New injiammalle and detonating Sul.tance. 255 



the oxides, and that when the comluistible substance is 

 again separated by heat, the oxides return to their unmao- 

 netic state. That magnetic oxides cannot be distincruishcd 

 trom calcined oxides by their colour. I entertain a hope 

 however, that this subject may hx: found worthy of the ac- 

 curate mvestigation of some other member of this learned 

 societv. 



XU III. Extract from a Memoir of Messrs. FouRcaor 

 a«rf\Aua.JKLiN upon the Discovery of a new injiam- 

 ■rnabLe and detonating Substance formed bij the Action of 

 Aitnc Acid on Indigo and Animal Matters. Bii A L \"- 



GlER*. J ' . ^ 



± HK apphcation of the nitric acid to vcfretable and animal 

 matters has produced, it is well known, I multitude of im- 

 portant discoveries. The disenoacrement of a part of the 

 azot or animal compounds, and tlfeir conversion into oxaliu 

 acid, as observed by M. Berthollet, together with the dis- 

 covery ot ttie formation of ammonia and the prussic acid 

 by M f ourcroy, form a brilliant 2;ra in the history of che- 

 mical science. The changes which organic compounds 

 suHer by the action of nitric acid, which produces iaine or 

 ten diftereni substances, tliemselves compounds, are so mul- 

 tiplied and various, that they excite the astonisiiment of 

 Chemists, and induce them to regard this action of the ni- 

 tnc acid as a rich mine to labour in : that it is still far from 

 exnausted will appear from the discoverv of tv/o substances 

 hitherto almost wholly unknown, which form the subiect 

 ot this memoir. ■' 



7;he most remarkable of these is produced by boiiincr 

 nitric acid upon animal substances or vegetables containing 

 azote. It ,s of a yellow colour, has an intensely biu« 

 taste, and is distinguished by its property of inflamimv and 

 detonating with violence when exposed to a moderatelieat 

 M. Hauismann, by a memoir which appeared m the 

 Journal dePhiisique{^M2.vch J 788), where he relates some 

 experiments on mdigo with the acids, seems to have seen 

 thjs substance. Although he confounds it with the ox-ilic 

 acid, yet its properties are pointed out by him with sufficient 

 accuracy; its bitterness, its yellow colour, its solubilitv 

 and us pnx-ipitation by alkalies : but its principal propcriy 



• From the Annates rfi Clnnu: No. I'JJ. 



of 



