685 .'Scientific Notkes-^Chemisity. 't^ov. 



any of the common salts, Mr. Macintosh sent me a quantity of 

 them to ascertain their nature. ! > tf ^ 



The crystals were pretty regular six-sided prrsrtis,Vhich were 

 obtained of a pretty large size by a second Crystallisation. The 

 taste was cooling, and alkaline, and they tfeWdcted cudbear paper 

 violet, indicating the presence of an alkali. The s^fjt jfo.^ Pfetty 

 soluble in water, and the crystals were not altered by exposure 

 to the air. They effervesced slightly, but distinctly in nitric 

 acid. ' " ' 



I neutralized a portion of these crystals by means of nitric 

 acid, and then mixed the solution with a sufficient quantity of 

 nitrate of baiytes — a white precipitate fell, which, when washed, 

 and dried on the filter, was a beautiful white soft powder, which 

 dissolved without effervescence in nitric acid, was again preci- 

 pitated by ammonia, and exhibited all the properties of phpsplmte 

 of barytes. I therefore decomposed ^ portion of it >)y mean^ of 

 sulphuric acid. The acid which I obtained possessed tj>a (pi? 

 lowing properties : •,, ,, 



* It threw down nitrate of barytes, and nitjfatfeoj^l^a^ white, 

 'and both precipitates were dissolved by nitric acid, Persulphate 

 of iron was thrown down white, and the precipitate became red 

 when digested in potash ley. Nitrate of silver was thrown down 

 yellow, and the precipitate was dissolved in nitric acid. Muriate 

 of lime, muriate of magnesia, nitrate of strontian, sulphate of 

 copper, sulphate of zinc, nitrate of mercury, were not precipitated. 

 From these properties, there could be no doubt that the acid in 

 the salt was chiefly the phosphoric. — I now dissolved a quantity 

 of the salt in water, and neutralized it exactly with sulphuric 

 acid ; the solution was then concentrated, and set aside. It 

 shot out into crystals of sulphate of soda, and phosphate of 

 soda, easily recognized by their shape. 



To ascertain the proportions of the constituents, I dissolved 

 200 grains of the crystals in water, neutralized the solution with 

 nitric acid, and precipitated by nitrate of lead. The precipitate 

 weighed 141*3 grains, equivalent to 28*26 grains of phosphoric 

 acid. The residual liquid contained no lead, but was entirely 

 nitrate of soda, weighing 109*5 grains, equivalent to 40*74 grains 

 of soda. Now, 28*26 grains of phosphoric acid require for sata- 

 ration 32-297 grains of soda. There remain 7*443 grains of 

 «oda, which require for saturation 5* 117 grains of carbonic 



.*Qid. 



^iThus, the constituents of the salt are 



>«oni rtoifi Phosphoric acid 28*260 or 14 



uiooo • "Carbonic acid 5* 1 17 . . 2*535 



^m M Soda 40*740 ..20*182 



Waterway.. 125*883 . . 62^y 



200*000 ii a?r v}-^m ; : . 



