THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[THIRD SERIES.] 



SEPTEMBER 184-7. 



XXIX. On certain Products of Decomposition of the Fixed 

 Oils in contact xvith Sulphur. By Thomas Anderson, Esq.^ 

 31. D.) F.R.S.E., Lecturer on Chemistry, Edinhirgh^. 



]VrUMEROUS researches have established as a general rule 

 -'- that the products of the decomposition of organic sub- 

 stances vary with the circumstances of the experiment, and the 

 nature of the agents under the influence of which it is performed. 

 If, for instance, we examine the action of heat alone, we find it 

 causing a set of decompositions specially characterized by the 

 evolution of carbonic acid, formed by the union of partof tlie 

 carbon of the substance with the whole or part of its oxygen; 

 and this action is rendered more definite, and the number of 

 the products circumscribed by all circumstances facilitating 

 the formation of carbonic acid, such as the presence of abase, 

 which will even cause its evolution when heat alone is inca- 

 pable of producing decomposition. Acids, on the other hand, 

 have a precisely opposite effect ; they, in some instances, alto- 

 gether prevent the formation of carbonic acid, and cause the 

 oxygen to exert its action on ihe hydrogen of the compound, 

 and to eliminate one or more atoms of water which do not 

 generally exist ready formed in it. 



In these particular instances, decomposition takes place at 

 the expense of the constituent atoms of, the compounds them- 

 selves, the extraneous substances serving merely as disponents 

 to the oxidation; in the one case of part of their carbon, in 

 the other of their hydrogen. But there is another class of 

 agents, which, besides eliminating one or more substances, are 

 capable at the same time of entering into union with the resi- 

 dual atoms, and forming a new derivative of the original com- 

 pound. The best investigated of this class of agents are chlo- 



* Read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh on the 19th of April, 

 1847, and published in their Transactions, vol. xvi. part 3, p. 363. 

 Phil. Mag, S. 3. Vol. 31. No. 207. Sept, 1 847. M 



