302 BALARu's RESEARCHES CONCERNING THE NATURE OF 



rated solution of common Salt, intended to dissolve the chlorite, leaving 

 the chloride unacted upon. He found this quantity of chloride of sodium 

 equivalent to 2*1 atoms of soda; and, with a little too much allowance, 

 as it seems to me, he concluded that these 2*1 atoms were equal to 3, 

 and thence that chlorous acid is very probably formed of 2 of chlorine 

 and 3 of oxygen. If it be considered that in such a mode of experi- 

 menting, the quantity of metallic chloride ought rather to be greater 

 than smaller than that at first formed by the re-action of the chlorine 

 upon the soda, no doubt can be entertained that these 2*1 should be 

 reckoned only as 2, and this establishes a perfect agreement between 

 my results and those of M. Soubeiran, and gives for the composition 

 of chlorous acid the numbers which I have already adopted. 



M. Morin, in his work on the decolorizing chlorides, has decidedly 

 proved that during their decomposition, whether spontaneous or eifected 

 by heat, these combinations are converted into 17 atoms of chloride 

 for 1 atom of chlorate, and that 1 2 atoms of oxygen are at the same 

 time disengaged, two thirds of what they previously contained. In 

 supposing that chlorous acid is formed of 2 of chlorine and 3 of oxy- 

 gen, the following table is the expression of the atomic re-action. 



Atoms employed. 



■■■ = {1 



r, . . , ) 9 atoms metal. 



9 atoms oxide 



^ , , , ., I 19 atoms oxvgen. 



9 atoms chlorite = < r i o i i i • 



r. , . , I 18 atoms chlorine. 



9 atoms acid . . . , =t < ,,„ ^ 



1^ 27 atoms oxygen. 



Atoms produced. 



24 atoms oxygen. 



„ . . , 12 atoms metal. 



I 2 atoms oxide ... ^ < „ 



2 atoms chlorate = < } 4 atom! chE;. 



2 atoms acid — = < 



^ , 11 -J f 7 atoms metal. 



7 atoms chloride = < ,^ 



10 atoms oxygen, 

 atoms metal, 

 atoms chlorine. 



If to these 7 atoms of chloride there be added the 27 which were 

 mixed with the 9 atoms of chlorite in the decolorizing compound, there 

 would be 34 atoms of chloride for 2 of chlorate, 1 7 for 1 . 



But the supposition that chlorous acid is formed of 2 atoms of chlo- 

 rine and 2 of oxygen, agrees also with these results ; the atomic re- 

 action may then be much more simply expressed, as shown by the fol- 

 loAving table. 



Atoms employed-. 



{18 atoms chlorine. 

 . «....^ ........ _ . . ^ atoms oxygen. 



9 atoms acid 



9 atoms oxygen. 



(_9 atoms base 



J 9 atoms metal. 



