272 Mr. W. H. Balmain on the Formation of Compounds of 



phuric acid (strong and diluted), nitric acid, and solution of 

 chlorine ; it is not altered upon exposure to air, nor does it 

 affect the most delicate turmeric paper when left upon it in a 

 moist state. Passing over for the present the remarkable sta- 

 bility of this compound, these characters are important as 

 proving the absence of boracic acid and cyanide of potassium 

 (with some results it was found necessary to wash away the 

 excess of cyanide of potassium; but this does not interfere 

 with the nature of the white solid, and was not necessary 

 when the boracic acid and cyanide of potassium were quite 

 pure and free from water, and their proportions very carefully 

 adjusted). Heated with hydrate of potass or soda it yields 

 ammonia abundantly ; in the deoxidizing flame of the blow- 

 pipe it is not altered, nor does it communicate any colour to 

 the flame, but in the oxidizing flame it gives a strong green 

 colour, and gradually fuses, yielding a perfect bead, which is 

 transparent, hot and cold, and when placed with a drop 

 of water upon test papers, turned tumeric brown, and red 

 litmus blue. When the outside flame impinges upon a 

 large surface of the substance in powder, as when a glass tube 

 soiled with it is held at the extreme point of the flame, it pre- 

 sents a beautiful green phosphorescence, owing no doubt to 

 the gradual formation of boracic acid at the surface, and if 

 it be removed to the inner flame, the centre will incandesce, 

 while the outer edges, where it meets with the oxygen of the 

 air, will still yield the elegant green. When thrown upon 

 fused chlorate of potass it deflagrates with a soft green 

 light, and it will also deflagrate with nitrate of potass. 

 It is not altered by being gently heated with potassium or 

 sodium, nor when heated before the blowpipe on charcoal, 

 with lead, zinc, &c. Chlorine has no action upon it at a low 

 red heat, and iodine, sulphur and corrosive sublimate may be 

 sublimed from it without decomposing it. It is not decom- 

 posed by hydrogen at a red heat, but below that temperature 

 is decomposed with the evolution of ammonia by the vapour 

 of water, or by any substance which will yield water, as 

 hydrate of potass, hydrate of lime, common clay, hydrated 

 phosphoric acid, and the rhombic phosphate. It is not de- 

 composed by hydrochloric acid at a low red heat, and I think 

 it is not altered by hydrofluoric acid, for a small portion of it 

 was mixed with a large quantity of fluorspar, with more than 

 sufficient sulphuric acid to make it all into hydrofluoric acid, 

 and heated as long as fumes passed offj when, after the sul- 

 phate of lime had been washed away with dilute nitric acid, it 

 still yielded ammonia with hydrate of lime. 



From some of these facts it appears that the compound con- 

 tains boron, nitrogen, and potassium, and I suppose that the 



