Tnnch National Injlitute. 3^1 



dical of which was not known ; and it is this radical which 

 BerthoIIet has been endeavouring to difcover. 



This cheniifl: thinks himfelf authorifed to bcHeve that the 

 muriatic acid is a triple compound of azot and a fmall quan- 

 tity of hydrogen and oxygen. It would be tedious to give an. 

 account of the various and accurate experiments which con- 

 dutled him to this refult. It will be fufficient to fay in ge- 

 neral, that he always faw muriatic acid formed, when to the 

 prefence of the nitric acid there was joined anv circumftance 

 wTiich forced the water to be deconipofed. But the radical 

 of the nitric acid is known to be azot, and water can add 

 only hydrogen to the principles of that acid. It was to an 

 induftion nearly of the fame kind, that BerthoIIet was in- 

 debted fome years ago, for his diicovery of the compofition 

 o'i volatile alkali or ammonia, which he found to be forn^d 

 of hydrogen and azot. 



Chemifts then employed themfelves in endeavouring to 

 difcover the compofition of the two fixed alkalies. It was 

 natural to think that one at leaft of the two principles of the 

 volatile alkali would be common to them and deferve the 

 name of ahaligen, as dtphlogijlicatcd air has been called 

 orygcn becaufe it is the common principle of all the acids. 

 But on one hand they were ignorant whether the azot or 

 the hydrogen was the common principle of the alkalies, and 

 on the other, they did not know with what fubltances it 

 ought to be combined to produce them. 



Guyton has prefented fonie experiments made by De- 

 formes, which he has in part repeated, and which tend to 

 prove that potafh, or ^w^d' vegetable alkali, is a compound of 

 hydrogen and lime. Thcfe chemills have feen lime produced 

 under circnniftances when, in every inftance of ail the bodies 

 brought iuto contacSt, none but the potafh could contain it. 

 Thev have feen alfo that this produ61 ion of lime was pre- 

 ceded by the combuflion and difappearancc of the hvdro<Ten. 



Soda or fixed mineral alkali having given magnefia under 

 fimilar circumftances, they think that this alkali is a com- 

 bination of hydrogen with that earth. Deformes goes much 

 further, for he is of opinion that alumine, magnefia, and 

 lime, are only the fame earth combined with more or lefs 



Vol. Vll. 3 B jzot. 



