424 K@NE ON THE NATURE OF 4QUA REGIA, 
24. It is evident from the preceding experiments and considera- 
tions, and, above all, from the action exercised by hydrochloric 
acid upon the nitrate of potash, that the hyponitrie acid does not 
act the part of a radical in organic bodies. 
Before I had established this fact, I believed in the hypothesis 
of MM. Dumas and Couérbe. The results to which I was led in 
other investigations respecting the nature of the oxy-sulpho-sul- 
phuric acid, were not without influence on my view concerning 
that of the hyponitric acid; on the other hand, not being ac- 
quainted with any very definite properties of this acid, and re- 
garding it as a dehydrogenizing body similar to chlorine, I was 
naturally led to consider it as a radical like this latter metalloid, 
which is capable in several cases of replacing the hydrogen in 
organic compounds. It is precisely this dehydrogenizing pro- 
perty of the hyponitric acid owing to which the elements of this 
acid are met with in some of the compounds formed under its 
influence, just as we meet with chlorine in a body which has 
yielded hydrogen to this metalloid by substitution. 
However, although hyponitric acid is capable, in the presence 
of some organic bodies, of functioning in an analogous manner 
to chlorine, yet it has never been proved that it acts like this 
metalloid under circumstances where it should behave like a 
simple body. Since, therefore, the hypothesis of the function 
of this acid merely rested upon theoretical observations and not 
upon a single well-established fact, it was requisite to support 
it by accurate facts. But since the investigations we have in- 
stituted have demonstrated that the hyponitric acid cannot even 
act the part of a radical towards that body, which in respect to 
polarity has the greatest analogy to oxygen, we have endeavoured 
to explain the action of this acid upon organic bodies in another 
manner, considering it as oxidizing and dehydrogenizing at the 
same time. In this way we were led to examine the theory of 
Berzelius, free from any preconceived opinion, and we have 
found it to correspond so well with the state of science, to ex- 
plain so satisfactorily most of the facts which have been observed, 
that we do not hesitate to adopt it, excepting only some restric- 
tions. 
25. That hyponitric acid acts towards organic bodies the part 
of an oxidizing and dehydrogenizing agent is a natural consequence 
of its oxidizing power; for an organic body yields on its meta- 
morphosis a compound which is the more stable the more com- 
