On the Muriatic Ether. 1 07 



take it off from it, and since, as will ^be subiequently de- 

 jnonstratcd^ the muriate of potash contains less acid than 

 the etherized gas ; and how can we cc-sccive, on the other 

 hand, that the nitrate of silver, which takes up all the mu- 

 riatic acid from the muriate of potash, cannot take it dp from 

 the etherized gaS;, which contains more than the muriate of 

 potash does ? 



In the other hypothesis, on the contrary, every thing if 

 i^aturally explained. We see the reason why the etherized 

 gas does ncit redden turnsole tincture, and the alkalis do not 

 alter it; why the nitrate of silver produces no precipitate 

 from it; and why, on taking fire, so large a quantity of mu- 

 riatic acid is produced, that it appears in the air. in the forn^ 

 of vapours: — in short, we can reconcile every thing with 

 the phaenomona of other bodies, .nqioiz-jq j:)^! «*Jib ^s =• . . 



M. Thenard, however, is far from admtttthg t-he^ one 

 and rejecting the other in a decided manner. Both deserve to 

 be investigated ; and whatever happens, the results must be 

 very important, \.i-*.- 



Not^ Upon the DJscovenj of the Muriatio Ether. . 



V^iiE'k t'rek^ tlife foregoing memoir' t(1*tWe Ytl'stftute, the 

 "whole of the members, among vvliOmAvei'e'' Messrs. Bcr- 

 ^Jbollet, 'Chaptal, Devoux, Fourcroy, Guj^toh, Vauquelin, 

 Gay-Lussac", he, regarded the results it contained as 

 being cxtremclv novel, and Wlt<e siritck with the Conse- 

 quences which might be drawn from it. M. Proust, who 

 was then in Paris, and before whoin I repeated the experi- 

 ment of testing the etherized gas by the tinctur6 of turn- 

 sole and ihe nitrate of silver, before and after the combustion 

 of the gas, &c., evinced the same surprise with the French 

 chemists. A few days afterwards, however, M. Gay-Lussac, 

 ou perusing the , German Journal of Gehlen, accidentally 

 discovered in a. note that Gehlen himself had made experi- 

 ments upon the muriatic ether, and published them in his 

 Joij'rnal for 1804. M. Gay-Lussac did me the favour to 



♦ A/w. de Cliimicy torn. hi. p. fsOS. 



translate 



