TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 69 
combinations of anhydrous sulphuric acid with the chlorides of ammo- 
nium, potassium, sodium, and the nitrate of potash. According to the 
laws of affinity, for example, in the last case, the nitric acid ought to 
have been displaced, decomposed, and driven away by the more pow- 
erfully acting sulphuric acid; but no tendency whatever was shown to 
the displacement of chlorine or nitric acid, and new compounds, differ- 
ent from all hitherto known, resulted. As no combination of anhy- 
drous sulphuric acid took place at all with oxide of calcium, chloride 
of barium, or chloride of copper, he concluded that these above- 
mentioned combinations were formed only by replacing one double 
atom of hydrogen, water, or chlorine, in order to form a bisulphate of 
potash, soda, or ammonia. The author seemed to believe that there 
existed two different states of chemical combination ; the first, in which 
the chemical forces of molecular attraction were acting only according 
to the relative quantities of matter; the second, where, under the | 
always catalytic presence of a third, the elementary substances arranged 
themselves, separating in groups according to the resultant electric 
forces of the centres of action created by the above-mentioned presence 
of a third, acting differently on the different molecules of bodies in 
contact, in a somewhat similar way as a solution, which does not cry- 
stallize unless the molecular equilibrium of the liquid is disturbed. 
The first state of chemical combination might, perhaps, have some 
distant relation to Dumas’s law of types; the second state, a mere con- 
sequence of the first, would be represented by Berzelius’s electro- 
chemical combination. The author, at the same time, referred to 
Prof. Graham’s admirable papers, in which the Professor had so di- 
stinctly pointed out the great and peculiar part which water performs 
in chemical solid combinations, and remarked, that during all chemical 
combinations where a third body is separated, the precipitation only 
would take place when a certain quantity of water combined with the 
body to be precipitated, which water separated in the relation to the 
separation and. consolidation of the precipitate only, and could be 
driven away from it only by applying a red heat. 
New Compound of Arsenious and Sulphuric Acids. 
By Dr. ScHAFHAEUTL. 
This was obtained from the escaping smoke of copper calcining 
furnaces near Swansea, in South Wales. The new. compound was 
another singular instance where an anhydrous crystallized body was 
deposited under the presence of water only, and was a remarkable 
proof of the unlimited number of different forms of combination, which 
might be produced even in inorganic nature, by bringing chemical 
substances in contact under varying circumstances. The copper ores 
smelted in South Wales were, for the greatest part, copper pyrites, 
mixed with iron pyrites, gray copper ore, &c.; in fact, a mixture 
in which the sulphurets of copper, iron, arsenic, antimony, cobalt, 
nickel, zinc, and tin were invariably found together. The sulphur 
and arsenic escape from these ores during the calcining process, as 
