Action of t lie Metallic Muriates, ' &c, upon Alcohol, 'G5 



a great quantity of oily matter thicker than water, having a 

 cool taste ftke mint, and a peculiar smell completely diffe- 

 rent from that of ether : further, a small quantity of car- 

 bonic acid, a matter easily charred, and prohably acetous 

 acid, but no ether : — ^that the oxy-muriatic ether of Scheele 

 is merely muriatic ether properly so called, when made of 

 a mixture of alcohol, muriatic acid, and black oxide of 

 manganese; or of muriatic ether and sulphuric ether, when 

 made with the black oxfde of manganese, sea -salt, alcohol, 

 and sulphuric acid : — that Pelletier's is also of this nature, 

 since he made it by using the foregoing mixture ; and that 

 the oxy-muriatic ether said to be obtained by passing the 

 oxy-muriatic acid through alcohol, is nothing else than a 

 solution in alcohol of a greater or less quantity of oily mat- 

 ter. We may even separate the oil from the latter by 

 means of water, and we re-form it all at once by dissolving 

 this oil in a determinate quantity of alcohol. 



The novelty in this part of the author's labours does not 

 consist in this formation of oily matter, water, acetous 

 acid, &c. ; for Scheeic, in his Memoires de Chimie, speaks of 

 the oily matter ; and M. Berthollet, in the Memoires de 

 I'Academie for 1783, speaks of this matter, and besides of 

 water, acetous acid, &c., as produced in this operation* 

 M. Thenard's claim to novelty consists in his having proved* 

 that the oxy-muriatic acid could not with alcohol form 

 ether; and he has explained why Scheele and so many other 

 chemists happened to obtain it. 



In the last place, being anxious to examine the formation 

 of the acetic ether, M. Thenard mixed together 120 gram- 

 mes of highly concentrated alcohol, and 120 parts of 

 acetic acid, of an acidity determined by the quantity of pot- 

 ash required by this acid for its saturation; he distilled this 

 mixture, cohobated it twelve times, and thus sensibly de- 

 composed the whole of the alcohol employed, and 66' \Q 

 grammes of acetic acid, representing 32 grammes of dry 



* M. Berthollet, in the Memoires de VAcadcmie for 1785, has even an* 

 nounced that the muriatic acid and alcohol produce but very little ether ; 

 and we may perceive that he is inclined to regard this small q^uantity of ether 

 -as foreign to the re-action of these two bodies. 



Vol. 30. No. 117. Fel, 1808. E acid, 



