48 PrcfaTation of Ether hy the Muriatic Add. 



the whole quanlltv of water which the author prefcribeSy in 

 order that the evaporation may be (liortened ; not to con- 

 tinue the ebullition when the liquor has acquired a certain 

 decrree of concentration, with a view to prevent the de-hy* 

 drogenating effeft of the heat ; and, in the laft place, not to 

 add an excefs of fulphuric acid till the whole of the fulphat 

 of lime, which this acid in acidulating would render foluble, 

 is feparated. 



M. Lowitz juftly obferves, that the fait which he employs 

 to d^couipofe the tartrite of potaih is found in all the labora- 

 tories of druggifts as the remains of other operations, and 

 that it is often thrown away as ufelefs. 



The author propofes to draw tartarous acid in the fame 

 manner, from tartrite of lime, which is precipitated in great 

 abundance after the firfi; cryftallifations of the acidulous tar- 

 trite of potafli and of foda, and which remains in the mother- 

 water of that fait. 



M. Lowitz terminates this memoir with advifing to leave 

 in the citric acid, as in the tartarous acid, a flight excefs of 

 the fulphuric acid ; which is the more neceflary in it, as the 

 acidulous citrat of lime is much more foluble than the tar- 

 trite of that earth. M. Lowitz affures us that this praftice 

 contributes much towards obtaining the citric acid in large 

 and regular crydals. 



V. On the Method of preparing Ether by the Muriatic Acid) 

 or the Marine Ether of the Shops. Bj J. B. Van Mon s *. 



A. HL preparation of ether by the muriatic acid is a pro- 

 cefs which could not be brought to perfection till after the 

 difcovery of the oxygenated muriatic acid, and which re- 

 quired to have light thrown upon it by the new chemical 

 do6lrine of the French. It is not aftonifliing, therefore, that 

 the etforts of the old chemifts (liould have often mifcarried in 

 the preparation of this liquid. 



Indeed, as the fuppofed radical of the fimple muriatic acid, 

 and the unox\ genated combinations of that acid, do not part 

 * Read in tlic Medical Society at Bmflels, 30 Nivofe, an- S. 



with 



