1826.3 Compound of Hyponitrom and Sulphuric Acids. 53S 



-a much higher heat than I have ever applied, in making nitric 

 acid, without parting with any of its acid. 



If, with Dr. Henry, we suppose this compound to consist of 

 5 atoms sulphuric acid + 1 atom of hyponitrous acid, and that, 

 for the decomposition of this atom of hyponitrous acid, the pre- 

 sence of a " contiguous atom of hyponitrous acid" be necessary, 

 we must, of course, suppose the decomposition of two atoms of 

 the compound, which would give 10 atoms sulphuric acid, 

 instead of 5, the number of atoms calculated from the result of 

 analysis. Viewing the constitution of the solid, as Dr. Henry 

 does, we must suppose, when an atom of it is thrown into water, 

 that the atom of hyponitrous acid resolves itself into half an 

 atom of nitrous gas, and half an atom of nitrous acid 15 + 23 = 

 38, an atom of hyponitrous acid. 



M. SCANLAN. * 



Article III. 



An Answer to Dr. Christisons " Repli/." ' 



By R. Phillips, FRS. L. and E. &c.* 



SIR, 



It is with great reluctance that I feel myself again compelled 

 to address you, but having the choice of submitting to your 

 misrepresentations, or of refuting them, I prefer the latter. 



I shall, however, first acknowledge my error in supposing I 

 had stated in my first paper on arsenic that certain fluids could 

 not be decolorized by animal charcoal; it appears I was more 

 careful than I had imagined, not even hinting the poison that 

 might be so disguised as to increase the difficulty of detec- 

 tion, and I certainly did not expect that a Professor of Me- 

 dical Jurisprudence would supply my deficiency in this respect, 

 but this act was reserved for you ; and it seems to me to be 

 what, on another occasion, you term treating the subject " too 

 much as a chemist, and too little as a medical jurist." 



As excuses for boiling the coloured fluid with the animal char- 

 coal, instead of merely mixing them as I had directed, you 

 state that I have used "in one place the ambiguous term 

 digest ;" and afterwards alluding to the error which I have now 

 acknowledged, you say, " the readers of the Annals will not 

 wonder at my imagining I saw directions to boil in the author's 

 injunctions to mix and digest, when he himself finds a statement 

 of facts where there exists not even a shadow of them." 



Now I confess I do not feel the force of this reasoning : I do 

 not see how my having committed a blunder on a certain subject, 



♦ See AmaU, N. S. vol. vii. p, 30, vol, %. p. 298, vol. xii. p. 23. 



