Dr. Odling on Acids and Salts, 81 



HCIO 4 , and H 2 S0 4 . Bibasic characters are manifested as decidedly 

 by the sulphurous and sulphydric acids. 



(y.) There are four other binary compounds of hydrogen, two 

 volumes of each of which, however, contain three volumes of hydro- 

 gen, namely : H 3 N Ammonia. 



H 3 P Phosphamine. 

 H 3 As Arsenamine. 

 H 3 Sb Stibamine. 

 When the two volumes of phosphamine, for instance, are acted upon 

 by a red hot iron- wire, the phosphorus is absorbed by the iron, and 

 three volumes of hydrogen gas are liberated. Two volumes of chlorhy- 

 dric acid yield one volume of hydrogen ; two volumes of sulphydric 

 acid yield two volumes of hydrogen, while two volumes of phos- 

 phamine yield three volumes of hydrogen ; and this is a most import- 

 ant distinction between the three classes of hydrides to which these 

 hree gases respectively belong. Again, two volumes of gaseous 

 ammonia, when decomposed by the Ruhmkorff spark, become con- 

 verted into three volumes of hydrogen and one volume of nitrogen ; 

 or the original bulk of the ammonia becomes doubled. 



In the phosphorus series of oxygen acids there is but one gap, and 

 this can be filled up by the chlorine- or the ethyl-representative of 

 the missing body. 



H 3 P Phosphamine. C1 3 P Et 3 P 



H 3 PO Wanting. Cl 3 PO Et 3 PO 



H 3 P0 2 Hypophosphorous acid. 



H 3 P0 3 Phosphorous acid. 



H 3 P0 4 Phosphoric acid. 

 Brodie has ascertained that oxychloride of phosphorus, Cl 3 PO, may 

 be obtained directly by passing oxygen gas through boiling terchloride 

 of phosphorus, or trichloro- phosphamine, CI 3 P. The union of tri- 

 ethylphosphine, Et 3 P, with oxygen, to form the oxide of tri-ethylphos- 

 phine,Et 3 PO, constituted one of Hofmann's earliest experiments on the 

 phosphorus bases. Proceeding to the actual oxides of phosphamine, it 

 is doubtful whether hypophosphorus acid, H 3 P0 2 , has been obtained by 

 the oxidation of phosphamine ; but, on the other hand, phosphamine 

 is readily obtainable by deoxidating hypophosphorous acid with 

 nascent hydrogen ; while by oxidating hypophosphorous acid, phos- 

 phorous and phosphoric acids are successively produced. Phosphorous 

 acid, H 3 P0 3 , results from the slow oxidation, and phosphoric, acid, 

 H 3 P0 4 , from the rapid oxidation of phosphamine. Conversely, phos- 

 phamine may be obtained by the deoxidation of each of the two last- 

 mentioned acids. Here again, then, is a series of naturally associated 

 and mutually convertible bodies, represented by the simplest possible 

 formulae, by formulae which do not express any speculative view 

 whatever, but merely indicate the indisputable fact that these bodies, 

 or their representatives, differ from one another in composition, by 

 the successive increments of one, two, three, and four oxygen atoms. 

 Phosphoric acid, H 3 PO 4 , is the representative in the phosphorus 

 series, of sulphuric acid, H 2 SO 4 , in the sulphur series, and of per- 

 chloric acid, HCIO 4 , in the chlorine series ; but whereas perchloric 

 Phil. Mag. S. 4. Vol. 20. No. 130. July 1860. G 



