J O U R N A L 



O F 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, 



AN D 



THE ART5. 



SEPTEMBER, 1801. 



ARTICLE I. 



Some Additlcnal Obfervatiotti on Hydrocarbotiates., and the Gafeous Oxide of Carbon, Bjfi 



Wm, Cruickshank, Woolivich. 



xN a former paper on this fubjefl the principal obje£l I had in view was to point out, at 

 briefly as poflible, the difference between the common hydrocarbonates and the gafeous 

 oxide of carbon ; and to (hew that the latter, hitherto unknown, forms an intermediate 

 fubftance between the pure hydrocarbonates and carbonic acid, but not being pcfleired of 

 acid properties, was therefore to be confidcrcd as a true oxide. I likewife endeavoured to 

 prove that the prefence of water was not eiTential to the produftion of this gas, but that 

 it confifted fimply of oxigen and carbon in the proportion of nearly two to one. From 

 thefe fadls I inferred that there could no longer be any difficulty in accounting, on the 

 principles of the modern chemillry, for the inflammable gas generated in diftilling a mix- 

 ture of charcoal with any of the metallic oxides, or in expofing to a ftrong red heat a 

 mixture of the carbonates of lime or barites, and iron filings, &c. For in the firft inftancc 

 the gas was formed by the union of the oxigen of the calx with the carbon, in confequence 

 of which the metal was revived ; and in the fecond cafe the carbonic acid itfelf was decom- 

 pofed, being deprived of part of its oxigen by the metal, which thereby became to a certain 

 degree oxidated. 



Vol. V. — September 1801. D d In 



