114 On some new analytical Researches 



an experhnent in which boracic acid appeared to' be decom- 

 posed by Voltaic electricity, a dark-coloured inflammable 

 substance sep.irating from it on the negative surface. 



In the course of the spring and summer, I made many 

 attempts to collect quantities of this substance for minute 

 examination. When boracic acid, moistened with water, 

 was exposed between two surfaces of platina, acted on by 

 the full power of the battery of five hundred, an olive-brown 

 matter injinediatelv began to. form 0:1 the negative surface, 

 which gradually increased in thickness, and ai last appeared 

 almost black. It was permanent in water, but soluble with 

 effervescence in warm nitrous acid. When heated to redness 

 upon the platina it burnt slowly, and gave off white fumes, 

 which slightly reddened moistened litmus paper," and it left 

 a black mass, which, when examined by the magnifier, ap- 

 peared vitreous at the surface, and evidently contained a 

 fixed acid. 



These circumstances seemed distinctly to show the de- 

 composition and j:ecomposition of the boracic acid ; but as 

 the peculiar combustible substance was a non-conductor of 

 electricity, 1 was never able to obtain it, except in very thin 

 films upon the platina. It was not possible to examine its 

 properties minutely, or to determine its precise nature, or 

 whether it was the pure boracic basis; T consequently en- 

 deavoured to apply other methods of decomposition, and to 

 find other more unequivocal evidences upon this important 

 chemical subject. 



I have already laid before the Society an account of an 

 experiment*, in which boracic acid, heated in contact with 

 potassium in a gold tube, was converted into borate of pot- 

 ash, at the same time that a dark-coloured matter, sinnlar 

 to that produced from the acid by electricity, was formed. 

 About two months after this experiment had been made, 

 namely, in the beginning of August, at a time that I was 

 repeating the process, and examining minutely the' results, 

 I was informed, by a letter from Mr. Cadell at Paris, that 

 M. Tbenard was employed in the decomposition of the bo- 

 racic acid bv potassium, and that he had heated the two 

 substances together in a copper tube, and had obtained bo- 

 rate of potash, and a peculiar matter concerning the nature 

 of which no details were given in the communication. 



Tiiat tlie same results must be obtained bv the' saine me- 

 thods of operating, there could he no doubt. The evidences 

 Jbr the decomposition of the boracic acid are easily gained, 



• Philosophical Transactions, Part II. for 1808, p. 343, 



the 



