On the Composition of the Muriatic Acid. 177 



I have already sufficiently indicated the method I followed 

 in order to generalize the resulls I announced ; and I have 

 demonstrated that not only gold and platlna, but all the 

 metals and metallic bodies, in short all substances proper 

 tor decomposing water, as soon as they are traversed by an 

 electrical current strong enough to disengage oxygen, have 

 the property of converting water ijito oxygenated muriatic 

 acid. This change of nature, this metamorphosis (if I may 

 be permitted so to express myself) of water, fills with asto- 

 nishment the philosopher who contemplates it, and who 

 comprehends the useful consequences which may be derived 

 from it. 



For a long time I have been occupied with this subject, 

 and this result enters into the course of experiments which I 

 made and communicated to M. Viltosio Fossombroni. But 

 have the people who repeated my experiments read n)y let- 

 ters with a tranquil spirit, laying aside all the hypotheses 

 already received ? Did they make use of the method which 

 I indicated ? — Certainly not. 



My assertion is so true; that some celebrated chemists, in 

 spite of what I observed in my letters, introduced into the 

 apparatus two metallic wires, making one of them commu- 

 nicate with the positive pole, and the other with the negative 

 pole of the electrical column. How is it possible to obtain, 

 by such a method, the conversion of the water into oxyge- 

 nated muriatic acid ? It is a fact recognised by every na- 

 turalist, that the wire which communicates with the positive 

 pole disengages pure oxygen, while the other which com- 

 municates with the negative pole disengages from the water 

 very pure hydrogen ; it is likewise equally obvious, that the 

 two gases into which the watergradually converts itself, de- 

 velop themselves in such a proportion, that if they lose their 

 elasticity they will again rccomposc the same volume of 

 water, equivalent in weight to that of the two gases. 



I ask, at presrni, How, after these facts, it could be pre- 

 tended that the liquid which remains from, the decomposi- 

 tion could convert itself into oxygenated muriatic acid ? 

 But let us proceed a step further : the inoleculae of water 

 which are deoxygcnated by the contact of the wire of the 



Vol. 24. No. 94. March 1806. M positive 



