50 preparation of Ether by the Muriatic Acid. 



marine ether by this acid are ftill imperfeft, and, for the 

 nioft part, betray inexperience and fervile imitation. Scheele 

 did not fail to apply foon the wonderful properties which he 

 had difcovered in this acid (a difcovery by which he has 

 been immortalifed) to the preparation of the liquid in quef- 

 tion*. Befides other procefTes, he diftilled muriatic acid 

 from off the oxyd of manganefe ; received the oxygenated 

 acid in a veflTel containing alcohol; and reclified the liquid, 

 thus impregnated and etherified, by a gentle he?it. But thefe 

 operations only furnifhed hints for conducing chemifts to a 

 better procefs ; for Hahnemann f, Weftrumb %, «ind Scheele 

 himfelf agree, that by means of the oxygenated acid they 

 obtained rather a vinous oil than real ether. 



Pelletier §, and before him Weftrumb, as well as other 

 German chemifts, adopted the procefs in which Scheele pre- 

 fcrlbed the diftillation of alcohol frofn a mixture of the mu- 

 riat of foda, fulphuric acid, and the oxyd of manganefe : but 

 this manipulation, in the ftate of imperfcftion in which it 

 has hitherto been performed, either gave a little ether by the 

 aftion of the fulphuric acid, or furnifhed only the produce of 

 the other proceftes employed by the Swedifti chemift. I fliall 

 enter into fome details refpecling the phenomena which take 

 place in thefe operations. 



It is impoffible that this liquid, by the aftion of the oxy- 

 genated muriatic acid on the alcohol, fhould not experience, 

 in a degree proportioned to its principles, that change from 

 which ether relults. This, indeed, is what has been obferved 

 hv thofe who put in praftice the methods of Scheele and 

 Weftrumb. They firft faw the liquid float on the furface of 

 the water ; but when they wiflied to fubmit it to rectification, 

 or when they did not feparate it foon enough from the water 

 impregnated vi'ilh the oxygenated acid, they found their ether 

 converted into od, firft liquid and floating on the water, when 

 they feparated it from the alcohol in which it was dilTolved ; 

 but afterwards becoming thick, and falling to the bottom of 



* Koning. Vetenfkaps-Academiens nya Handlingar, i7?2. Vol. III. 

 p. 35, t Pliyf- Cheth. Abhand, Vol. I. p. 35. 



+ Laboiant. in Gioffen, Vol. I. p. 236, 

 5 Mem. de Chimie, Vol.1, p. 39. 



the 



