«o8 On a new fulminating Mercury, 



gas are produced, the fulminating mercury, or the white fumes, will never be p;enerateJ : 

 for, under fuch circum dances, the mercury is precipitated chiefly in the ftate of «n in- 

 flammable oxalate. Further, when we confider the different fubftances formed by an 

 union of nitrous acid and alcohol, we are fo far acquainted with all, except the ether and 

 the nitrous etherized gas, as to create a prefumption, that no others are capable of vola- 

 tilizing mercury, at the very low temperature in which the white fumes exift, fmce during 

 fome minutes they are permanent over water of 40° Fahrenheit. 



SECTION XVI. 



Hitherto, as much only hao been faid of the gas v/hich is feparated from the mercurial 

 powder by dilute fulphuric acid, as was neceflary to identify it with that Into which the 

 fame acid can refolvethe nitrous etherized gas ; I have further to fpcak of hs peculiarity.* 



The charafteriftic properties of the inflammable gas, feem to me to be the following : 



ift. It does not diminifli in volume, either with oxygen or nitrous gas. 



zdly. It will not explode with oxygen by the eleftric fliock, in a clofe vefTel. 



3dly. It burns like hydrocarbonate, l(ut with a blueifli green flame. And, 



.4thly. It is permanent over water. (Scdtion 12.) 



It is of courfe either not formed, or is convertible into nitrous gas, by the concentrate 

 nitric and muriatic acids ; becaufe, by thofe acids, no inflammable gas was extricated from 

 the powder. 



Should this inflammable gas prove not to be a hydrocarbonate, I fliall be difpofed to 

 conclude, that it has nitrogen for its bafis ; indeed, I am at this moment inclined to that 

 opinion, becaufe I find that Dr. Prieftley, during his experiments on his dephlogifticated 

 nitrous air, once produced a gas which feems to have refembled this inflammable gas, both 

 in the mode of burning, and in the colour of the flame. 



After the termination of the common folution of iron in fpirit of nitre, he ufed heat, 

 and got, fays he, f " fuch a kind of air as I had brought nitrous air to be, by expofing it 

 " to Iron, or liver of fulphur; for, on the firft trial, a candle burned in it with a much 

 " enlarged flame. At another time, the application of a candle to air produced in this 

 " manner, was attended with a real though not a loud explofion ; and, immediately after 

 this, a greemjb coloured JUtne dejctnded from the top to the bottom of the vejfel In which the air 

 " was contained. In the next produce of air, from the fame procefs, the fiame defcended 

 " ^/!/<? and very rapid, from the top to the bottom of the veflel." 



Thefe greenirti and blue coloured, flames, defcending from the top to the bottom of the 

 •veflel, are precifely defcriptive of the inflammable gas feparated from the powder. If it 



• It muft be firft noticed, that it is never pure wlien obtained from the nitrous etlierized gas ; nor am I 

 aware how it is to be purified, unlefs the nitrous gas could be taken from it, without being converted ijrto 

 jliitrous acid ; for, by that acid, it would probably be itfelf converted into nitrous gas. 



t Prieftley on Air, Vol. II. p. 5S, Birmingham, 1790. 



can 



