320 OBSERVATIONS ON MURIATIC ACID, 
bodies by which their formation is determined, and, being mo- 
dified by any process causing their evolution, are not easily ob- 
served. It is doubtful if the same base in any case forms dif- 
ferent acids by combination with oxygen in different propor- 
tions, or by combination with hydrogen in different propor- 
tions. But the example of the vegetable acids seems to shew 
that this may occur in the united action of oxygen and hydro- 
gen; carbon acidified by different proportions of ‘these ele- 
ments, constituting the composition of these acids. Other ba- 
ses may present similar results. The radical of muriatic acid 
may unite with other proportions of oxygen and hydrogen than 
those which form muriatic acid; and this might afford a solu- 
tion of the theoretical difficulty of the production of water in 
the experiments in the first part of this memoir, independent 
of the explanation of it from the formation of a super-muriate. 
A compound may be formed with less oxygen and hydrogen 
than what exist in muriatic acid, in combination with the me- 
tal acted on, and thus a portion of water may be liberated. 
Nor will it be easy to establish this by any difference in the 
product, as it can scarcely be submitted to any examination, 
but by processes which change the result. The chloric acid 
which, according to Gay Lussac, cannot exist insulated with- 
out water, may be in like manner a ternary compound of these 
elements in other proportions. Prosecuting the same analogy, 
the glacial or fuming oil of vitriol may be, not what has lately 
been asserted, real sulphuric acid, (for probably no such sub- 
stance as that to which this term has been applied, can be ob- 
tained insulated), but a compound of sulphur with oxygen and 
hydrogen, in proportions different from those which constitute 
common oil of vitriol. Nitrous acid, if it cannot be formed 
without water, may be a compound of nitrogen with a smaller 
proportion 
