404: Researches on the muriatic Acid 



tach a piece of linen or leather, forming- to each beak a 

 small purse or sack. When tluse forceps should he closed 

 upon a calculus in the least spherical, the steel rims would 

 extend to let it pass, and it would then be completely sur- 

 rounded. The advantages of this forceps would be, that 

 the calculus could not escape: and the bulk to be with- 

 drawn through the wound, would be very little more than 

 the exact bulk of the calculus. 



LXXV. Researches on the oxymuriatic Acid, its Nature and 

 Combinations ; and on the Elements of the muriatic Acid. 

 With some Experiments on Sulphur end Phosphorus, 

 made in the Laboratory of the Royal Institution. By 

 H. Davy, Esq. Sec. R.S. Prof. Chem. R.L F.R.S.E. . 



[Concluded from p. 361.] 



It is extremely probable that there are many combinations 

 of the oxymuriatic acid with inflammable bodies which 

 have not been yet investigated. With phosphorus it seems 

 capable of combining in at least three proportions ; the 

 phosphuretted muriatic acid of Gav-Lussac and Thenard is 

 the compound containing the maximum of phosphorus. 

 The crystalline phosphoric sublimate, and the liquor formed 

 by the combustion of phosphorus in oxymuriatic acid gas, 

 disengage no phosphorus by the action of water ; the 

 sublimate, as I have already mentioned, affords phosphoric 

 and muriatic acid ; and the liquid, I believe only phos- 

 phorous acid and muriatic acid. 



The sublimate from the boracic basis gives, I believe, 

 only boracic and muriatic acid, and may be regarded as 

 boracium acidified by oxymuriatic acid. 



It is evident, that whenever an oxymuriatic combination 

 is decomposed by water, the oxide or acid or alkali or oxi- 

 dated body formed must be in the same proportion as the 

 muriatic acid gas, as the oxygen and hydrogen must bear 

 the same relation to each other; and experiments upon 

 these compounds will prohablv afford simple modes of as- 

 certaining the proportions of the elements, in the different 

 oxides, acids, and alkaline earths. 



If, according to the ingenious idea of Mr. Dalton, hy- 

 drogen be considered as one in weight, in the proportion it 

 exists in water, then oxygen will be nearly 7*5 ; and as- 

 suming that potash is composed of one proportion of oxy- 

 gen, and gne of potassium, then potash will be 48, and 



potassium 



