TilE BLEACHING COMPOUNDS OF CHLORINE. 303 



Atoms produced. 



12 atoms oxygen. 



1 atom acid = ( f atoms chlorine. 



[ 5 atoms oxygen. 



1 atom base = / 1 atom metal. 



J^ 1 atom oxygen. 



o i ui -J r 8 atoms metal. 



8 atoms chloride = < , _ ^ , , . 



\i6 atoms chlonne. 



The 8 atoms of chloride formed, and the nine with which they were 



mixed, — admitting that chlorous acid is composed as I state, make 



the 17 atoms for 1 of chlorate obtained by M. Morin. 



There is only one fact Avhich does not agree with the new compo- 

 sition which I assign to chlorous acid : it is an experiment of Berzelius, 

 in which this chemist observed, when precipitating chloride of lime by 

 nitrate of silver, that the metallic chlorite while decomposing produced 

 an atom of chloride, while 2 atoms of silver remained in solution, un- 

 questionably in the state of chlorate. But according to my view of 

 the constitution of chlorous acid there ought on the contrary to be 

 formed 2 atoms of chloride for 1 of chlorate. But it must be stated that 

 Berzelius does not attach any such importance to this result, so as to 

 deduce the composition of chlorous acid from it ; for this mode of experi- 

 menting cannot be exact. I have already shown, that during the preci- 

 pitation of the chloride by the salt of silver and the filtration of the liquid, 

 the chlorite of silver decomposes ; and of the two products of this de- 

 composition, the chlorate only is obtained, which remains in solution, 

 while the corresponding chloride is retained by the filter : the result of 

 this in the experiment of Berzelius ought to have been to increase the 

 quantity of chlorate, and to diminish that of the chloride formed by the 

 decomposition of the chlorite of silver. 



It is not only on account of the facts which I have mentioned that 

 chemists had assigned the supposed composition to chlorous acid, but 

 they were also guided by certain theoretical considerations. 



The experiments made up to the present time prove with certaintv, 

 that in the decolorizing liquors which chlorine forms with the alkaline 

 oxides, the proportions of their elements are 1 atom radical, I atom 

 oxygen, 2 atoms chlorine * ; and in the hypothesis of chlorides of 

 oxides, this composition was represented by this formula R Cl'^. It is 

 evident that, whatever other supposition may be adopted with respect 

 to the nature of these combinations, it ought to fulfill the double con- 

 dition, and that the same relations should always subsist, and the num- 

 ber of the atoms be expressed by a whole number. In multiplying 

 the first formula by the natural series of whole numbers, and arranging 



• In England 1 atom chlorine also, for a reason already stated, viz. that the 

 weight of the atom is double that of foreign chemists. 



