Chemical Experiments on Mercury. t\ 



combustion is so slow, as is proved by the uniformity of the 

 temperature of the liquor during the operation, that the 

 phosphorus is never in a condition to seize upon the por- 

 tion of oxygen required for its conversion into the acid 

 state. The reduced mercury cannot combine with the 

 phosphorus ; lor, as it does not combine with it when in 

 the state of fusion (according to the experiments of Pelle- 

 ticr), it is still less capable of combining with it when in a 

 solid state, and without any change of temperature. Our 

 experiment may perhaps furnish the means of obtaining the 

 true oxide of phosphorus, which hitherto has been litttc or 

 not at all known. 



1"he mercurial salts are equally decomposed and deprived 

 of their oxygen by phosphorus, with the application of 

 heat, or as in the cold ; but, in the first case, a phosphuret 

 of mercury is formed, which consequently prevents its ana- 

 lysis by this means. It niigiu perhaps !)e accomplished in 

 the cold J but the action is so slow, that any other more ex- 

 peditious means would be preferable. 



Of the Action of Oxygenated Muriatic Acid upon tlie Hed 

 Oxide. 



This subject has already been investigated by Messrs. 

 Fourcroy and Thenard, and it may easily be supposed that 

 such able chemists have left little to be done in a Held which 

 they have already cultivated. We have obtained nearly 

 the same r'*sults which they have indicated, and we return 

 to this subject merely in order to notice some slight peculi- 

 arities which have escaped them. 



Experiment I. 



Fifty grammes of red oxide of mercury Vv^ere put into ^ 

 proportionate quantity of distilled water. Oxi-muriatic acid 

 eas was then passed tln-ough it, taking care to agitate the 

 liquor well, in order that the gas might come perfectly into 

 contact with the red oxide. After the space of an hour 

 the colour of the oxide began to change, becoming darker 

 every moment; we continued to cause iias to enter till the 

 brown powder had deposited itself; we then decanted the 

 liquor, and washed and lihrated this powder, which had 

 become of a deep violet colour: after bcmg dried it weighed 

 iiy grannnes. The evaporated liquor presented to us a salt 

 cryj-tallized in the form of needles, which we ascertained bv 

 fc-agcnts to be hyperoxysenatcd muriate of mercury ; the 

 last liquor, after tlie crystallization, presented to us slight 

 tract;' of another ;ail more highly o*vu'.'naled than the pre- 

 ceding ; 



