A12 A Memoir on the Uric Acid. 
dryness in mixture with nitric acid, give a 
red stain as the uric acid does when similarly 
treated. : 
8. The watery solution does not, like the 
alkaline urates, decompose neutral salts with 
earthy bases. 
9. It has no action on salts with base of 
copper, iron, gold, platina, tin, or mercury. 
It differs, therefore, from succinate of  am- 
monia, which precipitates solutions of iron 
and tin; and from the alkaline urates, which 
decompose all metallic salts, except that of 
gold. The solution of the sublimate agrees, 
however, with succinate of ammonia, in 
throwing down, from nitrates of silver and 
mercury and from acetite of lead, a white pre- 
cipitate, which is soluble by an excess of nitric 
or acetic acids. 
10. It differs from benzoate of ammonia, 
in not being precipitated by muriatic acid, 
which instantly separates benzoic acid from 
the latter salt. The precipitates, also, from 
metallic solutions by benzoate of ammonia, 
are not re-dissolved by nitric or acetic acid. 
These properties sufficiently shew that the 
acid ingredient of the sublimate is not either 
the succinic or benzoic, but one distinguished 
by a peculiar set of properties. 
