inches, in great activity, a contact was made in the sulphur 

 by means of another platina wire. A most brilliant spark, 

 which appeared orange coloured through the sulphur, was 

 produced, and a minute portion of elastic fluid rose to the 

 upper extremity of the tube. By a continuation of the 

 Sulphuretted process for nearly an hour, a globule equal to about the 

 hidrogen pro- tenth of ah inch in diameter was obtained, which, when 



examined, was found to be sulphuretted hidrogen. 

 But the sulphur This result perfectly coincided with those which have 

 tained water. oeen j ust mentioned; but as the sulphur that I had used 

 was merely in its common state, and as the ingenious ex- 

 periments of Dr. Thompson have shown, that sulphur in 

 certain forms may contain water, I did not venture, at that 

 time, to form any conclusion upon the subject. 

 The experi- In the summer of the present year, I repeated the ex- 



ment repeated pgrinient with every precaution. The sulphur that I era- 



with pure sul- r J A 



phur. ployed was Sicilian sulphur, that had been recently sub- 



limed in a retort filled with nitrogen gas, and that had been 

 kept hot till the moment that it was used. The power ap- 

 plied was that of the battery of five hundred double platei 

 of six inches, highly charged. In this case the action was 

 most intense, the heat strong, and the light extremely 

 brilliant; the sulphur soon entered into ebullition, elastic 

 matter was formed in great quantities, much of which was 

 permanent; and the sulphur, from being of a pure yellow, 

 became of a deep red brown tint. 



Sulphuretted The gas, as m the former instance, proved to be sulpha. 



hidrogen pro- netted hidrogen. The platina wires were considerably 



part of the sul- acted upon ; the sulphur, at its point of contact with 



phur acidified? fl, em had obtained the power of reddening moistened 



Large quantity » 



«volved. limtus paper. 



I endeavoured to ascertain the quantity of sulphuretted 

 hidrogen evolved in this way from a given quantity of sul- 

 phur, and for this purpose, I electrized a quantity equal to 

 about two hundred grains in an apparatus of the kind I 

 have just described, and when the upper part of the tube 

 was full of gas, I suffered it to pass into the atmosphere J 

 fro as to enable me to repeat the process. 



When 



