^TG PELOUZE ON CERTAIN COMBINATIONS OF A NEW ACID. 



of crystallization does into the ordinary salts, it is not likely that its 

 presence could modify the sulphates so far as to cause them to lose 

 their most characteristic property, that of forming an insoluble sub- 

 stance with baryta. 



2. The nitrosulphate of potash yields, by heat alone, a disengagement 

 of deutoxide of azote and a residue of sulphur. It is little probable that 

 the protoxide of azote could become deutoxide at a temperature of 

 140°, especially when it must take the oxygen which it wants from so 

 stable a salt as the sulphate of potash. And, moreover, experience has 

 proved to me that the protoxide has no action upon it at that tem- 

 perature and above. I would add that, if the action of heat upon the 

 nitrosulphate of ammonia induces the belief of the pre-existence of the 

 protoxide of azote in that salt, the entirely different products of the de- 

 composition of the nitrosulphate of potash by the same agent would 

 lead us, adopting the same reasoning, to consider the latter salt as 

 formed of sulphite of potash united with deutoxide of azote. 



I am more inclined to see in the action of heat a disorganizing 

 power, whose effects vary with the nature of the substances upon which 

 it is exerted. The question seems to me to be precisely the' same as 

 that of the nitrates and hyposulphites, from which it has not been pos- 

 sible to abstract the hyposulphurous and nitrous acids ; only that, in- 

 stead of two elements, the nitrosulpliuric acid contains three, of which 

 there are examples enough in chemistry. 



I have endeavoured to isolate this acid, and to prepare it directly, 

 without the influences of the bases : in this I have not succeeded ; but 

 in the course of my attempts I have had occasion to remark a curious 

 fact, which is at variance with all that has been said and written upon 

 the theory of the formation of sulphuric acid ; namely, that the deut- 

 oxide of azote and sulphurous acid are able to produce sulphuric acid 

 without the necessary presence of the air or of oxygen. The experi- 

 ment is easily performed, and I have repeated it many times. Two 

 hundred volumes of deutoxide of azote and one hundred of sulphurous 

 acid, left alone for some hours at the ordinary temperature, in a gra- 

 duated tube containing a small quantity of boiled water, are converted 

 into pure sulphuric acid and a residue of protoxide of azote equal to 

 one hundred volumes : such is the result ; as to the theory, I am in- 

 duced to believe that nitrosulphuric acid is at first formed, and is after- 

 wards decomposed in the same manner and with still greater facility 

 than the nitrosulphates. 



Hence the theory, or rather theories, on the formation of sulphuric 

 acid, in the forms in which they have been propounded, must undergo 

 a notable modification; for a certain quantity of protoxide of azote 

 must necessarily be produced in the leaden chambers. I have for a 

 long time past been occupied with experiments relative to this subject, 

 and I hope shortly to publish the results. 



