168 On the supposed Production 



important truth — " that hydrogen is susceptihie of different 

 degrees of oxygenation." 



The discovery ot" the nature of the muriatic acid ought to 

 coincide with that of the different degrees of oxygenation of 

 which hydrogen is susceptible. 



'' Of all the substances known," says the illustrious Ber- 

 thollet in his Chemical Statics, *' there is none of them, 

 with the exception of hydrogen, which, at an equal weight, 

 can combine with a greater quantity of oxygen, making its 

 characteristic properties disappear, while the substance it- 

 self also loses the properties which characterize it. Tliese 

 facts prove that the acid property required to saturate deter- 

 minate quantities of alkali, is not in proportion to ihe quan- 

 tity of oxygen which combines with a base; but that the 

 more it is condensed, the stronger, in consequence, is the 

 action which it evinces j the less it gives of acidity at an 

 equal quantity, because the free acid property which it com- 

 municates by its affinity is diminished in consequence of this 

 action. Thus water, exhibiting neither the property of oxy- 

 gen nor of hydrogen, w^e may conclude that these two sub- 

 stances are combined at the term where the reciprocal affmity 

 exercises the greatest effect, and when they are in a similar 

 state to that of a neutral salt, in which the acid and alkaline 

 properties are equally become latent ; liaving experienced 

 by their combination a condensation by which their volume is 

 reduced to 0-0000. In the acids the qualities of oxygen pre- 

 vail 5 in inflammable liquids those of hydrogen are predomi- 

 nant in such a manner, that in the first combinations the 

 oxygen experiences a degree of saturation less than in water, 

 and in the latter it is the hydrogen w hich is in this state." 



j^fter this opinion of one of the most celebrated chemists 

 of Europe upon the phaenomena relative to the combinations 

 of oxygen, we need be no longer surprised to observe hydro- 

 cen passing, in your experiments, to a state of acidity, by 

 abandoning a part of the oxygen which saturates it. 



We render homage to truth in adopting emirely your ideas 

 upon the decomposition of water by means of the electrical 

 exciter. They coincide too exactly with the luminous prin- 

 ciples of the " Chemical Statics" to doubt it for a moment. 



Occupied 



