NATURE OF THE BLEACHING COMPOUNDS OF CHLORINE. 285 



natural circumstance, and one which exhibits the instability of the oxi- 

 genated conibinations of chlorine. But what is much less so, is the dis- 

 engagement of chlorine gas, which almost always accompanies its decom- 

 position. The energetic affinity of chlorine for the greater part of the 

 metalloids and metals is well known ; from this it might be supposed 

 that, in the re-action of these bodies upon chlorous acid, the chlorine 

 would combine with them as well as the oxygen, and that this decom- 

 position would take place in a somewhat latent manner, since, each of 

 the elements uniting with the combustible, nothing would be eliminated. 

 It does not however so happen, and the facts which I have related 

 prove that it is almost uniforjuly by its oxj-gen that chlorous acid acts 

 upon various simple combustibles. 



The phaenomena which accompany the decomposition of chlorous acid 

 by the compound combustibles prove the same fact, and show this body 

 to be one of the most energetic agents of oxidation, but at the same time 

 as very little calculated for chloridation. 



I have not attempted to put those bodies in contact with this acid 

 which are altered by water itself: for the presence of this fluid in the 

 chlorous acid of which I made use would have complicated the re-actions, 

 and would have prevented me from assigning the products which I 

 should have obtained to their true origin. On this account I have not 

 experimented with the chlorides, bromides, &c. of sulphur, of phospho- 

 rus, and of selenium: I preferred employing the action of chlorous acid 

 upon the compound combustibles which suffered no decomposition by 

 water. 



The compounds of halogene bodies with carbon are not only unal- 

 terable by water, but even resist the action of several of the most ener- 

 getic chemical agents ; I was therefore curious to see how chlorous acid 

 acted upon them. 



The several chlorides and bromides of carbon, as well as the hydro- 

 carburets of chlorine and bromine, although attacked by chlorous acid, 

 appear to me to exert a very slow action upon it, and one which I have 

 not hitherto perfectly appreciated. As to the periodide of carbon of Se- 

 rullas, that on the contrary is attacked with great energy by chlorous 

 acid. At common temperatures it produces a rapid disengagement of 

 gas, which is a mixture of chlorine, carbonic acid, and oxide of carbon, 

 and iodine is deposited ; the liquid contains a mixture of iodic acid and 

 hydrochloric acid. If the chlorous acid is in excess, no deposit of iodine 

 is observed, it being converted into iodic acid. 



Chlorous acid also decomposes cyanogen. If a few drops of chlorous 

 acid be added to a bottle containing this gas, effervescence is soon ob- 

 served, and the bottle is filled witli clilorino, recognisable by its yellow 

 tint. At the bottom of the liquid, which has ceased to decolorize, and 



