1826.] contained in Sea Watet*,^^ '^'f'- 4W 



but not at all caustic. Nitric and sulphuric acids have no che- 

 mical action upon it ; the latter indeed, when it is much concen- 

 trated, liberates brome, and produces an effervescence, which is 

 probably occasioned by the disengagement of oxygen. These 

 effects, however, seem to be attributable to the high tempera- 

 ture which sulphuric acid produces by combining with the water 

 of the bromic acid, for they are not produced by dilute sulphuric 

 acid. 



The hydracids, and those acids which are not saturated with 

 oxygen, act with great energy upon bromic acid ; the sulphurous 

 and hydrobromic acids and sulphuretted hydrogen decompose 

 it, and so also do the muriatic and hydriodic acids. In the 

 latter case, compounds of brome with chlorine and iodine are 

 obtained, and these acids, when combined with bases, act simi- 

 larly upon bromic acid. 



Bromic acid occasions a white pulverulent precipitate in the 

 salts of silver, which appears to be a metallic bromate. It also 

 precipitates the concentrated solutions of the «alts of lead, but 

 the compound obtained is dissolved by the addition of a small 

 quantity of water, and it is distinguIshB^d by this solubility from 

 that which the hydrobromates form in the solutions of the same 

 metallic salts ; it also gives a white precipitate, as the bromate 

 of potash does, with protonitrate of mercury. 



The properties of bromic acid strongly resemble the analogous 

 compounds of chlorine and iodine; but the impossibility of 

 depriving it of water perfectly, and of boiling it without partial 

 decomposition, most resembles chloric acid, and shows that the 

 oxygen is less strongly retained than in the iodic acid. 



The proportions of the principles which constitute bromic 

 acid show that it is subject to the same laws of composition as 

 the chloric, iodic, and nitric acids ; 1*128 of bromate of potash 

 is reduced by calcination to 0*790 of bromuret of potassium. 

 The loss of weight derived from the disengagement of oxygen 

 was consequently 0*338 ; 0*790 of bromuret of potassium contain, 

 according to the analysis already stated, 0*27255 of potassium 

 and 0*51745 of brome ; this quantity of potassium requires 

 0*05563 of oxygen to convert it into potash, which, subtracted 

 from 0*338, leave 0*28237 as the oxygen combined with 0*51745 

 of brome : bromic acid, according to this experiment, will con- 

 sist of 



Brome 64*69 



Oxygen 35*31 



100*00 



In representing the atom of brome by 93*28, derived from the 

 analysis of bromuret of potassium, and supposing the bromic 

 acid to consist of five atoms of oxygen and one atom of brome, 

 100 parts of bromic acid should consist of 



2e2 



