200 ^^ OXIMCJRIATIC ACID. 



tallic substances. Of this a satisfactory e!>(pIaQBtiop moy 

 be gVveii in conformity to the opinion, that oximuriutic 

 acid acts on inflammables by imparting exigen ; while 

 it r^main« aii anomaly in the opposite opinioii. To 

 this the rep^y i* made by Mi*. J. Davy, that 1 seem lb 

 consider eVery thin^ anomalous, that is not accounted 

 for; and the query i§ added, "Can Mr. M. account 

 for the Want of action bt^tween charcoal and nitrogen, 

 and between the metals and nitrogen ? and, if he cannot, 

 (Soes he consequently consider these facts anomalous?" 

 The fallacy of this reasoning I should scarcely have sup- 

 posed could have escaped observation. The anomaly with 

 regard to charcoal is not simply, that it is not acted on by 

 oximuriatic acid, as it is not acted on by nitrogen; but that, 

 beir>g an inflammable substance, and evjry other inflam- 

 TAable being acted on by oxi muriatic acid, it is not. In- 

 flammable substance are not acted on by nitrogen, we 

 have therefore no reason to expect any action to be exerted 

 by it on charcoal ; while there is reason to expect, that 

 charcoal, in common with other inflammable substances, 

 should be acted on by oximuriatic acid ; in the one case 

 there is no general result, to which an exception occurs ; in 

 the other there is, and there is therefore an anomaly. Of 

 this singularity with regard to charcoal, the explanation 

 which may be given in conformity to the common opinion 

 is so satisfactory, as to afford even a presumptive proof of 

 the truth of that opinion, the fact being precisely what 

 might be expected to occur. On Mr, Davy's hypothesis it 

 is confessedly incapable of being accounted for. 



Kewga«;ob- With regard to the new gas, which Mr. Davy has ob- 



served by Mr. J J , J *!. r • -A- -J 



Davy. aervedy a compound, as he regards it, or oximuriatic acid 



and oxigen, I have little to «ay. Without speaking lightly 

 of it, as Mr. J. Davy imagines; or without doubting, that 

 it may be able to convert carbonic oxide into carbonic acid ; 

 I may siroply remark, that I have no reason to believe, that 

 it operated in my tirst experiments; it no doubt was ex- 

 cluded in the repetition of the experiment by Mr. H. Davy, 

 in which, as has already been remarked, carbonic acid is 

 formed ; and I have farther avoided it in the experiments 

 stated fii this communicaftion, without finding ftny differ* 



