of the Sloio Comhustion of Ether. 65 



I shall now as concisely as possible describe, as being in them- 

 selves interesting, and as furnishing rather a curious anecdote 

 of the progress of the investigation. 



I prepared a large quantity of the acid from sulphuric ether 

 in the manner described in my former paper, making use of a 

 lamp with three burners, which greatly accelerated the opera- 

 tion. The first product I rectified by drawing off from it at a 

 low heat one-third of the quantity. This I did, to get rid of 

 any ether with which it might have been contaminated, to the 

 influence of which Mr. Phillips seemed to think some of the 

 singular results which I had before obtained, might have been 

 owing. 



The liquor condensed from this distillation had not the 

 slightest smell of sulphuric ether. It was inflammable, and 

 burned with a pale blue flame, leaving but a small taste- 

 less fluid residue. The spirit had a pungent, suffocating 

 smell, and its taste was hot and rather acrid. It did not 

 change the colour of litmus. It evaporated without leaving 

 any residue, with a very gentle heat. Neither water, alcohol, 

 nor ether produced any change in its appearance. When 

 dropped into the solutions of muriate of gold and nitrate of 

 silver, and warmed, it produced no precipitation of those 

 metals. 



The acid thus purified was intensely sour, of a peculiar 

 pungent smell, which when received into the lungs, produced 

 great irritation. Some pure acetic acid was procured, with 

 which a small quantity of sulphuric ether was mixed, and with 

 the two the following comparative experiments were made, with 

 the assistance of Mr. Phillips in his laboratory : 



Exp. 1. — Some solution of the muriate of gold was put into 

 a test-tube, with a small quantity of the acid : upon the appli- 

 cation of a very gentle heat the mixture became turbid, and 

 appeared green by transmitted light. The gold was instan- 

 taneously reduced, and completely coated the inside of the 

 glass. Some of the mixture of acetic acid and ether was 

 likewise dropped into muriate of gold, but no change ensued 

 even when strongly heated. 

 Vol. XII. F 



