IntellisieMce and Miscella7ieoiis Articles. 489 



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rated by decomposition. Any acid, having a stronger affinity for the 

 alkaline base than the hyponitrous acid, will answer to generate this 

 aether. Acetic acid not only extricates but appears to. combine with 

 it, forming apparently a hyponitro-acetic a;ther. 



I observed some years ago that when defiant gas is inflamed with 

 an inadequate supply of oxygen, carbon is deposited, while the re- 

 sulting gas occupies double the space of the mixture before explo- 

 sion. Of this I conceive I have discovered the explanation. By a 

 great number of experiments, performed with the aid of my barome- 

 ter-gauge eudiometer, I have ascertained that if during the explo- 

 sion of the gaseous elements of water any gaseous or volatile inflam- 

 mable matter be present, instead of condensing there will be a per- 

 manent gas formed by the union of the nascent water with the 

 inflammable matter. Thus two volumes of oxygen, Avith four of hy- 

 drogen, and one of olefiant gas, give six volumes of permanent gas, 

 which burns and smells like light carburetted hydrogen. The same 

 quantity of the pure hydrogen and oxygen with half a volume of 

 hydric aether gives on the average the same residue. One volume of 

 the new hyponitrous aether under like circumstances produced five 

 volumes of gas. 



An analogous product is obtained when the same aqueous ele- 

 ments are inflamed in the presence of an essential oil. With oil of 

 turpentine a gas was obtained weighing per hundred cubic inches 

 16-i:V grs., which is nearly the gravity of light carburetted hydrogen. 

 The gas obtained from olefiant gas, or from aether, weighed on the 

 average, per the same bulk 13 ,V grs. The olefiant gas which I used 

 weighed i)er hundred cubic inches only 30 ,V grs. Of course \i per 

 se expanded into six volumes, it could have weighed only one sixth 

 of that w^eight, or little over five grains per hundred cubic inches. 

 There can therefore be no doubt that the gas obtained by the means 

 in question, is chiefly constituted of water, or of its elements in the 

 same proportion H'^ O. 



"With a volume of the new aether, six volumes of the mixture of 

 hydrogen and oxygen give on the average about five residual volumes. 

 The gas created in either of the modes above mentioned does not 

 contain carbonic acid, and when generated from olefiant gas appears 

 by analysis to yield the same quantity of carbon and hydrogen as that 

 gas aft'ords before expansion. 



These facts point out a source of error in experiments, for analy- 

 sing gaseous mixtures by ignition with oxygen or hydrogen, in which 

 the consequent condensation is appealed to as a basis for an estimate. 

 It appears that the resulting water may form new products with 

 certain volatilizable substances which may be present. 



From the account of the proceedings of the Section, published in 

 the Athenaeum, it appears, that after my letter, in which the facts 

 above mentioned were stated, was read, a Mr. Maugham, who is 

 employed to exhibit the hydro-oxygen microscope at the Adelaide 

 Gallery, London, asserted that I had accomplished the fusion, of 

 which mention has been above made, by means of a blowpipe of his 

 contrivance, which I had purghiased while in London. 



