082 iH, Balardf on a peculiar Substance [Nov. 



The salt water possessing its yellow tint, when subjected to 

 distillation, does in fact evolve, almost as soon as it boils, very 

 thick vapours that are condensed by cooling into a liquid, 

 which I found to possess the greater number of the properties 

 of the coloured liquor ; but they were not so distinctly marked. 

 This liquid was of a reddish yellow colour, its smell somewhat 

 resembled oxide of chlorine, it was not acid, lost its colour by 

 the action of the alkalies of sulphurous acid and sulphuretted 

 hydrogen, &c. and, in fact, by all the re-agents which de- 

 colorized the water of the salt-works itself after the action of 

 chlorine. It cannot hence be doubted that this first product of 

 the distillation contained the substance in question, especially 

 as the remainder of the Hquid had lost in this respect all its 

 original properties. Its colour had disappeared : instead of its 

 penetrating smell, there remained only an ethereal smell, which 

 I shall again mention. Chlorine had not the power of restoring 

 the yellow colour. 



In order to obtain this substance in a pure state, it remained 

 only to separate it from the water which was volatilized with it. 

 With this intention I passed the orange vapours over chloride 

 of calcium. They were condensed of a deep red colour in 

 small drops, which were very volatile, filling the small vessel in 

 which they were contained with vapours in colour resembling 

 nitrous vapour. I believed that I had thus obtained the colour- 

 ing matter in a state of purity, but the process was unproduc- 

 tive. I reckoned that an operation had succeeded when it gave 

 me one drop of the liquid. Such minute quantities of matter 

 allowed only experiments almost microscopic. I owe to them, 

 nevertheless, the first essays which I made upon the nature of 

 this substance, and the researches which I afterwards made on a 

 larger scale confirmed them. 



I was at first induced to take this substance as a chloride of 

 iodine, different indeed from those compounds which are already 

 known to chemists ; it was in vain that all my trials were di- 

 rected to this end. It gave no blue colour with solution of 

 starch, nor with solution of sublimate ; and as it gave a white 

 precipitate with protonitrate of mercury, and also with nitrate 

 of lead, &c. it was evident that it contained no iodine. 



On the other hand, I had repeatedly subjected this substance 

 to the influence of the voltaic pile, and also to a high temperature, 

 but it did not in either case exhibit the slightest appearance of 

 decomposition. Such resistance could not fail to suggest the idea, 

 that I had to do with a simple body, or one which acted in the same 

 manner as simple bodies; and this opinion has been strengthened 

 by every trial to which I have subjected it. I imagined it to be 

 a simple substance, possessing in its chemical relations, the 

 greatest resemblance to chlorine and iodine, and forming 

 analogous combinations ; but always presenting physical and 



