ON THE NATURE OF OXIMURIATIC ACID. 133 



fram the progress of discovery. Opinions however more Oiinions of 

 unexpected have seldom been announced to chemists, than i^e mu^rlaticft 

 those lately advanced by Mr. Davy with regard to the con- oximuriatic 

 stitution of muriatic and oximuvldtic acids — that the latter ^^'"^ 

 is not a compound of muriatic acid and oxigen, but a sim- 

 ple substance, and that the former is a compound of this 

 subitanpe with hidrogen. The more general principle con- 

 nected with these opinions — that oximuriatic acid is, like oxi- important as 

 gen, an acidifvintj element, which forms an extensive series introducing a 

 of analogous compounds with mflammables and metals, principle, 

 leads still more directly to the subversion of the established 

 chemical systems, and to an entire revolution in some of the 

 most important doctrines of the science. 



Opinions so novel and important claim attention ; and 

 this is not less due to them from the authority on which they 

 are advanced. They derive too an additional interest from 

 their connection with a part of chemical theory at present 

 involved in much obscurity — the relation of water to the anJasconnect- 

 constitution of some of the gasses, and more particularly fation^of w\ter 



muriatic acid gas. Having been favoured some time ago totheconstitu- 



i of «on 

 gasses. 



by Mr. Davy with the Memoir, in which these speculations Jj^n of «ome of 



are announced, I have had it in my power to submit to 

 examination the evidence on which they are supported, and .» 



to prosecute an expenmental mvestigation to which this led. - Jcht; 



Some account of the results of these researches may not be 

 unacceptable to your chemical readers; and to Mr. Davy, 

 I am confident, 1 need offer no apology, for bringing under 

 review a question of such interest, and at the same tiqie of 

 such a nature, that when surveyed under different aspects it 

 may suggest very different conclusions. 



The common phenomena, with regard to the production The common 

 of oximuriatic acid, and its apparent analysis, admit of phenomena 

 explanation equally on the established theory, and on that eiJ^Jr tha)rjl 

 advanced by Mr. Davy. It is necessary therefore to take 

 notice only of those, which are more peculiar; and, suppos* 

 ing your reader* acquainted with Mr. Davy's memoir, I shall Facts consideiw 

 confine these observations to the facts, which he has Sitated ed as mostfa- 

 as favourable to his opinion. Mr. Davy ^ 



When oximuriatic acid gas and hidrogen gas are mixed ^ ^^ . . - 

 in nearly equal volumes, they act on each other, and are en- muriatic acid 



