312 OBSERVATIONS ON MURIATIC ACID, 
base, and subsequent exposure to heat, the composition is sub- 
verted by the affinities exerted; the hydrogen unites with the 
requisite proportion of oxygen, forming water, and the remain- 
ing oxygen with the sulphur unite with the base. In the ac- 
tion of a metal on the acid, there is the same result ; only by 
the attraction of the metal to oxygen, the whole of that ele- 
ment is retained, and the hydrogen is disengaged. 
Mauriatic acid gas, then, according to this doctrine, is the 
real acid, a ternary compound of a radical (at present un- 
known) with oxygen and hydrogen, exactly as sulphuric acid in 
its highest state of concentration, is the real acid, a ternary 
compound of sulphur, oxygen, and hydrogen. When it is sub- 
mitted to an alkaline base, the action exerted causes its decom- 
position ; its hydrogen, and part of its oxygen, combine to form 
water, and its radical, with its remaining oxygen, unite with 
the base, forming a neutral compound, analogous to what 
other acids of similar constitution form. When a similar re- 
sult is obtained from the action of a metal, its whole oxy- 
gen must be considered. as retained, and its hydrogen is libe- 
rated. 
Nitric acid in its highest state of concentration, is not a de- 
finite compound of real acid with about a fourth of its weight 
of water; but a ternary compound of nitrogen, oxygen, and 
hydrogen. Phosphoric acid is a triple compound of phospho- 
rus, oxygen, and hydrogen ; and phosphorous acid is the proper 
binary compound of phosphorus and oxygen. The oxalic, tar- 
taric, and other vegetable acids, are admitted to be ternary 
compounds of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, and are there- 
fore in strict conformity to the doctrine now illustrated. 
A relation of the elements of bodies to acidity is thus dis- 
covered, different from what has hitherto been proposed. 
When a series of compounds exists, which have certain com- 
mon 
