268 On Chemical Nomenclature. 
by Berzelius an objection to the views which I have espoused, that 
the halogen bodies, while forming acids with various metallic radicals 
which oxygen does not acidify, do notform acids with sulphur, phos- 
phorus, and arsenic which oxygen does acidify ; yet what is there in 
this, more difficult to reconcile with the established results of chemical 
combinations, than in the fact that oxygen forms with sulphur, phos- 
phorus, and arsenic, strong acids, with hydrogen water ; while with 
hydrogen the halogen bodies all form compounds which Berzelius 
describes as having the highest pretensions to acidity. The highly 
active acid properties of the fluorides of boron aud silicon, would 
lead us to expect similar compounds to be formed by the same rad- 
icals, with the other halogen bodies, contrary to experience. Chem- 
istry makes us acquainted with many similar discordances. How 
is it that oxygen forms aériform compounds with an extremely fixed 
body in the instance of carbon ; while in that of phosphorus or arsenic, 
both volatilizable, it forms acids which are comparatively insuscepti- 
ble of volatilization? Wherefore does not hydrogen produce an acid 
with phosphorus and arsenic, as well as with sulphur ? 
_ According to Berzelius, all the halogen bodies produce with hy- 
combinations which are as highly endowed with the attributes 
of acidity, as the strongest acids into which oxygen enters as a con- 
stituent. It is conceded in his letter that his language respecting 
these combinations cannot be reconciled with his declaration in one 
place that they do not combine with oxybases, and in another that a 
body which cannot so combine is not an acid. It strikes me, that 
the only way in which the admitted inconsistency of his description 
of these bodies, with his definition of acidity, can be avoided, is by 
assuming that they combine as acids with haloid bases, although de- 
composed by oxybases. 
I will now proceed to comment on a new subject for consideration, 
presented in Berzelius’s letter in reply to mine. 
It must be evident that every oxysalt, composed of an oxacid and 
an oxybase, must consist of an atom of each radical, and as many 
atoms of oxygen as exist both in the acid and in the base. ‘Thus 
sulphate of potash consists of an atom of potassium, an atom of sul- 
phur and four atoms of oxygen, and may be represented either by 
S000 KO or SOOOOK 
-Berzelius in his letter repeats an ingenious suggestion previously 
advanced in his treatise, that SOOQO, (sulphur with four atoms of 
oxygen,) may act, as a compound halogen body like cyanogen, and 
